#671: Packers Unscripted: Righting the ship

to start? What do you think was the was the key to victory here for Green Bay, doing exactly what they needed to do against a team that, I think, on paper, everybody agreed they were superior to. A little bit of a rough start coming out of the gate, no question about that, on both sides of the ball, trying to find their early rhythm, but man oh man, once you've got Aaron Jones and a j dillon going in the Backfield, that the constant emphasis of that all

week long. The bears, knowing that they're going to see a lot of those low and they couldn't do a gosh darn thing about it. Aaron Jones ran open free and was just overly dominant. When you look at you know, eight point eight yards per carry, hundred and thirty two

rushing yards and just fifteen carries. I mean he was the guy that powered this thing, that gave them that jolt that they were looking for and for the defense to come back after giving up a touchdown on the first series, to force four consecutive three three and oes. I just felt like, in terms of the whole gamut of things, Aaron Rodgers talked about need to play better, Matt Lafleur talked about need to play better. That second quarter, though,

was as good as it gets. I mean that's exactly was what the packers are looking for and it's the reason why they won this football game. Yeah, it was absolutely dominant football for a pretty extended stretch of this football game on the part of the packers. The final numbers with regard to the two running backs, Jones and dillon, thirty seven touches combining UH carries and receptions. Two hundred and thirty seven yards between the rushing and the receiving yards.

And we were talking about it in the press box west you know, we for those who don't know, West and I actually sit next to each other much like this in the press box, games even closer than this. Yeah, and Um Jones ability to make tacklers miss was on full display. I've seen the numbers anywhere from like twelve miss tackles to fourteen miss tackles on the part of the bears just against Aaron Jones in this game. The the quickness of his feet, the elusiveness, and yet he's

got he's not just a scat back right. I mean he's he's got power, he's not easy to bring down and and I just think what you saw on Sunday night was what makes Aaron Jones a special offensive weapon.

However you want to get him the ball, whether you want to hand it to him, pitch it to him, push path, sit to him on jet motion, he's a special player and it's why he got the contract that he got from the Green Bay packers and if they can continue to utilize him this way, he's potentially going to have a special season and what is getting to be really interesting about him is that he's having a

special career. And so many times in the National Football League, Mike, you look at these guys will pop up one year, they'll become a fantasy football darling, will be a thousand yard Russia, they'll have ten touchdowns and and then they kind of go away. They shift back. You know, another running back emerges and people go and they say, Oh, it's a diamond dozen position. Aaron Jones is not a

Dimond a dozen running back. He is the one percent and he stayed on a steady incline throughout his entire career. I feel like this, this Aaron Jones at twenty seven years old, is the best version we've seen yet and my biggest impression these first two weeks, that that really hit home for me was this is what Aaron Jones looks like when he's healthy, and it looks like what he looks like when he's fresh. He's just explosive. And you talked about the Miss Tackles. You know how you

know a back is having a special game? It's just one of those type of games when you don't even care about the miss tackles anymore because you know the first defender he's gonna make a miss. And the thing that makes Jones dangerous is that there's so many different ways Aaron Rodgers after the game was explaining it that you know, whether it's his stiff arms, whether it's his his one cut ability, all these different things that he do that he does that makes him difficult to bring

down to the turf. And, as I joked about an insider inbox this week. Okay, and then you finally get him out, he's gonna come off the field. Then you get a two fifty pound man running north and south directly at you. I I know Aaron or a J Dillon's stats aren't gonna wal you the same way Aaron Jones Wild You, but his eight team carries that that is going to wear down a defense just as much. The packers need to run the football. They needed to

get the ball in the hands of their backfield. They did it and they control the game because of it. One last thought on Jones. He is already fourth on the packers all time rushing list. This is the franchise has been in existence over a hundred years, folks, and

Aaron Jones. Yeah, Aaron Jones is already fourth on the all time rushing list and he is just I want to say the number is right around six hundred and fifty yards rushing yards at this point from climbing all the way to third and if and when he gets there, the only two guys in franchise history with more rushing yards than Aaron Jones will be Jim Taylor and I'm on Green. So that tells you something about Um, about where Aaron Jones is. A couple of other things to

touch on with regard to the offense, though. Elton Jenkins was back from his a C L slightly, just a couple of days, less than ten months from the injury, he's back and he was starting at right tackle. Actually only his for all of his versatility and whatnot, is only his second career start at right tackle, but that's where Jenkins was on Sunday night. Also, Al Lazard was back from his ankle injury. Um only had a couple of catches, but one was for a touchdown. Certainly saw

his blocking on the outside. The work of the Goon, as Matt La Floors to say, was on display and we saw a pretty significant impact from Sammy Watkins in the passing game and in particular the play action passing game, whether you want to call it play action or the

R P O action. Sometimes it's a little bit of both with this offense, but Sammy Watkins was was making something's happen and and really the Um, the final knockout blow, if you if you will, right after the goal line stand by the defense, was the fifty five yard or over the top off play action with the packers deep in their own territory. That was Watkins. He ended up with ninety three receiving yards on the night and a taste of of what he can bring to the table

here for Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, the the buy in is probably what impresses me the most, and it's a story I'm actually working on as we speak for Wednesday on packers dot com. Be sure to check that out, is that this is a guy that was a five star recruit clemson. It's a guy that was the number four overall pick in two thousand fourteen, a guy that has

won a super bowl. He's had a thousand yards season and it hits me different when someone like that comes to a team, and certainly you wrote about it, did a great job over the offseason of writing about everything that Watkins feels. He still has to prove his back being against the wall this year, but he's not pressing

for touches. He's not pressing for touchdowns. He just wants to play and he wants to be part of a winning process and if you follow the course of his career, the guy basically has won everywhere he's played and and now you know whether it is the fifty five yard play action pass, and that's awesome, helped put the game away, kind of showed the explosivity in Watkins, still at twenty nine years old, but it's also what he was willing to do as a blocker and, as he even mentioned

in the postgame locker room, he loves the run game and he loves getting his hands dirty in that because not only does help his teammates, but he can also see how that is gonna end up leading to more play action opportunities. He's gonna understand how that's going to challenge a defense more. Sammy Watkins is not a rock guy. He's not going to be the one in the locker

room pointing all the attention to himself. Nine days out of ten he's usually just sitting down pretty quiet in his little space, just kind of keeping to himself, maybe talking to a couple of teammates, but he's not. He's not a boisterous individual but, as Matt Lafleur said, he has that kind of infectious smile and enthusiasm that I think people gravitate towards, and Rogers talked about it after the game. They feel like they got a special person

here now. That also I think, for even though he's been in the League for eight years, still has a certain amount of untapped potential to his game. Yeah, and just seeing him, he's as we talked about. He's worked with big time quarterbacks in the past. This is a guy you know. He's played with Patrick Mahomes. Now he's here with with Aaron Rodgers. Everywhere Sammy Watkins has has been, he has been a factor. He has brought something to table.

It's always been a health issue. Knock on wood, Sammy Watkins can stay healthy and uh and do what the packers need him to do and and expect him to do in accounting on him to do throughout the course of the season. On the defensive side, West you said it, four straight three and outs. Um, I think the bears total yards over those four possessions was something like thirteen yards. Um, bears took the you know, took the ball right away Um, the first possession, drove all the way down and got

a touchdown. But after that the packers defense stood tall and took command of this game, and it was for the most part, I think it was the two edge rushers, Rashawn Gary and Preston Smith, that that grabbed ahold of this of this bears offense and and didn't let him get going in the first half. Yeah, and and every week we sit down and you know Wednesday and Thursday especially, well, you know the questions I'll get asked if an upcoming opponent to players in the locker room or and coming matchup.

I don't know if I remember one being as transparent as what the packers knew they had to do for Justin fields, and they executed it. Uh, they knew they were going to have to be careful rushing him, but they also knew they needed to be a collapse the pocket. They knew they had to be aggressive against him in order because he's going to want to extend plays. They can't allow him to force their secondary to plaster as much.

And I thought, starting off with Preston Smith, one of his best games in the packers uniform, because the thing that's interesting about pressing that I think just he doesn't get enough respect for is that he is a quintessential three four outside linebacker. He is an all around difference maker when he's playing his edge, because he's not going to sell out every single time. He's going to stay home, he's going to make sure that he seals off his gaps if the run gets presented, but then, when the

opportunity presented itself to get after fields. In this game he made two very impactful sacks. Came one tackle shy of his career yere high, finishing with seven, and then on the other side of things you saw Rashawn Gary. He got another sack and his stats will say too, and everybody will talk about can rashawn geary get seventeen sacks this season? But he also had that TFl for

four yards. And, Mike, I don't know where you come from, but whether it's a sack or a four yard loss off a tackle from a run on David Montgomery, they both represent a loss of down and they both represent negative yardage. I've really been impressed by what I've seen Rashawn Gary early in this season, because it's not just about what he's doing against the quarterback, it's how he's

affecting everything around him. Yeah, I can't, I can't say enough about about that performance by Preston Smith, and you said it. I think that might have been and he's he's had some good games. I believe that was Preston's fifth multi sack game as a member of the packers since he signed here in two thousand nineteen, which is no small feat. But I think it might have been his best performance overall because of the discipline that he

owed on a couple a couple of key moments. When you're talking about a running quarterback, a read option quarterback like fields, and Preston did his not only did his job on certain plays but then made the play when it came to him and was in position to make that play because of the discipline he showed. Really, really like that. The packers, the packers run defense, had had

its issues, mostly in the fourth quarter. I mean for the most part it was on one drive the bears were down twenty four to ten, took over deep in their own territory and in a span of six plays they ripped off four runs that I believe covered eighty yards, if I'm not mistaken. I think it was fourteen yards, eleven yards and seven. So eighty yards on four runs within it within a span of six snaps, and it wasn't a good look for the packers defense. That was that.

That was not good to see. I think it was a combination of a guy maybe being out of position here, they're not taking on a block properly, but then also a lot of MIS tackles and and that was something where I thought the packers for week one in Minnesota actually tackled pretty well defensively. But Um, but the miss tackles were definitely an issue. Um in week two against Chicago, when it came right down to it, though, after those eighty yards rushing, the bears had first and goal in

the ten yard line and they tried four runs. Well, actually the third third down was a pass and fields ended up scrambling. But four plays on the ground. Two yards, two yards, five yards to the one, the touchdown reversed on the on the replay, and then fourth and goal from the one. The bears go for it and the packers get the stop. The run defense boat up when it needed to there to keep the packers ahead by two scores. And Uh, and allow the offense. To salt

it away. We'll let me start with the positives. That's an Ode de Dom Capers uh the that stand was incredible for a number of reasons. One, I felt like some of the things now you're defending less of the field, so it's always going to be a little bit favored towards the defense. But I liked how they played together as a unit, whether it was the defensive line filling their gaps or even a guy like, you know, Jayr Alexander, coming in and making sure to give that final push

so fields doesn't give in. But then you also look at Quay Walker, you know, and quay had some mistackles in this game. It's gonna be a learning process for him.

But then you see him come over from the right side of the defense and close all the way over at the left side at the sideline, preventing Justin Fields from scoring that touch Mike, I'm telling you, with his with his forty time, the way he plays that position in years past, in a lot of years past, maybe not last year with the Vandre Campbell, that that's probably a walk in touchdown for the quarterback. Walker changes that acid of it. I thought the way they closed out

this game. That jaire Alexander Interception was phenomenal. The fact that they finished with forty eight net passing yards, the bears did incredible, twenty two negative yards on sacks, and also the fact that the bears only played forty one snaps of offense in this game. That's sick. That's really crazy. Yeah, four straight, four straight, three and ounce. That's going to

keep the play count down, there's no doubt about that. Now, as I wrote about again an insider in box, which you can find packers dot com, this week is going to be about Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. Every national headline, every video package, everybody is gonna be doing that. Say Hey, could this be the last time they're gonna play each other? Yada, Yada, Yada, Yadyada. To me this is gonna come down to Leonard for net. If you watch the bucks the last two weeks, it's

kind of the Leonard for net show. there. I look at this for the packers is a good test against David Montgomery and Ji Herbert. Now you need are Khalil Herbert. Excuse me, Jackber, it's a UFC fighter. You like that. But I look at this as a big test because the run defensive issues there could not be placed on one single player, could not be placed on one single

position group. It was the gaps getting too too far open at the line of scrimmage, it was guys not collapsing enough on second contact and it was Montgomery forcing miss tackles of guys at the second and third level. They got to clean that up because if you give for net those four or five yard gains, that's where the Tom Brady forty five year old quarterbacks show starts, because he still has the chance to beat you deep. We'll see what his weapons look like in this game,

but that's where everything is operational for the bucks. The packers, great performance, Goodwin. You needed to get it, but now you've got to learn some of those lessons now going up against for net. Yeah, well, the what I liked about what I like the best about the goal line stand and for those for those of you who like my what you might have ist piece on the website.

I've got the the entire four downs Um. All the clips are there, along with some some clips on offense, with with the blocking on some of the big plays with Aaron Jones, but with the goal line standard was interesting West because every single one of those plays, the four plays from the ten yard lineing in, involved a different member of the defensive front doing, you know, making the play. First down it was Kenny Clark. Second down it was Rashaan Garry and Dean lowry. Third Down, you

mentioned kway Walker. When when fields is scrambling the video to look at the clip of that play, it really puts because you know Justin fields can run. And then when you actually look at the clip of that that play from the end zone, you can see that that kway walker is just as fast as Justin Fields Um.

And then on fourth down, what actually hasn't been talked about enough because, and I take nothing away from devandre Campbell getting that getting that hit at the goal line, Preston Smith was there with arms in there as well, and you mentioned Alexander kind of with that final push.

The Guy who's not getting enough credit for the fourth down play is jarn Reid because when you look at that, when you when you look at the details of that fourth and goal play, Jaren Reid takes bears tight end Cole commit and gets the leverage on him to shove him into the backfield right at the point of attack. Lucas Patrick, the right guard, is trying to pull over to the left side of the bears offense to lead

Justin fields through the hole. Read shoves commit into the Backfield and Patrick runs into his tight end and it messed up the whole thing that the bears were trying to do there because read one at the line of scrimmage against the tight end and uh, and then Lucas Patrick had nobody to block because he ran into his own guy. So Um it's really good stuff to take to take a look at those kinds of things on film. It really gives you a sense of of where things

where things are in the trenches. A couple a couple thoughts quickly on special teams. Um. Packers continuing to make strides in that area. I thought two guys we we talked last week about about Pat O'donnell and what he did, even with some leaky punt protection in front of him. He only had two punts in this game, but I thought once again Pat O'Donnell showed he's going to be a very reliable, consistent, steady weapon Um for for this

packers special teams. And the other guy that really jumped out to me, of course, was Dalon Levitt Um two tackles on kickoff coverage. One of those was at the fifteen yard line. Yes, unfortunately he had a penalty on punt return, on the punt return that Amari Rodgers muffed. So not a perfect performance by the packers special teams.

Still plenty of things to work on, but we're seeing progress in that area west and there's absolutely no question about it that the packers won the field position battle in this game against the bears and as much as the packers getting the three an ounce on defense certainly factored into that, you have to give credit to the special teams for winning the field position battle. Rich BASSAC has had some comments this year Mike Uh and I feel like this is why he was a good interim coach.

I think it's probably why he could have been a pretty good head coach or the game the opportunity, because he has some memorable lines that stick with you and if I'm just some dumb sportswriter and they stick with me, I can't imagine what it does for his players. It was about a month ago where they were talking about the accountability on special teams and he mentioned. You know when you go in a huddle with Aaron Rodgers, you know the hair on your back, your neck stands up

a little bit. You understand the sense of urgency and he equated that to how down and Levitt approaches special teams wefense. Same type of leader, same type of guy that is demanding. You know of guys too understand their assignments, be disciplined and fulfill it. And watching that Sky Cam did e O. I know you got to see the l twenty two, but that skycamp video of him crashing down on one of those coverage tackles just a will not be denied attitude. And I've tweeted this during the

game and I really mean it. I don't know what it meant. Maybe it only meant something of the special teams. I don't know, but down leavitt holds up his blocker. This is right after the packers get I believe it was after their field goal, and trying to remember or whatever it was, but Levitt pushes his blocker in. It forces the returner to come inside and Isaiah mcduffie makes the tackle. Bears Start The ball at the twenty yard line.

Mcdon I should say Levitt starts getting a little bit of a post, you know, play shoving match and it wasn't in a way that was malicious or you know it was going to result in a flag, but I just thought it showed the grittiness in the toughness. It almost reminded me the old Lucas Patrick plays. Lucas wasn't

gonna stand for everybody's crap. Right after the play he's gonna and it was right after that, where they start at the twenty yard line, that Preston Smith gets the sack and everything starts to turn a little bit for the packers defense. Special teams can be a tone setter and it can be something that when you back up a team inside their twenty, twenty one was the average starting fuel position for the bears in this game. The

defense response to that. Yeah, and I just felt like you, there was, as you wrote about this week, as rich Matt La Floor talked about, there is a mentality brewing on special teams and I think it's catching on. Yeah, you mentioned how it's sort of carried over to the sack by Preston Smith early in the game and then I believe it was the play right after the sack when Russell Douglas gets the tackle for loss on the

wide receiver screen. That that was where the momentum, the momentum for the defense, really really started to pick and it was the packers were in control of the game at the line of scrimmage for quite a while. Yes, they were, just to correct myself there it was after Aaron Jones touchdowns for the packers just gone up ten to seven, and then that's where the wind started really getting in their sales in the second quarter. A couple

of bits of sponsored business here. West serious x m NFL radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need. Seven, three, sixty five. And at cousin subs we have something for everyone, like our Wisconsin cheese Kurds, MAC and cheese, golden fries and creamy shakes, all paired with your favorite sub or

sub in a bowl. Cousin subs fifty years of better. Alright, looking around the NFL at week two, after two weeks Um, as we sort of surmised, everyone in the NFC north is one on one. The lions got their first win. The Vikings fell on the road at Philadelphia against the Eagles. So the entire NFC north is back to uh, back to square one, everybody, one on one with fifteen games to go. Here's the stat of the week for you, though.

West you me for this and I know we we're gonna run out of time here and I'd love to actually spend more time talking about those comebacks by the dolphins and and by Um, the cardinals against the raiders. I mean just a crazy, wild Sunday of NFL today. That's okay, I've I've been a little long winded today myself. Here's your stat of the week, though. After two weeks of NFL football, there six teams that are two and Oh. Five of the six are on the packers upcoming schedule

and none of the five games is at Lambeau field. So, as I say in UH insider inbox for Wednesday morning, which I was working on before we came in here and turned the cameras on, buckle up, my friend, because five of the six two and old teams are on the packers schedule, not a one of them is at Lambau field. The only one that's not a true road game is London, where the two and old giants will will face the packers at at Tottenham Hotspur in in

a few week here. But uh, but yeah, and the first of these two and O Games is this week against the Tampa Bay buccaneers down at Raymond James. Yeah, it's gonna be a tough stretch for Green Bay, and I mean certainly we talked about it from the beginning of the season. They didn't all have to get out

to two and O to know this. But a stretch where you have Tampa Bay, where you have, you know, the New England Patriots at home, knowing what Bill Belichick is like and how his teams are coached, and then playing both the New York teams within seven days of each other, and one of those is abroad. Uh, this was gonna be a gauntlet for them. That's why I felt like this game was so important, and it was. That must not you have to have it, but it helps to have it because I think it does give

you a certain amount of momentum. Tampa Bay it was not. I mean, in some regards neither of these wins have been really beautiful in the traditional sense. Jamis Winston did them a lot of favors in this matchup and at this time in which we're taking this. We don't know what Mike Evans status is going to be as he's going through the appeals process with his suspension. But you know, the Miami Dolphins look legit Ta looks confident. Um, you know the buffalo bills were dominant against you know, the

Tennessee Titans. Not that anybody, nobody, can win the Super Bowl in September, but I think there's no question that the best looking team through two weeks of NFL football is the buffalo bills. They look they look fantastic. Yeah, and and certainly look at what Jalen hurts did against the Vikings. And this is the reason why, Mike, Everybody talks about it being a week to week league, because

things can change so quickly. Absolutely, for as dominance at times as the vikings looked in that matchup against Green Bay in their own house, they looked completely out of sorts at Lincoln financial field. And Jill See, and I know it's I know it's not, I know it's not Mike Zimmer anymore, but honestly, to see a Minnesota Vikings defense give up almost three hundred and fifty yards and two quarters of football, I that just blew me away.

I mean the fact that in some respects, the fact that that the Eagles only had twenty four points was was kind of a minor miracle, and that the fact that the Vikings had as many chances as they had in the second half to get back into that game. Um But. But philly's defense was up to the task every time Minnesota challenged down there in the red zone. And, Bro I'll be honest with you, after they made the field goal before halftime, I called it a night. I

was like, all right, well, this is done. And then I wake up and it's the same exact score as it was when I stopped watching. So and and and Minnesota. The Vikings had their vikings had their chances. There's no uh but, but you're right. I mean, Um and we'll see, because the packers aren't going to play the dolphins, of course, until Christmas. Buffalo is not until UH close to Halloween. Philadelphia.

The trip to Philadelphia is in between there. So, Um, it all comes down to, you know, how everybody's playing at that moment right and and who's healthy and who's not, and you know the whole when you play him thing is is definitely a factor but this week. This week it's the Tampa Bay buccaneers, and this is a Tampa Bay team that is two and o riding its defense right now. Um, a defense that's only allowed thirteen points through two games. Ten sacks, six takeaways, Um, on the

defensive side. And Uh, and yeah, Tampa Bay buccaneers are two and Oh. And Tom Brady in that offense. Um, they haven't really found their footing yet, which is which is kind of a scary thought. Yeah, and certainly Brady. You know it's been difficult for him. I mean when you look at, you know, not being able to have your consistent weapons, the Godwin injury and then now this thing with Evans, I mean there's been a lot they've had to overcome, but I guess my biggest takeaway has

been one. I mean, Lavonte David is just the agelist wonder. I mean what they've done there. I mean Carlton Davis, I think, is a is a cornerback that doesn't get enough respect. Antoine Winfield, the weapons that they have are legitimate and I feel like the bucks are going to be in this thing until the very bitter end because of it. But Leonard for Netman again like I said,

that offense is different when he's rolling. Yeah, absolutely well, we'll talk more about the buccaneers on our next episode, but for now we'll call it a rap on this edition of packers on scripted. Be Sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on packers DOT com. For West, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you next time.