#673 Packers Unscripted: Tested and triumphant

We can talk about the offense is hot start, the struggles thereafter, the defenses dominating performance until the final drive, but then they save it with the two point conversion stop. The bottom line is the Packers are two and one, and as Aaron Rodgers talked about after the game, considering your schedule was at Minnesota home against Chicago at Tampa Bay to start the year, to be too on one right now, you take it and move on. You could have opened the show with anything. We could have talked

about the game. You could have brought up your analysis

of you know, the most recent Marvel movie. You could have discussed anything under the sun here, Mike and I was going to respond with the same thing every Friday, Mike spot for tonight in that spot over there, Matt can't turn the cameras, it's okay, But in that spot we do final thoughts for road games, and for the first time, when the game ended, I finally said to myself, yeah, not only did I did we discuss what was going to be the key to victory, what needed to happen

for the Packers to win. It actually happened. The number one thing that you and I both talked about last week was a fast start, and you saw offensively how far a fast start went against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Matt Lafour talked about it on Monday. When you're facing Tom Brady, you never feel comfortable. There's been enough evidence in the past Super Bowl related to show you that

he's never quite out of a ball game. But for the Packers to come out to ten plus play drives out of the gate that both produced touchdowns, didn't just get points, they got seven. It was the difference between a potential win and a loss, and being in the locker room afterwards. There were two of them. There was offense defense. You were down with the head coach and the quarterback. Kenny Clark, I thought had the quote of the night where he said, in the past, these are

games typically we haven't won, and we won them. Not only does that tell you about that defense you were talking about, but it tells you about the resolve of that group. The Packers win on the road against the team that had its home opener and they want You can't understate that. For things that need to be corrected, there's plenty of them. But to get a road win in that environment against that quarterback and that team with

Super Bowl aspirations a huge w for green Bay. Yeah, And to follow up on what you said with regard to how far a fast start can take you, the Packers got that Buccaneers defense on its heels a little bit right. Those first two drives ten plays, twelve plays, six plus minutes a piece time of possession, you get two touchdowns. The third drive is going just as well, a different type of drive in that you had the big play to Randall Cob the forty yard catch and run.

You get into scoring position and you're knocking on the door to possibly go up to three or at a minimum seventeen to three, and unfortunately Aaron Jones gets sandwiched at the two yard line by a couple of big hits and the ball pops out the Buccaneers recover in the end zone, and suddenly everything just changes for Green Bay's offense, and that that play, that stop was was

the spark that Tampa Bay's defense needed. They kind of snapped out of their doldrum, so to speak, and the rest of the game, we saw the Tampa Bay defense that we had seen the first two weeks of the season and we expected to see. On the flip side, we saw the Green Bay Packers defense that everybody was hoping to see in the opener at Minnesota. We certainly saw glimpses of it in Week two in Chicago, and the Packers pretty defensively, pretty much played the four quarter

game that you were hoping for. Yes, Tom Brady drove him eighty nine yards in the last three minutes in the heat that you know, guys are tired, exhausted, and Brady was Brady. He didn't gash them for some thirty five forty yard pass or anything. He methodically moved him down the field. He had plenty of time. They get the touchdown and then it comes down to it comes down to the two point conversion. Now, the Packers caught a break here because for all of the wondering was

the touchdown play a delay a game. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. There was no question that the initial try on the two point play was delayed game and they blew the whistle and stopped it. They backed him

up five yards. I don't know. I'll just preface by saying, I don't know how when essentially from the start of the fourth quarter, when the game is fourteen to six and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers know that they are going to go for two if they get a touchdown, how you don't have a two point play a ready to go and called and in the huddle, and they had extra time because the game was paused for a little

bit while they were reviewing the gauge touchdown. Because he took a big hit from Douglas in the end zone, there was some question as to where the ball was and did the ball touch the ground, did he hang onto it. There was a little bit of a delay. They're not an official review where they completely stopped everything, but a delay to confirm that touchdown, and then the Buccaneers still didn't get the snap off in time on the two point conversion. Packers catch a break, he goes

back to the seven yard line. You know Brady is gonna have to throw it from there. It's not a run pass decision type of thing. And of Andre Campbell makes the deflection. I don't know how the Buccaneers take a delay a game on a two point conversion there that that just stunned me. Do you know what I loved about this game? You know, I'm a big UFC guy, I like my m m A. This remind subject we don't talk about, but go ahead, but I mean, this

reminded me of your decision in a UFC fight. You don't know what that means, but I'm to educate you a little bit. It's where you go to the judges scorecards. And in my opinion, the Packers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers two point victory. Right, How did the Packers win this game? They beat them in every area of the matchup.

Think about this the running game green Base. It wasn't overly productive, but they had twelve carries between Aaron Jones in a J. Dillon running game for Tampa Bay Leonard four. Nette wasn't able to get much going only what was it twelve carries didn't get much going. Rogers early on being able to finish those drives get points. That's what Tampa Bay was unable to do. Pat o'donald outpunted Tampa Bay.

They won the field position battle. You go through all these different check marks, well, you go to your final play that you're talking about their Matt Lafleur discussed with Joe Barry. Okay, we're on our heels right now. Tampa Bay's driving. It might come down to a two part play. Have your play ready, Tampa Bay. Now, Now, to be fair to Byron Leftwich, in this off fens, they're trying to just get back in this thing. They're trying to get into the end zone to get that two point conversion.

The burden of proof is on them a little bit more. But still, as you outline with all those different variations and all those different scenarios that were playing out, to be in a spot in which you take a delay a game at that juncture of the game, you can't do it. And I don't know all the ins and outs of what Green Bay saw, but Devantrie Campbell mentioned in the locker room afterwards, green Bay was ready for that. Look when the receiver motions, when Russell Gauge motions back

in line. The way he did that tipped off in the Packer's head. And as they said, there's no guarantees, but from what they've seen on film that it looks like it's going to be a snag concept. It looks like they know where guys are going to go. And when you watch that play, every single Green Bay defender is where they're supposed to be. Campbell is in zone coverage six ft four with his vertical goes up and

tips that ball. The Green Bay Packers get a victory. Yeah, I have my what you might have missed with the video clips this week, which is now on our web site packers dot com as we speak, I broke down a lot of Devandre Campbell's pass coverage UM and then culminating a course in the two point play. And when you look really closely at the two point play at the end, you can see, as you said, West, the Packers had everything covered. Leonard Fournette comes out of the backfield,

Adrian Amos picks him up. Cameron Braid the tight end, does a stop route at the goal line. Eric Stokes is right with him, and then with Gauge running the corner, route, which is essentially he's running the corner route off of the stop route. The stop route by the tight end is supposed to draw the defense in, and then the corner route is supposed to be open. And Darnell Savage sprints to stick with gauge on the corner route and

he's all over him. And then so Campbell's your zone guy while those other guys are kind of matched up man to man as these routes develop, and he can just watch Brady's eyes to see where does he want to go with the football. And as you said, six ft four, you can't coach six ft four at linebacker, and that reach the length that he has, he gets

the deflection, it falls, it falls incomplete. The Packers then recover the on side kick, the culmination of as you said, a victorious day for the special teams, where the Packers had the edge in that phase of the game with the way Pat o'donnald punted, unfortunately catching a bad break on on the running into the punter thing in the back of the end zone, which cost the Packers a whole bunch of field position. That's a kind of a

story for another day. But even with that, the Packers won on special teams overall in this game with regard to the field position, and then a smooth, no drama recovery of an onside kick sort of cap that off a really good day for Rich Pisaccio's unit. I was really surprising. I don't know what the philosophy is with how they handle their on side kicks for the Bucks. I was really surprised that they tested Lazard over Romeo Dobbs,

who was the other option. If you watch the film Lazard has been with, you know, Davante Adams was the featured guy there those years, but Lazard was the opposite one. Robert Tonyan did a little bit of it. They decided to go after Lazard and it was a solid on side kick attempt. But Alan is just so zoned in and he's so experienced at it and so composed. Everybody did their job. I mean, I don't know if you want to dovetail into this right away, but just the

way that Rich Bisacci has coached these units. What what a good solid discipline special teams coordinator can do is take the talent that he has, take the players that are available, and maximize their strengths. Um I think about that from your jack cocos as your long snappers that weren't long snappers that suddenly our NFL long snappers and

is doing a solid job. I think about Pat o'donald and a guy that you know Chicago, let him, let him hit the market, and the Packers scooped him up immediately, Rudy Ford gets cut by Jacksonville. Rudy Ford is suddenly every single time right in the punt returner's face as a flyer, Key shan Nick Sin coming in not only in relief of jyr Alexander and playing fifty seven defensive steps, but playing on all the core special teams units were grabbing a ball that ends up landing at the two

yard line. Mike, I'm not trying to throw anybody under the bus. I'm not trying to rip on anything. But you know, when was the last time that you recall the Packers being able to kill a punt at a two yard line? And then the implications that that had for where that drive went. For the Buccaneers that go three and out, all those little things matter, and I think for the Green Bay Packers perspective, getting more consistency,

more durability, more disciplined from their special teams units. Today this was the game, Mike where they didn't just they weren't just a push. They were the advantage that Green Bay has been looking for from the wefense. Yeah. Absolutely, there are a handful of guys to talk about in terms of the whether you want to call them the heroes of the game or the unsung heroes of the game.

We mentioned a little bit already with Devandre Campbell, not just the deflection on the two point conversion, but four teen tackles in this game. Had ever an other good solid plays in in pass coverage as well as against the run. You had mentioned how for Net couldn't get going. You know, Kenny Clark ends up with with two sacks and was a force against the run all day long. Romeo Dobbs, the rookie receiver eight receptions, gets his first

NFL touchdown. The eight receptions only one shy for the of the single game Packers rookie record, which was Max McGee's nine catches back in nine day. Yeah. So so, Romeo Dobbs was close to uh close to setting a rookie record and maybe maybe he'll get that one at some point in a game this year, and a couple of guys we've already mentioned to Keishan Nixon and Pat O'donnald Nixon having to step in Alexander leaves the game with a groin injury on the opening series of the game.

So then the rest of the way, Keishaw Nixon has to balance being the nickel corner and then also his special team's duties. Um, I think, I mean he ended up on the field for a total of I believe it was more than seventy snap seventy three snaps, more than any other player for the Packers when you combine his defense and special team snaps. Nixon really really bawled

out for this team. And then Pat O'Donnell, as Rich Bisacchi talked about last week, sort of all the different clubs in his bag as a golfer in terms of the way, the way he can punt the ball, you know, the style of punt where he wants to place it, the coverage that the Packers have. The Buccaneers had to start so many drives at their twenty or worse, and you know, the Packers defense had so much field to defend. The one time the Buccaneers did have a short field.

The Packers defense rose up and stopped him and and and made him kick a field goal there in the third quarter after Aaron Rodgers through an interception. So just so many, so many things about this game for the Packers, even with all of the offensive struggles from drive number four all the way until the end of the game, this was this was a game where all of the phases had to do their part and they did just enough to get it against a darn good team that

was was undermanned, just like the Packers were. Green Bay was missing receivers. The Buccaneers are missing receivers. The offensive line situation, Donovan Smith not playing, the Packers were rotating David Baktyari Yashnaiman at left tackle. That was another story in this game. But you know, when the Buccaneers are back to full strength, just as when the Packers are back to full strength, these are two teams that we're going to be talking about um at the end of

this thing. And uh and we'll see maybe if there's a rematch on the horizon. Yeah, and and the other guy too. I mean, if you want to talk about like Keishaan Nixon is an unsung hero, gets his first career force fumble. The other guy that I thought was like the unsung unsung hero was Jaren Reid. I mean, when you look at Kenny Clarke, Kenny Clark had two sacks,

and Kenny deserve those sacks. What the plays that he's created the last two weeks to not have one yet, that was a travesty, So it's nice to see him get rewarded for that. But on one of those sects that that and he had, it was Jared Reid splitting a double team in which he was getting held to force Brady to come up in the pocket and create

a sack opportunity and almost got Brady down himself. Brady Brady was able to keep his balance enough, which is why Clark ends up getting credit for the sack because Reid didn't get him on the ground, but Read against the double team almost got Brady on the ground by himself. So then what ends up happening for him later on when Keishaw Nixon gets the force fumble, Read is the one that's jumping on the top of it. Kay Walker gets the first force fumble earlier in the game. Darn

Darniell Savage is jumping on it. When you talk about total complete team victories, this was what you're discussing because Mike, I know there are some people in Insider Inbox this week asking about, well, what happened to the offense, what happened to the defense late? Why are they back and prevent defense? The one thing people need to understand is they were not taking on the you know, uh, that

is a good football team. I don't want to use any disparaging language towards any other team right now, but it was not You're not facing a low FCS school there. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as you indicated, are going to be in this thing. For Green Bay to hold off that charge, I thought said a lot, you know, and

and it just came from so many different areas. David Baktre playing thirty five snaps, his biggest workload since tearing his a c L year and a half ago, yosh Naiman and him agreeing to do the rotation, there's just when you look when Matt Lafleur did his post games celebration and his speech to his guys, it is one of those games which I think are the most rewarding ones where you can point to all forty eight guys that were up on that roster and see that each

of one of you have had something to do with this thing. Yeah, that was a That was a big one. That was a big one for the Packers to get. Also in the sense that the way the game started and the way the defense played for fifty seven minutes um, it would have been such a shame to let that one get away. And we all know, we all know what that feels like when you just you know it's a game that you should win, the way it's unfolding, the way you're controlling all three phases of the game,

as you had talked about. And sometimes in the NFL, these games get away from you. I mean, just ask the Buffalo Bills who were down in Miami and ran ninety offensive plays to Miami's thirty nine and gained four hundred and nine seven yards to Miami's two hundred and twelve and had eleven third down convergence to Miami's three,

and the Buffalo Bills lost the football game. And you get on that flight home from Florida, coincidentally, and then you're sitting there wondering, how in the world did we lose that football game, the Packers found a way to win it. And and that's that's what it takes in this league, especially right now with the Screen Bay team, where you're still going through the transition at receiver, you're

getting trying to get Romeo Dobs more involved. Um had no choice but to be more involved because of the injuries and the young man came through. You're trying to get your offensive line healthy. This defense is now finding its legs, establishing itself the unit that we saw in training camp against the New Orleans Saints and those two joint practices the Packers are. The Packers are getting there. And the fact that, yeah, they there's plenty of stuff

to work on. But the fact that they're getting there and there two and one with two of arguably their toughest road trips of the year are out of the way, now that's a pretty good spot, big picture wise, to be in. And I was asked the question insider inbox um, which I thought was a really good question, which was, you know, other than you know, a week earlier, Matt la Floor had talked about if we don't have Elton Jenkins back, we don't know if we win this game.

I don't know if we win this game. Somebody asked me that, but they said, you know, if it's not Aaron Rodgers who needed to play for the Packers to win this thing, I've said Romeo Dobbs, and I said devanre Campbell and Romeo game a lot of credit. As you outlined with the game he had. The way he

started that thing really critical. But that precondition that the guy put in there, Rodgers, I thought was really important because this is a game where as much that was made out of Rogers and Brady this week from the outside, it was a game where you needed a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers to handle the situation he was presented. I when I when we got done with this whole thing, and I'm starting to look back at the highlights on

video afterwards. I was blown away by how talented Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady are and I am fully convinced if Tom Brady wanted to, he could test fifty because of the way he has mastered that position. Mike, I watched Sunday Night Football, I watched Monday Night football. Quarterback play shouldn't look that effortless in those two guys, especially against good defense. Against good defenses. In those two guys gave their teams a chance to win, and that's what

the grades do. That side of it, in kind of a knockdown, drag out war is just really something special to watch. Yeah, absolutely no question about it. UM a little sponsored business here. West Serious x M. NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL

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Cousin Subs fifty years of better. All right, I want to talk a little bit about what else happened in Week three in the NFL, first and foremost being that with the Packers beating the Buccaneers, but then also Buffalo losing as I mentioned, Kansas City losing on the road to Indianapolis, the New York Giants losing at home on Monday Night to the Dallas Cowboys. Suddenly there are only two undefeated teams after three weeks of the season, and

that's the Miami Dolphins and the Philadelphia Eagles. Two teams. The Packers will play both on the road later this season. But here we are West, there's only there's only two three and oh teams left to go in the NFC North. Three teams are at two and one, with the Packers, the Vikings, and the Bears. Following Minnesota's come back went over Detroit and Chicago pulling out a walk off field

goal victory over Lovey Smith and the Houston Texans. I want to get your thoughts a little bit on the Minnesota Detroit game, because Detroit looked like it had this game one a few times. They jumped out fourteen to nothing. Minnesota comes back, ties at fourteen all. Then in the second half the Lions get ahead, but then they let it get away and they lose on a thirty sum yard touchdown pass where kJ Osbourne's wide open with like

thirty seconds left in the game. And uh and the Vikings escape at home from a from a Lions team that gave them absolutely everything they could handle. That's a that's a result that you know, could have some pretty big implications here as the as the rest of the NFC North season unfolds. But um, Minnesota two and one, just like the packers, some bearras. Yep, yeah, and you tip your captain Minnesota for winning that type of matchups. Certainly having it at their place I think definitely helped

Detroit is interesting to me. They're probably maybe the most interesting team in the NFC right now just because of all the things that they have going for themselves. You know, whether it's you know, their their first round pick, in the impact he's been making early on. It looks like Jeff Akuta has put the Achilles injury behind him, the slow start behind him. He did a bang up job

against Justin Jefferson, but ultimately Mike. As many things happened in this game, it really told me this the Detroit Lions are going to go. As far as DeAndre Swift takes them. They are a different offense when he's either not available or working through some stuff. Give credit to Jamal Williams did a fine job in that game, but william Swift is their home run hitter, and they just everything. It seems like with Jared Goff changes based on his availability.

I thought this was one of those matchups, and to Minnesota's credit, they had to work through their own issues with Dlvin cook Um and they get it, and and they were able to get that victory and and certainly, uh you know, bounce back after a big letdown in week two. Well, a lot of questions in Detroit with regard to the decisions at the end of the game with the fourth and four when earlier in the fourth quarter and Dan Campbell had been going forward on fourth

down all throughout the game. There's a fourth and one in the fourth quarter, the Lions are up by three. They pass on a I believe it would have been about a forty nine yard field goal, and the kicker had missed from forty eight yards earlier in the game. They go for it on fourth and one, they don't get it. They're presented with a similar situation with just over a minute to go. It's fourth and four and it's a fifty four yard field goal, with the kicker

having missed from forty eight earlier in the game. And then Campbell, after going forward on fourth down all day long, decides to try the fifty four yard field goal. The kicker misses it badly. Minnesota then takes over the ball at the forty four yard line with great field position um and quite frankly, Campbell owned it. Um, you know said, yeah,

I made made the wrong decision there. I should have should have stuck with what, you know, what they've been doing throughout the course of the game, which was to go for it on fourth down and keep the ball in their offenses hands. And unfortunately those You can do so much and we almost saw it in the Packers game, as I said, the fifty seven minutes with with what this defense had done against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers.

You can do so much right in a football game for fifty minutes, for fifty five, for fifty nine and a half minutes, and something, you know, a decision, one play, a bad bounce, a bad call, something can go something can go wrong, and uh and it can cost you a victory. And and it's it can be. It can be so demoralizing. And yet this league is all about how do you pick yourself back up and keep going because,

as Matt Lafleur likes to say, nobody cares about your adversity. Right, everybody's got another game the next week, and you have to get ready to go play and try to chuck up a w whatever it takes. There's one aspect with the Campbell thing that bothered me though, and you and I discussed this on the plane ride home. He's right about the fifty four yard and about going for it on fourth down, but it reminds me. And I don't want to say the player because I want to make

sure I don't miss represent what his words were. But I remember about fifteen years ago, I think there was a Brewers player that talked maybe ten years ago, talked about, you know, his his philosophy at the plate and for boiling down and making a long story short. He basically surmises to he he basically makes up his mind on what he's doing before the pitch even comes. That's kind of what this fourth down things sort of felt like

with me with Campbell. It's like, it's great to have confidence in your guys and do all this, but I think at some point you need to have a little bit of analysis and a little bit of self reflection on the situation, because otherwise it isn't that you're necessarily being aggressive or a riverboat guy or anything. It's just now you're just sort of that's what you are. And if you flip a coin enough times or you bet

on red enough times, it's gonna come out black. So like, I think there needs to be some game situation awareness in there as well. You respect what he's doing, but I think if you flip that coin too many times, or you keep you know, betting on that same color, it's eventually gonna you know, you're gonna come up with craps.

And for the Lions, that sort of worked out that way well, and and it's it's it's also difficult from a leadership standpoint too, because you know those decisions and how the game unfolds, and then the decisions you're making crunch time. It sends certain messages to your guys, right, And what I think is difficult in that spot is when you've gone forward on fourth down five times in the game, you've converted four out of five. You were four out of four until they stopped you on a

fourth and one. But yet you know you're not a hundred percent confident in in your kicker making a fifty four yard or and yet at fourth and fourth, then suddenly that's the moment, with a minute ten on the clock that you tell your offense, Nope, we're going to kick at this time. You know, you know, yeah, exactly. That's why that's why these guys get paid the big bucks and and uh and they have to answer for it.

But but here we are West. As I start with this review of Week three, three weeks into the NFL season, there have been according to a statistic I saw in ESPN, there have been eighteen games in the NFL decided by three points or fewer, which is the most ever in the first three weeks of an NFL season, and only two out of thirty two teams are unblemished at this point. At at three and O, um buckle up right, this is I mean, there are fourteen regular season games left,

plus the playoffs. This is gonna be some wild ride here in the NFL. Exactly, Mike. And there is one team that's owin three in the Las Vegas Raiders. And when you talk about those close narrow victories or close narrow losses in their case, that shows you the margin for air. And absolutely Matt Lafleur says it's so much, and he jokes about he says it's a cliche, but it is not easy to win in this league. Just

look at the Raiders. Just as easily as the Miami Dolphins are three and O, the Raiders are three right, that's just the way this thing works. And for the Green Bay Packers, as Aaron Rodgers said after the game, to beat two and one after their first three, coming back into this home stretch or friendly or stretch, now you're feeling pretty good about things. Yeah, no question about it. With that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. 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, you See you next time.