#675 Packers Unscripted: London calling

London for US West. And when you look at this Giants team, there's still some uncertainty as far as the quarterback injury situation. I think the Packers just prepare for Daniel Jones and adjust if if for whatever reason, he's not able to go. But the preparation really for this Giants team starts with sa Kwan Barkley, it does Mike. In the past few years, I think a lot of people, including myself, we all sort of forgot about, say Kwan a little bit because of the injuries, because of some

of the issues that the Giants have had. Um you know, just not a lot of success. And I thought, if anything, the month of September showed one this young man still has a lot of good football ahead of them into how much his impact affects the ability for the Giants to win football games. I mean, when you look at all three of their victories so far, Mike, they weren't blowing anybody out of the water. A lot of it came down to controlling the tempo, minimizing the turnovers, and

honestly just converting first downs. And when you have a running back that's you know, running for five and a half yards per carry foreigner and fifty rushing yards and four games you saw what he did against the Chicago Bears and really just sort of running right through Chicago's defensive front. That's where this is all going to start for them. So it doesn't matter. It does look promising at the time in which we're taping this, it kind

of looks good for Daniel Jones to be out there. Um, if he's not available for any reason that I guess it would probably fall the Davis Webb, who it feels like, I'll no, this is a second stint there, but it feels like he's been in New York for eighteen years. But regardless of who the quarterback is, Mike, there's a lot that holds true from last week's game against the Patriots. You have to be able to stop say Kwon Barklay,

otherwise you're in for a very long morning. Yeah. And with regard to this Packers run defense, we've seen, as I talked about on on our last episode, we've seen the swings, the roller coaster, the ups and downs. The Packers.

Go back to Week two against the Bears, the Packers seem to be doing a pretty solid job defensively for the most part, and then all of a sudden, two possessions in the second half, the Packers couldn't stop the run, and the run game dictated the tempo with the Bears put together a couple of scoring drives um and and you know, it felt like the game kind of flipped in that regard. Then the Packers bounce back from a

run defense standpoint against Tampa Bay. And we had talked all week about you have to be ready for Leonard Fournette. Tom Brady's going to be relying on this guy's power back. He'll take the punishment. And it turned out the Packers defense put together the type of effort that Fournett only got a dozen carries in that game, which was surprising. Now the Packers ball control on the offensive side in

the first half certainly played in that as well. But Fournett only had what was a two point nine yards per carry or something like that against the Packers, So they shored up, you know, the problems from the Bears game. Then you fast forward to the New England game and again for the first half, and and you know, even into the second half, the Packers defense was in a

really good spot. Then all of a sudden, similar to the Bears game, to possessions back to back possessions in the second half where suddenly the Packers couldn't stop the run. The New England Patriots were marching down the field, dictating the tempo of the game. They get a couple of touchdowns and suddenly that you know, the game feels a little differently than it did you know for a while there. So, um, the Packers want to iron out obviously the ups and

downs and iron out the inconsistencies. But you know, as I had said after the Bears game heading into the matchup with for Net and the Buccaneers, sometimes when sometimes problems can get exposed at the right time, right And and I think in a lot of ways. The fact that the Packers are coming off of what happened to the run defense on those two drives against the Patriots is probably a good thing because of how important Sae Kwon Barkley is going to be to the Giants and

the Giants trying to knock off the Packers here. Because it's no secret that was the thing about the Patriots game. I think that's why there was a lot of Packer fans out there that were sort of incredulous after it, because everybody knew the Patriots were gonna have to run

the ball. What I really was impressed by with Bill Belichick and the scheme that they ran was they were able to not be predictable with their run game, if that even makes and so I mean they you know, throw a lot of things at them, and when you get the wide zone going, there's a lot of different

ways you can attack a defense. When you get them moving horizontally, se Kwan is going to hit you in a lot of different spots, and you have to be aware not only of him dragging the pile a little bit for you know, four or five yards when maybe there was only two or three that it looked to be there. But also what happens if you do let him get into space, you do get him matched up against one of your dbs. You have to give your

defense a chance to succeed. Right now, the Giants have the number one ranked rushing offense in the National Football League. That is not by accident, but as I said in my intro, the fact that you look at the Giants and where they're at it so far this season three and one, they are the only team in the National Football League that has not forced an interception yet. They don't have any picks, but yet they lead the NFL

in forced fumble recoveries. They have four. They've only given the ball away I think it was I should say six times. They have six fumbles and they only have five giveaways. So they still despite not even have an interception, there's still plus one in the different that's turning darn and pressed. It tells you they're playing with discipline. But the one thing I noticed watching that game last week and and seeing that the Giants play a little bit leading up to this, it's gonna come down to that

offensive line quite a bit. Because if you are able to stop Barkley or at least contain them on first and second down. This Giant's offense is not built to pass. They just aren't good at it. I mean, the Cowboys had huge, had huge pressure on Daniel Jones from beginning, middle and end of that ball game. The Packers need to be able to dictate the pace because if you don't, it's going to be a really tough assignment allowing their

offense to get going from there. Yeah. Well, you mentioned the turnovers, and I think that's you flip this around and start looking at the Packers offense to me, you know, yes, we we've talked about the transition and bringing the rookie receivers along and working through the running backs and all those things, and the Packers getting their offensive line sorted out up front, and we'll see if if there are

any changes made or what the evolution might be. They're moving forward in still these these early stages of the season. But to me, the most important thing that the Packers have to shore up offensively is protecting the football. This under Matt Lafleur, you look, you look at the numbers. Three three full seasons twenty and twenty one, the Packers did not have a streak of having a turnover in

a game more than two consecutive games. For three straight years, Packers have had a turnover at least one turnover in every game this season. The streak is now at four. The highest turnover number for the Packers in a regular season under the flour is thirteen. They already have seven this season through four games. They're already halfway to what has been their worst turnover season under Matt Lafleur. Just

here in early October. If the Packers offensively can protect the football like they traditionally do in this offense, I think we start to see more efficiency and more consistency. To me, it starts there. It does because it's a

possession based offense. It's an idea. Basically, what when Matt Lafleur's offense is clicking and we've seen it at its best, it takes the old Dom Capers sort of defensive formula and it flips it on its head, which Dom's theory was the more plays, the fewer explosives you give up, the more plays you make the offense run, the higher percentage chance there's going to be a turnover. Well, the offense looks at it under the floor of We're not

going to turn over the football. We are going to hit you with some some small, little victories and then eventually hit some explosives off of that. Green Bay has some big explosives this year. I think they were second in the league depending on what you define. They've been able to create big plays, and they've done them at timely, you know times. If you're going to be down in the turnover differential, you have to win on third downs,

you have to win the time of possession. Green Bay has actually managed to do that for the most part. But again, you can only ride that so long. So that's where you really think, not only with Aaron Rodgers,

but with some of these rookies. As guys start to get more settled into this offense, I would anticipate that you're going to be able to control that a little bit better than green Bay has for the first month of the season, because, honestly, Mike, you look at that past play that Rogers had to Jones a week ago, and Jones fumbles right on the goal line. Those things just typically don't happen. One you don't see Aaron Jones fumble like that, to being put in that position for

a bang bang play. I think those edges are going to get smoothed out over time. But it's one of those things that you are going to have to deal with in the first month of the season when you have an offense still finding itself. Yeah, And with regard to with regard to the Packers, and I mentioned this in our Insider Inbox column this week, there are eleven teams in the NFL right now with a minus turnover margin. The Packers are the only one of those eleven that

has three wins. You know, And when you think back to Aaron Rodgers postgame press conference after the win over the Patriots and he was asked about the sustainability of winning this way, to me, that's the that's the biggest thing that sticks out is what's not sustainable is to is to stay in the minus turnover margin and to keep winning games. You know, over the course of four months in the NFL. That's not a sustainable way to to stack up victory. So but I agree with you.

I think it's I think there are some of the rough edges here that are going that are going to get um, They're going to get worked out. And hey, look, Aaron Rodgers doesn't throw a lot of interceptions. He's already thrown three in the first four games of the season.

That's also something that I don't think is going to is going to continue, um, because it's just not in It's it's not Rogers track record to you know, to you know that for him to be on pace for you know, double digit interceptions, you know, on a season. So I think these things are going to sort themselves out. But again, this is a game. I just I feel like the Packers are the better team. I feel like the Packers have the better roster, but the Giants have that.

The Giants have that one superstar player in Sae Kwon Barkley you have to deal with. And the Packers have this turnover issue that they need that they need to clean up. Or you're going to find yourself in a game just like you had against the Patriots last week, where it comes right down to the end and you're kind of wondering, Okay, how are these guys with a third string quarterback taking the Packers all the way to the wire and and and uh, I think the Packers

need to you know, work their way out of that. Yeah, And to be honest with you, with you as well. The other factor that weighs heavily into the giants favors. They are playing with house money, a new head coach. They need one more win to tie their total from last ye. They just only had four wins last season.

They've already got three under Brian Dable. I think for the veterans that are there, and I know there's been a lot of turn over with that roster the last two years, but the veterans are there, they're seeing Sa Kwan do what he's doing. They're going, Okay, this is where we thought we were in two thousand eighteen, was where we thought we were in two thousand nineteen. We have a future something to point towards, because that's what a running back can do. You look at what Derrick

Henry did for the Tennessee Titans. It goes on and on and on. Nick Chubb and uh, the way he's been able to control ball games right now for for Cleveland Browns, that's Barkley and he's a guy that if he's healthy, they're going to be able to ride him. So Green Bay standpoint mattain Floor said it. We talked about in our last show. You've got to be more physical You've got to close the gaps and you can't be chasing down guys to catch them. You have to be able to meet them at the point of attack

and bring down the ball carry. Which, by the way, when you talk about that run they got at the end of the game on Sunday, that's what ultimately they finally did. Yeah, yeah, they got they got things scored away in that regard when they had to have it in the clutch moments. Here's the other part of this matchup that I think is really interesting. West From a statistical standpoint, the Green Bay Packers are the number one defense in the league on third down in terms of

the opponent's conversion percentage. Number two in the league. The New York Giants, so first and second in the league defensively, going head to head in terms of in terms of third down defense. So the money down, um it, it doesn't get any more important than than when the matchup is. Is this as far as what the statistics are saying about these two defense Yeah, I need to be honest with you, there's very little about the Giants that I

understand in terms of how they're doing this. Because when you bring up stats like that, and it's incredible the fact that that, and then also the fact their second in red zone defense right now. But at the same so, if you hear that stat that they are second in National Football League on third downs, what do you naturally think, Oh, they must be doing a good job against the run. They're really not, right, I mean there against the runs. So it tells you that this is a unit that

is being very opportunistic. They are sticking with plays and honestly, probably a lot of weird little things happening in there that has led to this point. But the fact of the matter is, I think this is definitely a game where the third downs will be something that contributes to who wins this game. Because as much as we're going to talk about se Kwon Barkley, and for the right reasons, with what that young man is doing right now, the New York Giants are looking at a J. Dillon and

Aaron Jones as a potential problem as well. And I thought last week Mike one screen base started mixing the run with the pass a little bit better. We saw glimpses of it in the first half, certainly the Christian Watson touchdown driver. All they did was run the ball. When those two things are married up, that's when this offense is in its most rhythmic sink. And that's going to be a huge challenge against a New York Giants defense that I think, by a lot of measurables, has

outperformed itself. Yeah, all right, Well, we've talked about containing Barkley, dealing with the turnover margin, um, the importance of third downs, anything thing else that stands out to you in terms of a key to victory here as the Packers head over the ocean, the Packers have the better quarterback. And that's not any disrespect to to Daniel Jones. I know he's taken a lot of hits. I've been impressed by some of the throws frankly he's made this season playing

behind that offensive line. But at the end of the day, you have a Green Bay Packers team quarterback by Aaron Rodgers, probably playing in front of an extremely friendly crowd at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. I think that's going to be an interesting story here. Not to interrupt, but just what is

the atmosphere going to be like in Tottenham Hotspur. I have a feeling that the Green and Gold Packer nation, the Packer fans are going to take over the place, and um, I'm excited and and anxious and eager and all that to just see what it's going to feel like and sound like in that in that stadium when the ball kicks off on Sunday. Yeah. And one thing that's going to be critical too, is Matt flour telling

his guys. I mean, yes, you probably will have a lot of fans there, but don't necessarily look at this as a straight home game. Because as much as I think the New York Giants are gonna have to probably be on a silent count, are gonna have a lot of things working against him. Green Day may still have some of that too, because you have an international fan base, people that have wait their entire lives to watch Aaron Rodgers play that are probably gonna be pretty jacked up too.

Is this gonna be the typical Hey, everybody be quiet, it's time for the Packers to play offensive football. It could be sixty minutes of just roaring, you know so. But at the same time, Matt Lafleur said it all week long, Paddle Donald, some of these other people we've talked to, you have to be able. Whoever prepares the best going into this thing, just in their preparation on the field, the game plan, how the bodies are reset once you get over into England. That's probably gonna go

along way. And who wins this game, because when we talk about Sae Kwon Barkley, he is a dynamic football player. But how is the Packers defensive line feeling at that time? How how are their linebackers feeling? Where are the people these players bodies at it at that juncture, it's going to be critical. It almost feels like the physical preparation in terms of the players bodies is paramount in a week like this over the game planning and the excess

and nose and stuff. Not to say that you that you you know, ignore the game plan part of it, but whatever game plan is put together feels like it's not necessarily going to be repped as much in practice as uh, certainly not at full speed as in a normal week because because there's so much focus on making sure these players bodies are going to be in shape and ready to go for a you know, for a

full sixty minute contest comes Sunday. So that's um, that's certainly another factor here, and and Uh, and something that you know, as we've talked about before, the bulk of the players on this Packers roster have not been through this international. I don't I don't know what the ratio is in terms of the Giants, but the bulk of the Packers roster has not been through this before. I think get a chance to look it up before the show.

I want to do this before locker room though. And I don't know if he's going to talk this week, but Mercedes Lewis had I think his fabled game out in London where he had the three touches three touchdown number of years ago. I'm trying to remember whether or not that's the last time he actually did play in London. But basically, you had to be on a different team if you're going to play over their almazard. Like I mentioned before, you know he was with Jacksonville on their

practice when they went over Eric Wilson. If we get a chance to talk to them the locker room this week, Uh, I'd be very interested to hear if he went last week with the Saints because he's a member of their practice squad. He was on their practice. If he's doing four trips across the Atlantic Uh to to earn his NFL paycheck. That'll be that'll be a pretty interesting little story. But yeah, for a lot of guys, I think it's going to be these coaches instilling into him because the

Packers coaching staff has the most experience of anyone. The besacci is the little fleurs. They're the guys that are gonna have to go back to these players and telling them what to expect and what this plan is going to be and why the plan is structured that way. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, a little bit of sponsored business here West and then I want to chat a little bit about the rest

of Week five around the NFL. Serious x M NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis, up to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need two 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 Submenabowl Cousin Subs fifty years of better. All right Elsewhere Week five in the NFL, as far as the NFC North

is concerned, pretty big matchup. Chicago is at Minnesota the two and two Bears, the three and one Vikings an interesting one there with UH with UM regard to the division implications, and then Detroit has to go to New England now and the Lions. UM. The Lions looking to avoid dropping to one and four. They have the highest scoring offense in the league right now, UM, but Detroit's defense has not been able to to get the job

done and UH. And so the Lions are sitting at one and three when they've piled up a ton of points through the first month of the season. And this is gonna be very interesting because it's probably gonna come down to which phase performs better for Detroit UH and

how they win this game. I mean because as many issues as as Detroit has had stopping teams, they're going up against the New England team that could very likely be starting a rookie quarterback going into it while trying to replicate kind of what they did against Green Bay this past week. But I am interested to see where Detroit heads from here. Amand Ross st Brown? What is

his status? They were missing him last week? T J. Hawkinson went freaking off in the inner room there had one of his big career defining days you know, same thing with you know, DeAndre Swift, what is he what is things looking like for him? Detroit hasn't. Man, I've said it time and time again. I like the way they've built this roster. I feel like they're taking steps

in the right direction. But when you look at too one win teams like this and in the Patriots and Lions, it is that reminder that I said on our last show that it is difficult to win in this league, and one of those teams is gonna, you know, walk out of there with one win still, uh, five weeks into the season, Chicago going to Minnesota. I think that's a gut check game for the Bears. Absolutely. Offensively, they need to start finding themselves if they're going to be

a real legitimate, viable playoff team this season. Maybe they won't be, but I feel like with Justin fields, man, you need to start making some steps here. You need to start making some progress because right now, through the first month in the season, it's been wildly inconsistent. In

the passing game has just been non existent. Yeah, And it's interesting because the vikings at three and one in a lot of ways, people people are talking a lot about the Vikings the same way they are about the Packers in terms of yes, winning games, but but they're all kinds of flaws right and and games that are coming down to the wire. I mean the way the

Vikings came back and beat the Lions. That Vikings look dead in the water for three and a half quarters against Detroit, then they end up pulling it out at the end. They go to London and the Saints have a bunch of injuries like we talked about on our last on our last show, but then they have to survive a potential game tying field goal to to get out of London with with a victory over the Saints. But the bottom line is there three and one and they're playing at home with a heck of a chance

to get to foreign one. So so the Packers will need to win in London, um to uh to keep pace if the if the Vikings do get to four and one. A couple other games that just jumped out at me in terms of NFC matchups, The Cowboys are at the Rams, the Eagles the only undefeated team in

the league. At the Cardinals, Cowboys have been getting wins with Cooper Rush filling in for Dak Prescott, the Rams we plan at home coming off of a really rough offensive performance against the San Francisco forty Niners on Monday Night Football. And then the you know, the Cardinals. You know they've they've been, they've been an up and down team.

Are they going to be you know, the team that you know, Will the Cardinals team that that everybody knows plays the way they're capable of playing potentially knock off an undefeated Eagles team, or are the Cardinals going to continue to you know, kind of ride ride this roller coaster and the Eagles get to potentially five. And the thing that concerns me about the Cardinals, I wouldn't even call it a roller coaster. I just think it's been

a d escalation. I Mean, they started so hot last year in this beginning of this season feels like how they ended last year, where it's just a lot of five football, it's a lot of you know, losing close games. And you know, from the other standpoint of it, Philadelphia has been impressive. The one thing, you know, Jalen Hurts is phenomenal. They have one of the best defense is in

in the league. They lead the league and turnover differential, but the commitment that the Eagles have shown to the run game and too Miles Sanders to being able to get that aspect of things down. That was where the train kind of got off the tracks a little bit with Doug Peterson. The running game just it had had a number of different faces. It didn't really have an identity,

and they weren't really consistently dedicating themselves to it. With Jalen Hurts and the way that they're building this offense around him, that emphasis is in place and you're seeing more and more how this young man can create explosive plays based on establishing a running game. And that's what makes to me, uh, you know, the Eagles one of the scariest teams in the National Football League right now

because they can beat you in so many different ways. Yeah, the Eagles sort of they got to establishing that that running game last year and they were able to get enough wins, put enough together to get into the playoffs, and yes, they got knocked out in the first round, but you could see the foundation that they were building last year under under coach Nick Sirianni, and now it's carried over to where that that foundation offensively is shifted

to this year. Jalen Hurts obviously has more experience, learned a heck of a lot from all from everything that he did last year, and uh, and they're they're they're stacking up wins and doing so in in pretty impressive fashion. Any thoughts on the Cowboys playing at the Rams, assuming you know it sounds like Cooper Rush is still going to be the quarterback for the Cowboys, This would be au This would be a big one for the Cowboys

to get. By the same token, the Rams defending Super Bowl champs, um looking to avoid dropping to two and three and being under five potentially starting to wonder more and more if the Cowboys have something in Cooper Rush the more I watch him, and I'm not trying to put him in the Hall of Fame, definitely not doing

the quarterback controversy thing. But Jason Garrett was such a huge fan of his and he kind of gives sort of those not Tony Romo either, because but he like in that way where Romo took three years to develop after coming out of a small school, Rush coming out of a max school. I just Mike, when you watch him play, he's so darned poise back there. He just

doesn't get Yeah, he doesn't get rattled at all. No, and and for them to be three and one when I think there's a lot of people wondering, Oh my god, dad goes down. What does this mean for McCarthy. You give Mike credit. I mean, they've they've rallied the troops there. The Rams are such a jackal and hide team right now. Man, because again, like I was just saying about the Eagles with their run game, it's non existent right now for

l a Um. Whatever that reason is, whether it's the cam Akers coming back from the injury or you know, Henderson not dedicating themselves to it. A lot of this has kind of shifted onto the shoulders of Matthew Stafford, and Stafford has been up and down. They have been able to get Allen Robinson going yet so far this season. Uh, Cooper cup is sensational. My god. I mean they're using him the way that the Packers used Davante Adams backfield

outside slot. He is. He's sensational. But that's their go to right now, and they haven't really had a lot of things that they can shift back towards in the red area. In some of the other aspects, of this game that you're gonna need to to win. Yeah, well pretty soon here, we have to catch a flight and it's going to be a long one, so we'll get we'll get prepared for that and we will call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure

to follow all of our coverage of the team. Wes and I both will be in London to cover Sunday's big game at Tottenham Hotspur against the Giants. We will have it all for you on Packers dot com. For West I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We'll see you next time.