#679 Packers Unscripted: Work in Washington

that defensive front. Because Jonathan Allen Monte sweat Deron Payne. That's quite the group. And Chase Young, who's probably the best and the highest of the high draft picks in that group, hasn't even rejoined it yet. Um. This Washington defensive front is really the crux of the team. It is one of the most impressive units I think I've seen in terms of how they've built up, you know,

the defensive side of the ball. Certainly, offensively, there's been a lot to be desired there, especially with their production earlier this season. But defensively, we've seen it time and time again during this Jonathan Allen Duran Pain era. They can win up front, they can push the line of scrimmage and going back to one of the biggest old adages of all Mike, if you don't give up points, if you don't give up yards, your team is going

to be in the football game. In the Washington football team that is now the Commanders, I should say, uh, when they've been successful under Ron Rivera here the last three years, it's been when they've been able to win tight in hotly contested games and every single time, you know, with that defensive front on the field, it gives their team a chance. Yeah, And last Thursday was certainly one

of those for Washington. It was sort of the typical what's been the typical ugly Thursday night football game here in the NFL in two but Washington was able to hold the Bears to seven points, hold them off on the last play of the game as the Bears completed past but came up just inches shy of the goal line in Washington gets a twelve to seven victory to snap a four game losing streak. The Commanders had won their season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars, then lost four

in a row. Now got to win over the Bears. Sitting at two and four and with this this defensive front. Five different guys have at least three sacks on this Washington defense so far this year. And when you're looking at the Packers, the performance the offensive line is coming off of last week and some potential changes. We'll see what happens with regard to the offensive line, if some guys are gonna be moving around, shuffling to some different spots,

whatever the case might be. The uh, the key to victory almost screams at you right that this that it's it's this Packers offensive line and whatever transition or flux that it's in against the absolute strength of the opponent in Washington, that defensive front, that's where this game is going to be one or loss. Yeah, the Packers have actually played walk, it feels like, quite a few times the past few seasons. And you know, we don't need to go into chapter and verse again about what kind

of player Jonathan Allen is. But I'm gonna throw these stats that you, Mike. I mean, this is for a defensive tackle in this league, just quite remarkable. Twenty four combined tackles, seven quarterback hits, three and a half sacks, six I should say six quarterback kicks second, seven tackles for a loss, three passes defense, a force fumble, and an interception this season. I haven't seen the film of the interception, but that's a big man picking off passes

and and that's just the beginning. Even a guy like James Smith Williams, the former seventh round pick, who's kind of been the guy that's had to go into the lineup now without Chase Young, he has two sacks this season. I mean, it's a culture that they developed on that side of the ball, and it's gonna be something that Green Bay is really gonna have to contest with because, as we've talked about, Mike, I don't care what shape the offensive line looks like. We know you're gonna have

David Botieri left tackle. You know it's gonna be Josh Meyers at center. The rest is left to be scene. But the communication of this thing is going to be so important because the Washington commanders are going to look at that film last week, the issues that Green Bay had picking up the stunts, being able to, you know, get some penetration on Aaron Rodgers. They're going to take some cues from that as they dial up their schemes for this week, and I expect a very multiple varied

pass rush against green Bay. In addition to the fact that when you have that much that that much beef on the offensive or defensive line, it's not the easiest group to run against either. So momentum, rhythm, tempo is going to be so critical for green Bay in this game. And as Aaron Rodgers said when you talked to the media on Wednesday, when the ball he doesn't care about

what happens with the offensive line. When the ball comes out of his hands quicker, that's when the offense is in its most best rhythm, and ultimately, I think that's gonna be their best key to victory in this game, is being able to get the ball out quickly and run and take advantage of the opportunities that the that the commanders give you well, and you mentioned it earlier. On the offensive side of the ball, Washington has had

its struggles. Carson Wentz has been the quarterback. He now has a fractured finger and is going to be out for several weeks, so Taylor Heineke is stepping in. Heinek ended up starting the bulk of the games for Washington last year due to UH the quarterback situate, the quarterback injury situation. He won seven games. Last year. He played in the game at Lambeau Field here which the Packers won.

But obviously what stood out from that game his Taylor Heineke was the game's leading rusher with ninety five yards. The Packers did not handle his his scrambling ability very well, so that's something the Packers will need to be on alert for. But here's here's some statistics to ponder going into this one. Washington has not run the ball very well this year at all nine yards per game on

the ground through six games. Not very impressive there. But Terry mclau and is a legitimate threat at wide receiver at any time. He had a hundred and twenty two yards including a forty yard touchdown against the Packers at Lambeau last season. He is averaging sixteen point seven yards per catch this year. He is their big play guy, um and that is the guy that Taylor Heinek is

looking for. What maybe a little different with Heineke as opposed to wins at quarterback is Heinek might be looking for him when he gets out of the pocket and the scrambles, the extended plays, the busted plays, whatever you wanna call it. Mclauren is going to be the guy he's watching for. But on balance, this Washington offense has struggled the most early in games. Washington has been outscored seventy five to thirty four in the first half of games.

Now that in some senses bodes well for the Packers, because defensively, the Packers have been better early in games than later in games recently. Obviously, Green Bay is trying to put together that that more complete game defensively, But this is an opportunity for the Packers defense to once again start fast and if the offense can get some things going, you can potentially take control of this game, which is which is what was happening to Washington during

its four game losing streak. Yeah, and and to kind of go off that point too. I mean, Washington also is outscoring its opponent to sixty in the second half, So being able to establish some momentum early is going to be critical. Being able to get production. Yeah, they've scored twice as many points in the second half as they have in the first half through the first six games the year, and the thing about McLaurin that is

going to be most fascinating for me. Again, Matt Lafleur was not biting on the hey, is Taylor Heineke actually a worst matchup than Carson Wentz. Carson Wentz and McLaurin had had a hard time kind of finding their rhythm early this season. McLaren, as you said, sixteen points seven yards per catch, but he only has twenty two on this catches on the season so far. McLaurin was the

go to target for Heineke last season. He was one of the re s. That's why that McLaren kind of broke onto the national scale was the scent, you know, kind of the synergy and the chemistry that they have together. They do have weapons, though, as you mentioned, mclauren can hurt you. Curtis Samuel has had a renaissance this season in this offense as a kind of a gadget player, being able to use them in a multitude of different ways.

He's a guy that coming out I was incredibly high on when he started his career, I think in Carolina. Brian Robinson returned last week during that Thursday night football game. Obviously, if you know the story with him was shot before the season, ends up having to miss the first month of the year, and now he's back. And this was a guy that I think a lot of people expected to really usurp Antonio Gibson as the premier back, the primary back in this offense. This season. A slower start

for him. I think it was only like three and about what was at three point two yards per carry. It wasn't like he torched the world there in the first game back. But he's a guy that Washington felt really good about before that incident. Going into the season. There are guys that they're going to be able to move the football with the key, as Kenny Clark talked about, and a lot of these players on the Packers defenses

being smart with how you approach Heineke. He's a guy that if you keep him in the pocket, you're going to have a good chance to be able to stop him. If you are getting undisciplined in your rush lanes, that's where he's going to hurt you, not only because he can look downfield, but if he needs to, he will pull the ball down and tuck it himself. I thought it was very interesting Mike three rushing yards last year for him, five of them in that game against Green Bay.

That was in sixteen games, fifteen starts. Thirty percent of his rushing yards for the entire season came against Green Bay. It just shows you that he is a gamer. I said that last season Taylor Heineke might not be the type of quarterback that a team is going to ride as their starter, not going to have any competition during training camp. But he is the quintessential NFL number two, reliable, I will win you a football game backup quarterback, and

that's what Washington needs right now. Ron Rivera has won sixteen games as the Commander's head coach. Seven of them have come when Heineke is a starting quarterback. And if you want to know how much of a gamer Heineke is, all you have to do is think back to two years ago when he had taken over at quarterback late in the season and Washington was playing in the wild card round against Tampa Bay, the eventual Super Bowl champion,

Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And it was Taylor Heineke against Tom Brady in the wild card round and that was a two point game after three quarters, it was a five point game with five minutes to go. Taylor Heineke gave Washington a heck of a chance to pull that upset there against Tampa Bay when nobody was giving them a chance to knock off the Buccaneers in that game. From the Keys to victory standpoint, we already mentioned obviously, the

Packers offensive line against this defensive front of Washington. I'm also wondering based on what we saw last week where Jaire Alexander pretty much took Garrett Wilson, the rookie wide receiver from Ohio, stayed out of the game for the Jets, only one catch for eight yards, and it was not against Alexander. I wonder how much we're going to see

Alexander against McLaurin. Do you think the Packers match him up against that guy just because and to take nothing away from Curtis Samuel, but when you look at when you look at the statistics and the big play possibility, McLaurin is the guy who can really hurt you. And Samuel is not a guy you can match anyway, because he's gonna move around in so many different areas and he's and he's gonna he's gonna play behind the line

of scrimmage a lot as well. Yeah, so, I mean he's he's just going to be a problem that the defense as a whole, all eleven guys, all you know, six seven, eight guys in the secondary are going to have to make sure they know where he's at. I think this game, Mike, maybe more than any other game this season, makes the most sense to have Jr. Alexander plastering him because not only is he your your best option press man coverage, he's the guy that can run

with him the longest. And you know, Mike, when we talk about it all the time with Aaron Rodgers and you know, third downs, who's he looking to Randall Cobb as granble drill, what's he looking for Robert Tunyan, Alan Lazard. That's that's that's McLaurin in this offense, especially with Heineke as the starting quarterback right now. My biggest thing for this game, Mike, again, I will never, ever, ever, ever ever say a game is a must win in October.

I don't believe it. The game these seasons too long at this point. But defensively, this is the get right opportunity. Washington has the fourth fewest points scored this season. There has been issues trying to find a rhythm with you know, this kind of rotating door of quarterbacks they've gone through. Remember last year, Taylor Heineke wasn't supposed to be the starting right back. It was gonna be Ryan Fitzpatrick, and

Heineke ended up starting fifteen out of seventeen games. So and actually, and he wasn't eve supposed se the backup. I think what was it? Um Kyle Allen was supposed to be the backup before he got hurt. So a lot of different things going to orbit there. For me, it's this defense doing what it needs to do against this offense. Packers offense is gonna be in for a rough day. It's gonna be a tough assignment. Not saying they can't win it, not saying they can't score points,

not saying they can't beat that defensive front. Washington only has the seventeenth ranked defense in the league. It's not like this is the number one ranked unit. But defensively, this thing for Green Bay, I think that's the thing that people haven't talked enough about. Yes, they're having issues right now, taken away the football, Washington's kind of had those issues too. They've been able to, you know, play really good stretches in the first half. Second half has

been a different, different situation. But you need to look at what Green Bay has done well that points this year. They've been good on third downs, They've been able to limit the passing game, and they aren't going up against a world beater running back like they have the last

few weeks. For the Packers defense, I feel like this is the one where Joe Barry needs to sit his guys down, give them the game plan, and tell them, you guys need to have the confidence in yourselves right now that you can be the dominating unit that everyone believed you to be, because this is the perfect dance

partner to do that against. Yeah, I think I would expect, even even with the Packers coming off of these back to back losses, I would expect we're going to see a very confident Packers team on Sunday, because here's the thing. As as frustrating as these last two losses are, six quarters ago, this was a Packers team that was three and one with a ten point halftime lead in London.

The whole the whole season. Doesn't just suddenly go up and smoke because of a rough game and a half, right, I mean this, this Packers team, they know, they know

what they know what they're capable of. They know they haven't lived up to it in the last game and a half, and this is you know, and and maybe I don't want to get into a whole discussion about, you know, the booing at lambeau Field and everything like that, but maybe playing on the road isn't the worst thing in the world for this team right now as it tries to straighten itself out. Three straight road games is

no easy task. But maybe with what this team is going through, you get that US against the world mentality when you go on the road. Maybe that's maybe that's what this team needs. Yeah, I agree with you, Mike, because this Washington game next week against Buffalo is going to be as road games go, that's gonna be as difficult as Green Bay's gonna see all season. Washington. There might be some friendlies, you know, a couple of years ago when we're there, there were some friendlies in terms

of how that that crowd balanced out. But at the same time, we gotta understand where Washington is at right now. I don't want to call it a neutral site game. It's not that it will be a road matchup for them, but this is a This is as good of an opportunity as any to get right with a road game, and I just feel like, for the Packer's sake, they have to understand right now, Okay, we technically had sort of a three game homestand certainly that was a very

favorable crowd for them in London. Now you get three straight weeks in a row where you're gonna have the Commanders Buffalo who's riding high in the Detroit Lions, whose fan base is energies. You hear about the sellouts that they've had there, despite the fact that they've gone one and four to start this season. There is a lot of motivation here for Green Bay to find its way here before coming back home for those two games in five days. This is the stretch, Mike, This is the gauntlet.

But that being said, you only can worry about the team in front of you, and right now, as it stands, they got Washington. You need to be able to beat that football team. Yeah, as much as as much as the Packers fans, you want you want to see the Packers get back on the right track. You want to put this two game losing streak in the rear view mirror. But the bottom line is you can't. You can't have a two game or a three game winning streak this week. All you can do is win one game and try

to get things going back in the right direction. That's the objective. Did you see that stat not to and again, Packers gotta win football games, no question about. But did you see that stat about the Giants now? About how they've erased three ten point deficits now in the second half to win games this season? While I mean I saw that they did it again against Baltimore, they had done it, they had done it earlier year as well.

I don't know which opponent, but five wins this season and three of them they've come back in the second half from ten plus points behind to be able to to win it. Yeah, that's that says something. They're there, there are teams that there are teams out there that that show their grittiness. But it's also it's a really long season. You never know how things are going to

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fifty years of better. Alright, looking at the rest of Week seven, there's actually not a whole lot that interests me, quite frankly. But I say that because three teams that we normally talk about quite a bit in this segment of the show. The Minnesota Vikings, who are on top of the NFC North at five and one, the Philadelphia Eagles, who have the best record in football at six and oh, and the Los Angeles Rams, the defending Super Bowl champions.

All three of those teams on a by this week not playing from the Packers perspective, sorry, including the Packers next opponent, Buffalo, right but and Buffalo is also yeah, buf Buffalo is also on a buy. So from the Packers perspective, either you win this game and you get within one and a half of Minnesota, or you lose and you fall two and a half back. Right now, it's obviously a two game deficit at with the five and one, three and three records. Two games that I

am looking at though with some interest. Detroit you mentioned off to a one in four start, the Lions coming off there by week traveling to Dallas, and it sounds like Dallas might be getting Dak Prescott back at quarterback. Obviously, we know the Cowboys are coming to lambeau Field in a few weeks, so that will be interesting. And the other one I have my eye on is Kansas City

at San Francisco. Kansas City coming off of a home loss to the Buffalo Bills having to go on the road to the West Coast, and San Francisco, a team that of course reached the NFC Championship Game a year ago, sitting at three and three, just like the Packers with a very very tough matchup, um to try to have way falling below fire at three and four out there in the NFC West. Just any thoughts you have on those couple of games. This is what I was just

saying about Washington. The Packers are three and three, I get it. Fans want to be four and to five and one, seven and oh if they could, right San Francisco forty Niners three and three onto their old starting

quarterback that became their backup that almost got traded. But now as they're starting quarterback again because the one of the futures out for the season going up against Kansas City, and you have to imagine Kansas City is going to be motivated for this game, not only because of what it means going out on the road, but also coming off the loss against the Bills. That's a tough assignment, right. That's why again I point towards this game for Green Bay,

the situation the table can look a lot differently for them. Otherwise. The other matchup that I think is very interesting is Monday Night Football, the Chicago Bears going to New England. Obviously, there's the implications there for the division, as there always are, But you want to talk, Mike, how a three and three record can really, depending on what the aftertaste is into your mouth, can make you feel one way or

another about your football team. Packers are at three and three after two losses to two teams that both are in the playoff hunts in their respective conference. New England was not looking so hot when they lost that game in Green Bay. A lot of questions about what was going to happen at quarterback after Brian Hoyer gets the concussion.

Now Bailey's Appy has a really nice performance. They you know, against Cleveland they are kind of feeling their winds turn a little bit, and now they're going up against a Chicago Bears team that has a lot of question marks. That's why these three and three records, again we talked about on Tuesday's show, But it can go so many different ways because it really just comes down to how your football team is playing in which direction you feel

they're going. The record doesn't matter so much as the momentum, and that's in green based circumstance, and a team like the Patriots circumstances, that's where they want to be able to keep those things going. It's a week to week league, so it always is and uh and this week is certainly no different. Well, with that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers on Script. To be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team. Will have everything for you from FedEx Field on Sunday

on Packers dot com For West I Am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We'll see you next time.