#681 Packers Unscripted: Business in Buffalo

will face the Bills on Sunday Night. It's a Buffalo Bills team that is five and one coming off a bye week, looking every bit the Super Bowl contender they were touted as before the season began. And when you look at this team West, it all starts at quarterback with Josh Allen, who is squarely in the conversation for the m v P. As we near the midway point. He is, and we're going to discuss all the Bills and how good they are in here a second. But I don't know if you saw the renderings of that

stadium that they have that they perspectively put together. Actually, they just came out. I think like either yesterday we just saw it. It's it's pretty nice. These NFL stadiums, bro I mean, we haven't been able to get to Sofa yet or Allegiance, but they're they're pretty It's pretty wild the way these things are developing. And it's and this is why you do it, right. I mean, the Buffalo Bills have never been hotter, at least during my adult life, maybe going back to when I was in

elementary school. I mean, this team and what they have, they are so complete, and they play they feed off each other so well. I mean, that's what all the best championship teams do, right. It wasn't just that Aaron Rodgers was at the peak of his powers in two thousand eleven and twelve and ten. It was they had all this emerging talent around him. It's that they had a defense that was as solid as what Buffalo has offensively.

I always loved telling the story two thousand eighteen, when we were still doing our pregame show out at lambeau Field before the games, Josh Allen whacked me in the calf with a ball. Uh. That's that's where he was at his rookie season and in warmups he like threw a ball and it missed the receiver and hit me literally and almost bruised my calf. I mean that's how hard it was thrown. And now you look at him and this is one of the I mean, this guy is going to be a factor in the National Football

League for the next fifteen years. I mean, he is the crown jewel of that draft class. There's a lot of great quarterbacks that year, but when you look at where he has steered the Buffalo Bills, it's all on his shoulders. Yes, Stefon Diggs is fantastic. Um, you know, Gabe Davis is coming on. Defensively, Von Miller's brought a lot to that defense. But Josh Miller or Josh excuse me,

Josh Allen is the show and and you're seeing why. Yeah. Well, statistically, Josh Allen seventeen touchdowns, four interceptions, a one oh nine point one passer rating, which is can in the league, just barely below Patrick Mahomes, though Josh Allen one the head to head with Patrick Mahomes very recently. Here. The other interesting interesting thing, of course about Alan statistically is

he's actually Buffalo's leading rushier. He has two fifty seven rushing yards, which is one more than Devin Singletary and

actually ten fewer attempts. And when Josh Allen has a five point five yard average per rushing attempt, and you know that there are several minus one kneel downs, you know, into that calculation whether it's a designed run or a scramble when Josh, when Josh Allen takes off and runs, there's a very good chance it's a chunk play, uh, you know, an explosive type of play for this Buffalo offense. And that's what makes them makes them so tough to stop because Josh Allen doesn't have to get rid of

the ball to make a big play. Yeah. And the weird thing about this whole situation the Packers have been and regardless of the skid they've been on, is the quarterbacks they're playing. At some point in time, these qbs. I guess remember when for so many years you were telling Aaron Rodgers, you gotta make sure you slide, you gotta make sure you get down. And now Green Bay is going through this gauntlet of Daniel Jones, Taylor Heineke, and now Josh Allen. These guys have never even heard

of the you know idea of sliding. I mean they are going to Josh Allen is gonna throw his shoulder into you. Uh. Even Kenny Clark talked about it as locker on Wednesday. He's like Big Ben, but he's more fleet afoot like. He He has the size, but he also has a lot of athleticism too. He's going to create big plays. He's going to do with his feet,

He's gonna do with his arm. Stefon Diggs has been I mean when you talk about Mike with trades happen in the National Football League and all there's winners and losers. The Bills, Scott Stefon Diggs, the Vikings got Justin Jefferson, and those two guys have just completely ascended in their own respects in these avenues. Gabe Davis is actually on my fantasy team right now. Seven and a half yards per catchy at the NY eight yard touchdown last week. There are a lot of threats the Packers will have

to neutralize to be successful at the Ralph. Well, you look at and I want to talk about these receivers a little bit too, because you look at Stefon Diggs six games now Buffalo has played, as we mentioned, coming off of a bye week. In six games, Stefon Diggs has forty nine catches, six hundred and fifty six yards

and six touchdowns. I mean the math there says he's on pace for you know, a hundred and twenty five plus receptions like eighteen hundred plus yards and uh, you know, seventeen t d s. I mean he is, he is on pace here and they're early going for an absolutely

monster year. And then as you said, you have to deal with Gabe Davis as well, who only has fourteen catches on the year, but four of those have gone for touchdowns as you mentioned in ninety eight yard touchdown, which has boosted his average on those fourteen receptions to twenty seven and a half yards per catch. This this isn't This is an offense that can that can gash you. They can make the big play at any time. And no, they don't have much of a running game. As I mentioned,

Josh Allen is the team's leading rusher. But they are so dangerous because of Alan's dual threat ability and because of these receivers, and you throw in a tight end like Dawson Knox, who can make a lot of things happen. This is a this is a tough unit to handle.

And you know, you know, going into Buffalo in prime time under the lights, with Aaron Rodgers coming to town for the first time in eight years, the Buffalo crowd is going to be I mean, it's it's the atmosphere in that place is going to be, uh, something else for for just a regular season, fol And we don't need to revisit two thousand fourteen and that that matchup there. But the one thing, it's the only time I've ever been at Landmark Stadium. Uh, I'm just gonna let that

go throughout the entire show. No, it's the first time I've been to Buffalo since that game. And that day it was Kyle Orton, who has been signed that year to play quarterback. Their season was pretty much, for the lack of a better term, over, I mean, they were right or hovering around if I remember right, and the feeling in that stadium was not one of jubilation. It was pretty melancholy up until the end when they ended up actually winning the game. This is gonna be a

lot different. Sammy Watkins, the former Buffalo Bill was talking about this. He's like, when when the Bills are good, when they're winning football games, it's like a college town atmosphere. I mean, that's that's what that's like. I mean, you and I are going to see it when we're pulling up on the buses. Maybe there'll be someone going through

a table. We're not sure, but yeah, our our buses sort of go because I've I've been there for two games two thousand and six and two thousand and fourteen, and the buses that take us from the hotel of

the stadium we go through like these neighborhoods. It's it's it's the most similar to Green Bay and of any place in the NFL where you're going through these neighborhoods and you're seeing people with with their you know, their tailgate parties in their driveway, in their yards, you know, cars being parked, you know, collecting twenty bucks here and there or whatever. That's that's what it's like. And our

our our buses go right through that. So yeah, I'll be watching to see if what what sort of Shenanikins are happening, especially with it being a night game where folks are going to have all day to get ready for this one. But what I really like to about the Bills offensively is so you look at a guy like Devin Singletary, and Singletary is not a guy that everyone's like, oh well, this is a big, you know, huge threat, but for what the Bills want to do,

he compliments it perfectly because he can run. But he's also their second leading pass catcher in terms of the number of receptions. Um they drafted Zack Moss he's involved in that too, But I mean Singletary is the guy that kind of compliments the whole thing, and there's just Mike.

You just don't see a lot of weaknesses across the board. Now, the Packers are gonna do a lot of things right, but you know, Jamison Crowders on this roster obviously, I think Jake Kumro is going through some injury stuff right now, but that they are veteran, they are versatile, and certainly when you have those type of playmakers at the quarterback position and guys that can be game records down the field, like Digs and like Gabe Davis, that there's a lot

that Green Bass to account for for sure. And on the defensive side of the ball. This is this is the unit that has ranked number one in the league in both yards allowed and points allowed. A lot of statistics certainly jump off the page. Von Miller with six sacks, UM, the young guy Russo has four, Those two guys with with ten combined. Jordan Poyer in the back end has four of this this uh, this defense is ten interceptions

on the season. UM. A huge challenge for a Green Bay offense that is continuing to try to find itself to clean up the mental mistakes as well as the physical mistakes, settling in with a new offensive line. Obviously, the Packers are banged up at receiver. We don't know who all is going to be available at wide receiver

for for Sunday night just yet. UM. This is UH, this is this is a tremendous challenge because because this Buffalo, this Buffalo defense, they they got von Miller for a reason, right, They knew, they knew they were close, but they felt. You know, when you when you get knocked out of the playoffs by allowing in essence, by allowing a field goal to extend a game in twelve seconds or thirteen seconds or whatever it was, you're like, all right, we

need to get a finisher on defense. Von Miller is that guy that that when that defense needs a big time pressure or a sack or uh you know, strip sack, fumble, whatever it is, they're counting on Miller to deliver it.

In so far this season he has. Yeah, and Miller really has been I don't want to start throwing out like Reggie White type comparisons, but when you look at where he has gone in the impact he's had, he's really been like that that finishing piece from a lot of these really good defenses around the National Football Certainly, certainly was for the Rams, helping them win the Super Bowl last year, and certainly, I mean, we don't need to talk about fifteen and what he did on those

Denver Broncos teams. But the craziest part of this deal for the Bills is they're doing all this without Micah Hyde. Mica gets that neck injury earlier in the season, he's done for the year. Everybody for so long, they've been talking about how Poorer and Hide are probably one of the best, if not the best safety combination the National Football League right now, both how they play off of each other and really their ball hawking skills. I feel like,

especially with dealing with some of his own injuries. Uh, this has only brought out the best and Jordan poy are four interceptions on this season. Uh. We hear so often from Packers players, from coaches marrying the pass rush to the past coverage. That's what a good defense does, Miamire, I should say Buffalo does all of it. Third in the league, I think in takeaways, lead the league with

ten interceptions. I let Miami slip out of my mouth there because I was gonna say the only team that's had success, the only team that's beaten them, and again it was a barn Burner type game, was the Dolphins. They didn't do it by running the ball well against them, They barely ran the ball at all. They did it by not having turnovers. The few explosive plays they had, they scored on all of them, and they made the

most of their red zone opportunities. The same thing has to happen for the Packers to be successful against this defense, right and what and what Miami did in that game, because statistically, that game, the one game Buffalo lost this year, was lopsided in a number of statistics. In favor of the Buffalo Bills. The number of plays, the yards, everything,

and it wasn't a big turnover fest. But the other thing that Miami, the other thing that Miami did is Miami's defense continued to rise up in the red zone, backed up against the goal line, whatever the case might be. Miami's defense made key plays at key times. And so all of these, all these plays and yards and everything that Buffalo piled up, the Bills weren't able to, uh to convert those into enough points to pull out a game that they that they otherwise dominated up and down

the field. So, um that that was my next question to you with regard to what what are the keys? What are the keys to victory here? I think another another category that sticks out is that Buffalo offensively is number one in the league on in third down conversions um third out conversion percentage. Green Bay defensively is number three in the league. But as we've seen, you know, we had talked about a couple of the third and longs that were converted in London by the Giants that

sort of turned the tide in that game. And then the second half last week against Washington where whether it was third and short or third and long. The Packers just couldn't get off the field. Washington converting a lot of third downs in that second half. So we've seen Green Bay have some struggling moments in that regard, and uh um, you know, you get it's going to be difficult enough in some respects to get a big play offense like the Buffalo Bills into a lot of third downs.

But if the Packers get them into third down, they're gonna have to They're gonna have to get off the field that way. I mean for the green Bay Pratt Packers, you ask about how they win this game. To me, there's three things that this is going to boil down to it. It It is the third down defense. They need that to hold true in this game, as you mentioned third right now in the National Football League. It is their red zone defense, their six right now in the

National Football League. If the Bills do get into deep territory, you need to find ways to keep them out of the end zone because they're not going to be punting a ton. There's going to be plays that they are going to extend. They're going to have ten play twelve play drives. Do you generate turner takeaways off of that, Are you able to stop them and force them to send the field goal unit on yeah, and hey for fourth and three from the forty five yard line. Sean

mcdermot's going forth most of the time. I mean, it's it's not just the third down defense. You have to be ready for them to for them to roll the dice on fourth down to exactly and then obviously that's something Green Bay is gonna have to take into account. And realistically, it comes back to what happened last week with Taylor Heineke. The Packers again, as I mentioned on two Day's show, they had twenty nine pressures according to Pro Football Focus, whatever it was nine quarterback hits or

sit whatever that number was. Maybe it was even more than that one sack. Uh. The Packers have to be able to finish plays pressure contain be smart about it. That was another thing Kenny Clark and Dean Lawry Boll talked about knowing your rush lanes, making sure that Alan doesn't leak out because the dangerous thing about him is he can make every throw from every point of the field. He'll throw across the hashes if he has he sees the opportunity. But he also is not afraid to talk

the ball and run it. That's where green Bay has to be able to hold up. And also I know it's been a grind for green Bay with the run defense so far this season seven or whatever it is in the league right now. Making sure that Singletary doesn't get a lot of production, making sure that Alan doesn't

leak out. You do want to make sure that you're forcing this thing to the past, because to me, green Bay it's been They've been in this drought with takeaways and turnovers that I think can only last so long. You can only get your hands on so many passes before those things finally start getting caught. They need takeaways in this matchup. Yeah, absolutely, and and and Buffalo has given the ball away ten times so far this year. That ranks, you know, around the bottom third of the

league in terms of the giveaways. And we had talked on our last show about how the Packers had they got the big pick six, they almost had another defensive score if not for the penalty, but they had opportunities for other turnovers. And you get your hands on the ball, you've got it. You've got to cash in on it.

You can't let those chances get away. On the offensive side, as I talked about before, the Packers are trying to figure themselves out there, trying to clean up the mental mistakes, the physical mistakes the Packers just offensively, especially against the number one defense in the league. You've got to play as clean of football as you can play. The mental errors that Aaron Rodgers is talking about of the plays that they're running, have a mental error by somebody, a

missed assignment by somebody that can't continue. The physical mistakes, the drop passes, the poor technique that leads to holding calls. Those are the Packers simply have to have to clean up everything to give themselves opportunities against a against a Buffalo defense. Because what's going to help what's going to help you out the most against Josh Allen is too, is to create a game with fewer possessions. Right, you can't let Josh Allen take the field thirteen or fourteen times.

So the way you do that is by is by getting back to and you had mentioned this an insider inbox, getting back to winning the time of possession. The Packers need to convert on third down move the chains shorten the game in the sense of in the sense of not putting your defense out there as many times against a guy like Josh Allen. There's a there's so much that the Packers need to clean up offensively, but at some point they're going to do it. And and when

they do it, we're gonna gonna see it. We're gonna know what it looks like and uh, and we're gonna see a team that's gonna give itself a much better chance to win regardless of the opponent, compared to what we've seen the last couple of weeks. Exactly and offensively, maximizing your opportunities first down, being able to move the ball, get first downs, being able to actually generate big plays organically in not having to force them. That was the

other thing you. You had made a comment in in box earlier this week about the about the second and longs, and I went I went back and counted from the Washington game, and if I counted correctly, I counted six different times in the game the Packers were in second and ten or more. Six times second and ten or more. You can't live that way on offense. It's just that that that's just that's not a way you can survive

in this league. It doesn't mean it doesn't mean you have to be in second and two all day, but you need to be in second and six and second and five most of the day to give yourself a chance, because if you're in a position, god forbid, I think there's even a couple of second and if you're in that spot, that's not how you generate a fifty five

yard pass play to Sammy Watkins. You generate those type of opportunities sitting in third and short, sitting in second and manageable, being able to give the defense a lot to consider and how they want to defend you. That's going to be paramount in this game. And if I may to throw in, it's not just offense and defense. Special teams is going to have a big part to play in this too. Time of possession in the field

situationally is going to be critical. Uh Isaiah McKenzie is one of the best kickoff returners Nobody in the National Football League really ever talks about. Uh is a dynamic guy. If he's able to take it out of the end zone. Jamison Crowder has been doing it for so long in the National Football League, has been so consistent in that way a guy that maybe hasn't broken one for touchdown yet this year on punts, but has been able to give them an extra eleven twelve twenty yards off their

punt returns. Green Bay has to be able to win the time of possession and has to win the field position. I think those are the two small things in this matchup when you talk about little details that are really going to be looming over this game and making it making the Packers not be the ten point dogs, and everyone thinks they are pro proving that they still are the Super Bowl contender. A month ago everybody believed them

to be. Yeah. Absolutely, I agree with you. Some sponsor business here West Serious x M NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the NFL news that true football fanatics need seven three six 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. And I gotta stop myself

on the Jamison crowter thing. I knew I messed up on that one because Carter actually is on injured reserve right now, so he's for a few weeks. Oh, I didn't. I didn't realize. I forgot about As soon as I said, I was like, that doesn't sound right to me. But they do still have to worry about Isaiah mackenzie though. Yeah, Um, we we're walking on a tight rope here, Mike. We we do it live, right, That's right, we do it live.

That's a part of the story. Um. Wanted to get your thoughts on a few other games around the league in Week eight in the NFL. These are the ones when I was glancing at the schedule that jumped out to me in terms of, uh, you know, I want to kind of pay attention during the afternoon on Sunday as Sunday night football approaches to see how these turn out.

Chicago is at Dallas, which looks like a much more interesting game than it did before last week when the before the Bears had beaten the Patriots on the road in primetime. Arizona is at Minnesota, Arizona coming off of a Thursday night win with this quote unquote mini by Minnesota coming off of its full bye week. Obviously, the Vikings with just one loss so far this year. San Francisco is at the l A. Rams. One of the Rams are three and three, the forty nine are three

and four. I don't think either team expected to be in that spot. And now those two NFC West rivals going head to head and then probably the what what you would label the game of the biggest surprises in certainly in the NFC at least, is the Giants, with their six and one record, are at Seattle and the Seahawks are at four and three in first place in the NFC West. The only team in the NFC West that is above five hundred, so Chicago, Dallas, Arizona, Minnesota,

San fran Rams and Giants Seahawks. What interests you there? Well, seeing exactly where things are with Gino Smith is going to be one of because this will be a big test for him going up against that Giants defense. Yeah, how clean they play, how dynamic they've been with not a who lot of whole lot of household names. The thing about Smith and you've got to see how long

these can go. We did plenty of stories over the past of you know, Ryan Fitzpatrick, you know, had some amazing runs and when you think about what he did in Tampa for a time and in Miami, But can you consistently do it? If Gino Smith can actually carry this out through the course of the year, I don't know if he would qualify as like a comeback Player of the Year type candidate, but you do start to

get some like rich Gannon type vibes from that. A guy that got an opportunity and then had to sit a lot um And I think you give John Schneider a lot of credit, you give Pete Carroll a lot of credit, and certainly Gino a lot of credit that this is a guy that was completely written off. And when Russell Wilson got hurt a couple of years ago and he had to go in a lot of people

were mocking that. Um when they make the trade and Drew lock comes over there and it's like, Oh, you're gonna have Drew Locker Gino Smith and everyone laughs about it. Gino Smith has played really good ball this year. You have to do it consistently. Seven games does not make a season. But I'll tell you what, man, if he goes and they hold court against the Giants, that that's something you're really going to have to start to respect

and acknowledge. I do also really quickly want to touch on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because as the Packers ready for this matchup with Buffalo, the Buccaneers are at a crossroads to three and four going up against a Baltimore team that, to a certain extent, they've underachieved in some people's eyes. To be sitting where they're at, that's a kind of a big game for both of those teams,

and for Tampa playing at home. That's the one that's tonight, right, That's the one I was looking at the slate of sun so I missed that when I was football goes And for anybody that listens this over the weekend, I'm sorry we're wasting kind of your time here. But in terms of Thursday I football, this is as big as those games get. Because you know, you had a lot of injuries on both things. Mark Andrews didn't practice this week.

I know, you know, Mike Evans, these are tough games to step into and there's big implications for both of

these squads. Yeah. Absolutely, With as far as as far as the NFC North goes, the Bears three and four with a chance, with a chance to get back to five hundred on the road against the Cowboys, a Cowboys team that now has Dak Prescott back, and Prescott is playing in his second straight game coming back from his hand injury, thumb injury, UM and UH Arizona being on the road at Minnesota, I don't think anybody thought the

Vikings would be five and one at this point. And one thing that one thing that's always interesting to me about Minnesota when they get in this position and now this is a new regime, right, a new head coach, new GM and all that, there are times there are

times that Minnesota has jumped out in front. The Vikings have jumped out in front and UM and responded really well and stayed there and made a run like they did in twenty seventeen they got all the way even with case Keenum who was quote quote unquote backup quarterback, getting all the way to NFC Championship game. There are other times Minnesota has jumped out front and then has not responded well to being the team everybody's chasing UM in the NFC North and UH and and what has

been a gap early on has has closed. So I'm curious to see now that they've They've had their bye week, but now they have to go the rest of the way without a break. Can the Vikings sustain it? And uh um and an error own a team that very up and down and all that, but also as we know,

very dangerous with Kyler Murray and those offensive weapons. I think that's a really interesting matchup just to see where where Minnesota is and how the Vikings maybe set the tone, so to speak, to be the front runner in the NFC North because hands down that's what they are right now by a pretty good margin. Yeah, and this is for the Vikings measure. This is that that cross conference, you know, division game that's set up based on your

allotment last year. So these are two teams that I think, in a lot of people's eyes underachieved last season, especially with how things started for Arizona. So you're seeing with two different directions. I think they've traveled to this point. But as you mentioned, the wild card in all this is Murray because he's going to give the Vikings problems considerations that they haven't really had a factory in yet.

When you look at the extended plays, when you look at the creativity of the Kingsbury offense, That's where I want to see how this thing shuffles out. Offensively, the Vikings are dangerous, but there's so many known things about that offense and in the way that Kirk Cousins plays

the position. Certainly the threat that Justin Jefferson presents their backfield equation, but defensively is the one that I just still you just wonder, you know, Patrick Peterson facing his old old team, is he still going to be able to capture you know, the phone youth there a little

bit that he's had at times in Minnesota. There's a lot of things to consider in it, and certainly for the Packers measure, looking at the Vikings and then also seeing the Bears having a very competitive game against Dallas after trading Robert Quinn this week, how is that defense going to respond for Chicago. It's a very interesting point

right now for this division. Yeah, well, a lot of interesting games to pay attention to on Sunday before the big kickoff in the evening from Buffalo for Packers and Bills. With that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers on Script. He'd be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team, will have everything from Sunday Night's game for you from Buffalo on Packers dot com for Wes, I am Mike, Thank you for tuning in, everybody, We'll see you next time.