#683 Packers Unscripted: Diving into Detroit

there's one statistic that absolutely jumps off the page. In four home games, the Lions have scored a hundred and forty three points nearly thirty six per game. In three road games, they've scored just thirty points, only ten per game. Well, this game is at Ford Field, the Lions are at home, and that is the explosive offense that the Packers are preparing for the greatest show on turf. But nowhere else. Listen,

UM in that very spot over there. I know Justin and Marvin can't pan over there right now, but Larry McKern and I did our three Things video on Wednesday evening and Larry put it out there bluntly. You can't take this Lions team lightly. For that reason, UM to also quote Larry, their defense is the pits. I mean they are basically bottom of everything. But offensively, uh, particularly as you illustrated when they're at Ford Field, this team can play with anybody. And Kenny Clark was kind of

outlining this a little bit for him. He thought it starts a lot with their offensive line, a lot of resources they've invested there that has helped their run game improve over the last few years. Certainly back that is as stable and consistent as Jamal Williams. That has given them sort of a foundation to build their offense. And if you go back and look at Jared Goff throughout his career, that is when he really has excelled when he's had a back that he can play off of

and create downfield opportunities. Now, amandros st Brown has been banged up here for them as of late. They just traded t J. Hockenson, so it's gonna be interesting to see which playmakers step up for them, especially with DeAndre Swift still missing practices. But you can't overlook this Lions team there one in six. But there's a lot of

dangerous looking statistics in that statue. Yeah, you mentioned Jared Goff and I think that the thing and and coupled with that running game, Jared Goff so far this season through seven games has a ninety three point to passer rating. That is his best passer rating since two thousand and eighteen.

For all of the um uh, you know, all all of the uh you know gruff he's taken from fans for for not living up to that you know, to his draft status over the course of his career, Jared Goff is putting together his best season in in quite a while. They did get DeAndre Swift back last week in a limited role um per. Perhaps he's still going to be available this week. Don't know, but DeAndre Swift in limited action this year because of injuries, is averaging

seven point four yards per carry. I mean, this is a guy who's taking chunks of the field when he gets an opportunity. You mentioned Jamal Williams eight rushing touchdowns, which ranks second in the league. UM in rushing touchdowns, I believe it's Chubb from Cleveland with ten is on top of the league. Jamal Williams has eight, but no t J. Hockenson because of the trade to the Minnesota Vikings.

I'm curious to see if a whole lot really changes with regard to Detroit's offense, or if it's just okay, Hockinson is not available, so you put in a tight end to you know, it's it's are they just gonna do a plug and play type of thing and try to try to continue that or is there going to be a little bit more of a radical or wholesale change because you don't have T. J. Hockenson in the mix anymore. I'm not sure which way they're going to go especial really on short notice. Well, Mike, I'm gonna

have to be a hundred honest with you. I have no idea who brock Wright and James Mitchell are. I don't either, which is why I didn't even bring up the names, but you called him up on your surface tablets. Here's the thing, though, I have paid a lot of attention to Hawkinson this year, the huge game he had a few weeks ago being the primary target for Jared Goff three ninety five yards so far this season, that

was that was tops on the Lions. Now, I mean a monros st Brown and Josh Reynolds both over three hundred yards as well, but yardage wise, Hockinson was number one on their lists. Yeah, and in golf. I mean, you just watched the games. Mike when he needed a receiver, when he needed to go to guy, it was Hockinson.

So I'm very interested to see who steps up in that spot for them right now, because as difficult as things have been offensive or defensively for them, offensively is why they've been able to stay in a lot of these games. And you know, you look at the fact that they went, you know, up the thirty five with the Philadelphia Eagles in Week one, a game that I thought everybody was probably overlooking at the beginning of the season because it's like, Okay, how good are the Eagles

gonna be this year? But doesn't really matter they're going up against the Lions. And then suddenly the Lions kind of opened some eyes, and I think if you win through those first second or third weeks of the season, people actually really like, you know, Detroit's chances this year in the second year under Dan Campbell. But games have gotten away from them. As you said, on the road, they've really struggled, and defensively across the board, they haven't

been able to stop anybody. So how this offense reacts is what I'm really interested to see because I know the quotes out this week from Brad Holmes about their general manager. You know, we would have done this trade if we were six and one two. I beg to disagree with that. I mean, second and you know, fifth round picks. Whatever it ended up being. It's good equity. I get it. But t J. Hockenson was the eighth

overall pick a couple of years ago. He was a guy that was showing, in my opinion, legitimate playmaking Pro Bowl potential when he's been healthy, when he hasn't had some you know, there's been some concussions and stuff to take him away from this offense now, I just I'm just very curious how the Lions respond to that, because that's a pretty vivid message that you're sending to your organization that not only are we probably going to continue this rebuild when you take away a guy that's twenty

five years old or whatever, Hockinson, is that that that kind of tells you that we still feel like we're a lot farther away than maybe we were hoping at the beginning of the season. Yeah, it was a curious move, and you make and you make a good point as far as how how is the locker room, how are the players going to react to that seeing a major piece even though they're one and there, one and six. But they've been right in a lot of games. They've

lost three shootouts at home. You know the game you mentioned with the Eagles, the score was in the thirties. They lost to the Seahawks at home. They lost UM just last week at home to Miami thirty one to twenty seven, when they had jumped out to a fourteen nothing lead, but their defense fault and through the second and third quarters and Miami really got rolling. That defense is thirty second last in the league in both yards

and points allowed. That being said, there one win this year was sort of a shootout at home against the Washington Commanders, a high scoring game that that UM that they were able to pull out. So the other response I think to see what happens here with regard to the Lions is they just uh fired their defensive backs coach this week Aubrey pleasant Um Aaron Glenn, the defensive coordinator who is a defensive back by trade and made his way to the to the coordinator position through the secondary.

So to speak, just they decided to move on from Aubrey Pleasant. So then with all of the problems that they've had with their past defense, you know, are they are they going to change something? Are they going to try something new? I think you know that change at

defensive backs coach. And also the trade aid for Hackinson makes this a challenge this week in some respects for the Packers in terms of preparing and studying film because you don't know what changes they're going to make based on um, based on these moves that just happened within the last few days. Well, and how drastic are they gonna be? Are they going to really try some different type of stuff there? Because you're kind of getting to this point where let me just read off some of

these statistics really quickly. If you don't mind, I know you're usually the stat guy. I'm gonna wear that hat here for a couple of minutes. Sure, they're giving up thirty two point one points per game. As much as we put this on Pleasant in the passing game, then being against the past this season is actually one of their better statistics. Right now, they are thirty second and totally yards, giving up fourner and twenty one yards per game.

They are thirty against the run, giving up a hundred and fifty four yards per game interceptions, they only have to this season third down defense, they are dead last in the National Football League fifty point six percent of the time not being able to get stopped. So I look at this right now from Detroit's perspective, is Okay, we have Aidan Hutchinson. He looks like he's going to be pretty good four and a half sacks on the season. But I don't know what else there is to really

hang their hat on. Right hutch Hutchinson has the four and a half sacks to lead the team. Nobody else on the team has more than one and a half. I mean, he he is sort of the crux of their defense. What I wonder about in terms of, you know, I know it's short notice in terms of making changes from a schematic standpoint or whatever you want to call it. But at the same time, they're one and six at some point at some point here, I mean, we've seen we've seen Dan Campbell. He loves to go for it

on fourth down. He likes to fake punts, he likes to onside kick, he he likes to he likes to pull out all the stops and so to to a certain extent. Now now that they're one and six, nearing the midway point of their season, at some point it's gonna be like, hey, we got we got nothing to lose. Let's just let's let's let's let's try whatever and and see if we can beat you know, a struggling Green Bay Packers team coming in with a four game los and for green Bay, I mean, this is this is

the perfect elixir. There's a lot of you know, kind of some pressure on the Packers here, coming off a four game losing streak to still be favored in this game, to try to get it up. Twenty five first downs a game, right now, that's one and a half more than the next team. That's crazy. Six six per quarters, I mean six first downs per quarters. So for the Packers, a team that offensively has been struggling to find itself at times, been trying to find perimeter weapons to step up.

Aaron Rodgers was asked, are you prepared to go to a shootout in this one? He's like yeah, he said, he said, we better be better, you know, I mean that's the way this thing is put together right now. For the Packers. So the guys in the locker room understand that urgency and one of the points I made in our insider inbox column, and it kind of goes off dovetailing off. What a lot of the guys said in the locker room was, this isn't about getting style points.

You don't need to, you know, finesse on them. You don't need to have a blowout. Packers need to win right now, and they need to win before they come back home and face a good Dallas team, a very dangerous Tennessee Titans team. Yeah, the Packers. The Packers are going to come off this game in Detroit and then have two home games in a span of five days.

You get a win, you all of a sudden start, you know, maybe to feel a little bit better about yourself, generate some kind of momentum to home games in five days against at Lambeau, against very very good teams. But this is I mean right here, this is it a road game at Detroit, a team that's only won one game, and then two home games in a span of five days. If the Packers are going to turn their season around, it's gonna be now. Because if I'm Matt Lafleur in

that locker room. Obviously, it would never be a speech with him because they're not looking to pass the front opponent. But fourteen games, fourteen days from now, the Packers could be a game above five if you play your cards right over these next two weeks. The good thing for green Bay coming out of Wednesday we saw Allen Lazard returned back to practice. That would be a huge gift

for them with this offense. You know, Christian Watson, we don't know what the prognosis is going to be for him, but at the very least, it seems like he's doing okay. I think he was out there. You were at practice. Yeah, he wasn't stretching, he wasn't going through the drills on the field, but he was present at practice. He was going through the team stretch at the beginning of practice, which is a good sign because some in certain stages of the protocol, like you don't even see the player

down by the field at all. So again, we don't know how this is gonna shake out for Watson as the rest of the week unfolds, but that was a really good sign just to see him with his teammates on Wednesday, and as Rogers said too, you know, and hopefully here in a couple of weeks they can get

Randall cobback. So the Packers, we saw it happen with the trading deadline and when when everybody, and I know that's such a big point of contention right now amongst fan base, but the reality is, no matter what would have happened there, the Packers had to rely on Romeo Dobbs, Samory Too re Christian Watson to improve, and they needed guys like al Lazar, Randall Cobb and Sammy Watkins to lead with this group early on. It's been tough, there's

no question about it. But I think if you look at that game against Buffalo again, a team that was that are it is considered a Super Bowl favorite. Packers did a lot of positive things in there. Now is the time to build on that, learn from your mistakes, and go and impose your will against the lines. All right, I want us to specifically call our keys to victory in a minute here, but first I'll take care of

some sponsor business. Serious x M NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need. Seven three six and at Cousin Subs, we have something for everyone like our Wisconsin cheese curds, 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. All right, the keys to

victory here we will see. Aaron Rodgers sounded uh, sounded positive, optimistic about the prospect of David Baktier and Elton Jenkins playing side by side on the left side of the offensive line this week, even though both of them um did not practice on Wednesday. You mentioned the the situation

going on with the receivers. I think if the Packers based on what we saw from this offensive line, certainly in the running game with the two plus yards against the Buffalo Bills last week, with the changes that have been made, yosh Niman's noutright tackle John Runnion has been flipped over to right guard. You're trying to get Jenkins back in there at left guard, and box are played

the entire game last week at left tackle. If this unit settles in, obviously, Aaron Rodgers is the captain, he's the lead, he's the you know, the leader of the whole thing. But if if that's your starting five on the offensive line, and if that group can settle in and start to play every game every week on a consistent basis and have some continuity and reliability there, that's the unit, in my opinion, that's going to lead this Packers offense back to to the productive level that they're

hoping for and that they're counting on. So um I would like to see. I I really would like to see obviously that that starting five going against the bottom rank defense in the entire league, and that starting five control this football game. I agree, Mike, because the thing is, it's not just about Jenkins and box tr it's the fact that you know, you look at yash Nieman being able to get three weeks now at right tackle, and

that's that's your spot. You don't have to worry about a rotation, you don't have to worry if something's going to happen. You're going to concentrate on this and we'll we'll deal with whatever happens on the left side as it happens. Being able to develop that comfort last week, it was a little bit of a grind early on with the pass pro, but they made some adjustments there. I thought for the most part, the run blocking was exceptional, uh,

particularly from the skill the skill positions. Um, Josie Deguara made some good blocks, you know, near the line of scrimmage outside. You see these guys given second effort there. That's the key to break in this thing. Sammy Watkins talked about it last week. They know what Aaron Jones is capable of. If you get him to the second level, it's up to the receivers to kind of give them that second block, yeah, to be able to spring him

for a touchdown. That's one thing they've been missing so far because he has gotten to the second and third level pretty easily this season. But the big thing for me really comes back to Aaron Rodgers in this game. I feel like, you know, he he mentioned it to, you know, wanting to get the most out of himself, rising to the challenge himself. Um. This offense, you know, the guys are gonna drop passes, there's going to be mistakes made, but so much of this is riding on

the quarterback. And I just felt like one positive it was very small, and I get that it was in a two minute type format, so it's not really within the traditional scheme of the offense. But the Packers when they had to turn back to the past against Buffalo after three quarters of running it, They've made some big plays. Romeo Dobbs made some big play, Samari two Ray made some big plays. Now you're going up against Detroit Lions secondary that I'm going to just say it is not

overly talented. They aren't that deep. Ye, they haven't gotten the job done and they haven't been able to take away the football right. The key to victory for me and this one Mike, is being able to penetrate that secondary, get touchdowns and win the turnover battle. That's kind of for me. What it all comes back to. Yeah, on the on the defensive side of the ball, and I'm gonna be writing about this for for my One Last Look column on Saturday, on the defensive side of the

ball as as much as Aaron Rodgers. He was asked the question, Hey, you know, are you guys prepared to go win a shootout? And he says, yeah, we better be. I think it's it's on the Packers defense to not let this game become a shootout. This this is where we we've been talking about it week after week, every single game, there are stretches where this Packers defense plays

really well. But what has happened in this four game losing streak and when I'm outlining in my up in my upcoming column, each of the last four games, there has been a stretch of at least three and in a couple of cases five possessions where the opponent has scored consecutively. You know, five straight possessions against the Giants in London, five straight possessions last week against Buffalo. It was stretches of three consecutive possessions against both the Jets

and the Commanders. This Packers defense, you're not gonna go out there and pitch shutouts. You're not gonna hold everybody to ten or twelve points. That's not how it works in this league. But what this Packers defense has to do is when the other team starts to make some plays, when they start to get something rolling, they've got to

find a way to stop the bleeding. They've got to find a way to undercut that momentum so that the snowball doesn't just get running downhill out of control to where suddenly the other team has put seventeen or twenty or twenty seven points on the board in the span of a quarter and a half or two quarters, and

then the whole team is reeling. Detroit. As we talked about at the top of the show, they have an offense that is capable of getting rolling and putting up some big points on that fast track at Ford Field. This Packers defense, bottom line for me, they cannot let this game become a shootout. They have they have to do their job and not force the Packers offense. As poor as Detroit's defense is, they can't force the Packers offense say hey, you gotta go score thirty five and

win this game. That that's not going to bode well in the big picture for trying to turn this thing

around for Green Bay. I agree, Mike, and and the other thing just to tie into that is I think that's why they amonras st Brown equation gets gets included in this because the one takeaway I had from that week a team game, there wasn't a lot to draw from it, but it did show you that this kid, in terms of a possession receiver, in terms of a guy that's gonna be able to move the first down marker, this kid's gonna get it done and when you mac when you add in a running back, regardless of what

happens with Swift, but somebody like Jamal Williams that's going to run hard for his yards. When Detroit's able to get into that rhythm, much like the Packers, much like a lot of teams, when you're able to start moving those first downs one after another, that's when it does get demoralizing for a defense. That's when it hard sometimes is hard to get that stop in the midst of

a run. I'm in Russ st Brown and how the Packers choose to defend him is going to be very telling because it's not like he's just this typical you know, uh Stefon Diggs. You're worried about a seventy yard touchdown on any given play, but he can hurt you, and he can hurt you in in situations and third and favorables that can really make for a long afternoon. Yeah,

and you look at that week eate team game. I know the Packers ended up, you know, resting guys in the second half and all that, But going back to what we talked about before with Dan Campbell, the Lions were pulling trick plays out of I mean, the Packers have to have to be ready for absolutely anything that Dan Campbell might want to try in this game, whether whether it's from scrimmage, whether it's on special teams, whatever

the case might be. UM this, Dan Campbell is going to pull out all the stops to beat the green Bay Packers and get his team it's it's second win. I think green Bay has to be ready for that. Elsewhere we can nine in the NFL. Just to touch on a couple of games, and one I think that's interesting in the a f C, just partly because the Packers have already played both of these teams. Is Buffalo is at the New York Jets for a big matchup

in the a f C East. And this one stands out to me for the New York Jets because they had gotten themselves to five and two and people were saying, oh, you know Robert Salo that you know turning around the Jets, maybe the Jets are for real. Well then you know they kind of they kind of stunk it up against the Patriots, a division rival. UM took a loss that I think a lot of people with everything going on

with the quarterback situation in New England. People thought, you know, the Jets, they should be able to beat their division rival here. Now they're hosting the Buffalo Bills, the team on top of the division team a lot of people pointing to in the a f C, A is a super Bowl favorite. This is the chance for the Jets.

They're either they're either going to make the statement that they're in this thing and uh and they're a legitimate contender in the a f C. Or they're going to be one of those other, you know, teams in the mix that's maybe scrambled into, you know, to just squeak into the playoffs with the bottom wild card seat. That's how I see this game potentially for the Jet could go either way. Yeah, well, I mean I think what happened is they lost their identity, Breeze Hall got hurt

and now you know, they traded for James Robinson. Certainly Robinson needs some time to pick up the scheme, but that offense is a lot different when Michael Carter's back there as opposed to Hall. You know, Corey Davis I think has had some injuries as well. So uh, you know, Zach Wilson, they believe in him and he's the future for them. But I felt like when he's playing at his best, it's because he's had a running back to kind of play off of and they lost that home

run threat now with Hall. Yeah, another interesting one in the NFC, Rams at Buccaneers and uh, if you had told me, if you had told me at the beginning of the season, that we'd be sitting here with our Thursday Week nine show talking about a matchup in early November between the Rams and Buccaneers and both teams would be below five be wondering what in the world is

going on? Right? But this is uh, this is the type of game that is uh, you know, that's potentially a season save or in some respects for one team or the other. Here. This is an interesting one in the NFC, and the big thing for Todd Bowles he needs to remind his team, Yeah, everything's feeling like the world's against us, but we're like a game and a you know game, half game out from the lead right now in their division. Yeah, their division, the leader is

at four and four. So I mean like, yeah, as much as this has been difficult, as much as they can't run the ball or don't run the ball, um that there's still a huge opportunity here. The Rams are kind of in an abyss right now, Like I'm sort of at a loss for why the Rams have kind of that this thing's gone as it has. We know that they didn't really have much of a run game, you know, since the cam Akers injury. We know it's been kind of hit or miss at times with this offense.

But two to be in this type of stretch in a division that's as competitive as the West is right now, with teams like Seattle coming out of nowhere to be right up there, Um, it's a must win game. I always said him, like, I never felt like there are must win games in November. But the way that these this NFC nor in the NFC West have played out definitely good games to get what I think is probably the game of the week in the NFL. This Philadelphia

and Houston. Let's get going. No, I don't think so, but I'm excited about it because it's on Sunday night football, and with the Packers playing at noon, hopefully we can get the bulk of our work, if not all of our work done um before this game or shortly after this game kicks off. And of course I'm talking about the Sunday night matchup Tennessee at Kansas City with what Derrick Henry is doing, you know, running the football, pounding

the ball for Tennessee. A team that, as we talked about before, Green Bay is going to see them two weeks from tonight, um and then Kansas City playing at home Arrowhead under the lights and everything like that. But a Chiefs team that you know, maybe hasn't quite found itself just yet. And we've seen that before with Kansas

City where they're not there. You know, Andy, Andy Reid has Andy Reid has shown an ability to get that team, to really get that team clicking on all cylinders into December and January to to make the deep playoff runs that they have become accustomed to making. But this is an interesting one for early November Tennessee at Kansas City. In the a f C. In Tennessee is that they are the Minnesota Vikings of the a f C right now. I mean, they are winning the games they need to win.

I have so much respect for Mike Vrabel. That team continues to pull out these games one score games. I mean, they got the breaks beat off them in week two. Uh, you know, by Buffalo, but since then I've really rallied it for the Packers sake. If you're Packers fan, I think you really do need to pull for Kansas City here because after this, Tennessee gets Denver, which has kind of gutted their defense a little bit. Now that that

that could be really tough proposition. If if the Titans are really rolling that much heading into lambeau Field in two weeks, yeah, absolutely well with that, we will call it a wrap on this edition of Packers on Scripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team and all of our coverage of Sunday's game. Packers and Lions in Detroit 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.