Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my partner and crime Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from our studios at lambeau Field and West. Unfortunately, we have another Packers defeat to talk about, the seventh in eight games. This one very different style of game than what we've been used to seeing here with the Green Bay Packers. This one was a shootout at Lincoln
Financial Field on Sunday night. Football. Game was tied at one point in the second quarter, Eagles pulled away. Packers couldn't catch up. Final score for thirty three, and at the end of the day, it was a rough night on defense and a couple of very regrettable mistakes on offense that were the difference in this game. Yeah, and it was funny because, no, obviously you're not sitting here last week thinking three and sixty three rushing our the loud or anything like that. But what was the number
one thing you and I were talking about. It's like this Eagles offense is not going to stay down much longer. They had off performances against Washington and against Indianapolis, and they brought all of it in this game against the Packers. Ultimately, a lot of things you can break down here as to why the Packers lost that game, But for me, it's miss tackles. And Matt Lafleur said it as Monday press conference, twenty miss tackles. That's the most during his
time here as the Packers. He said. He thought it was more than twenty as they were as they were going through, he said Sunday night after the game, the live charts that indicated that the Packers were keeping it indicated fifteen miss tackles, and then after the coaches reviewed the film on Monday, the number climbed above twenties somewhere.
So yeah, yeah, I mean, it's just when you have a quarterback like Jalen Hurts, a legitimate m VP candidate, a guy that is just he's just a he's like a just a battery of energy, Like it's just this this uh energy are bad you know, bunny kind of thing where he is able to take place like I've never seen anybody like this in terms of if it breaks down you get him into the open field, he's like a running back. But if he has time to throw. He has the arm talent to make you pay um
the touchdown pass that he had there. I mean, he is then all around playmaker and for the Packers, if you get a hand on him, you have to get him to the ground. And and Green Bay didn't do enough of that in this game. As you said, a shootout from the very beginning, fourteen to thirteen in the first quarter. I thought this was very interesting. I guess that was the most points scored in an NFL first quarter this season. I would have thought it had been
more than twenty seven. But that's the way it's worked out. And the Packers did some really good things in this game offensively, but defensively. We talked week after week after week about the complimentary football component of this thing, and and defensively, Greenbay just didn't have very many answers for the Eagles. Yeah, the twenty plus miss tacklesbviously really stood out, and you said it in terms of getting a hand
on Jalen Hurts. But that's not enough, and it's not and it's not enough to get one guy to the football, because yes, the Packers can't miss that many tackles, but he's also and not just him, but it was Miles Sanders. It was also the receivers on some short routes and things where they were they were breaking tackles. But defense is all about getting enough guys to the football where if there is a miss tackle, it the play doesn't
rupture into a big game. And the Packers defensively way too often we're leaving it all on one guy to make a tackle in an open field situation, and nobody else was there to help clean it up. So when there was a miss tackle, it wasn't just a couple of extra yards. It was a garden variety play turning into an explosive or a ruptured type of play that was really damaging. Jalen Hurts and Miles Sanders combining for three hundred of the three d sixty three rushing yards.
Philadelphia goes eight for fifteen on third down, also converts a couple of fourth downs when the when the third and long, they got close enough to then be able to convert on fourth down. It was just a really, really rough night for the defense. They had essentially three good possessions defensively. They got a fourth and one stop early in the game on Jalen Hurts, which was which was a key point early for the Packers to stay
in this game. There was a a fumble and a recovery and long return by Kuay Walker that's set up the Packers for some points. And then there was also a three and out in the in in the midst there. But other than those three possessions, the Eagles basically scored every time they had the ball. And then on the final possession of the game, with a minute to go, they ran the ball three times, moved the chains, and
and kneeled out the clock. Um. Just not enough, not enough stops and uh, and just a very frustrating way to lose when the Packers offense which has struggled so much, you know, only getting the seventeen points against Tennessee the week before, not being able to win in Detroit when the Lions only score fifteen points, and not being able to get that victory, to have a season high with thirty three points, and to come up and to come up short. It's just another a different way, uh, a
different way to swallow another tough loss. I guess, for lack of a better phrase, there was three things that I kind of walked away from with this thing, no pun intended for our award winning Packers dot Com show Three Things, but there were three things I walked away from. One. The Packers schedule this year is probably one of the most difficult I think I've seen, uh in my time
on the beat. The way it's worked out, the lay up games, Washington, the New York Jets, Giants, they all ended up being a lot more competitive this year than we imagine. All three of those teams might make the playoffs now when at the beginning of the season, nobody was putting any of those three times, especially now with Mike White at quarterback. No nobody would have said after Thanksgiving that all three of those teams would be above five fighting for a playoff spot. But that's where we are.
There was basically one team that I think has kind of been what everybody thought they were. In no disrespect to him, because we'll talk about them on Thursdays with the Bears, you know, this season, who are still in the midst of a rebuild. So that was my first thing I took away to the disheartening part about this the difficult, most difficult thing to swallow is the Packers were within seven points still of the number one seed right now in the NFC and to be able to
put up thirty three points on that defense. Philadelphia, they do what they do, man, They're not going to deviate from it. They're going to try to apply pressure with their front and they're gonna be able to create opportunities on the back end. That's the way it's predicated. But they were able to move the football, they were able to run the ball against him, but ultimately, you know,
you still fall short in three. The part that makes this difficult to swallow is in a year in which I really truly believe any of the seven teams that make the playoffs in the NFC are going to have a realistic shot at the super Bowl, it's getting to be more and more dire here Green Bay trying to stay in that race. I think it was a two percent or whatever they put it at right now for the Packers playoff chances. When they've had opportunities, they've come
up short. And when I say short, I mean I'm literally talking within a score too. It's just has been they haven't really gotten blown out for the most part this season. But the teams that are able to pull together that are able to, you know, overcome the adversity, are able to, you know, in an imperfect game, find
the most answers. Those are the teams that win, and green Day was so good at that the last few years and this year it's just been a situation where you can't get the Yang and Yang quite too fit. And this was another game it Keishaw Nixon has a phenomenal performance as a kickoff returner. They get a fifty three yard or to midfield late in the game and they go three and out afterwards. It's those type of things that when something goes well, you haven't been able
to build that momentum. Yeah, and it's also it's also been a case of any time a mistake is made, it ends up proving really really costly because you end
up losing these games by such close scores. You mentioned Nixon who had a phenomenal night fifty two yard, fifty three yard, thirty eight yard kickoff return, but what happened on an early kickoff return He flubbed one, then he ended up slipping and falling at the nine yard line, and then what happens there Aaron Rodgers ends up throwing an interception on a ball that gets deflected, Philadelphia has
a short field and they get a touchdown. It all traces back to the fact that that possession started at the nine yard line instead of starting at the twenty five. If you just take the touchback, that kind of thing. And I don't mean to pick on Nixon, because, as I said, he had a great night and he more than made up for his mistake. But my point is that every time this Packers team makes a mistake, it proves absolutely critical and costly to them because they just
don't have the margin for error to overcome. Um those kinds of things. In a game that clearly the Packers defense was struggling, the offense was gonna have to score as much as possible to keep up an opportunity to put points on the board. The Packers are knocking on the door, but Aaron Rodgers throws an interception when he and Tyler Davis, the tight end, are not on the same page. Rogers thinks that Davis is going to stay up the seam, Davis keeps his route flat coming across.
Rodgers after the game said he regretted throwing the ball because they weren't on the same page, but he saw even though he wasn't running the route he was expecting. He decided to give him a chance anyway through it. Anyway, Well, the backup safety blanket ship for the Eagles ends up undercutting the route and picking it off. He's in the game because c. J. Gardner Johnson had gotten injured earlier.
That interception took points off the board for the Packers, and that was another mistake you just you cannot afford in uh in that type of game, the way it was unfolding. As this game ultimately unfolded, Aaron Rodgers leaves with with an injury to his ribs um extremely painful, very uncomfortable. What we heard on Monday is a lot of tests still being done. Nothing definitive yet on the diagnosis. Rogers was feeling better. He would like to keep playing
as long as everything checks out. Okay, very much up in the air at this point as to where that's going to go. Jordan Loves stepped in in the fourth quarter and lead the Packers to two scoring drives. Sixty three yard touchdown pass to Christian Watson on the catch and run, and then uh late in the game, um couple cracks at the end zone there that would have um that would have possibly gotten the Packers within three points, but settled for the field goal to get the game
to the on side kick there at the end. But Jordan loved to possessions and ten points. UM. Very interesting here because he played well in a tough spot, and if with the Packers at four and eight, if they do get mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, They're going to be discussions as to whether Jordan's loves should play out
the rest of the season. This was in a very small sample size, just two possessions, but it was a pretty impressive outing for the young man, showing a heck of a lot of progress from what we saw last year in Kansas City and in Detroit when he played roughly a game and a half. Um. Yeah, I mean the thing about this game was well one, the fact that that first third down conversion for the entire game
for green Bay came on the seven yard out. That that love through to those ard again, that sort of illustrates one of the issues green Bay has had this year. Last year they were good on third downs, they were good in the red zone. Those two areas have just been kind of difficult. But when you look at it from Love's perspective, and he even talked about it afterwards, the confidence that he felt after that to be able to get into a rhythm. You saw it, and I
thought it carried through the rest of the game. The Eagles aren't the type of team that are gonna throw six guys at you every single time. So, I mean they were kind of sitting back a little bit, trying to eat up some o'clock. They a multi score lead. They were not. They they their whole plan was to not get gashed for the big play. But then it happened anyway because because Christian Watson was just too darned fast. And let's also be honest and let's be fair to
Love here. He put that ball exactly where it needed to be for Watson to be able to continue to hit all cylinders, no question. Twenty point nine seven miles per hour or whatever it was that next gen stats had him clocked. At this guy, I keep saying it like, I mean, his speed is prodigious. I mean it is. I have not seen an athlete like this at his size. I mean, he is a monstrous dude that runs like a track star. It's and he didn't even I mean,
this is the thing. I mean, you you mentioned the next gen stat thing where he was clocked at you know, just a shade under twenty one miles per hour. It didn't look like he was running that fast. I mean, it looked like he was running that fast because he was running away from the defenders, but it didn't look like he was even necessarily giving it. And I'm not saying that he wasn't. It just doesn't look like that because it looks so effortless for him. It's it's amazing.
It's amazing how he can get up to that kind of speed and make it look so easy. Well, it reminds me when I was in high school and there was these guys that would always like you could run. Yes, it was a big time for me. I I was gonna go pro like Uncle Rico. Um. But you know, be those guys that that sit there and they rev their trucks and they're they're, you know, really getting the thing going and they're going like six miles an hour.
But then you see some of these like real sports card type things, and those things just zoom and you don't hear anything. Right, that's Watson. It's just and it's just and it's interesting talking to him and seeing him, you know, and how he worked with the media match and Iman and I were interviewing him afterwards while everyone else was talking to Jordan's Love and the guy carries himself like a professional. I'm so excited to see where his career is going to go. I mean, up once
again for the NFL Rookie of the Week honors. I mean this, this guy's if he can stay healthy. You love everything you've seen from him as it relates though to your initial question when you look at Jordan's Love. Last year against Kansas City was a tough spot for him to be thrown into. Rogers gets you know, pops with COVID. So he's thrown in there, and it is the true definition of a spot, start right, It's and it's a it's a it's a defense that through the
kitchen sink at him. He struggled against it. Detroit Week eighteen was just a total mess, you know, and everything and how they approached it. What I liked about this is he stood tall in the pocket. He was decisive, and you want to talk about a guy that looked like he knew what he was doing. After three years now almost in this scheme. It was very impressive to see Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback. Everybody's saying it. Matt
Lufloor said it on Monday. If he's healthy, if he's cleared with this rib injury, he will play against Chicago. But when you look at Jordan's love and you're looking for markers of his improvement, I thought this game is hundred forty six passer rating. It showed you not only his potential, but how he was seamlessly able to sort of integrate himself in with this offense. This is a guy that's had a lot of snaps and practice Mike with Christian Watson, with that first team offensive line when
Rogers hasn't been able to go. You can tell the difference there in the comfort level when he was out there this year. Yeah, and it was interesting too because Matt Lafleur actually talked about what what might have been Jordan loves. The most impressive throw of the nine pass attempts that he had in the game was actually one of the three incompletions where he's trying to hit Aaron Jones on. Some people call it a whole shot, others
call it honey hole. What that is a reference to is a sideline route where the intended receiver in this case it's a running back in Aaron Jones is in between a short corner in a deep safety and uh Um.
In order to fit that pass in there, you've got to fire it because if you if if you put any kind of touch or loft on it, it's going to hang in the air for too long and one of the defenders is going to get there in time, or receiver is gonna get lit up right exactly, You're gonna leave your receiver hanging out to dry and he's gonna get clawbered if he's trying to catch it while
keeping his feet in bound. And Jordan's Loves saw the opportunity for the whole shot against Aaron Jones down the sideline and he let it rip um and Jones wasn't able to catch it. Um. I'm sure he would say he would love to have that one back. He made a great catch in the back of the end zone on an Aaron Rodgers scrambled drill earlier in the game
that got the Packers a big touchdown. But that that throw from Jordan's Love right there shows you something about about the progress, the confidence, everything about the footwork and the timing and all of that. UM, so very interested to see what happens here with with the Packers at quarterback moving forward. UM. Aaron Rodgers has said obviously, if he's cleared and the Packers still have a chance, he
would like to be he would like to keep playing. UM. Realistically, the Packers are one loss away from really they're not being any more math on their side. Whatsoever, you get to nine losses that the best you can finishes eight and nine. The way things look in the NFC right now, it looks like nine and eight, well maybe get one of the final playoff spots. And there's even no guarantee of that at this point, depending on how on how things shake out. So maybe we're going to see more
of Jordan's love moving forward. UM. Hopefully whoever it is at quarterback for the Packers this week against the Bears, Rogers or Love, hopefully the Packers can get a win and avoid that ninth loss at least for a little while longer. And then you and then you see what happens. UM. I want to get to and you mentioned on our next show, we'll talk about the Chicago Bears. I want to get to what was really a very wild week of football in the NFL in Week twelve. After a
little bit of sponsored business. Here serious x M NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news that true football f x seven, three, six five, 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. Cousins Subs fifty years of better Um Week twelve in the NFL West, eleven games decided by
one score or less. Obviously, you know, eight points or less. Eleven games in one week. We're talking about two overtime games where Cleveland beats Tampa Bay and the Raiders beat the Seahawks on the road on an eighty six yard touchdown run in overtime, one of the longest, maybe the longest walk off touchdown in the history of the league. I don't know. You have two other games that come down to coaches deciding down by one to go for two in the last fifteen seconds of the fourth quarter
rather than kick and play for overtime. They go for two. Both the Chargers and the Jaguars get the two point conversions and they win those games. And the game with uh with Jacksonville against Baltimore ends up coming down to a sixty seven yard field goal attempted by Justin Tucker um the Washington Commanders, who have now won six of
their last seven. They end up winning a close one at home against the Atlanta Falcons um when a ball is tipped and intercepted at the goal line in the last minute, a minute and a half or two minutes or whatever was left on the clock. Just another I mean, game after game in this league, week after week, these games, so many of them are so close. You have to fight,
you have to find a way to win. And at the end of the day, the teams that find a way most often are the ones that still get to play late into January and everybody else, everybody else is licking their wounds, so to speak. But this past week, Week twelve in the NFL was absolutely the epitome of what this league is about and how any game at any moment can just turn on a dime. And let's not even talk about Sunday too. Look at Thursday, Yeah, I mean, and I am including the Thursday games, in
the eleven games decided by one score. That's looking at the entire week in general, including the Thanksgiving games. But but Thursday night is I'm in my Turkey coma. You know, I get done watching the Cowboys in Giants, which ends up going right down to the wire. Then I'm watching, you know, the Vikings and Patriots, who, out of all the variables that you never see happening with a matchup,
Bill Belichick's team losing because of special teams. Yeah, to to major, major blunders on special teams by a Bill Belichick team that costs his team what would be what what would have been a huge victory in that a f C East race for New England. And then Josh Allen comes back, you know, just absolutely rips the heart out of the Detroit Lions. I mean, just unbelievable, you know. And again this is what Premium Pro Bowl, all pro type talent, that's what they do. You know, they make
craziness happen. And I'm sitting there then on Sunday in my hotel him waiting for us to get you know, to go to the game, and you're seeing Trevor Lawrence throw some of the hardest balls that I've ever seen. I mean, I mean it is incredible. The passes he was throwing in the decisive nous, and and he he had to drive, he had to drive the Jaguars. I want to say it was close to ninety yards for
that final touchdown, and he is throwing rockets, darts. I mean, like I felt bad for his receiver's hands by the time, and the and the and the two point conversion was was a two yard missile to the pylon. I mean, it was like he just he just was not he was not holding back. That was that was impressive. And you know, as you talked about watching these teams, you know, Doug Doug Peterson, all right, we got the touchdown, We're going for the win. We're not playing for this overtime business.
And Brandon Staley for the Chargers did the same thing. Another guy that that the decision doesn't surprise you based on the track record, Right, That's that's the kind that's the way these guys the teams. And the tragic thing again for Green Bay is four and seven Raiders knocking off the Seahawks. So now the forty niners are actually the top seed right now in the NFC West, and Seattle is kind of you know outside looking in now
again you had, um, the Buccaneers lost again. There's just things actually tilted pretty well towards Green Bay's favor in terms of these matchups, and you weren't able to capitalize on it. So it is what it is. But in terms of the entertainment side of this thing, certainly was a very interesting weekend of football, going all the way from Thursday into well, realistically even Monday night, you know, with the you know, the shannigans at the end of
that game between the Steelers and Colts, right right. I mean, here one other thing I want to touch on before we go, because this is not a team that we have talked about much. They're not on the Packers schedule, um and uh, you know, we haven't talked about him since last January when they came into lambeau Field and knocked the Packers off in the playoffs. And of course I'm talking about the San Francisco forty Niners. And I take nothing away from the phil helf Eagles. They are
ten and one. They look like they are really tough to beat. The Minnesota Vikings bounced back on a short week from getting shellacked by the Cowboys, posted a big home win over the New England Patriots on Thanksgiving Night. The Vikings have just two losses on the year. They look like they are headed, um, you know, to the playoffs and and will be a threat to make a deep playoff run. But I'm telling you for my money right now, the most dangerous team in the NFC is
the San Francisco forty Niners. That team, and and and it's not just because they added Christian McCaffrey to that offense, and and and I and because I do think he has changed their offense. And there may not be a better trio of offensive weapons in the league than McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle when all three of those guys are healthy and playing. But the San Francisco forty Niners defensively west They have not given up a point
in the second half of four straight games. Four consecutive second half shutouts on defense. I mean, that's like unheard of they have. They gave up before Halloween. They gave up thirty points in the second half to the Kansas City Chiefs when they lost kind of a shootout game to Patrick Mahomes, and since that game prior to Halloween, they have not given up a point in the second
half of a football game that that team. That team is absolutely scary right now in my opinion, even though record wise they're not getting the attention that the Eagles and the Vikings are getting. San Francisco is the team I absolutely would not want to play, right if you want to play, if if you don't want to play, but if you're going to play San Francisco, make sure you get him in September October, kid, because the way that Kyle Shanahan gets that team trending in November, December
and into January, they're always building momentum and too. I mean, Damico Ryan's has to be a guy that is going to be a legitimate top tier head coaching candidate. Question and when that happens, I'm really gonna feel bad about myself because now I officially I'm starting to year old that Damiko Ryan's is going to be a head coach of the National Football League. Defensive coordinator I can take that, but if he has, it's like, man, it is that
now you're starting. Now you're starting to get there right. You know, Graham Harrold ends up becoming a head coach here at some point. That's what makes you feel old, you know, in the National Football League or in college football. But um be that as it may. The Forts just find ways to win football games. And to hold the Saints and check the way they did, to hold Alvin Kamara, and check the way they did again. It's another one of these football teams you just do not want to face.
And how about this, Mike, we can close on this. Maybe the NFC West, everybody just anticipated, Okay, how many playoff teams are coming out of there this year. Seahawks. Maybe they'll be the ones that will be in the back there, Gino Smith or Drew Lock. Nobody's looking at them. Three playoff teams maybe if you're asking people. In Week one NFCC East, okay, maybe Philadelphia challenges Dallas. But otherwise it's just when you actually play these games, it's just
you have to do it out on the grass. Well, and and what and what everybody was saying along those same lines about the a f C West and the court quarterbacks, the quarterbacks in that division. Now there's still a lot to play out and obviously the Raiders now have won back to back overtime games, and maybe they're gonna make a late season run like they did last year and get themselves into the picture. The Chargers, I think, could still be very dangerous. That the Chiefs of the Chiefs,
the Broncos have have really struggled. But everybody thought, you know, the a f C West with those four quarterbacks was going to be the dominant division in football, and it hasn't turned It hasn't turned out that way. So as you say, you have to play the games and see, uh, and see what happens, and it's gonna be it's gonna be really fun to see how all of this unfolds
in the playoff picture and everything down the stretch. It's uh, it's not going to be fun for the Packers not to be a part of it if if they can't you know, put together uh, you know, crazy winning streak here down stretch. How many wins will it take? We're gonna drop this down justin our producer right now because Marvin is on holiday. Um, how many wins will it take for the NFC South? How many wins to win the division? Oh? I mean I think nine and eight.
I think nine and eight could win that. And when i'm you think you think you think a sub five division champion out of the a f of the NFC South, I just I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I would It wouldn't shock me. I just loved it. If you're asking me for what I think, I think it'll be. I think it'll be nine and eight. But the Saints get smacked and there's still like a game and a half of
the leader right now on that division. Yeah, that's the that's the division to be in if you want to be clinging to u to realistic playoff hopes when when things haven't gone your way and we'll see how We'll see what happens there. Yeah, that was I mean, for the for the Buccaneers to lose in overtime at Cleveland, that was a that was a game they were chalking up as a victory for sure to try to take command of things. Didn't work out that way, and now
Tampa Bay is fighting an uphill climb as well. So with that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. You sure to follow all of our coverage of the team. We've got 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.