#691 Packers Unscripted: Back from the bye

whole Christmas shopping family time. And uh. I also got even had a chance to take in a Green Bay women's basketball game on Saturday, so being able to get old ground campus first time I think I've been on campus in like ten years. But no, it was it was a good It was a fun time. I hope your your weekend was good as well. And tell you what, man, it took so long to get to this bye week.

I mean, if you think about it, yes, there was that bye week at the end of training camp, but I mean it's been a four and a half month gauntlet if you go back to the beginning of training camp. So I can only imagine how these guys felt finally get a chance to arrest their bodies. We are shooting this before practice on Monday, so we'll just by Tuesday, so we'll see what the injury report looks like and

who's available for them. But you would hope, based on everything Matt Lafloor said last week, this should be on paper the healthiest Green Bay's probably been all season coming out of this. Yeah, as you can probably tell, my voice has not one and recovered from the illness that I've been dealing with for quite a while. But I feel better than I sound, So the weekend off was good. I think you just sound tougher like. It's like like like a biker now mcgrawl a mcgrawler um. But but healthwise,

you're right. The Packers hopefully are headed into this stretch run here where let's face it, their backs are against the wall, right and even even if the Packers are able to put together winning streak can win out. There no guarantees as to where things are going to go with the playoff seating. But that being said, the opponent

next up Monday night football. It will be at lambeau Field the Los Angeles Rams and Lo and behold, look who the quarterback is it's Baker Mayfield, and it will be almost a calendar year to the day, fifty one weeks really rather than fifty two that the Packers are going to see Baker Mayfield again. He was the quarterback

on Christmas for the Cleveland Browns last year. Now he has taken over the offense for the Los Angeles Rams, getting claimed off waivers last week Tuesday, and then he was leading a two touchdown comeback in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter on Thursday Night Football, just

two days after he arrived at the Rams facility. It was a remarkable win that the Rams pulled off last week, and Baker Mayfield has injected some energy into a defending Super Bowl champion that has not had the season it wanted. No And as I said on our Insider Inbox on Tuesday, I'm like, hey, they're still playing with the purpose even

though the Rams season, by all intensive purposes is over. Um, did you see that stat about how up until last week, I think there's only three times in NFL history or something like that that a team had come back from thirteen plus points in the last five minutes of the game or whatever. And then it happened twice last week, twice in a week on Monday Night Football with Tom Brady and the Buccaneers, and then on on Thursday Night Football. Here's the other stat I saw though that kind of

blew me away. There have been eight times this season that a team has been leading a game at halftime by double digits and lost, and four of the eight have been the Raiders. Four of the eight have been the Raiders. And you know that that's that's a team. I mean, this the season, the season the Raiders have had, obviously, the fourth being the Baker Mayfield come back last Thursday night when um, the I mean the Rams sort of looked like they'd be left for dead at sixteen to three,

and uh and Baker Mayfield pulls pulls it out of fire. Here. I'm gonna put you on the spot here. Do you know the last time the Packers face the same quarterback, the same opposing starting quarterback in back to back years

but with different teams. Nope, it's actually more recent than that, and I don't know if Kyle Orton was Orton might have been back to It's actually in the Matt Lafleur era, which I didn't realize until I got some assistance from Tom Fanning in the communications to part No Philip Rivers Philip Rivers the Chargers in nineteen and then the Indianapolis Colts in so um so it actually happened fairly recently.

But um this situation being a little bit different though, because Mayfield just joined the Rams and the Packers have a lot of familiarity with the Ram scheme and Sean McVeigh they played them a few times um here in the Mattle Floor era. But it's a matter of figuring out what does Baker Mayfield do well in this scheme? And I think it's it's it's a difficult it's a difficult preparation sequence here for Green Bay to get ready

for this. And if I can, my going back to that game between the Raiders and the Rams, because a lot of people ask that same question this week to you and I about Okay, well, what do the Packers have to do? What? What? What? What is you know seeing this magic that Mayfield created at the end of that game. Well, there's a couple of things that played

into that. Vegas lost that game in every way you could lose the question, chief among them being you know how poorly you know, David Carr kind of played throughout

Derek Cark, excuse me, played throughout that game. Freudian slipped there, you know, the turnovers, the inability to get the offense going, because the thing about l A is, you know they're hurting everywhere, but def pensively they still have a very formidable defense, and offensively, there was enough that the Raiders left that door open enough that Mayfield was able to charge that door right in. And I think we've well established this year, outside of maybe Max Crosby, you know,

the Raiders defense has been largely a disappointment. Well, okay, so you break it down like this, where you're in a game like that, you have absolutely nothing to lose, and as much as Baker Mayfield is walking in through the back door, almost like a Fantasy football plug in play, the Los Angeles Raiders weren't preparing for that either, And

I thought that shine through to that end. I think that's for Green Bay and again we'll we'll probably get more into the breaking down the excess and os in a couple of days, but Green Bay is going to have a week and half to prepare here and meshing Baker mayfiel skill set with this vast knowledge they have of Sean McVeigh scheme offensively defensively, the type of system

he runs. They've played McVeigh a lot, so marrying up those two concepts I think is going to be critical, But it's going to ultimately come down to winning the turnover battle and not allowing a team to finish the way that the Raiders allowed the Rams to finish in that game. Yeah, well, you mentioned you mentioned the Rams defense and we will see as the week goes on what the status will be with Aaron Donald in the middle of that Rams defense because that unit is still

playing awfully well. But Donald has been in and out of the lineup, has has missed some games, So that will definitely be a storyline to watch this week. And you brought up the turnover battle. Hey, last year when Baker Mayfield came into lambeau Field, he through four interceptions Rousseul Douglas had to including the clincher at the end of the game. Donald Savage had one chance and Sullivan had one. Four interceptions on Christmas at lambeau last year

from Baker Mayfield um two win for the Packers. Yeah, ended up ended up being a one A one score game. I mean Douglas. Douglas is interception at the end, I mean the Mayfield. Mayfield, despite having thrown three interceptions to that point, was trying to drive the Browns for a game winning score there late in the fourth quarter. So, um, you absolutely right that that the Packers have to Uh, the Packers have to win that category. I'll be curious to see when we here. We'll hear later this week

from Aaron Rodgers. He talked about after the victory over the Bears, um that the extra time off, he's hoping that you know, his thumb will be back to a hundred percent or very close to it, that his ribs will be back to a hundred percent or very close to it. Um. So, and then as we've talked about the the emergence of Christian Watson, what he's meant to the offense, the Packers hopefully can get Romeo Dobbs back and get those two those two rookie wide receivers on

the field. We've seen We've seen this Green Bay offense making some incremental steps, some improvement, even even in defeat in Philadelphia. We talked about, um, where where this offense appeared to be trending, and uh, you know, I'm very curious if the Packers can get Watson and Dobbs on

the field together and a healthier Aaron Rodgers. Don't know what the situation will be at left tackle, but it also you know, anytime this time off helps your running backs to these you know, Aaron Johns, a J. Dillon. With the beatings that they've taken, I'm very interested to see just what this Green Bay offense can look like now as it hits the stretch run. This has been a disappointing season for the Packers, and I understand when you say that the d were there, people automatically go

there five and eight. That's not why. To me, it's disappointing. It's disappointing for the way in which the Philadelphia Eagles ran the New York Giants out of their own stadium this past weekend. It's disappointing in that you see, you know, teams that I think the Packers can play with. I think teams that the Packers can beat. They're gonna be the ones, you know, probably feeling more comfortable in this playoff race than Green Bay because they fell behind the

eight ball a little bit. The Packers have been able to play with all these teams, they just haven't won enough of those games. And there's a fine line between all that. Now where I look at this matchup with the Rams, because people are going to talk about playoffs scenarios, and I know there's a lot of stories out there right now talking about, Okay, this is the way they can do it. It might be unlikely in problem, but this is how they do it. You can't worry about

any of that. The Packers have to worry about beating l A on Monday. Fortunately for them this weekend, with the exception of their favorite NFC Division team, the Minnesota Vikings, the Packers did get a lot of help throughout these games. The Giants lost again. Shoot, the Houston Texans almost upset the Dallas Cowboys. You know, Carolina about any given Sunday, right, Yes, Carolina took your care of business in Seattle venue that at one time the Seahawks could never lose in. So

they got the help they need. But in order to help themselves, Green Bay has to get that train moving on Monday night. Yeah. Absolutely, I want to take care a little bit of sponsor business here. West serious x M NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute in NFL news that true football fanatics need twenty four 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. Cousin Subs fifty years of better. All right, we will have another show this week and we will get into a little bit more about the Rams and the Packers Keys to Victory and all that one thing that we don't get enough time on this show to talk about on a regular basis, and that's mostly my fault since I sort of steer the ship, but I think this is a good opportunity to do so. I'm talking about some of the off the field things and we we really

need to give a shout out to Aaron Jones. He is the Packers nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award for the second consecutive year, which doesn't happen very often, and and he has now uh, he has now reached the finalist stage for the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award. Every team nominates Boddy for that award, and then the thirty two nominees has whittled down to a list of eight finalists, and then a winner will be chosen from that list of eight. And Aaron Jones, who

has been in the running for that award before. If I'm not mistake, don't believe he was a finalist, but he was one. He was, He was one of the thirty two. Now he's a finalist in the final eight. He can't say enough about the man that Aaron Jones is. Aside from the touchdowns and the statistics and the highlights and everything that he creates, Aaron Jones is everything that it means to be a Green Bay Packer, and Packers

fans should be mighty proud of it. Well, and Aaron whenever, you know, and hopefully plays another ten years, but whenever that day, I mean, the guy is going to be a beloved figure um for decades to come after. The type of guy that you can imagine is going to come back for alumni weekends and you know, for community outreach events. I mean what him and his twin brother Elvin have done creating their own foundation. Yeah, I've said this,

Mike An inbox. And I know I've reiterated on these shows before, but it's great when professional athletes get out in the community, do charitable work, use their platform for the greater good. But what I appreciate the most about Aaron Jones is he isn't necessarily doing it for the photos, the photo ops. He's not doing it to look good.

He's not doing it because he's supposed to. He's a guy that the idea of service was ingrained in him at a young age, and he wants to do that because he remembers being on the other side of it, remembers being in El Paso, Texas, when there weren't necessarily NFL you know, camps for kids, you know, with with pro athletes involved with them. You know, he he came up in one of the hardest ways possible. A great family system around it, but I mean moving around the

country a lot, you know, military family. It's you know, being under the radar in Texas. To to see him be able to to move the needle the way he has and in the way in which you can tell, you know, as as tragic as it us where he lost his father last year, that it had just empowered him even more with those ideals of making sure that you're connecting with your community and doing good work. Um, it's really touching and heartwarming. Packers have had some really

tremendous athletes come through here. You know. Aaron Rodgers himself in two thousand fourteen was a finalist for the Walter Payton Man of the Year And that finalist list is only three and Aaron, Aaron Rodgers came. Aaron Rodgers was in that final three back. So you know, it's it's gonna be difficult. It's always difficult. It's like the World Cup, right, you know, there's only only three at the end of

this thing. But I really hope Aaron you know, he plays a position that gets a little bit more notoriety. He's a household name in a lot of ways, especially in the fantasy football realm. It would be great to see people really hear his message. Hopefully you and I can do our best to amplify that in our video department over the next month, because it's not just about him getting that recognitions, about what that recognition represents in

the charitable stuff that goes along with it. Shoot, you can retweet his stuff on Twitter with his with his hashtag. I wish I remember that off the top of my head, but you know that can win him twenty five dollars for his for his charities and his outreach stuff. So it's a great thing that the NFL does, and there is a reason why the NFL Honors ceremony. The last award that has announced is the Walter Payton Man of the Year. It is the pre pre eminent honor you

can receive in this league. Andrew Witworth getting it last year deservingly so, so it'll be really fun and engaging to see what these next few weeks and month hold for for Aaron in that regard. Yeah, and if you want to get a sense of what some other players on the team are about in the community, there's series

of videos on packers dot com. We're in the my Cause, My cleats time of year in the NFL and UH a handful of players, including Matt Lafleur, head coach Matt Lafleur, their videos on our website with them describing their causes and you get to see kind of the pictures of the shoes and and UH and stuff like that. So some some really good visuals and and some good views there with some other off the field stuff as well.

Back on the field, I want to talk about some of the results from this past weekend, and you hinted at a few of them. But even aside from the quote unquote impact on on the Packers, on the Packers playoff chase um, the Detroit Lions knocked off the NFC North leading and one win away from clinching the division Minnesota Vikings. So the Lions, the Lions are keeping themselves right in the thick of the playoff rights. I think this is really interesting with Detroit because this is what

I mentioned in Insider inbox on Monday. They had a big, meaningful December home game for the first time probably since the final game of the regular season when the Packers were there, with a lot of playoff implications for both squads. First home, meaningful December football game in a long time. Now they they're there home, are brought it they wanted. They knocked off the team that is that is leading

the NFC North. Now the Lions have to go out on the road the next two weeks for these meaningful December football games against the New York Jets this coming week, which is another team that's right in the in the thick of the wild card chase in the a f C.

This will be really really interesting to see. And we know that the Detroit Lions are coming to lambeau Field in week eighteen, but the Lions, the Lions have some more games to win here to keep themselves in the hunt and uh, and it'll be uh, it'll be fascinating to see if Dan Campbell squad is up to the tag. This is the team that I think I was anticipating when you and I did all these offseason you know,

previews and like that. I actually, I think I might even said on one of these unscripteds they seem to me like a nine and eight, eight and nine team, But they're the type of team that nobody's gonna want to play. Yeah, and offensively, that offensive line, you know, you look at this past weekend. It finally was on Jared Goff's arm to win that football game and he did it. Um. Defensively, they've gotten better UM Minnesota for all intensive purposes, and I don't mean to be disrespectful

to them, but they're a mess right now. Defensively, what is it four or five games in a row with five five games in a row. Minnesota's defense has allowed four hundred plus yards, which is a first in franchise history. Yeah, no, they're not. Even Dennis Green was was having any of that. The Vikings now they've you know, they're still games left to play. The playoffs are the playoffs are still more than a month away at this point. So so there's always there's always time to shore things up, to get

things turned back in the right direction. But right now, Minnesota's defense is a problem. They're not stopping anybody. The Detroit Lions. Other than the fake punt, the Detroit Lions did not do anything tricky or fancy any respect. They just moved the ball up and down the field against Minnesota, and that has to have the Vikings concerned. And the you know, much maligned Detroit defense that we heard about when the Packers played them, held Delvin Cook to fifteen

carries for twenty three yards in that match. They shut out they shut down the run, and that was the biggest reason. That was the biggest reason the Packers couldn't do anything at Ford Field is because they couldn't get the running game going and uh and the passing game was was just out of sync for a number of reasons. For as much as people want a dog on Kirk Cousins in Minnesota, the best thing that the Vikings happened for them right now is Cousins and Justin Jefferson. Those

guys are playing some fantastic football. That's the reason this. You know, they got to where they got in this game. You know, I'm Vikings are up for a gut check. Man. It is fascinating, Mike. We talked about it about, you know, the Lions being favored going into this game, and Detroit

proved it again. Man. Fortunately for the Packers that game is at lambeau Field, because I tell you what, there are no teams right now in the National Football League that I think I have any interest in playing the Lions at Ford Field. It's really interesting how this season has played out because it was a it was the win over the Packers that seemed to jump start the Detroit Lions. Might say, job, you don't know it was

in a lot of respects. It was the win over the Packers that jump started the Washington Commanders and Taylor Heineke and getting that team, uh, you know in the wild card chase, which is another another squad that you know, Packers fans are monitoring their progress. But well, he's not taking the starting job back from Taylor Heineke. But but

he's back, um. And we'd be remiss, of course, if we didn't mention what was going on in the nf both the NFC West and the NFC South, the NFC West being, of course, Brock Purdy, the last pick in the NFL draft. I hate the title of Mr. Irrelevant, because I think that's incredibly insulting, especially two players who make great careers of themselves without being drafted at all. You know, but regardless, the last pick in the NFL draft wins a blowout against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and

Tom Brady. Now, the Buccaneers are still in first place in the NFC South. But I gotta hand it to you because you would asked me a week or two or so ago on this show whether the winner of the NFC South would have a winning record, and it certainly looks like you're going to be correct in that that division champion will be below five hundred. I still thought, I thought there's still time. The Buccaneers could still finish nine and eight. There are other teams in that division.

That could still finish nine and eight as well. But I'm cheering for the Panthers. Hey man, I mean you mentioned they went into Seattle and actually pretty much controlled that game, start to finish and uh and you know, they trade their best offensive player, Christian McCaffrey, to the San Francisco Fortia. They change, but they they and they change coaches in the middle of the season there. They've been trying to figure out what to do a quarterback

all season. Log Baker Mayfield was there. He's now in l a quarterback in the Rams. But but hats off to Steve Wilkes as the as the interim head coach there. He got a one and done shot with the with the Arizona Cardinals that didn't work out. They he was fired after one season. Now he's the interim coach in Carolina, a team that looked like it was going absolutely nowhere. They've now won four games. I believe Wilkes is four and four, four and four in his eight games as

the as as the interim coach for the Panthers. And because the NFC South is is such a struggle for all those teams, the Panthers are going to have a shot to win that division. And if you're the Seattle Seahawks, Kenneth Walker cannot get healthy fast enough. Oh my goodness, if there was ever a reiteration of how important he's been to them this season, and they and they have the short week playing Fatusday night this week against San Francisco.

Who's hoping to get Brock Purdy back from taking a few shots shots to the to the ribs in that game against today Let's go Niners, Let's go pop up Purty, all right, But if I can just really quickly what I love about Carolina in addition to the fact of everything you said about Steve Steve Wilkes there, it is the ultimate reminder that if you just have a team that just wants to play together. You said they traded away Christian McCaffrey. Absolutely, they trade away all these studs. Dude,

they their backfield. Yes, was Dante Foreman in Hubbard, Like, this is not a name team now at this point, but it's guys that are looking to win. Sam Donald through for twenty yards of this game. I mean again, it's just it's pulling together and playing good football. And you can win in this league by playing good football, especially you know, against a team that had was missing

probably their best player. Yeah, I mean, it's it's a it's fascinating what's going on in the NFC South because because right now, I mean, I just u in working

on Insider Inbox for tomorrow. I just answered a question from a reader who brought up that without Tom Brady making that two touchdown comeback in the last five minutes to beat the Saints on Monday Night Football last week, there would be a four way tie, like everybody in the NFC South would be five and eight right now if not for that crazy comeback by Brady on Monday at football. Um, it's it's amazing what's going on in

that division. One of those teams is going to win that division and not only get in the playoffs, but get to host a game, most likely hosting they would be the four seed and most likely hosting the Dallas Cowboys, who will probably have the best record of all the wild card teams. Then will therefore be the be the fifth seed. But um, but yeah, kind of just amazing how these seasons can evolve. You just never know. And

you mentioned it yourself. The the the Houston Texans going into Jerry's world and almost knocking off the Dallas Cowboys. There was and I'm not a gambler, and gambling's illegal at Bushwood as we all know, but in Las Vegas that was the largest point spread on any game on the NFL slate this entire season so far, and the Dallas Cowboys needed a tough down in the final minute

to avoid getting upset. You absolutely just never know. And I think that's, uh, that's where we where we leave this off heading into these final four games for the pack I mean in Houston. Really, the thing that is mind bogging about that they really haven't been blown out by anybody. They haven't had a forty two three type loss this season. They've played a lot of teams stuff, they just haven't won. You just can't get the wins.

But dude, it goes back again to show you the Dallas Cowboys are the perfect embodiment of the way that this league can fluctuate in a week to week basis. And it's why for the Green Bay Packers, you have four more opportunities to try having a winning record, to try making this playoff push. There's the only time will tell if they can do it. But I'll say this Mike for the guy here in this seat that was really ripping the number seven seeds here in the A F C N N. I was, I was, I was right.

I was right there with you. I was right there. You play the game with the pieces that are on the board, right. We don't make the rules, We just follow them, playing about the occasionally. All Right, with that, we will call it a wrap on this edition of Packers in Scripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team, all kinds of content for you on packers dot com. For Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in. Everybody. We'll see you next time.