#695 Packers Unscripted: Chances climbing

start by saying this. When we were sitting in these seats last week, analyzing and previewing this game from all different angles, if you had told me, Mike, the Dolphins are going to have twenty points at halftime and the Packers are going to score only two touchdowns all day, what do you think of green based chances here? That's

how this game unfolded. And yet the Hackers pulled out a victory with a tremendous defensive turnaround, a second half shutout, three interceptions in the fourth quarter, and the offense converting um a couple of those into field goals that broke a twenty to twenty tie, and the Packers hang on for a victory that has changed the playoff fortunes significantly of both teams here, both Green Bay and Miami. Yeah Miami and now four straight losses for them at all

competitive games. But it just shows you the narrow margin of victory right for the Green Bay Packers. It was funny one of our insider inbox writers readers actually wrote into us saying, you know, your keys, the victory couldn't really have been more wrong, and and how you guys laid this out? You know, yeah, we pretty much missed the dartboard with the with those last week containing Jalen

Waddle and Tyreek Hille. The Packers obviously did a much better job that the second half, but the first half, both of those guys were going off like gangbusters with some coverage breakdowns. I look at this game, Mike, as there was a tipping point. It was Jared Reid's takeaway. It was him generating that force fumble in concert with

Devandre Campbell. Then read actually recovers it himself that allowed the Packers weren't able to generate a lot of points off of their takeaways, but they did get three pivotal field goals. The first one was at forty six yard by Mason Crosby for before halftime. Then the Packers come back after the break and actually are able to go down the field made some of their biggest plays in the afternoon. The third and nine pass to Patrick Taylor.

Mercedes Lewis makes one maybe arguably his best grab as a member of the green Bay Packers, that thirty one yard ball down the sideline over Eric Row and then it gets culminated with that that touchdown run by A. J. Dillon that tied the game up for Green Bay, and they really took it from there. And as you said, Mike, you tip your cap to the defense. They took it on the chin in the first half. They made some adjustments.

Jerry Gray had a few choice words for his secondary and they came out shut them out in the second half and finished with three consecutive interceptions. I know that the storyline this week afterwards we found out, you know two was actually in the concussion protocol. You hope for the best for him, yeah, no question, you know, in his long term health. But the green Bay Packers need to do what they needed to do to win that game, and they did it. Yeah. Oh, to be a fly

on the wall for that. What must have been a rather impassioned halftime talk from from Jerry Gray with his with his defensive backs. The way chances are it was very similar to when I don't do the subject verb agreement correctly. Spot needs to pull me over. Hey, we've talked about this, Wes No. I mean he got his guys going. Yeah he did. He got he got his

guys going. They clamped down. I mean, the the what were the yardage first half was like to seventy one and second half was was one oh five and and and it really was. It was cutting down. It was

cutting down on the explosives. Um. The long touchdown to Jail and Waddle early in the game was exactly what you feared from this team, and then the one to Tyree killed out on the one yard line again exactly what you fear when you when you play a team like this as far as those explosive players are concerned.

The Packers caught one huge break in the second half when Jalen Waddle had had had caught one of those in breakers, slants, crossers, whatever you wanna call it, taking it all the way down into the red zone, but then was called for illegal formation because he lined up off of the offensive line. The right tackle was not covered up, so the Packers caught a break there, and then on the very next play, Deveandre Campbell gets his interception, the second of the of the three interceptions in the

fourth quarter. And I guess that's what I was gonna say where I don't disagree with you with regard to the jarn Reid fumble and recovery late in the first half being a turning point, because the score is twenty to ten at that point. The Dolphins are at midfield late in the first half, they're looking like they're going to get a field goal minimum to go up twenty three to ten, maybe a touchdown to go up twenty seven to ten, and then you are playing uphill big

time in the second half. But I thought that this this was the kind of game where where they were just multiple turning points, where the game kept swinging back and forth. Because the game is tied twenty to twenty. Aaron Rodgers tries a deep shot to Alan Lazard in the end zone. Apparently, when it's less than fifty degrees on Christmas Day in Miami, there's no such thing as pass interference. Because Alan Lazard gets knocked away from the ball and it gets picked off. And but the very

next play I hear Alexander gets the interception. You know, I mean another turning point there, and I just mentioned the illegal formation on Jalen Waddle and then Deveandre Campbell gets an interception right after that. The Dolphins go from thinking they've got first down, maybe first goal in the ten, whatever's going to be too Suddenly the Packers have the ball and are going the other way with a lead

and only six minutes on the clock. And uhum, and you know the Dolphins are looking at trying to get that stop and get the ball back, which they do. Rasul Douglas gets the third interception and um um, and the Packers leave Miami with with a huge victory. Just um. A game that swung back and forth so many times, felt like there were so many turning points. But the you know, sort of the epitome in some ways of this Packers season where you know, even when the Packers

lost in Buffalo, they didn't quit in that game. When they lost at Philadelphia. You know, teams that are you know you're playing those teams on the road. You know they're going to the playoffs. And and all that. Packers didn't quit in the game in Philly either, and they got that to a one score game late when a

lot of stuff was going against him. The Packers haven't quit on their season at four and eight, when they were flying back from Philadelphia a month ago, would have been easy to quit on the season at that point. They haven't quit on the season there seven and eight now with a three game winning streak, they're very much alive with two home games here coming up. Um the For as much as there's been the inconsistencies, the up and downs and everything, the defining characteristic of the tooth

Packers as they do not quit. They don't. And I also look at this game to Mike to touch on one more thing with the jar and Reid fumble that play after that, really the Dolphins got away from Raheem Mostard. And when you think about playmakers, guys that could potentially hurt you, what's the number one way to take them out of a game generate turnovers? Not only did most Are really not touch the ball much after that fumble, they kind of got away from their running game altogether.

The more this thing was into his hands, the more interceptions, the more takeaways. Green Bay was able to generate and watching those clips of Jire Alexander's interception and obviously everybody's seen the interview now at Pam Oliver afterwards and just how funny that was in the thirty second bit. But what is interesting to me about that that I don't think enough people are talking about is the first thing Jire says there when waddle, when these guys are coming

in motion, just how flipping fast they are. You can see it. It's not just a straight line speed. It's their ability to turn on a dime. That is a challenge that is ever present when you're facing the Miami Dolphins. It's the reason why no team wants to see them

in the playoffs, because those guys are game records. Green Bay in the second half, whether it was in its gains having to step in for Keyshaw Nixon being out, whether it was Reid having to play important snaps at the five tech with Dean Lowery being unavailable due to the calf injury, Darniell Savage coming back in and playing on the top of that thing. Packers needed to keep those playmakers in front of them, and they needed to tackle.

They did that in the second half. And when you do that enough, Mike, it generates turnovers, it generates takeaways. When you're asking a young quarterback like to a young team like the Dolphins, to be able to extend to to grind for points. The Green Bay Packers defense got back to doing what it did well at Spurts last season, and I thought that was a big key to victory in this Yeah, it absolutely was. And and there was so much about this game that was that was characteristic

of this Packers season in general. All and what I mean by that is up and down, positives, negatives on in all three phases you look at, you look at special teams. Keyshawn Nixon has a ninety three yard kickoff return right on on Miami's first kickoff after the opening field goal, but the special teams also botched a fake punt and gave Miami the ball in great field position. Offensively, that drive to start the second half had to have

it down by seven. You can you can wipe out everything that's happened in the first two and a half quarters if you can drive down and tie the game at that moment, because you say, okay, it's game on. Nothing up to this point has mattered and let's go, and the Packers were able to do that. Took seven minutes off the clock, eleven plays. I think it was seventy eight yards. Tremendous offensive drive when you had to

have it. But two failures in goal to go that led to field goals, another failure in the red zone that led to a field goal. Packers not offensively not able to capitalize on all their opportunities. So there were as the positives and negatives, and then defensively, as we talked about getting burned by the explosives early on, but then suddenly over the last thirty two minutes of the game, you generate four takeaways, will completely change the complexion of

the game. So the Packers are still kind of riding this, you know, this roller coaster of of up and down play. They know what they're capable of, they know what they need to fix. If they can take if they can take care of the ladder in these last two games, they might still be playing in January. You set me up perfectly here, John Stockton, my Carl Malone, all right, because that is the thing I really wanted to delve into here, Because yes, the Packers did not generate enough

points off of those takeaways. Yes, if you kick too many field goals, it is probably a recipe to lose those games. But you know what Green Bay did in this game that they've struggled with at times. It's not just the complimentary football, it's how well they excelled in situational football in this game. The Keyshawn Nixon kickoff return awesome. He was lamenting afterwards not getting a touchdown. Rasil Douglas made a little bit of a funny about that as well.

They aren't able to get the touchdown. You have the Dahl and Lovett fake punt doesn't go their way, but the defense keeps Miami out of the end zone. Mike, I'm telling you this too. You've covered this team five years longer than I have, but this is the best the Packers kickoff coverage units have looked in my time on the beat. When they kick, these guys get down, they stay in their lane, and they attack the football.

In that game, with Whereee Moostred only averaging nineteen yards per kicking, where most is a weapon speedy kickoff return. You talk about using starters on special teams, Miami does that, and then some in his gains Tyreek Carpenter. You know, I go back to the beginning of the season and mettal Floor was asked about this on Monday in his post,

you know, day after press conference. You know, we talked about down love, it about Keishaw Nixon, Ruby for Eric Wilson, these veterans that have done this in the league before. But what was the thing you and I discussed back in training camp. It was the idea of, Okay, you're gonna have some guys that maybe aren't your traditional starters, but our core special teamers that you're gonna build your units around. But once you get to December, you're gonna

have hungry guys like in his games emerge. You're gonna have guys like Isaiah McDuffie emerge. You're gonna have somebody making tackles like Trek Carpenter is right now, Patrick Taylor throwing blocks on on kick return for Keshan Nixon. King's leanning Bari. You know, the Carpenter one's the best example, because here's a raw guy that Green Bay draft six ft three two or thirty pounds, almost looks like a linebacker. Everybody's asking about linebacker. What did I say to you

after they took him. I'm like, this is Sean Richardson with more speed. This is a guy that has the type of body type you look for on coverage teams. And the Packers are able to win the field position battle. They didn't play like the best team in every second of that game, but at the end of the day, it was the takeaways, it was winning field position, it was winning time of possession, and it was being the team that responded better to adversity. And that's how you

make the playoffs. Yeah. Absolutely, and and and that's why I said, that's why I talked about how how important that drive opening the third quarter was because there are a lot of things that had gone wrong in the first half of the Packers, yet they got to the locker room down seven, they were getting the ball coming out of halftime. And now after going after their first nine tries this season when they were fielding the second half kickoff, they only got one touchdown in their first

nine tries. They've now done it back to back weeks against the Rams and the Dolphins taking that second half kickoff, and this one was crucial because you get that game tied up and then It's sort of like from then on, the rest of the game is kind of crunch time, right, It's like you forget about everything else. It's twenty to twenty. You play ball. You got a quarter and a half with your season on the line, and from the time that game was twenty to twenty, there was absolutely no

question who the better team was on the field. And no matter what happens up to that point, when you get to whatever moment a game reaches crunch time, there is no better formula in this league for winning than being the better team with the game on the line, because because it allows it allows you to cover up the mistakes you make in an in in an inevitably imperfect game, because nobody goes out there and and plays

a perfect game. So think about this too. Just with the Packers having to settle for those field goals in the fourth quarter, they don't win that game if their defense isn't playing the way they played late. I don't know if I've ever felt more comfortable, at least during the Mount Flora. I don't want to get too hyperbolic about this, but about just needing to get the points to make sure that if you give up some field position, Miami can either tie it or win it with field goals.

That's what the Packers did in this game. It wasn't just about the takeaways. It's about the fact that by the time you got to the fourth quarter, midway through the fourth quarter, you felt good about how green Bay was going to be able to defend them. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, And while a lot of things, really everything green Bay needed to go its way on Saturday on Christmas Eve did and we'll get to some of that in a minute.

And as as we go over the playoffs scenarios, it wasn't all sunshine and roses for the Packers because they did come back from Miami with a handful of injuries. Christian Watson left the game with a hip injury. Keishaan Nixon um obviously with the big kickoff return, and he'd been, you know, been working his way and developing into a mainstay defensively as that nickel corner. He left the game with a groin injury. Yash Naiman at right tackle left

the game with a shoulder injury. Royce Newman replaced him, and Dean Lowry on the defensive line left the game with a calf injury, which led to uh, some shifting around with Jaron Reid, but then also more playing time for rookie Vonte Wyatt. Matt Lafleur has put all four of those players in sort of the day to day category as we head into this week and the preparations for the vikings on the field will begin on Wednesday, and we will just see what the what the availability

is for these guys. The Packers would love to get them all back obviously, Um, but that's a that's a wait and see thing. And as as healthy overall, aside from you know, not having or Shawn Gary and Eric Stokes and you know, a couple of key guys like that on defense, David Bakery on offense. We had talked about how the Packers are coming into this game about as healthy as you could ask for. Now the healthy equation, uh, you know, turning against them a little bit. We'll have

to see what happens as the week unfold. Yeah, And to get back to that really quickly. To close on this with that point about you know, the Packers and not being able to convert at the end and getting the end zone. It got to the fourth quarter there where I started looking at them I'm like, man, who are there available personnel at this point in time? Um, you know, because Aaron Jones tweet the ankle, you're not

really able to use him. That's one of the reasons why Patrick Taylor played in the situations He did a third and nine, Um, where he potentially might have been responsible for past protection. Even he's good in that area, but I'm just saying, like you, and then he and then he did pick up the blitz on the very display after the third and nine, which was the thirty one yard passed down the down the sideline to Lewis.

So Patrick Taylor was in there in some in some crucial situations, and it even triggered in my mind in those instances where it's like, you just gotta win this game. You gotta figure out the injury report afterwards. You gotta write the hip isn't too bad, the groin isn't too bad. Now we will see what it's like. Matt Lafore said on Monday, it looks like all these guys are day to day. Um, you know, Nixon had already been dealing

with the groin. That's the somewhat precarious one. But this is what you gotta do, Mike, You gotta win these football games. You gotta win with the guys you have, and when you have ins gains out there a guy that never had played defensive snaps I can't remember in the regular season before, you know, and being lining up across from Jalen Waddle. That's how you win football games

this time in the year. And the Packers did that. Yeah. Well, we do need to get to the playoff scenarios and implications, and we will do that momentarily. Here Serious x M NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need seven three sixty five and at Cousin Subs, we have something for everyone like our Wisconsin cheese curds, mac and cheese, golden fries, and cream shakes, all paired with your favorite sub or

sub in a bowl. Cousin Subs fifty years of better. All right. I mentioned all the things that went Green Bay's way on Christmas eve Day, which was the Lions losing, the Seahawks losing, the Giants losing, and the Commander's losing. So that couldn't have gone any better. The Packers get the win that they need in Miami. So now Green Bay comes back. You've got two home games here Minnesota and Detroit division opponents, indoor teams coming hopefully to what

will be the cold of lambeau Field. Although it's not supposed to be super cold on New Year's Day for the Vikings. But um, but it's chillier than US Bank Stadium certainly maybe not chillier than the press box in Miami, the way you and I were freezing sitting underneath an air conditioning event that nobody could figure out how to shut off. But sorry, I digress. Um, So the Packers are coming back home. Here's here's the scenario. I'll lay it out for you as as simply as I plase,

and and it will be. And Path the Playoffs is coming back on packers dot com. I promised it would be if the Packers got to seven and eight on Christmas that at McDonald's. There anything more jovial than I tell you. People People are, people are fired up for the return of Path to the Playoffs. It's sort of generate generating all this excitement because I held off until until the Packers got to this point. Packers are seven and eight if they can win out and finish nine

and eight. They need either a loss by Washington or two losses by the New York Giants, and the Packers will have a playoff spot. Now, I don't even want to get into the scenarios. You might as well go buy a powerball ticket if you're trying to figure out how the Packers can get into the playoffs at eight and nine if they split their last games as opposed to winning them. Both Packers are in a position now where if they can win them both get to nine

and eight. It's all about what happens with the Giants and the Commanders and uh and we'll just have to We'll just have to see what unfolds um. This week, both the Giants and the Commanders are playing teams with lesser records. They're playing the Colts and the Browns respectively. Last week, all the matchups kind of lined up in Green Bays favor right. The teams that the Packers needed to lose, they were, you know, the Giants were playing

the Vikings on the road. The Commanders are playing the forty Niners on their own division champs in their own place. Things went the way you would hope and expect um Packers are gonna be, you know, crossing their fingers a little bit here with with the matchups that the Giants

and the Commanders have this week. But that being said, um, the Commanders in particular not playing well of late and have a quarterback uh situation here with Ron Rivera trying to decide essentially whether to go with Taylor Heineke or Carson Wentz down the stretch here to try to get

a playoff spot for Washington. Yeah, first off, if I may start with this, the Packers, when you look at how this weekend shaped out, You ever see Forget Paris, the movie Forget Paris with Billy Crystal Billy Crystal vehicle. There's a great line in it where I think it was his dad or whatever just sits there and keeps going, you want it, you got it. It was an old Toyota commercial, but he's like that, that's and he just

keeps reiterating that over and over again. As Saturday was playing out, That's what was going off in my head, like Packer fans, you want it, You've got it. Now, we gotta win on Sunday. But like it, really, these last couple of weeks have been this, You're going to get everything you want. You're gonna take advantage of it. You're gonna jump on the opportunity because you and I said it, Mike, we said it at the beginning of December when you looked at how the Giants schedule lined

up in the Commander schedule. Both of those teams could be playing their best football right now. It was still going to be difficult. They hadn't seen the Dallas yet. Really they had into one of them. I don't even think had played Philly yet. And here we are now in Week seventeen Washington. I understand a hundred percent what Ron Rivera was doing. You're probably losing that game. You want to see what Carson Wentz has. You've got to figure out if he's going to be a guy that

could potentially lead you on a playoff run. Here the difficult thing about this is your offense might be more effective with Wentz, You might move the ball better with Wentz. He certainly is a better quote unquote athlete in terms of the measurables than Taylor Heineke. But most of their wins this year have come when Taylor Heineke has been the quarterback and he's had to do it in unconventional ways. Yeah,

I think I even made that remark. Sort he's sort of a he's sort of a spiritual leader as much as he is as much as he is an on field you know leader that the quarterback needs to be, but he's there. There's sort of a there's sort of a heart and soul element to Taylor Heineck when he's

the guy that's leading that team. And as much as and I understand where Rivera is coming from because in terms of in terms of you know, really pondering this decision, because um, for as much as I I respect Heineck, and I give him a ton of credit for the way the way the guy battles and he plays. He plays fearlessly. He will he will absolutely fight you tooth and nail to the end. What's always bitten Taylor Heineke, and it's biting the Washington Commanders right now, is that

he gets careless with the football. And that's really that is why the Commanders now the forty Niners are gonna be a tough team to beat regardless, but certainly that loss against the Giants in the Sunday night game the previous week, that loss was on Taylor Heineke turning the football where he was careless with the ball, the Giants took advantage and then we're able to hang on for a win. And that carelessness with the ball showed up against a really, really good forty Niners defense as well.

So Rivera's Rivera is in a tough spot because because Heineck is that is that spiritual guy. But yet you're not gonna win if he's going to turn the ball over like that. And see this is where I get. This is where I want to spin it into this week seventeen situation because I actually think Heinek is the quarterback that should be starting against Cleveland. I think he's the guy that gives them the best chance of winning the game. However they're gonna do it. I mean, Carson Wentz,

correct me if I'm wrong here. I believe they were two and four with him as as the starting quarterbacks. Five of their wins have come in this Heineke era. More often than not, they've won with Heineke. If you go with wins, I'm very curious to see how this works out. Because you have Deshaun Watson on one side. A lot of noise, don't want to get into that

aspect of it. But a guy that legitimately has just been playing again for the last three weeks and then you got Wentz on the other one that's been out here for two months. Very curious to see how that matchup of play out. As far as the Packers are concerned, you have to win these last two. But Washington, you look at this game against Cleveland and you look at next week, regardless of who would be playing in that game.

You gotta hope. But Washington needs to find some wins here and they got to try to find something that's

gonna get him that number seven spot. Yeah, there are implications here, of course that hopefully we'll be discussing next week if the Packers can beat the Vikings and they stay in this thing, and then and and say, you know, if if you are hoping for you know, either the Giants or the Commanders to lose and they're playing you know, the Eagles and the Cowboys respectively, there's a lot of reason to rout this week for the Eagles to lose in the Cowboys to win, so that the NFC East

and essentially the number one seed in the NFC is not decided because if the Eagles take another loss and the Cowboys get another win, both of those teams are still playing for a heck of a lot in Week eighteen against their division rivals teams that the Packers may need to lose. That being said, if the Giants get a win this week against the Colts, they are in

the playoffs. If they the way everything had fallen on Saturday, if the Giants had managed to beat the Vikings Um if if they had gotten that game to overtime, for example, without Greg Joseph hitting the sixty one yard walk off field goal, if they get that to overtime and win it, the Giants would have gotten in already. They just need one win to get in. So from the Packers perspective, you're looking at the Commanders. You just need them to lose.

Once Packers win both of their games and you get in. Here's here's what I think is is the is the interesting the interesting scenario, so to speak, is if if the Packers, if the Packers win. Trying I'm trying to think all this through, I've lost my train of thought now,

so I apologize. I had come up. I had come up with what I thought was maybe a scenario, and I hadn't confirmed at a but a scenario of games if everything fell a certain way, that Green Bay in Detroit in week eight teen could be like a wind, winner gets in and loser goes home, like the Facto playoff game, which then means hello Sunday night football primetime at lambeau Field. Right. I don't know. I'm still not

a hundred percent sure if that can actually happen. Maybe there's a lottery ticket out there that somebody could punch and figure out a way for that to take place. I don't know if this time is going to be enough for you to recombobulate and think about that, staff. But I want to say this, because we focus so much on the Green Bay Packers. Everything worked out perfectly

for them last weekend. It also lined up very well for them this week because think about it, Tennessee, there isn't a lot for them to play for it this week. Everything is coming down to that Jacksonville game next week. So you would hope regardless of who the Dallas Cowboys you know, play, don't play whatever, that's gonna be a winnable game for them on Thursday night. Think about this too, Mike, I was talking with Tom Fanning, r PR Assistant Director

PR about this in the press box on Sunday. If Detroit doesn't kind of choke on its marbles there a little bit against Carolina, there was a scenario where the Packers could have played Detroit, you know, gotten to that game and beat in Detroit, and Detroit still would have been the team that advanced based on strength of schedule. It worked perfect strength figure. It worked out perfectly that Carolina with a playoff put completely ran them out of

the building. And get this too, Philadelphia. Jalen hurts shoulder entry. They're going up now against New Orleans. New Orleans at six and nine. People upset about Dennis Allen everything. They're still kind of in this thing in the South. The teams that need to play for something benefit the Packers. The teams that necessarily don't need to play anything for

this week also benefits the Packers. Yeah, I think the I think the scenario I was trying to put together is this Giants win, Commanders lose, Packers win, Seahawks lose, and Lions win. If all of that happens in Week seventeen, I think I think the Week eight teen, Green Bay detroite game is the winner gets the last playoff spot,

the number seven seed, and the loser is out. It becomes a de facto playoff game, and I would bet that Dan Campbell will probably coach that game shirtless and maybe even barefoot on the sideline at lambeau Field to try to spire his team to a playoff spot. I kid, of course, but that being said, I think that's the scenario that would potentially set up a Green Bay Detroit winner go home game in Week eighteen at lambeau Field. But as of now, all that matters is beat the Vikings,

and the Packers are still in it. Heading into week eighteen, We'll see how the other chips fall. Let's make it even more exciting. We'll talk about this on Thursday. Matt Eberflus. Justin Fields going to Ford Field and just run, just run away with the entire game. Don't don't even yeah, Luke Luke Luke gets the offensive coordinator, a good friend of ours, former Packers assistant coach. Don't even call a pass play, just just run it. Just run it with

all of the running backs, receivers, your quarterback, everybody. Just run against the Lions and if I see it rushing yards. Are you kidding me? Jam? This is his game. I've I've digressed far too much of this show. Any other points you would like to make before I sign up? All I gotta say is just keep it going, keep

all of it going. The Packers so much has kind of fallen the way they needed to fall the last two weeks, and after everything they went through the middle season stretch of the season, this is what you're hoping for. Two more games here to make it happen. All right? With that, we will call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of

our coverage of the team. We have it all for you all week long on Packers dot Com leading up to Sunday's January first New Year's Day game against the Minnesota Vikings for West I Am Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you next time.