Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always by my partner in crime, Wes Hodko. It's we're coming to you here from our studios at lambeau Field and Wes here to preview Monday Night Football, the first of two Monday Night games that the Packers will play this year, both on the road. This one will be in Las
Vegas at Allegiant Stadium against the Raiders. The Raiders are one and three, the Packers are two and two, and I guess the first question you ask with regard to the Raiders heading into this Monday Night game, and since it's only Thursday, we don't really have much of a read on anything yet, but who's going to be playing quarterback for the Raiders? Will Jimmy Garoppolo be back or will it be the second NFL start for the rookie out of Purdue, Aidan O'Connell, who made his NFL debut last week.
Yeah, it's the number one thing to track here this week because we'll see, obviously too DeVante Adams dealing with the shoulder injury. I would be absolutely flabbergasted if he doesn't play in this game.
Though, Yeah, I'm with you there.
But Garoppolo that kind of crept up out of nowhere. I think it was almost like an aftermath kind of a thing that happened with one of the games that the Raiders played and then wasn't available last week.
Oh don you know. It led to O'Connell getting his first start.
And realistically, it hasn't really mattered who the quarterbacks been for the Raiders. They've had some issues there. Offensively, have not been able to run the ball very well. They've given up way too many turnovers. I said this in our Insider Inbox column. I mean defensively they've been okay, they've been fine. Max Crosby is an absolute beast, but they only have one takeaway. And when you have ten giveaways on offense and you can't get you know, Josh
Jacobs going, it's gonna be uphill sledding. So whether it's Garoppolo, whether it's O'Connell, the Packers have to pressure the quarterback in this one. This is I hate to use the term get right game because you can look past any opponent, but this is the type of opponent that I look at the Green Bay Packers on paper, and I think to myself, it's on the road, but this is a game the Packers should win.
Yeah, I think so too. And you said it with regard to the turnovers ten to one through four games, I mean to be minus nine after four games. That's that's a stark statistic. And certainly the Packers have to keep the Raiders, you know, down in the dumps, so to speak, with regard to that statistic. And and but you talk about you talk about a get right game, and it's not something you you want to overplay in the National Football League. But we suggested this a little
bit on our last show. The Raiders offensively are going to look at this as their potential get right game. With regard to Josh Jacobs, a you know, the NFL's leading rusher last year who has not been able to get going this season, and the Packers have had their struggles against the allowing two hundred plus rushing yards to two of their first four opponents. Jacob's averaging just two point seven yards per carry through four games, which is which is a noticeably low number for a guy with
his production. Packers have talked about adjusting some things schematically and what not to to defend the run better. That's that's really going to be I think a big, you know, secondary storyline maybe you say, aside from the turnovers with regard to the to the Raiders. Here is Josh Jacobs and Raiders trying to get him going and the Packers trying to get their run defense fixed and uh and it's going to be in front of a national TV audience on Monday night, and.
It's the cat and most game that the Raiders were trying to play here. They've been doing this for the last year. Where it's you know, Josh Jacobs in your backfield, DeVante Adams and the perimeter. Where are you going to deploy your safeties? Where are you going to give attention?
Uh?
And and Adams is you know, just a complete mind boggle because you could put two defensive backs on him. We've seen three people on him and he still finds a way to get open.
Yeah. He likes to count them, yeah, to see how many people are guarding him.
But the way I count him is, well, if you have three people back on number seven tight, you have you know, eight others that are responsible for the other ninety percent of the field, and right that's where I thought Josh Jacobs, that that compliment of one another really helped them last year having the seasons that they had.
But Jacobs had the holdout.
He obviously felt some type of way about his contract and how he wanted to be paid, and like a lot of these running backs, working through that, he finally comes back and this just hasn't been able to get back on the tracks. I'm fully aware of this because he's on my fantasy football team and I'm also off to a one and three.
Start to this season, so we're doing great right now. Well there you go.
But I will say this though, Michael, the Greenmit Packers have to be up for this matchup, and they have to look at Josh Jacobs as the threat that he was last season, yes, and being able to contain him, whether that is Rudy Ford or Darnell Savage being in the box, whether that is you know, Devondre Campbell if he's not out there, and it's Isaiah McDuffie running with kway Walker, the Packers have to find a way to clog the holes because whether they got stretched against Atlanta
or they kind of got bulldozed a little bit, against Detroit. Green Bay has just had a hard time getting hats to the ball and that has to change or Josh Jacobs will very seriously make make you pay for that.
Yeah, I think so. That is definitely a top priority here for the Packers. You said it earlier from within the context of it doesn't seem to matter who's playing quarterback for the Raiders. Their offense has just kind of been what it's been this year, and DeVante Adams continues to prove that it doesn't matter who's throwing him the football. I mean, thirty three catches, three hundred ninety seven yards
and three touchdowns through four games. Like, oh, by the way, DeVante Adams is just on pace for another sixteen hundred yard fifteen touchdown season here for an offense that that is, uh, you know, hasn't found its way yet. I mean what Davante Adams, and I mean you and I know this, anybody I understand you know Adams, he left Green Bay on good terms. He had his own reasons for wanting
to go. The front office accommodated him. The Packers made the best they could out of the trade, and DeVante Adams has said in certain public forums that you know, he felt he needed to he needed to prove he could be who he was, you know, without Aaron Rodgers, without a Hall of Fame quarterback.
All that.
Well, those of us who were here knew that. Anyway, Like, I'm not surprised in the slightest what he's done with the Raiders because look at the second half of twenty seventeen. For half a season, he had a backup quarterback in Brett Hunley throwing him the ball and he produced. Yeah,
he was the focal point of the offense. Everybody knew he was the focal point of the offense with Hunley at quarterback, and he still produced on a regular basis and won some games for the Packers with some big plays. So it doesn't surprise me at all what Adams is doing. If he slowed down a little bit by that shoulder injury, that won't bother me too much here because that could
help the Packers defense. And we'll see from a matchup standpoint, you know, if Jyu Alexander is back from the back injury. There was some positive news earlier this week. Now, the Packers haven't gotten into their full blown practice preparation mode for the Raiders at the time we're taping the show. Because of the Monday night game, things have been pushed back. But after the weekend following the Thursday night game, the
Packers were back on the practice field Tuesday. Elton Jenkins was back at what was back at practice after missing a couple of games. Alexander was back on the practice field. Luke Musgrave, who left the Lions game with a concussion, he was back on the practice field, and it appeared as far as we can tell that Aaron Jones and Christian Watson were going through their practice routines coming out of the Lions game. No worse for Whear when they
had made their returns following injury. So David Baktieri is on injured reserve Andandre Campbell wasn't practicing. John Runyan wasn't practicing. So there were some guys who remain out at least as of this moment, but some potentially good news for the Packers on the health front.
And I will hop over to that party with you in a second here, but I just want to close on one more thing about DeVante Adams. Just strange. There's two strange anomalies right now with Adams in addition, you mentioned him already had four hundred receiving yards. He still hasn't even broke one yet this season. That's just pure possession type receiver stuff, and that will happen. The Packers have to hope that it's next week or further down the line. But the other thing too, he is the
Raiders offense right now too. That's probably the thing that has confused me the most. I mean, Hunter Renfro has not done anything so far this season. Austin Hooper has not produced anything. I mean, and I'm not trying to be a jerk about I'm just saying, like they have like fifty receiving yards. Jacoby Myers came over, He's had a couple opportunit. Josh Jacobs has gotten some opportunities in the PASK game. But Tay is it right now? Yeah,
So that's the part I'm really curious to see. We'll see about Ji R Alexander getting back over to the injuries and how the package, but how they match up with this because if the Packers were defending the run better right now, on paper, it would seem like, Okay, well yeah, Jy your travels with them, you give him some cloud help things you can do with the cover
two to facilitate that. But if you do need to kind of give some extra thought early on to the to the run defense, that's where I if again we got to see how Jaws back is, but that this seems like the type of matchup where you actually do want to see those guys kind of go head to head and see if your best can try to negate their best.
Yeah.
Absolutely, well. Most of most of the health news with regard to the Packers is on the offensive side of the ball, and you already mentioned on the defensive side of the ball. For the Raiders, you got Max Crosby. He is a handful to deal with. The Las Vegas Raiders have seven sacks as a team through four games.
Max Crosby has four of them. He's he is the He is the guy on the defensive side of the ball, and it would certainly help Green Bay in terms of finding some level of stability on the offensive line if Elton Jenkins can can get back in there. We don't really know what his status will be as the week goes along, but the fact that he was back on the practice field Tuesday. He only missed the two games
after getting hurt in Atlanta. He said, you know, now they weren't in you know, full full pads and you know all the banging and stuff. But he told reporters after practice on Tuesday, he got through the Tuesday practice with no you know, with no pain or no real
issues at least in that moment. So you know, it looks like Rashid Walker is is the guy the Packers want to go with at left tackle in Bakhtiari's place, if you can get a veteran pro bowler like Jenkins back at left guard to be next to next to that young guy. And uh and obviously the hope is also that Zach tom is you know, a little further removed from whatever happened to his knee in the Saints game, and he's had a little bit of extra time as opposed to having to deal with that knee on a
short week, which is what happened against the Lions. So hopefully some things turning in the right direction health wise for the Packers. On offense.
Yeah, and again, Max Crosby, he won't be moved around as much as Hutchinson was last week. I mean, Aiden Hutchinson was playing everywhere, but cornerback, it felt like. But the thing about Crosby is he's just a mauler. He is just a marauder. I mean, he just goes at you play after play after play.
He's like a back alley dude in a sense, like out a football field, like you just it's like you have to deal with him, but you really don't want to mess with him, like I don't know if that makes any sense.
And his size, I mean for that position, he just he is a sixty minute headache to deal with. And going back to a couple of years ago, even when he wasn't necessarily producing the sacks, I think he still ended up being All Pro that season because of how much teams are his pressure, how which he got the quarterback off the spot. Now, the difficult thing for the Raiders is I think they had certain feelings, you know, a year ago when they get Chandler Jones, that was
going to be the one too. Now Chandler Jones is out of the picture, so there is going to be a lot more attention. There has been a lot more attention on Crosby, who has entered this kind of the peak of his powers sort of stage of his career.
What I like about.
Elton though, if he can play in this one, even if he's not at left tackle, even if he's not the guy that's solely responsible for Crosby, having someone like Rashid Walker, having a resource like that with Jenkins is
really valuable. You know, all credit in the world to Royce Newman, but Jenkins is a two time Pro Bowler now that has played really every position at the NFL level to the highest ability, And if you have him on the field, as much as you want to have Dave out there, and as much as we talked about that all off season, Elton was a part of this future. He was the guy that they just extended. He was going to be sort of this building block for them moving forward. I think that can go a long way
for this Packers' offensive line. In addition to the fact that despite whatever Zach Tom was going for last week, you and I talked about it, he wasn't flawless against Detroit, but he gave them a yeoman's effort against the Lions to hold down that right tackle spot in a week in which Green Bay was really hurting on the offensive line with John Runyon also dealing with the ankle here's.
The interesting thing to me schematically with regard to Crosby. If the Packers can get Elton Jenkins back, because if you're Max Crosby and you're trying to rush Jordan Love's blind side, so you're coming off of the left side of the offense, how often do you want to stunt inside where then you know the guy who's going to pick you up as the pro bowler, as opposed to stay outside where it's a first year starter in Rashid Walker.
So it would make sense that Crosby is going to want to perhaps stay outside a little bit more rather than you know, run, run the games and the stunts with his fellow defensive lineman. Well, if that's the case, then that helps the Packers zero on him in a sense, you know what I mean, like because as you said, he's not moving around in terms of where he lines up the way Hutchinson did. But you know, they're always going to be doing stunts and games and things like that.
And if and if Elton jenkins presence maybe just maybe limits what they want to do there schematically because of the matchup, well then you know x's and o's wise, you can figure out how to give Rashid Walker a little bit of help and protect Love's blindside. And and you know, so I think there's a there. There is an interesting piece to the uh to the chess match there with regard to Crosby. But the other thing with this Raiders defense, as you said at West four games
into the season, they have one takeaway, one interception. They've not recovered an opponent's fumble. I think the opponents have only put the ball on the ground a couple of times.
Ye.
It's it's a defense that has not been able to generate takeaways and that's something that the Packers have to continue as well, have to protect the football the way they were protecting the ball in the first couple of games of the season.
Yeah.
And much like you know, everyone always likes to talk about the Packers and all they have all these first round picks on defense, the Raiders don't have very many at all. And that's a product I think of kind of getting out of the Mayock era a little bit and now transitioning into this new spot where they're in a way of which they're trying to compete, but they're also kind of rebuilding. It's like this this half life
that kind of the vikings are in as well. For Green Bay standpoint, though, the part I'm really curious to see is, Okay, if you get Aaron Jones out there finally where he's uninhibited, if you get Christian Watson out there more than you did a week ago, being able to kind of start to play the chess match with defenses rather than more of the checkers, because it's like, Okay, I give Matt Lafleur in the offensive coaches a lot of credit the game plans that they came up with
when you're featuring you know, don Davian Wicks is a rookie fifth round pick when you're trying to get the ball into Jaden Reid's hands. But let's be real, all summer long, it was about Jones, it was about Dobbs, it was about Watson. That's the building block, that's the foundation of this offense, and we haven't been able to see him together at all so far, realistically, outside of
a couple snaps last week. Right, If those guys, when you talk about the health of this football team, in addition to the offensive line, you get your skill position players going here, Now, what can you do now? What kind of matchups can you do because I really don't know, not knowing every forty time of the Raiders, I'm not sure how many people can run with Watson in this defense right now. I'm not sure how many people can go sideline to sideline the way that Aaron Jones is
going to stretch you. That's the aspect, that's the dimension of this offense that we have yet to see. And I really wonder when you're looking at this matchup and what Green Bay needs to achieve to slow down Max Crosby and to be able to get downfield with the football start faster, how those two guys could play into that.
Yeah, I think certainly with the way the Packers want to get their running game going, as you know, sort of that best friend for Jordan Love, you know, the boost to the pass protection is going to come from getting the running game. And if you get Elton Jenkins and Aaron Jones back on the field for a full compliment of snaps, I think that could potentially do wonders
for the Packers running game. I want to ask your thoughts on some other keys to victory here in a moment, but first some sponsor business serious XM NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need. Twenty four to seven, three sixty five at a Cousin Subs, we have something for everyone, like our Wisconsin Cheese Kurds, mac and cheese, golden fries, and creamy shakes, all paired with your favorite sub or
sub in a bowl. Cousin Subs fifty years of better. All right, So we've talked quite a bit about the turnover issue. But aside from that, what is the at the top of Wes Hodkowitz list as far as a key to victory for the Green Bay Packer.
It's all the run game, all of it. The Green Bay Packers thirtieth ranked run defense against you know a run, a run offense, it hasn't really been very proficient so far against the Raiders. The Packers run offense as well, that has struggled out of the gate without Aaron Jones. How do they handle I think the twenty fifth rank
run defense against the Vegas Raiders. We made so much about Jordan Love and I give Jordan so much credit the first month of the season, the way he's handled this thing, how he's helped this team get to two and two, but we never anticipated these fourth quarter comebacks. Everything being on his shoulders right away, and that's the way it's kind of worked out. He's been put in a position, some of it himself, some of it some
things around him. But the Packers need to be able to take care of business against the run here because for two reasons. One you have to execute against the Raiders team that there appears to be room.
To execute against.
But two, the bye week is on the other side of this thing. Packers, I'm sure we'll do their cross the hall meetings. I'm sure they'll make some corrections, but you want to feel good about where you're at. You want to feel like you're making positive strides. If they come out here and Aaron Jones can put together another performance,
let't have to touch the ball eighty times. But if he can put together another performance like he did against Chicago in week one, if you can get a big explod to play from Christian Watson, then that gets generated off of the defense having to get pay more attention to Green Bay's backfield. Those are the type of things that I think you can kind of give a hang your hat identity sort of thing to your offense moving forward. But I said in an inbox Mike, I'll say it
again to close out my point. I think this game is going to be won and lost in the run game. One team's gonna win because of it, and one team likely will lose.
Yeah, I'm with you there. The only thing I will add to that is the fact that you you mentioned DeVante Adams hasn't you know, really broken a big one yet this year. That that concerns me because a guy like that is always due, right, and.
He's a thirty two yarder, but he doesn't have like that sixty years.
Yeah.
Yeah, but here's but here's here's here's the thing for all of the focus in you know, the narrative in what the Packers need to do to stop the run, you know, to improve in that area, and they absolutely do by the same token. You know what what concerns me there is, you know, are they're going to be end up being more vulnerabilities to give up the explosive plays. And you look at the Detroit game and I've said this in a couple of different forms already.
For as much as the.
Packers got bulldozed by the run and the Lions racked up, you know, the two hundred plus rushing yards. The Lions had five explosive plays in the first quarter, five explosive plays. When the Packers are playing their defense that is supposed to, you know, guard against explosive plays, the Lions had five of them in the first quarter that were worth I believe, one hundred and forty eight of their one hundred and ninety four yards in that first quarter when they completely
dominated and took control of the game. The Packers can't. You know, it's a it's a tough balancing act for Matt Lafuer and Joe Barry and everybody who's involved in this because for everything that you need to do to as we talked about in our last show, to improve against the run, to take opposing offenses out of that mente of where you know, the Packers are just inviting teams to run the ball because they're struggling so much
to stop it. You can't you can't suddenly start giving up explosive plays because that's a recipe for defeat as well. And and the Lions. The Lions didn't take control of Thursday night's game because they ran the ball down the Packers' throats, they ran the ball down the Packer's throats after they took control of the game with explosive Plays's that's how this happened, and you can't lose sight of that as you move forward here trying to fix some of the things that are ailing you.
We get these nice Microsoft surface tablets. Thank you, Microsoft, appreciate you. I didn't even realize this until I was messing around at NFLGIS here. So Packers had seventeen interceptions last season.
Gyra had a big year.
I'll pro Yeah, the Raiders since twenty twenty one, how many interceptions do you think they have as a defense, So two point two five seasons, I don't know, thirteen.
Interceptions in two and a quarter season.
Six six and one. Wow, that's all that is, Like you almost think you'd get a couple of like just yeah, just tip balls or you know, or that's wild. Yeah that so it's not really been an anomaly. They're off to a slow start with the I n TS. It did a hard time getting them the last two years too.
They're yeah, they're not a they're not a defense. They're not a defense that takes the ball away. They do they do like to pressure the quarterback though, and Crosby, Uh, Crosby certainly is that guy other games. You know, here's the here's the other thing. It'll be very interesting to see Minnesota coming off of its first victory of the season. Now, oh, by the way, you have to go play the Super Bowl champs and the Kansas City Chiefs to try to avoid a one and four start as the defending NFC
North champions. So a lot of Packers fans have their eye on that on Sunday.
Packers had to do it last year too.
Yeah, enjoy it, Yeah, enjoy enjoy that first place Enjoy that first place schedule in in the now seventeen game era. But the other thing too, You know, you talked about the Packers. You know you want to go in you want to go into your bye week feeling good about some things. You know, you want to go in with victory. Obviously,
be three and two, nothing's given in this league. But the Detroit Lions have a Carolina Panthers team that is really really struggling, and it's you know, by and large, most likely the Detroit Lions are going to be four and one after this week. If you're the Green Bay Packers, you know, and if you lose to the Las Vegas Raiders, you are most likely two games out of the division leads suddenly after five weeks, when when you were just tied with the Lions before they came into lambeau Field.
So this game is this game is about getting some things right, about getting a win going into the bye week, but it's also going to be about keeping pace with that Detroit Lions team that is the team to beat in the division.
The Lions have to be salivating right now, especially the veterans that have been on that team that have seen the kind of rise up here the last few years, from a three win team to a team that you know, finally got a winning season last year to now being at the top of the division. In addition to obviously Green Bay, it's gonna be a tough matchup. You gotta go down there, you got to go on the road a stadium they've never played in before. Take care of business.
But then there's Minnesota against Kansas City. Then there's Chicago against a Washington team in Washington that I think is a lot better than teams you know that they've been given credit for. I mean, they took the Eagles right down to the wire last week.
I mean, I don't know what you're Honestly, I'll say that I don't know what you're gonna get from Washington. Yeah, they got absolutely blown out of the stadium by the Buffalo Bills or was it thirty seven to three or something like that. And then so they're, you know, a huge underdog on the road against the Philadelphia Eagles and they take their division rival right to the wire, and you know they had a shot to win if they go for two that on that last second touchdown pass.
But not only that, they were beating the Eagles for a good portion of that game and then had to score a touchdown at the end to force the overtime. I don't know what you're gonna get with Washington. When you throw throw in that, it's on a short week, it's even I think it's even less predictable as to what the commanders are going to look like.
Yeah, I'll take it up in one more notch. What are you going to get from the Chicago Bear?
Yeah, no kidding When you have that type of performance against that opponent and then finally lose.
Yeah, to blow a twenty one point lead at home against a winless Broncos team and now you have to go travel to the East Coast on a short week.
Yeah. So getting back to my original point, like, Okay, let's just say the odds are what they are, and you know they have the Bears. Let's say they take an elegance Washington. Let's say Kansas City finds itself offensively and takes care of business against Minnesota, Detroit beats Carolina.
They're going to.
Be looking alright going into that Monday night game against Green Bay, you know, trying to see what the Packers do against the Raiders. That's the benefit of being the front runner. That's the benefit of being able to handle those situations. For the Packers' perspective, though, there's one opponent you can worry about now, and I thought they had the right mentality in that locker room coming out of
that loss against the Lions. Kenny Clark Echoedoya earlier this week as well, you can't do anything about that one yet. Six weeks from now, seven weeks from now, you have an opportunity again, but you don't have that now. The only thing you can do now is try to go into allegiance, try to shut down DeVante, try to take the ball away a little bit, keep your quarterback clean, and get into that by with three victories.
Yeah, quickly before we go big game in the NFC. In the larger picture of things, the Dallas Cowboys against the San Francisco forty nine Ers.
Your thoughts on that, well, I'm really interested to see how Dallas handles the forty nine ers now offensively.
Yeah.
I now Deebo has been kind of banged up as well, so we'll see how he's doing.
Dallas doesn't have digs on the defensive.
They don't have digs.
And Christian McCaffrey when he's healthy, man, he's arguably the best player in the NFL.
Here's what I love about it.
There was a tweet I saw earlier today before we hopped in the studio from Robert Mays and an incredible look into what Kyle.
Shanahan is doing right now.
And he is playing teams two steps ahead of what they're giving them defensively, I mean, they whatever the plan is that they're getting, it's like they're just turning it on its head and finding some type of weakness to exploit on a week to week basis. And with that quarterback. I mean, here's the thing, Mike. You can draft a quarterback second overall, you can take them with the last pick.
In the trap.
What you ultimately need is you need somebody that is going to play the scheme as it's intended and make plays when they're presented. Brock Purdy gives you all of that. May not have the biggest arm, may not have the prototypical size, but he executes this scheme better than anybody I've seen.
And he protects the football, and he protects the football.
So when you have McCaffrey of all this, I think this is a gut check moment for the Cowboys because suddenly, if the forty nine ers run you over, now you're three and two. Now you've got questions to answer. So yeah, I like the forty nine ers chances in this, but obviously Mike and I love the scheme that they run down there with O'Brien. It's just a question of whether or not Digs. Everybody laughed at the Digs injury, not the injury per se, but it's like, oh, he's not
that big of a player. Anybody can cover for two seconds and it's like that was it. He was a big ball hawk. Yeah, and now he's not there.
Yeah exactly. I mean, there are guys who have a nose for the ball in this league and uh, and turnovers play such a huge part in the outcome of games. And and Trayvon Diggs was a was a turnover machine in some respects for the Dallas Cowboys, and and losing that, you just you just don't you just don't replace that, and uh, and you know, and from the Cowboys perspective, you know, this is the team that knocked him out of the playoffs, and you know, and all that kind
of stuff. So big game in the NFC, it should be a fun one, uh, to keep an eye on Sunday night. But with that we will call it a rap on this edition A Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team and all of our coverage of Monday Nights big game from Las Vegas. Packers and Raiders will have it all for you on Packers dot com. For Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in.
Everybody.
We will see next time.
M HM.