Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my partner in crime West and Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from our studios at lambeau Field and unfortunately Wes. We're here to talk about another tough loss suffered by the Green Bay Packers, this one nineteen to seventeen,
the final score in Denver against the Broncos. And we don't need to go through this one blow by blow by any stretch of the imagination, but boy is it frustrating to see what felt like, in many ways a carbon copy of the previous loss before the bye, A big struggle in the first half offensively, a comeback that puts you in position to give you a chance to win at the end of the game, and then an interception when you go for broke at the end of the game when you're trying to make the big play.
The last two games have been have been very much like that. It's a script that the Packers have to change moving forward, but it's one that they haven't been able to change just yet.
Yeah, I watched the same game, you know, from what happened in Vegas and then in Denver all the way down to you know, the defense having to work through some stuff, getting some key stops, but ultimately just giving up that one additional drive that ends up being the
difference in the football game. I you know, obviously I had a few days of process this thing now, And as I wrote again as I often do in our insider inbox Q and A, I think that's the maddening part is you see these glimpses of really good potential, and you see the talent of this football team, but it's just getting it to break out of its shell
early on has been such a struggle. And I know there's a lot of lighthearted jabs on social media about hey, could they just start in the second half, could you just you know, spot them ten points? All that. The fact of the matter is is that Green Bay wants their identity to be what they've done coming out of the break, and like Mike, let's just look at that drive quickly. It was only three points after halftime, but the ingenuity that the Dantavian Wicks throw the first down conversions,
a little bit of Aaron Jones thrown in there. It looked more like what the Green Bay Packers and I think you and me more specifically thought this offense would look like the first half. It seems like in some ways the Packers have just gotten caught in their own head in terms of just trying to make an opportunity happen and hoping that something ruptures. Defenses are playing them tight. And as you and I said all last week, and it wasn't to couch anything, it was just a statement
of fact. Denford did some good things. They showed progress against Kansas City, and I felt like, to the Broncos credit, they built on some of that going into this game against Green Bay.
Yeah, it was. It was certainly, you know, certainly frustrating to see, you know, the players and the coach are frustrated. Everybody's frustrated to see the slow start once again. Where the where the offense can't get going until the second half. Here's and I don't I don't know what the I don't know what the solution is to that. You and I could sit here and fill the whole show trying to talk about, you know, what the Packers can do
to fix their slow starts. I have absolutely no idea what it's going to take to get them out of this. I do believe that Matt Lafleur and Jordan Love and this cast of characters on offense is going to get out of this because, as you said, they're better than that, and they've shown it, so at some point the tide is going to turn. Here's my question for you with regards to this game, just as as a different way
to go through this one. When you look back at this one, what is your biggest regret in terms of in terms of what you saw, in terms of what happened a certain moment, whatever, What's what's your biggest regret that you feel coming out of this Packers loss.
It's an excellent question for me. It's twofold. It's on the offense and defensive side of the ball. Offensively, you know, we knew what the game was going to be with Aaron Jones. You're not going to have them for forty plays. You have to make those count, and to some extent,
I feel like Green Bay did that. But when I looked at the box score afterwards and it was ten different receivers and nobody with more than what thirty four receiving yards or something like that, it tells you that Jordan loves seeing the ball well and he's making you know, getting the ball into people's hands. But it also shows you that nothing ruptured. The Packers really struggled to get
an explosive play in this game. Their best play in terms of a yardage standpoint, unfortunately, was the eighteen yard pass to Luke Musgrave in which Kareem Jackson was penalized with the unnecessary roughness hit that he's now since been suspended for. Up until that, you know, Green Bay hadn't really had a lot of like big opportunities to get a chunk play, and you saw what happened after that catch. They were able to go down the field to have
their best drive of the game. They were opportunistic in the red zone to make opportunities happen. Aj Dillon a great opportunity, takes a dump off pass for twenty nine yards. They actually get into what I would consider to be Denver scoring territory based on the altitude getting over to the forty four yard line. Maybe you need ten more yards to be able to kick a field goal to potentially win the game.
Yeah, I don't think you necessarily even needed another first down at least to get a shot at a field goal based on Carlson's leg in the location. But sorry to interrupt, No, no.
No, just my really quick point on the defense. The defense did a great job of adversity defense in the first half, bending but not breaking, keeping points off the board, so it was still only a two score game going into halftime. But while Green Bay's offense got things together in the third quarter, the Packers unfortunately end up giving up that lone touchdown drive and at the very end of the game, the Broncos just get too many yards.
They have a kicker that has just too much leg and while Preston Smith did get that sack on Russell Wilson for no yards, that was the only sack Green Bay had of Wilson in this game. They didn't turn over the football and they lost the game.
Yeah, my regrets, my regrets from this one. I guess lay I lay it out as kind of an ABC first, it's that you caught a break with a deflected touchdown catch on fourth down that you know could have sunk you, but you get some good fortune to go your way. That's not going to happen every week, and yet you lose a game when you catch a big break like that.
So that's that's a tough one to take. Number two, you mentioned the Packers getting to the Denver forty four yard line, and then your best offensive lineman, your multi pro bowler, gets called for holding at absolutely the worst, the most inopportune time. There from the forty four you know, you know loved run the quarterback draw. He was to the forty maybe just inside it. You didn't even necessarily need to get the next first down at the thirty four yard line to give Carlson a chance. But then
you get backed up ten yards. You're back on the other side of the fifty year not in field goal range, and and and you know, the tide, the momentum, their shifts to the defense. I look. I'm not saying it wasn't a penalty. I looked at I looked at the film. Pretty ticky tac call to be making with two minutes to go in a game, in my opinion, But they threw the flag on a really, really good offensive lineman, and the Packers had to pay the price for that.
The other one, my third, my third regret, was the sequence more of a longer sequence of things, and it was at the end of the first half because the Packers, after a lot of struggles on offense through one and a half quarters, they put together a good drive. They finally got some things going. You could see, you could see the blocking was improving, some of the some of the runs to the perimeter, we're getting we're moving the chains,
you know, converting some first downs. Unfortunately, the drive stalls. But then your rook kicker Carlson misses his first kick of the season. He'd been perfect up to that point. He misses one. Obviously he was gonna miss one. Eventually,
you wish it hadn't been in that moment. But but then as that sequence continues, the Broncos end up going fifty yards the other way in about thirty two seconds, and when it was looking like you were going to go into the locker room down six to three, you were down nine to nothing because of that sequence at the end of the first half, instead of a three point deficit, it's a two score deficit, and it just you know, Yes, the Packers came out in the second
half and got things going and played the kind of football you expected to see them play in Denver, but for that deficit to be nine to zero, and then when the defense did give up the one touchdown, suddenly it becomes sixteen to three. The deficit was just larger than it needed to be, than it should have been based on the sequence at the end of the first half.
And again, the thing that is just absolutely maddening in front strading is the Packers didn't just pitch the tent and call it a day after falling down sixteen to three, a time in which a thirteen point leads seemed a lot more insurmountable than it really was. They rallied again, They found a way to get points on the board, ten points in that third quarter. They can find the moxie and the guts in the fortitude to stay in these games, but they just have not been able to
win them. And yeah, I think in the long run, and it will benefit this team a lot of young guys on this team that are learning to win right now, how to win, what it takes to win. Because what I go back to is what Matt Lafleur said, I think going after the Saints game where they were able to come back, it is not easy to win in this league. I think sometimes we definitely lose sight of that with the amount of parody. This is not one
hundred and thirty teen BCS system. You know, there's thirty two teams and they're all pretty dang good with some good football players on it. And you have to be able to survive the narrow margin of error. And for this Packers team, young, old, whatever you want to call them, it has just been a real test trying to make that happen.
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean, you know, I don't want to sound like a broken record with regard to crunch time, but the Packers have had four of their six games come down to the very end, and they have executed at the end of games once and they have failed at the end of the game three times, one in three. That's why you're two games under five hundred at two and four. That's what determines your season and your what your record says you are is what happens at the
end of those games. That being said, this leads to my next question. And as I said before, I firmly believe the Packers are gonna are gonna pull out of this. I mean, last year it was five losses in a row, seven losses in a span of eight games, and they spun it around and got things going. I think the same thing can and will happen at some point this year.
So my question for you is, what do you take out of this game, whether it's this game or just what you've seen recently, heard recently, whatever it may be that gives you the biggest reason for hope that this thing is going to turn around.
The Packers ran for one hundred and thirty seven yards in this game without a carry of more than fifteen yards. They didn't even break one, so to speak, in terms of the explosive gain aspect. You know, AJ Dillon is running behind his pads more Aaron Jones knock on wood as we're doing this show. Hopefully the hamstring came throw ok for him and he'll be more available this upcoming game against the Falcons. Yeah, why does that matter? It's
not just about running the football. It goes back to the most impressive stat about Jordan Love in this game, courtesy I Believe of Pro Football Focus. The guy was nine for nine for like one hundred and nine yards and a touchdown off play action in this game, Jordan Love did really well in terms of the play action game, getting outside the pocket, making plays happen a lot of what hurt him for whatever reason it was when he was facing even pressure and you know, being stuck contained
in the pocket. So those things tie together, and I think you can see this running offense getting more comfortable and getting a lot more confidence among itself. The penalties kind of popped up again. Green Bay has to get that straightened out. But this teams stuck together, and Mike, I don't know what the Packers' final win and loss record is going to be. I don't know what it's all going to look like. I can't guarantee you this team is going to be vastly better in December than
it was in September. But as far as the twenty thirteen, that whole exhibition that you have to put on display to show that you're capable of being a playoff team, that's where the challenge lies for green Bay. If you dig yourself into an early hole here, what does the second half of the season look like to get yourself out of it?
Yeah, I'm with you in that. When I see what I'm kind of hanging my hopes on and what I see are the signs that this can be turned around, it goes to it does go to how the Packer are running the ball. We've seen it. We've seen it the last two games. I thought it was even better
against the Broncos than it was against the Raiders. And as much as I know, I started the show by saying, you know, there there was this carbon copy thing with all the struggles in the first half, you have a comeback and then and then you know, you have the turnover at the end when you're trying to win the game. To me, this the Broncos performance was a much more encouraging and I don't want to overstate that, but it was. It was a more encouraging offensive performance than the Raiders
game for a couple of reasons. One is I thought I thought the Packers were able to stay balanced that even during the comeback when they weren't, they weren't busting big explosive plays. They didn't have a seventy seven yard you know, completion to Christian Watson to take up you know, a huge chunk of the field. They were staying balanced and moving the ball, and that being able to use the run and the play action and not get into any kind of a desperation mode until the very end
of the game. I thought that was a good sign for where this thing can go. The offense also had to do this very much on its own, because when you think back to the Raiders game, there was the interception by Rudy Ford gave them a short field, they get a touchdown. Packers didn't have that. All of their
scoring drives in this game. They had to cover a big chunk of the field to get points, and they did have the one good drive in the first half that didn't result in points, and then when they were moving the ball at the end of the game, you get the penalty that sets you back. So I think there were more signs in this game, even though it's
another frustrating loss. And I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything, but I think there were more signs in this game that the offense is starting to find something than we saw in the Raiders and.
The other thing I just want to touch on quickly because it kind of fellow up on what you said last week. We were talking about our like MVPs or whatever during the by and I still say KOI Walker's had a find fine season so far. But you brought up Russelle Douglas and I got to thinking more about that throughout the weekend and then watching him in this game. Russell Douglas is having the best year of his career. And I know he had the five picks or whatever,
but like, the guy's not being penalized. He is getting pass deflections and it is getting very difficult for teams to throw on him. He's playing physical ball.
Well, we saw, we saw what Russell Russell Wilson, I mean, you know, no offense to Carrington Valentine. Yeah, who you know, had some rough definitely had some rough moments in this game, filling in for Jayi Alexander. But Russell Wilson was like, Okay, Douglas is over here. I've seen what he's done on film. Carrington Valentine or rookie seventh round pick is filling in for the all pro guy on the other side. And
Wilson went after him. You know that. And but that's also because of how Russelle Douglas has been playing.
And the other thing about Suell maybe some people don't realize is he was the co Stand Up Award winner last year for the Packers, as given by the PFWA for his dealings with the media. The guy sat at his locker for six minutes after the game, which you know, for you know, in terms of like a road locker room, that's actually a pretty long media scrum. And he was a very honest raw about how he's feeling about this thing.
He didn't throw anybody under the bus. He didn't throw the offense under the bus, but he did have a really poignant line when he was talking to the media about how basically, I'm tired of seeing you guys, and not to be He's not being routering, but basically saying like, you're coming in here and I'm giving you the same answers I've given you the week before. We are working at it, we are trying, but ultimately it comes down
to winning. And you know, he was even kind of throwing a little bit of a softball about having eleven games left. He's like, yeah, but we got to win. Doesn't matter how many games are left. You have to win to be able to end this losing streak and to feel what it's like to win a football game again. Something else he had talked about earlier in the week.
Douglas has been a guy that's really stick up for this defense in terms of the leadership aspect of it, without a Devandre Campbell, without Jaiyre missing you know, three two or three games now, he has been one of the guys that has stepped up and I thought has
really led with his play on the field. And honestly, Mike, depending on what happens here with Jaws back, he could end up being one of the really pivotal pieces for the Green Bay Packers in the second half the season, much like he was in twenty twenty one.
Yeah, I totally agree with you. There one more question I want to throw at you before we shift gears a little bit. There are a lot of things that are ailing the Packers right now, but if you had to point to the one thing that you feel would be at the top of the list, the most important key to getting this thing turned around.
It was a thing I let inbox with. If it's not even about the fast starts, because that's becoming kind of like this catch all. Yeah, Mike, I just want to see what it looks like if the Packers go out and put points on the board on the first drive. I'm not saying, oh, if you win the coin toss, you have to take the ball. No, you can defer until the Cows come home. Yeah, but I'm saying when the offense it's out there for the first time, what does it look like if you go into halftime? Because
I'm thinking back to that Chicago game. I know it's difficult for fans to do that right now, but the Packers put up thirty eight points in that game and really impose their will against the Bears, and we haven't
seen that again since then. So I just feel like this team, the doubts or whatever could be creep into your mind after you go three and out or you give up some points early on defensively, if the Packers can get out to a lead, what does it look like with those third quarters, if you actually have some points on the board and you have some of that momentum in your favor.
That's exactly what I was going to say as well. I think the biggest key to turning this around, and I'm not saying that the Packers, as you said it, as far as a fast start, It's not that the Packers need to jump out ten nothing or fourteen nothing or seventeen nothing on a team, but they need to just stop playing from behind because once you get behind, then you're only one possession away from being multiple scores behind. And that's what we've seen has come hounded itself with
this team. If you can, if you can, just if you can stay not just not just stay in the game, because they were obviously in the game and it was only a one score game in Denver until the field goal right at the end of the first half made
it a two score game. But if you can actually get the lead, even if it's just seven to three or seven to six or ten to seven or whatever it is, even ten to ten at halftime something like that, if you can just be in that situation heading into the second half as opposed to coming out of the locker room and feeling like your backs are against the wall again like they were against Detroit, like they were against the Raiders, like they were against the Saints before that.
I mean, this is you know, the Saints game was a victory, but this is this is four games in a row now where the Packers are playing from behind, and that's just that's not a life you can continue to live if you want to, if you want to be able to find success on a regular basis. And the biggest reason that they've that they're two and four right now is bec as they're playing from behind way too much.
And this game specifically, Mike. People can make whatever jokes they want to make about the Broncos, but I'm telling you what, man Sean Payton Russell Wilson, those are two pool sharks there. When they look at a nine to zero halftime lead, it's affecting the way they look at the rest of that game.
Hunter.
Russell Wilson is not pressing to make plays. If his defense is playing well, He's going to let his defense play and live to see another down.
Hey, the Raiders did the same thing with Garoppolo. It's not like Garoppolo was chucking the ball over the field. I mean the Raiders. The Raiders, they felt their defense was playing well. They knew the Packers were struggling on offense, and even when the Raiders did get behind, it's not you know, they just said, Okay, we're going to grind.
We're going to grind this thing out. And they were confident that they that they could get the one score they needed and then their defense was going to hold up.
And then the last thing I'll say about Wilson, because it was sort of a storyline last week you and I touched on in terms of his weight, the way he's playing this year, Russell Wilson from twenty twenty two, this game might end up turning out a lot different. You know, you looked at some of those pressures that
Lucas Vans had that Rshawn Gary had right off the bat. Yeah, they only had three quarterback hits in one sack, but a lot of that the times in which he was truly under duress, he was able to flush out of the pocket, keep his eyes downfield and make a play. And then when he needed to, he also was able to pick up some yards with his feet.
Yeah, he did that. That's what's set up the chip shot field goal at the end of the first half. Was the scramble that was a real killer for the Packers. I do need to take care of some sponsor business.
Here Wes Serious XMNFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need twenty four to seven, three sixty 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, Well, if we needed any more evidence that the NFL is a week league, just look at what happened in the NFC North. All we have to do is look at that's it. The division is three. The Bears have to go with a backup quarterback against another backup quarterback for the Raiders. But suddenly they light up the scoreboard at Soldier Field and they get a win. The Detroit Lions go on the road against the Baltimore Ravens. They're five and one.
Folks are wondering because the Niners and the Eagles had both just lost a game. Are the Lions the best team in the NFC? Maybe? Well, the Ravens had something to say about that. The Lions took one on the chin. Now, as we had talked about before with them, how do they handle success? Well, now, how do they handle this amount of adversity because that was a rough day for
them in Baltimore. And then the Minnesota Vikings, who will talk about them a lot more on our next show with them being the Packers next opponent here at Lambeau field. But the Vikings, no Justin Jefferson on offense, no Marcus Davenport on defense, and the San Francisco forty nine Ers, who everybody figured would be steaming hot, spit and tax mad after that loss in Cleveland. Well, lo and behold.
Kirk Cousins completes thirty five passes, three hundred and sixty whatever some yards passing, and the Minnesota defense holds off brock Perdy and that Niners offense with interceptions two interceptions in the fourth quarter, and the Vikings suddenly, after an zero to three start, are three and four with a victory over a team that many thought just a couple weeks ago was the best team perhaps in the NFL.
Well, first off, I want to start off with the Chicago game because I wish this Raiders team would have showed up at Allegiance Stadium when they faced the Packers, because that was one of the worst offensive game plans I've ever seen. Honestly, the Bears did exactly what the Raiders should have done, and maybe that is the key
for Chicago moving forward. Is Deontay Freeman. Man. I don't know why no one wants to sign this guy long term, but he's like a rent to running back and he will come in there and he will produce yards for you. And they did it at will against a Raiders defense I thought looked really good against Green Bay in terms of at least not rupturing right and offensively, you have Brian Hoyer stepping in for an injured Jimmy Garoppolo, and
they just once again, forget that Josh Jacobs exists. This seemed to me like a game where Josh Jacobs should have covered, should have ran the ball twenty five times. But no, they're they're in whatever happened with DeVante, happened whatever. But I mean, you have a backup quarterback in there that's lost twelve straight starts and suddenly he's throwing the ball thirty two times.
Okay, I don't I said to you in the press box in Denver. I didn't even understand why they didn't just stick with Aidan O'Connell, the rookie from Perdue, who I know, he had some turnovers and whatnot in his one start there against the Chargers, but he gave them, he gave them a chance to win, you know. And yet and yet now Garoppolo goes down and they decide, they decide they have to turn it over to Hoyer, who was who was frankly off. Yeah.
So if you're ever looking for a way to completely take the air out of your blown after winst bring up that football game. You'll learn something from it. But as far as the Lions, man, I'm telling you, Mike, that's just the league. Like people are already saw some of the stuff like, oh, are they a fraud? No, the Lions are a really good football team, and so are the Baltimore Ravens. And I thought the Ravens were exceptional. Lamar Jackson was amazing in that game, and the Lions
just were not able to make anything happen offensively. It's gonna happen. I still view Detroit the same way I viewed them going into Sunday afternoon. Yeah, very dangerous team.
I do too. I mean we saw it. You know. The Packers had three consecutive thirteen win seasons under mattin Floor, and every season there were there there was at least one, sometimes more than one, just regular season dud game where you just got it handed to you. And it happens to everybody in this league, and it happened it happened to the Lions, and you know, they're they're a very curious case because because they're in a position that their franchise is not used to being in. And how are
they how are they going to handle the ups? How are they going to handle the downs? You know, they have a target on their back as the team on top of the NFC North right now, and you know, but it happens in this league.
Lastly, I'll just say this quickly about the Vikings and an expertly played football game. Kirk Cousins gets his win in prime time, but more importantly, Jordan Addison stepping up the way that I think the Vikings needed him to in the wake of this justin Jefferson injury. You look at Daniel Hunter defensively, I thought did some really good things in that game. And then lastly, I just have to say it because we take for granted so much
what Harrison Smith does in this league. And he's older now and I'm sure physically he's probably not the same player he was five years ago. But my goodness, man, when you have such a smart, heady safety playing on top of your defense, what a difference that makes, you know, depending on where they're at in their career. But I just there's just something to be said for that in the leadership that he provides. I was super impressed by what the Vikings did in that game and really made
Brock Purdy and the forty nine Ers mortal. They had a they were coming off a tough loss against the Cleveland Browns, and the Vikings said, you know what, we're going to take a piece of this too.
Yeah, and and and you know the forty nine Ers dealing with their own adversity. They don't have Deebo Samuel Trent Williams.
Did he I don't believe he did.
I don't believe he played. You know, their their stud left tackle wasn't in there able to tell you though. So you know, it's it's the kind of it's stuff that happens in this league. It's the kind of stuff that every that every team deals with. We will talk more about the Vikings on our next show. We'll also provide you know, one thing we didn't get to with regard to the Broncos game is the injuries that have
continued to pile up for the Packers. But when we do our next show, the Packers will have their Wednesday practice under their belt, will have at least a first glance at the injury report for the week, and we can try to provide, you know, try to lay out the landscape of where things are with the health of the Packers.
On our next episode, Big Dean Lowry at a fumber recovery too against the forty nine ers. Don't you pick up on that or not?
I did. I did not because I missed a good chunk of the first half. I did watch the second half of the game, and yeah, kept waiting for the forty nine ers to just look like the forty nine ers, and other than a couple of plays here and there, they really didn't. And so but a lot of football left for them, a lot of football left for the Packers as well. With that, we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. You should follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com
for Wes. I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody. We will see you next time.