Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my trusted colleague Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you, Hear from our studios at Lambeufield here to talk about Packers Vikings. It will be a noon Central Time kickoff on Sunday at Lambeufield. The Packers back at home. Work wise for us, we're back in the noontime slot, which just makes life a little bit easier and allows us
to get some more sleep. But all of that aside, West, Let's talk about this Minnesota Vikings team in twenty twenty three because there's a lot of personnel overhaul in the off season, a very slow start where they were zero and three out of the gate, but they've now won three of their last four games to get to three and four, and it's been an interesting progression because the two wins of the season were against the Panthers and against the Bears, and everybody was like, Okay, yeah, the
Vikings started zero to three, you know, lost a couple of tough games, but they should probably beat the Panthers and they should probably beat the Bears, so nobody, you know, they weren't, you know, creating any ripples in the NFL landscape. Well, lo, and behold Monday night, the San Francisco forty nine ers come into US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, and the Vikings knocked them off. And not some kind of like a
fluke or a lucky bounce or anything. That was a very strong performance by the Vikings on both sides of the ball from start to finish in that game. And the Vikings are starting to feel pretty good about themselves, and for good reason. That was an impressive victory. And now they're going to be looking to build on that as they come into lambeau Field on Sunday.
Well, like I said to you a couple of weeks ago, I mean, the Vikings had to figure out offensively, what was the next step without justin Jefferson here. They certainly did that. You could see how much stuff they drew up for TJ. Hockinson, who now is dealing with the foot injury. We'll have to see what's going to be his situation this week. But in terms of the explosive plays, Jordan Addison became that outlet for Kirk Cousins and they made some great plays when they had to make them
in that game against San Francisco. I think what has probably impressed me most about the Vikings so far though, because you know what you're getting in Kirk Cousins. We'll talk about in your second but he's a consistent, steady force for them. But defensively there's been a huge uptick. As much as the offense has had to rally without Jefferson,
what the defense has done without Marcus Davenport. The season that Daniel Hunter is off to back to back weeks where they win the NFC Defensive Player of the Week award with Jordan Hicks after the Chicago game and then Cameron buying them last this past week against the forty nine ers. Guys are making plays and when you make plays, Mike, you win in this league.
Yeah. I want to touch on one thing with regard to the offense, because you said it. Jordan Addison had his true breakout game on the national stage Monday nights. Evan catches one hundred and twenty three yards two touchdowns, including that sixty yarder at the end of the first half that where he stole the deep ball from Jimmy Ward. It looked like an interception and then turned into a
sixty yard TD. Interestingly, though, the Vikings offense looked like a really tough slog in its first game without Jefferson because that game at Soldier Field in Chicago, they were searching, they were trying to find something, and they probably don't win that game in Chicago if not for Jordan hicks defensive touchdown on the scoop and score, which is what got him helped to get him the NFC Defensive Player
of the Week. But then from one week to the next, when they're trying to figure out, Okay, what's this offense going to look like without Justin Jefferson, then suddenly on the Monday night, Jordan Addison goes off and has a has a tremendous game for them Defensively. I wrote about this, there's a story. I know. We've had issues with content and when things have gotten there's a lot of stuff on our website folks.
People thought I got let go on Instagram.
Yeah, a lot of stuff on our website folks that has gone up in the last I would say, you know, fifteen to sixteen hours because of a shutdown that was beyond our Control on Wednesday, so some content is piled up and there are some things worth checking out. One of those is a story I wrote about the Vikings defense and Brian Flores, the new defensive coordinator there. He
is playing an aggressive brand of defense. The Vikings have a blitz rate, according to Pro Football Reference, of fifty six percent, and a blitz being defined as sending more than four pass rushers on a given pass play. The number two team in the league in that category is at forty two percent, so for them to be at fifty six percent, it tells you how outside the norm they are. A couple of interesting things about that, though.
It seems that the biggest beneficiary as far as the pass rush goes with all of the blitzing has been Daniel Hunter. I think the blitzing has created a lot of one on ones for Daniel Hunter, and he's very difficult to block one on one. The Vikings have nineteen sacks this year, nine of them from Daniel Hunter. He is the guy who is getting to the quarterback. And I think it's Brian Flores, his style of defense that is creating those opportunities for you.
Yeah, and Hunter has to be pleased about this. Too, because the way they're utilizing him, I mean he's lining up over the center at times, you know, he's working off the edges. I mean his I think more than
any and Mike Zimmer is a great defensive mind. But the way they've sort of opened the box here on Hunter and Mike, I'll be honest with you, I had a lot of questions because when you hear you know, five ten years ago, you hear next surgeries and things of that nature, you really wonder, hey, what does that mean for a player's long term prognosis and viability in this league? And Daniel Hunter has come back and been a force for them this year. They made some significant
changes with that defense. A Darius Smith goes down to the Cleveland Browns, they kind of said, hey, we're going to bring in Marcus Davenport, but a lot of this is going to be on Hunter to be our lead guy. And he's done that. But you know, one of the big reasons too. And I haven't been able to really do anything with this yet this week, but it's just from watching the Vikings this year. I think, as much as they blitz and as much pressure as they bring,
how can you oftentimes get away with that. It's because you're getting really good safety play. You have a guy like Harrison Smith there who's been doing this now for eleven years at a really high level. You look at his stats this year at Loan Mike, you don't even have to watch the film, force fumble, sacks, takeaways. The guy just gets the job done. And then you have a young guy like buying him now too that's making plays.
A fourth rowne pick from twenty twenty one, that was a big hiccup here at the last stage of the Mike zimomer eras they just I think they just they lost a lot of their depth defensively. I think you've slowly seen them build that back while still having some of those staples that we've known for so long. Yeah.
Absolutely, I think the I think what the Vikings, what the Vikings have hit on with with cam bynam As that partner at safety with Harrison Smith is really something not you know, buying them actually, as you mentioned, gets the NFC Defensive Player of the Week. He has the interceptions too in the fourth quarter on San Francisco's two possessions as they were trying to rally to to steal that game back. Away from the Vikings. We saw it
a few years ago. The Vikings got a really good season from Andrews Anddejo next to Harrison Smith, but then he got a nice free agent contract elsewhere and off he went. And then the Vikings were looking for another partner for Harrison Smith again. So they seem to have coming back.
I think at that he ended up coming back, if.
I remember that, right, Yeah, you may you may be right. But now they seem to have they seem to have found one with buying them. You know, we we talked so much over the years about uh, you know Eric Kendricks and Anthony barr as those two you know linebacker mainstays for Minnesota. Well, now Jordan Hicks is the guy who's who's getting a lot of attention and playing pretty well. And it's all being combined with this, with this new this new approach, the new style that that Brian Flores
has employed. Interestingly, though, when you look at when you look at this the statistics overall, for as much as the Vikings blitz, you know, nineteen sacks is a decent number. As I said, nine of them by daneil Hunter, nineteen sacks is tied for tenth in the league. But opposing quarterbacks are still completing seventy four percent of their passes against the Vikings, and the overall passer rating for opposing
quarterbacks against Minnesota is around one hundred and two. So it's not as though defensively the Vikings are just are are dictating everything and dominating or whatever. Like, you know, their blitzes have been beaten, they've taken they've taken some chances. They paid the price in certain respects, but Brian Flores is sticking with this style. This is this is who the Vikings are. This is who they're going to be, and they're going to you know, ride or die with it,
so to speak. It presents a really, really interesting challenge for the Packers, not only because Jordan Love is a first year starter at quarterback he hasn't really faced a defense like this before, but the Packers up front with their offensive line, the pass protection, I thought was maybe the biggest strength of the offense through the first three weeks of the season, even when things were you know, went south for a while in the New Orleans game
in Week three, and then the Packers came back and won those first three games. The Packers pass protection was quite good. The next three games, the pass protection hasn't been so good. And now here come the Vikings with this blitz happy package.
Yeah, and that's really going to be. Where can the Packers try to take advantage of that. It's the screen game, it's some of the short games of the quick game stuff. Getting to a rhythm, something that Jordan Love talked about, you know, making sure that you find when the opportunities are there and you're in a good spot, getting the most yards out of those plays, explosive plays. It was a big, you know, buzzword too in the locker room
on Wednesday. Guys just looking to make bigger things happen. The thing that's interesting about the Vikings is that pretty much they're they're fifteen across the board, like I mean, they're just they're right there. Sacks, total yards, passing, everything's just kind of right there, takeaways, all that right in the middle. The Packers have to find a way to get them on their heels the way in which they were on their heels earlier this season. Maybe that doesn't happen.
Maybe enough young guys have stepped up. Maybe you have a guy like Hicks in the middle of that defense, who's kind of had a revitalization of his career. People kind of forget like Arizona kind of shipped him out at the end of that run there, and he resurfaces with the Vikings has played really good ball for them because the fix has been around for what probably eight
nine years already in the NFL. But at the end of the day, Green needs to be able to maximize the chances that they're presented with that blitz game, whether that's getting the run game established or the screen game. Just Jordan Lovefield like himself again. But Mike, you are right the Packers offensive line, that was seen as one of the big strengths of this unit going into the year when you had David Baktiari and Elton Jenkins standing there.
You don't have that combination anymore. How is the adjustments going to be made throughout the course of the season to make sure that they talk about time and time again the efforts there, but the execution is so pivotable, not only to love but also with that run game.
Yeah. Absolutely, I want to get a little bit more into Keys to Victory here in a minute, West, But first I'll take care of 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. And at 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, when it comes to Keys to Victory, I'm gonna dovetail a little bit off of what you said with regard to you know, the Packers are looking for explosive plays. You have to try to maximize on certain opportunities. And yes, you need to get chunk plays in this league. They can help turn the tide. You know. They jump start the offense, they get things going, they put the defense on its heels.
This strikes me from and just watching watching San Francisco have so many fits and starts offensively against this Vikings defense. I don't know if you can just drop back and try to push the ball down the field against this Vikings defense. With the way Bidam is playing at safety, you're gonna have Harrison Smith back there with the way they blitz doesn't always allow for a lot of downfield
routes to develop. But the Vikings, because of their pressure scheme, they put themselves in some vulnerable positions where if you can break one tackle that might create an explosive game, that might turn a six yard play into a twenty six yard play because they're compromise based on how they come after the quarterback. The San Francisco forty nine Ers got back into that game on Monday night with a
quick little slip pass to Christian McCaffrey. They had two guys that got blocked, one guy missed the tackle, and boom, McCaffrey was gone for a thirty five yard touchdown, and suddenly that game changed and the forty nine ers were potentially on the verge of pulling off a comeback there.
I think the explosive plays, if the Packers are going to get them, they're going to come from getting players the ball in space and trying to make somebody miss, not so much forcing the ball downfield against the defense that I don't know if necessarily is going to allow that very easily.
Well, and then that's where it kind of ties into what my biggest key is going to be and I'm sure it's gonna be something we'll be talking about, hopefully maybe not after Sunday if it works out the way it does is taking the ball away and not being the team that blinks first. Because you go back, you think about that game against Denver. Packers played really clean offensively until the final series. Denver Broncos never turned over
the football in that game. So while it is just one interception late when they are trying to push the ball down field, how much does that one turnover change the course of a football game. Now, maybe they get the ten yard pickup and then maybe they end up not having any completion whatever. But if you're not going to get the takeaways, you need to protect the football. And for the Green Bay Packers, they need to get
more movement on those two sides of things. And I think defensively for the Packers having as strong of a showing as they did against Chicago. Now, mind you, Bears are going through some big transition points in that Week one game, but that was their only fumble recovery of the season. In that game, two of the interceptions if my memory serves correctly, and they only are sitting on five takeaways at this point. Now going into week eight, they.
Have the only takeaways since week one are the two Rudy Ford interceptions against the Lions and against the Raidings.
Actually the interception Quay had the interception and unfortunately Quay dropped the one against the Falcons.
Yeah, and job miss went against the Falcons as well.
And then yeah, they've kind of not the opportunities haven't been there. Yeah, So I mean you have to be able to create yourselves opportunities. And for Agreement to start the way they did, I would have never thought, you know, sitting here in week eight now they'd be tied for the bottom of the league right now in terms of you know, where they're at and generating turnovers.
Yeah, and that's always that's always a tough one because obviously, as the old saying goes, and Larry mccaerron said it on our Three Things video that we shot on Wednesday, that you know, turnovers can come in bunches, and that's what happened for this defense last year. I mean that four game winning streak at the end of the year that that got the Packers back in the wild card hunt.
That was very much fueled by turnovers defensively opponent, the Packers were taking the ball away, doing it on a regular basis, and it it really provided the you know, the rocket boost to what became a four game winning streak. You always have to be careful though, right because because if you're if you're trying to force the issue too much with regard to turnovers, that's when tackles get missed. That's when you know, a short pass con rupt you
into into a big gain, that kind of thing. So there's there's always there's always a fine line there, but it really is about the entire the entire defense, because turnovers are forced by pressuring the quarterback, by making him uncomfortable, you know, all those things. So a lot of times interceptions are as much the result of the pass rush leading to a bad throw as the guy in the back end, you know, making a great a great play
on his own. So it all goes hand in hand and uh and teamwork wise, the Packers have to find a way to start getting some takeaways because they have been hard to come by.
The best example of this entire season is the Raiders game. I mean, the Las Vegas Raiders did not chase anything in that game, it was deflected passes turning interceptions. It was a timely pick at the end of the game. I mean that that's where these things come from. I'll be honest with you, I'm actually still kind of shocked the Packers haven't had a strip sack yet other than
Kenny's at the start of the season. Like that part of it has really been surprising to me, just with the way that Shaun Garry has rushed the passer and the amount of force that he's been going into guys. That's a credit to the quarterbacks to be able to hold onto that thing. But yeah, it's right there for them, and they have to make these things happen, especially against Kirk Cousins. I mean, you and I have talked about this all week long, Mike. He has one hundred and
five career passer rating against Green Bay. He's five and five all time against them. You like that, one and five, five and one. Sorry to get that correct.
There was the one tie in there.
But go back to what was the most probably dominant performance green Bay had against him. It was last December. Yeah, and it was their biggest win of that season while the Vikings were basically getting ready for a playoff run.
Yeah, that was. That was by far Kirk Cousins worst game as a as a quarterback against the Packers. He had, you know, through three interceptions. The Vikings offense never really got going until the game was well out of hand. Even his his statistics in that game were somewhat misleading because until the Vikings you know got you know, got some some points late that didn't really matter. It was. It was a really really awful day for Minnesota's offense.
I mean, can can the Packers somehow do that to the Vikings offense again? We'll see. I mean Justin Jefferson's not out there. Jordan Addison is going to be a big part of this thing, and TJ. Hockinson is going to be a big part of this thing too. Either. There's some major challenges for green Bay even though Justin Jefferson is on ir.
Yep, No, it's going to be a real challenge. And that's why green Bay, like we said last week, going into Denver, you cannot take any of these games for granted at this point because Michael, it does not get any easier than the stretch. You're getting three or four at home, you're playing all these things at noon games, and then on the other side of it, you're looking at Detroit and Kansas City, so you have to be able to get some wins here.
Yeah, when you look at things from the Vikings perspective too, they're like, you know, as we mentioned at the top of the show, they started out zero to three at this as, okay, we can come into lambeau Field. If we can beat the Packers, get to four and four, then it's almost like they're starting over. They get a clean slate, they get back to five hundred. That's what
the Packers were hoping for with Denver. If the Packers could have gotten the win in Denver, you're three and three, you know, and kind of you throw everything out the window and try to move forward, and then but you don't get that victory, and now you're still you're still chasing, you're still building. So the Packers are trying to do that. The Packers are trying to prevent the Vikings from, you know,
from getting to that restart point at five hundred. Two teams, you know, very for you know, what still counts as an early season game. Two teams that are that are still very much trying to find exactly what direction they're going to go.
Here and what a victory does in the National Football League. I mean, this is kind of a topic that I know Aaron Rodgers touched on with Pat McAfee this week. One win changes everything. I mean, you look at the Minnesota Vikings, even what I wrote on Monday originally for our Insider Inbox column, and then they come out and they play the way they did against San Francisco the
New York Jets. I mean, now you're listening to some of these things this week with the Broncos talking about how they want to end their losing streak to the Kansas City Chiefs that's been sixteen in a row or whatever like that. Yeah, one win, It's crazy, man, This is a crazy, crazy league.
A couple other games I want to mention, just because it's a very curious schedule in the NFL this week. In Week eight, there were two two what you call the cross conference games that kind of caught my eye. One is Cleveland is at Seattle and the other one is Cincinnati is at San Francisco. I think both of these are really intriguing games in terms of teams that obviously don't face each other very often. Cleveland's still going
with PJ. Walker at quarterback. Deshaun Watson won't be able to play, you know, don't look now, but the Seattle Seahawks are four and two and now have a home game with a chance to a chance to get to
five and two. And then the Bengals they you know, they got themselves back to even they're at that three and three point where they're going to try to jump start and move forward, but they have to go to San Francisco and play a Niners team now that has suddenly lost two straight after a five and zero start.
You know exactly where our things with San Francisco and the offense, with the injuries they're dealing with with Deebo Samuels and Trent Williams and guys like that, those two games just really intriguing to me in terms of sort of that uncommon opponent type stuff.
And just to give credit again to the Vikings, I mean they they responded better without their top wide out than the forty nine ers did. Now. I know Samuel is not the same type of receiver. They'll use him in sixty different ways, but that offense really struggled without him. There I thought that was sort of the running made to Christian McCaffrey, and they just they lost something without him on the field with that shoulder injury. But yeah, this whole week, Mike, I mean, look at all these
matchups when you talk about it. You know, the Rams going up against the Cowboys, that's a huge game for both of those teams. CJ. Stroud taking on Bryce Young, the Jaguars and the Steelers. I mean, for whatever reason, there's no buys this week. I didn't understand that.
Oh really, I don't know how to.
I can't figure out, for the life of me, the algorithm the NFL is using with bye weeks. Last year there wasn't Week five bye weeks, and this year Week four bye weeks, and this year there was, and now there's no Week eight bye weeks. That maybe we're observing Halloween or something. I'm not sure, but that seems very odd to me. But getting back to the original crux of this thing, you have teams like the Browns in
the Seahawks, those are very incomplete teams. The Browns are winning these things with one of the best defenses we've seen in this era, but they have really crazy questions, right now yet their quarterback position the Seahawks. You know, Kenneth Walker, the third is dealing with a calf injury right now. How's that gonn affect him? They need him going.
Tyler Lockett is not doing anything like That's what makes this league so interesting on a week to week basis is you have teams that are rising in full and it really seems to swing by the quarter and it'll be very interesting to see where it goes. But the message of that that I want to today and the point I want to make with that is it does show you what the power of one win can do, especially in a Green Bay Packers case where they're looking to end this three game losing streak.
Yeah. Absolutely, that's what the Packers are after. It's get a win and then try to move forward from there. And it's about time that the Packers get one. So with that, we will call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team and everything from Sunday's game at lambeau Field. We will have it all for you on Packers dot Com. For Wes, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in. Everybody, we will see you next time.