#746 Packers Unscripted: Amped up

those one score games. This is a team that, certainly at four and five, looking to get to five hundred and keep themselves right in the thick of things in the AFC, But they are not far off from being in a much better position because they played some down to the wire, high scoring, close games, including last week against the Detroit Lions, and the Packers are going to have to be ready for everything that Justin Herbert and this offense is going to throw at him on Sunday afternoon.

I mean when I look at the Chargers and I've watched them a lot this season, because again, Eckler is my fantasy one of my fantasy running backs. What impresses me the most is this game, ultimately, Mike is about moving the chains, and there are very few teams in the National Football League that move the chains better than the LA Chargers.

eleven point three yards. That's extremely rare when a running back is averaging more than ten yards per catch because usually running backs who are used frequently as pass catchers you're going to end up with like an eight or a nine or nine and a half yard average. He's almost at eleven and a half yard average when he catches a pass. And I hope I'm not dating myself here, but he the only comp in a sense that I can say, and it's not even really a comp because

there's a caveat to it. He reminds me of Roger Craig from those old San Francisco forty nine ers offenses. But he's Roger Craig who's a lot harder to tackle because of his quickness and his shiftiness and everything he can do with the ball in his hands. This guy is a big time weapon in this offense, and then as you mentioned, you got Keenan Allen on the outside, seventy three catches, eight hundred and ninety five yards, six touchdowns. This season cracked the ten thousand yard mark. He's now

the sixth active receiver in the NFL. Who's who has ten thousand plus career receiving yards. And the guy pulling the trigger on everything Justin Herbert a ninety nine point five passer rating on the year, seventeen touchdowns, five interceptions, and an arm that is not afraid to make any throw he's asked to make.

work with. He was a dynamic I think in a lot of years would have probably even been a number one overall pick it just so happened that he ended up being in probably the most quarterback rich draft class of this era, and he's done everything I think you

could have asked from him with the Chargers. I know a lot of people bring up his quarterback wins and loss record, but I'll tell you what, Mike, you and I have covered enough football that you know whether or not you have a guy when you've been dealing with him for two three years. Justin Herbert is the guy for the Chargers. And as much as we've always talked about the Packers in this tradition of quarterbacks, I think you really need to put the Chargers in that conversation too.

To go from Drew Brees, who wasn't Drew Brees at the time, I get that, But to go from Drew Brees to Philip Rivers to now with Herbert, just that passing the baton and what he's been able to do.

The fact that Keenan Allen has been as dynamic as he's been with both Rivers and Herbert at different junctures in his career, I think speaks to the overall ability of Herbert, who, by the way, has had to make a little bit happen too, because he lost Eckler for a couple of weeks, and he's been without Mike Williams too now after he's been out for the season. So it's not like they just have this plethora of receiving options. A lot of times he's had to make plays on his own as well.

momentum going, he can make plays happen that way. He's kind of like Josh Allen in that way, although it's not though it's not as though the Chargers you know, do like designed runs or called runs for him like Buffalo does with Allen. But for a big guy, he can be really really dangerous when when he decides to

take off and run. The flip side of this, of course, with the Chargers is a struggling defense and that's really the biggest reason that that for everything they've done offensively, they are only four and five so far this year. The defense ranks thirty first in the league in yards allowed, twenty fourth in the league in points allowed, last in the league in passing yards allowed, and in first downs allowed.

Teams have you know, done kind of whatever they've wanted to against against the Chargers defense in a lot of games. And just when the Chargers thought they were kind of getting their defense back to where they'd like to see it after a slow start to the season, then the Detroit Lions and Jared Goff and those guys they got into that shootout last week, and then now everybody's saying with Brandon Staley, like what's going on with that defense again?

With the Packers showing the progress that they did offensively against the Steelers, Like we talked about on our last show, this could be a really really entertaining football game.

Eric Kendricks, you know, Derwin James. They have a lot of talent on that side of the ball. Like, if you just didn't look at the stats all we're just like, okay, this is the defense your face.

Bay standpoint. I think it's a big opportunity. There are yards to be gained out there. They got yards last week against Pittsburgh, who at the time I think was ranked thirty first in total defense, So you hope that you can convert and also being able to make that into points in the red area. But but certainly when you look in terms of what they have in the positions and the talent that is available there, the Chargers look as formidable as any defense you're going to see in this league.

to sell those guys short for a second. But with a buck forty five on the clock in a tie game thirty eight to thirty eight, the Lions had a fourth and two from the twenty six yard line, so it would have been a forty four yard field goal, Dan Campbell did not want Justin Herbert to get the ball back, so he passed on a forty four yard field goal with a buck forty five on the clock, he went forward on fourth and two, was able to convert, and then they drained the clock and kicked a forty

one yard field goals only three yards closer than what he had a minute and forty seconds prior, but because of the fourth down conversion, they were able to drain the clock, hit the forty one yarder as a walk off, and Justin Herbert did not get the ball back. That's his biggest sign in respect for that Chargers offense, coming from a guy like Dan Campbell who would never want

to sell his guy short at all. He did not want Justin Herbert to get the ball back one more time in that game, and he was doing everything he could to prevent that. It worked out for the Lions. It was a kick in the gut loss for the Chargers for as big of a day, as big a day as they had offensively, and you know, response wise, it's going to be interesting here because Chargers had to feel pretty rotten coming off their home field against the Lions.

You know, letting that game get away against Detroit. And while the Packers certainly didn't feel great about things walking off the field in Pittsburgh last week, there were some things, as we talked about, to feel better about that the Packers feel that they can build upon as they get now a home game coming up this week. How each of these teams sort of responds to, you know, their most recent outings last weekend, I think will be very interesting to watch well.

compete for a super Bowl this year. They expected to be a team that's going to make a plusure for a playoffs. And here they are at four and five trying to kind of salvage their season and claw it out to get into a playoff spot here and what is going to be a very competitive AFC playoff picture. Yeah, and I don't know if this bleeds or not. Michael

into the into my keys for victory. But the thing I look at the most of Green Bay is you are back at lambeau Field and this is the second time this season the Chargers are playing on grass, which is just remarkable for how much they've been on turf this year. You have to make sure that you take advantage of that. Secondly, Green Bay has to run the football and they have to defend the run. The Chargers do a lot of things great on offense, running the

ball has not been one of them this year. As dynamic as Eckler has been, he hasn't had as much production on the ground this year. When they had to go to Josh Kelly earlier this year, there wasn't as much production there. You have to get Justin Herbert in this offense into third and long situations, otherwise you're in for a long afternoon.

sub or sub in a bowl. Cousin Subs fifty years of better. I like what you said about obviously getting the Chargers into third and long. What I want to add to that is, I expect, because justin Herbert's a guy who's done it his whole career, the Chargers are gonna convert some third and longs. You're gonna get them in third and ten, and they're gonna move the chains because they're gonna have something there. They can be that

good offensively. I think one of the keys to this for green Bay's defense is to is to not ride that roller coaster, to not suddenly I guess you know, have that big emotional letdown or psychological letdown if you do give up a third and long un version. It's like, hey, strap it up, here's another series. Let's get him in another third down, you know. I mean, that's the mentality you have to take because because these guys when they get in third and long, they're a little bit they're

a little bit better. They're more dangerous in that situation than a lot of other offenses you might face. I guess that's what I'm trying to say.

And the great thing about Alan and what has made him adapt so well as as he's gotten older and he's had some big injuries too, man, but he's always come back and he's evolved, and he's evolved with this passing offense, and certainly he's become the focal point without having Mike Williams there, and he is a guy that is going to help you get right in some of

those situations. I think they have two really good tight ends too, you know, to be honest with you, I think Garrett Everett and then Donald param who's like six foot eight I.

there is you don't want to give up the explosive play. Well, unfortunately for the Chargers this year, they're giving up more first downs than any other team in the league, right And when you are when a defense is taken that away, whether it's the two shell, whether some of their coverages that they're giving you, you have to be able to

find ways to produce yards. And for Green Bay, I think specifically whether it's running the ball, or whether it's getting into those third and favorables, matriculating the ball down the field to steal a phrase there, and kind of working the long way, because when you're going up against a team that can convert and can move the ball and can score in as many different ways as the Chargers can offensively, you have to be able to match that pace.

Alexander this week. So obviously that's going to put again a lot on Carrington Valentine, Corey Ballentine. You know you're going to have Rudy Ford had played last week but then didn't practice on Wednesday, So we're not really sure what the Packers' secondary is going to look like here. For me, if I'm going to talk keys to victory in this game, this just this game just screams at me that it's going to be decided in the red zones.

And I say red zones plural, because I think both of these teams are going to move the ball I think both of these teams are going to have ample scoring opportunities in this game, and I think it's going to come down to can the Packers convert enough of their opportunities in the red zone into touchdowns and can the defense potentially get a couple of stops in the red zone to force field goals. I think that's where I think that's where this game is going to hinge.

You know those two third quarter possessions against the Steelers last week. The Packers move the ball right down the field and you get a first down in the red zone, but then suddenly everything stalls out and back to back opportunities there you end up settling for field goals. And the Packers did use those six points to take the lead. But if those six points are possible ten points or maybe even fourteen, the whole rest of that second half

in Pittsburgh plays out differently. And I think we're going to see opportunities in this game against the Chargers where a lot is going to be hinging in both directions on whether offenses can convert red zone opportunities into touchdowns or if the defenses can't get the stops to force field goals. I think this game gets decided between the twenty yard line and the goal line on both ends of the field.

But Green Bay, it's so interesting, like they're twenty seventh right now in red zone offense and that that's after a few weeks in the beginning of the season where they were right up there as one of the top of the NFL. So just trying to find that momentum again, we've seen it. We saw it at the opening I have last week in Pittsburgh and that beautiful throw that Jordan Love made at the back of the end zone to Romeo Dobbs who did the toe tap and got

the score. Yeah, this offense can do it, but they just especially in the fourth quarter, it's been a real grind lately. So yeah, I agree with you, probably more than anything in this game. Being able to make those those long drives and getting all six points out of them, that that is going to be pivotal for these offenses.

because Thursday night is Cincinnati against Baltimore. Sunday night is Minnesota against Denver, two teams that the Vikings were zero and three, the Broncos were one and five, And now here it is in week eleven and these two teams are playing a game, both of them feeling like they are right in the playoff hunt in their respective conferences. And then the biggest of the big primetime games this

week Monday Night football Philadelphia at Kansas City. So with that primetime slate on the way here in week eleven, I'll let you pick which one you want to start with.

I'll be really honest with you, Mike that the Chicago game is really interesting to me because at the time in which we're taping this, all indications are that Justin Fields is going to play in this game. From what I've been gathering off of the social media so you know, the Bears are still trying to build something here. They're still trying to convince themselves that there's the rainbow at the end of this thing, whether it's this season or

next season. And Denver in Detroit is flying about as high as a team can fly right now, and the culture's there. I even saw that quip. I think that Jamior Gibbs was talking with aman Ross Saint Brown and his thirty third Team podcast even saying, you know, David Montgomery and him talking during the game last week and Montgomery actually like basically giving Gibbs the play to go and score the touchdown on the one yard line when originally Montgomery was going to stay in or Gibbs was

going to come out. They got a good thing going, and I think they've proved me wrong to a certain extent and where they've been able to take this thing. But Chicago Bears, man, and they're another team too that's still trying to show that, Hey, you know, there's still something to be salvage from the season. This would be no better way to do it than going into Detroit and finding a win. Yeah.

But that being said, what I wanted to alert our regular watchers and listeners to is that we will just have one episode next week as usual, posted on a Tuesday, but then we will not have the usual Thursday episode because obviously we'll be in Detroit for Thanksgiving covering the Packers and the Lions.

the AFC. They the Bills might end up being as thankful as anybody that the seventh playoff spot now exists in the conference, because it's another opportunity where they can try to get themselves in and make a run before you know, the proverbia window perhaps starts to starts to get a little smaller after the opportunities that have gotten away from them recently.