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, Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to you, you hear from our studios at Lambeufield, back from the Thanksgiving weekend, Wes and we are here to talk about a Thanksgiving victory by the Green Bay Packers twenty nine to twenty two over the Detroit Lions at Ford Field.
And there are wins, and there are big wins, Wes, and I think for the first time this season, for the first time probably since Week seventeen last year, when the Packers beat the NFC North champion Minnesota Vikings rather soundly at lambeau Field, we can say the Packers chalked up a big win. This is the biggest one of twenty twenty three so far, a good one for the Packers to get.
As the great Roy Jones Junior once said, y'all must have forgot because the Green Bay Packers showed up in Detroit. And I'll tell you what, man, I think the popular sentiment in that locker room afterwards. You were with Jordan Love and Matt Lafleur, But listening to Kenny Clark and Christian Watson and a lot of these vets say we didn't get there. Weren't a lot of people giving us
a chance in this game, but they believed. And if you look at one of the most common denominators between where the Green Bay Packers have been from week one to week now thirteen, it's been belief. The execution hasn't always been there. Sometimes there's been a few more mistakes than Matt Lafleur would have liked, but this team always believed.
And with a seventeen man injury report, with four of the five guys who are questionable for this game not being able to play, they only had aj Dillon available. This team was undeterred. And it didn't matter if it was Jordan Love having another three touchdown zero interception game or Christian Watson having his biggest game of the season, the young receivers defensively, Gary stepping up in a huge way.
When Matt Lafleur gives everybody a game ball afterwards that's on the roster, it speaks to the Packers quite literally needing everybody on that game day active forty eight, and they found a way to get it done. Yeah.
I mean when you look at you look at how banged up the Packers were coming into this game. You're short handed at running back, you're short handed at wide receiver on the offensive side. On the defensive side, your secondary is still banged up. You've got a lot of backups and reserves playing there. You're not full strength at inside linebacker. So where did this game have to be won?
It had to be one up front. The Packers were in good shape on their offensive line, they were in good shape on their defensive line, and those were the two units that you know, quite frankly, got it handed to them by the Detroit Lions back in Week four at Lambell Field. And don't think that NFL players don't remember that kind of stuff, right. I Mean, the Packers completely turned the tables in the trenches in this game compared to the first matchup with the Lions this season.
And that was the difference. The offensive line, the plan with the tight ends and the double teams in the chip blocks. They took Aiden Hutchinson out of the game, and he was the guy who completely wrecked the game back in Week four. I've got a whole bunch of clips. In my what you might have missed all the different ways that the Packers took care of Aiden Hutchinson and did not let him become a factor in this game at all. But on the flip side, also the defensive
front you mentioned Rashan Gary. He goes back to the stadium in which he tore his acl last November, and he has a three sack, two forced fumble game, one of those forced fumbles being a scoop and score by Jonathan Owens, a reserve safety. With the secondary all banged up, as you said, Wes, this was an all hands on deck game. But where the Packers were strongest in terms of their health was in the trenches on the offensive and defensive lines, and those two units came through big time.
Elton Jenkins, And it's been fun watching Elton because he's become a leader of that locker room. He's not just a leader of the offensive lineman. He's become one of the voices of that locker room. It's a reasoned voice. He's not gonna go up there and making any huge declarations to anybody in terms of what he thinks the team is capable of. Right, But I think they follow that. I think they follows even keeledness in the way that he carries himself. And he was saying afterwards, like we
wanted to dominate in this game. We understood what happened and what our role was. In Week four in Green Bay having that loss, and that was a difficult time. If you remember, Elton was dealing with a knee injury. They just lost David again for the season.
And the guy Tom was playing banged up in that game too. You know, he was gutting through a pretty difficult injury on a short week, with that game being on a Thursday back in September.
And in this game, Green Bay Packers didn't care. They went out there and they played on their terms. And Mike I of the mentality that Matt Lafleur took with this football team. You don't have any practices, you're just doing walkthroughs. So if I could, I would love to see the footage of them and the creek or wherever they were running through those first fifteen plays and the ideology that was following it, the fact that if we win the opening coin toss, we are going to take
the football for the first time the season. We are not going to defer. We are going to go into the mouth of the lion. No pun intended. Pretty good line though, or pun intended or pun intended maybe if I want to be like that. But we're gonna throw a pass up for fifty three yards to Christian Wattson, a guy that this offense desperately needed to get going. They gave him the ball on back to back plays to start this thing. Yep, Jordan Love throws this magician
pass to Jayden Reid on a slant. I've watched this thing twenty five times and I still don't know how the football got in there. Five plays, seventy five yards get into the end zone, exactly the start green Bay needed. Michael The defense contributed to but twenty first quarter points, matching green Bay's output through the first ten games combined. In the first quarter, Yeah, green Bay Packers got it done the way they needed to.
Yeah, it was pretty remarkable. I thought, you know, the way this game started, the big pass to Christian Watson. Matt Lafleur had said he pondered that first play call quite a bit. He thought about changing it. He mentioned to Jordan Love he was thinking about changing it, not taking the deep shot, and Jordan Love said, no, I want that play. Let's do it, you know, let's call that. On the first one, Christian Watson goes up between two defenders, attacks,
the ball comes down with at fifty three yards. As you said. A few plays later, they're in the end zone when Watson runs the wrong route which created all of that traffic, but the ball got through, and you know, hats off to Jaden Reid for having the concentration with a guy draped on him and with Christian Watson cutting across and blocking his vision and everything, he's still able to make that catch and get the ball into the
end zone. But what I liked even more, quite frankly west than the opening series was that after the Lions responded right away with a touchdown of their own, the Packers' offense got right back to work. They went right back down the field and they were right back in the end zone again. It was like, okay, you matched us, Well, we're going to take the lead again and see what you can do. And then what happens. That's where you get the first sack, fumble, the scoop and score by
Jonathan Oens and suddenly you're up by two touchdowns. And yes, the Lions they had gotten within nine and then very late in the game they got within seven. But you know, the Packers sort of maintained that two score lead for the most part, you know, the rest of the ball game. And you can't that was for a for as hostile an environment as that was. That place was chalk full
of Detroit fans. It's Thanksgiving. There aren't a lot of There were very few Green Bay fans in the stands and throughout the you know, I had mentioned this, and this is what I felt sitting in the press box. Throughout that whole game. That crowd was into it. They were expecting Theirs to come back. They had just seen their Lions come back from twelve down with four minutes to go against the Bears. That crowd was expecting another comeback. They thought, Okay, the Packers have had their fun. Our
guys are going to get things going here. They made things as difficult as they could on Jordan Love and the offense with all the noise, but Jordan Love stayed in command of things from the start. There was the one mix up on the fourth and short with the handoff to aj Dillon where they got crossed up and they ran into each other. Other than that, you can't you almost can't even point to a play where you go, boy,
they really messed that one up, right. I mean, Jordan Love was in command of this game, and we've seen him. When you're talking about the Steelers game, to the Chargers game, to the Lions game, the arrow, the arrow keeps pointing up with Jordan Love.
He's there.
You know. There are lots of fits and starts through the first seven eight games of the season. Now, all of a sudden, we're starting to see steady consists. Didn't continual progress with Love and with the offense as a whole. It's exciting to think what the last month and a half of this season might hold.
If we had more video technology. We could bring up the clip right now when you and I are talking about going into that game against Chicago in Week one and what had to happen by December first, what this offense needed to do with these young perimeter players and the strides they needed to make. Pittsburgh was such a turning point for them for a number of reasons, but I thought the biggest one was it was the first game that Green Bay had lost, and credit to you
for pointing this out. I didn't necessarily believe it myself, but it was the first game they lost where if you took away the ending, you felt the progress there and you felt like they were building towards something. When you took the emotion out of it, and you look at what's happened since then, four days you go back to back games against the Chargers and the Lions. The challenge mentally and physically that that brings upon a football team and its players, the Green Bay Packers stood up
to it. And if there was ever a stretch that I thought embodied what Jordan Love is as a quarterback, being able to take away the noise, being able to look past the factor three and six and just focus on the task at hand, first against the Chargers and then against the Lions, it was this stretch. You're seeing a young quarterback improve, You're seeing the skill position players around him improve and galvanize, and I think that's making all the difference. But if I may, I give a
lot of credit. No one's going to write about it. Matt Lafuor certainly doesn't want it talked about. But the way that Lafleur attacked this game strategically, being able to punch a team in the face on its home field in the first quarter. Yeah, it felt really good and it was a fast start, but Mike, it dictated the rest of the game. Detroit was able to mount a fair amount of total yards. They had production, but Green
Bay was able to play with that lead defense. They didn't rupture for big plays and the Lions could not get in the end zone. Yeah.
I mean, one last thing I want to comment with regard to the offense before I'll follow up on what you just said with the defense. The other thing that you saw happening in this game, not just from one player, not just from Christian Watson on the opening play of the game, but throughout the game as you saw Maleiku Heath and Jaden Reid and Romeo Dobbs and Watson all
making contested catches. Jordan Love was giving was putting the ball in places where they would have a chance to make plays, and a lot of those plays weren't going Green Bay's way. Earlier in the season, the receivers were not able to come down with those not from a lack of effort, but just lack of experience that you know, things don't work out quite right. Well, those things are starting to work out now those guys are attacking the ball. I mean, my favorite one, quite frankly, was the one.
It was over the middle on It was kind of a long yarded situation. I believe it was second and long. It was right after a holding penalty, and Romeo Dobbs makes a really tough, tough, contested grab over the middle and that was the first time the ball had come to him since he had dropped a slant on third
down earlier. Romeo just, you know, it's like, okay, you block it out and and he made a much much tougher catch in a big situation that then set up Christian Watson's touchdown in the third quarter there on the defensive side of the ball. You said it with regard to the how the Packers ultimately were able to contain the Lions, and it came down it came down to fourth down stops. Four times. Four times the Packers stopped the Lions going forward on fourth down. One of those
was the fake punt. Hats off to Lucas van Ness and to kings Leyannigbari. Those were the two guys when I looked at the film. That's it what you might have missed as well. Anigbari sets the edge just like it was a running play. He didn't, you know he he you know, immediately shifted in a run defense mode.
Set the edge Lucas van Ness who had broken through the line, but he immediately shifts to go chase the guy, you know, the up back who takes the takes the direct snap and uh, and they're able to shut down that fake punt. But also three other stops on fourth down were the where the defense just held strong. I mean quay Walker's uh, quay Walker's coverage in the end zone on that pass to uh was it Laporta? I
think who was who was running that route? The pressure generated by Preston Smith and Rashaun Garry on on some of those other fourth downs. The defense came up big when it had to. And when you talk about the special teams contribution, I mean Daniel Wheeland, how I mean how many punts were either fair caught or down at the ten yard line or they you know, yeah yeah, and one of those was down at the two yard line.
You can't you can't overstate how important field position was in this because as you said, the Lions did rack up a bunch of yards, but at the end of the day, they didn't they they didn't get the points out of it because they were starting every drive from the ten yard line. It seemed like, which which put the Packers defense in great position. When you have all three all three phases of the team doing those kinds of things, reducing the mistakes, you never play a perfect game.
But to see the Packers in command of a game essentially from start to finish on the road against the team that is leading the division, leading the NFC North by a pretty wide margin, it was it was impressive. And that that's as big a building block as the Packers have set down for whatever the future is, whatever that they've set down in their foundation. That's the biggest one of this season.
There was a lot of consternation and insider inbox about complimentary football and the way that you spell it this past couple days.
But oh, we have to have our fun. We have letters too.
But when you when you talk about winning and losing, and a lot of times it will go back to the quarterback. I get it. That is obviously where the ball starts, and it is about who has the ball in his hands. But complimentary football is something that is really wrap did up here, I thought for green Bay over the last few months, last few weeks, I should say, and being able to again a team like the Lions.
I mean, a lot of people forget man, the Lions were on a seven game winning streak against the division, and they'd beaten the Packers four straight times, and if they would have gotten the fifth, that would have been the first time since the streak of eleven straight losses for Green Bay from nineteen forty nine to fifty three.
Yeah, you're talking back in the early fifties, that day time, in that last time the Lions had beaten the Packers that many times in a row.
Yeah, that they'd been in that kind of rut. Dare I say so, to be able to do this, I think there's so much that goes into it, And Mike, not that it's ever about Okay, well you got one back because of some of these losses earlier this year.
I think the difference is is that the green Bay Packers learned from those losses and now they beat an eight win football team, a team that is right at the top of the NFC, and It's a reminder here, especially after everything that happened on Monday Night football, that you know, the playoffs are very much in reach. If the Green Pack can start to build on this and take care of business.
Yeah, that's what I want to talk about next, is some of the things as far as where this picture looks. But I'll take care of some sponsor business first. 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 ed 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, the Packers have won three of their last four. They actually, you know, one play away if you look at the Pittsburgh game, right, you're one play away from a four game winning streak, but three of their last four they are at five and six. The Minnesota Vikings took one on the chin Monday night at home against the Chicago Bears, who are
suddenly playing a little bit different brand of football. When you look at the fact that they had the Lions down by twelve points with four minutes to go and let that one get away. They almost let the game in Minneapolis Monday Night get away, but they get a last second field goal from Cairo Santos, his fourth field goal the game. They win without a touchdown, twelve to ten. So the Minnesota Vikings now are six and six heading
into their bye week. So the Packers and the Vikings tied in the lost column with six losses a piece. The Vikings currently have the last playoff spot in the NFC if the season ended today, but also the sixth spot. The second the last spot in the NFC is the Seattle Seahawks, who are six and five. They only have one fewer loss than the Packers because they lost on
Thanksgiving to the San Francisco forty nine ers. And also with the Packers at five and six, you have the New Orleans Saints, you have the Los Angeles Rams, the Packers. You know, you like the fact that you know this could shake out in any number of ways. You like the fact that the Packers beat both of those teams. When it comes to potential tiebreaker scenarios, down the road.
But here's the thing, Wes, none of this stuff matters because the Packers are still the team you know, trailing and chasing, right, You're trailing and chasing at this point. None of this matters if you don't keep stacking victories and keep putting pressure on those teams that are in front of you. And we'll talk on our next show
about the Kansas City Chiefs. The opponent company here to Lambellfield a tremendous challenge, but one that certainly the whole outlook of this game with the Chiefs coming to Lambeoufield looks very very different with the Packers coming off this win over the Lions.
You use the word challenge, I will use the word opportunity because the Grivay Packers suddenly are on their first winning streak of the season. They are if you win three games, then you can, I think officially label it is that what Major League taught us, yeah, back in the day. But but the bigger thing.
Is is that has happened before?
What it has happened before? What a way that would be to catapult yourself into December, A December in which Matt Lafleur is still fifteen to h during his time as the Packers head coach. His teams know how to finish and and for Green Bay standpoint Mike, the record is great, you know, in terms of where they are, that they're in this race, and you can talk all about this and you can talk about seedings and playoffs and all this jazz, but the bigger thing for me
is how this young football team. And I'm gonna still say young because I'm not officially in the locker room, I'm not on the coaching staff, I'm not teaching anybody the game. I'm just observing. It is one of the youngest, if not the youngest football team in the National Football League, and they're getting better and you know, we'll see how
this goes. You have to have consistency. I know what the schedule looks like on the other side of the Kansas City game, a lot of what people would refer to as winnable games for the Green Bay Packers, But there's six games to go and six games to prove your point right now if you're this football team, but being able to get a win like that against Detroit on the road in the division and kind of put your foot down and say we are a good football team.
We have potential to be a good football team. Not next year, not the year after that, but in the here and now. I thought was important because there is a swagger that goes along with it. Last quick point here with Rashaun Gary three sacks, two force fumbles, first Packers player to do that since Aaron Campman in twenty six. You want to talk about a defining performance for a young player in a rallying cry for the defenders around him.
The Green Bay Packers won this game with Carrington Valentine, a rookie seventh round pick at cornerback. Corey Ballantine over at the other cornerback spot, a guy that was on the practice squad earlier this season. Jonathan Owen's on the back end, rookie seventh round pick Anthony Johnson junior at safety, Isaiah McDuffie staying in for Devondre Campbell, whom the Packers hope to have back this week. The Packers have had
so much stuff go against them this season. When things start to align, it makes you really wonder about what the possibilities are for really all the phases, but you know, specifically these units that have been impacted by injuries, what their true potential is, because I think you're seeing it right now with the receivers.
Yeah, there's going to be coming off of this win on Thanksgiving and with the hope that the Packers are going to get a little bit healthier, and we'll have a little bit more of an update in that regard on our next show, because we'll at least have seen you know who's practicing on Wednesday when we sit down
to do our Thursday show. But the level of excitement that's being generated now by this team and coming into a Sunday night football game against the defending Super Bowl champions and all that Patrick mahomes first appearance in his career at lambeau Field, everything that goes along with that. There's a lot of excitement here as far as as
far as what is going on. And Packers fans are gonna sit back all day on Sunday and scoreboard watch, right because you don't have a you don't have a Packers game to watch until seven thirty Central Time or whatever the kickoff is, and there will be a lot of other a lot of other games to pay attention to. That'll be u that'll be worth watching. A couple other comments I want to make with regard to Week twelve, because we always look around the league a little bit.
Two biggest things that jumped out at me West as far as the other results. Also on Thanksgiving, that San Francisco forty nine Ers victory over the Seahawks sure feels like whatever that three game losing streak was that the Niners went through is like ancient history. At this point they have they have put that in the rearview mirror.
They are in complete control of the NFC West and and the Niners look like they are ready to to make a charge here down the stretch and see where they end up in the seating with regard to the playoff picture. And on the other side of things, the Buffalo Bills, Man, you talk about a gut punch loss. They left it all on the field at the Link in Philadelphia against the only team left in the NFL with just one loss on the season, the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Bills had the lead for good chunks of that game. They had the lead right up to the end of the fourth quarter. They took a lead in overtime. They just could not put the Eagles away. And man, and as as tough and convoluted and complicated as that AFC
playoff picture is going to be. To think that the Buffalo Bills are sitting at six and six with all of the other quarterback injuries and things that have gone on in the AFC, but they're going to be struggling to get to get a playoff spot here now, it's
not over for them. Not that not saying that at all, but man, if you had told me at the start of the season that Josh Allen's basically going to be healthy through the first three month of the year and the Buffalo Bills are going to be six and six, I would have said, you're crazy. But that's where they are.
Yeah, Bills have just had some terrible losses. I mean, they have a hard schedule the way it is. Yes, they're division champion, but then the games that they needed to win they didn't win. I mean, they lost to the Jets early on, They lost to the New England Patriots, who only have two wins so far on the season.
They lost to the Broncos because they had twelve guys on the field on a last second field goal attempt that gave the Broncos another crack and they took a loss there, so.
You know what happens when you face a team that is the defending NFC representative in the Super Bowl. They're gonna be in these games right down to the wire. And Jalen Hurts is a really good ace to have up your sleeve.
Yeah he is.
But if I may really quickly, the big thing I thought was my takeaway from this, in addition to what you said about San Francisco, although I do think when Deebo Samuel's available, they're just an entirely different football team than when he's not. Agreed that was a big part of it, but agreed, it was that the Green Bay Packers. The message that I look at for them to have out of all this is just win football games. Whether it's Kansas City or the Carolina Panthers, just win football games.
Because this week was a reminder. And and the Josh Dobbs thing is a great story, and I will not take anything away from him, but you and I were conversing a little bit on Monday night about this, and the main thought that kept the voice I heard, the Mike McCarthy voice in the back of my head about you know, there's good players there's good players with moments of greatness, and then there's elite players. Josh Dobbs is a good player with moments of greatness. But there's something
about this game, with the difficulty of it. It drags you back down to earth real quick, yep does. And Chicago is if Chicago's going to do anything the Josh the Justin fields things. If they're ever going to do anything, they have to find ways to turn these takeaways into points. They still aren't doing it, and they got away with one against Minnesota. Luckily for green Bay it worked out that way. But there's gonna be teams here, you know, team like Seattle too, has some really off matchups on
the horizon. The Green Bay Packers just need to win football games here. They need to take care of business. And you know, see where it takes you from there, because I I really have a hard time believing Mike at least not one, if not both of the wild card spots, they are really only gonna need nine wins to break into the postseason.
Yeah, it might, It certainly might end up that way. And with with six games to go for all of these teams that are anywhere from you know, six and five to four and seven right now in the NFC, all these teams that are that are bunched into that group that you look at as as you know, contending for those last two, the six and seven spots. There are six games to go. That is a ton of football,
a whole bunch of games that week to week. You know, this team's gonna win and then be the team everybody's you know, scared of, and then the next week they're gonna take it on the chin. And you know, as you said, it's it's you. You just have to you just have to keep winning games. You have to win whatever games you can. You just you you prepare every week. It's a week to week league. It's one at a time. All all of those cliches, they're cliches, Wes because they're.
True, absolutely, and they say it a lot.
Exactly exactly, So with that we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team all week long on Packers dot com. For Wes, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time.