#750 Packers Unscripted: Conquering the Chiefs

last five in the win column. And I tell you, if you were going to script the beginning of a game and it wasn't going to when your defense is facing a challenge like Patrick Mahomes and this Chiefs offense, and if that script is not allowed to include you know, turnovers and you know, a defensive touchdown like in Detroit on Thanksgiving, having the Packers score two touchdowns on their first two drives, having the Kansas City Chiefs held out of the end zone on their first two drives, and

then you're at the two minute warning heading into halftime and that Patrick Mahomes has only gotten the ball twice. You can't other than turnovers. You couldn't draw it up any better.

of the season with three touchdowns and no interceptions. My headline for Insider Inbox was one of the first things I wrote when I was putting that together for Tuesday was Jordan Love was at his best when it's team needed it the most, and to have the players around him pick him up. Romeo Dobbs with one of the sickest catches.

get that victory either. Now, suddenly from two and five and three and six after a frustrating loss in Pittsburgh, one that, as we have talked about, was where some signs were being shown. The Pittsburgh loss had that had a familiar ending, but that entire game was not the same script, was not the same story as some of those other frustrating losses. That's where things started to turn. And now from being two and five and three and

six to being six and six. And to me, this game, when you look at the Packers offense, this game was about the command that Jordan Love had I mean in terms of in terms of the checks at the line, whether he was under center in the shotgun. I made a comment in Insider Inbox that to me, when AJ Dillon's pounding out the yarts, he that he is and

he's done this throughout his career. Now late in the season, he really is that big, powerful, cold weather, bad weather running back, and the Packers are using that right now. When a running back is pounding out those kind of yards, and then we see Jordan Love running play action, he just looks like he's got command of the whole field in the pocket off of that playfake when you know

you've got the defense playing you. Honestly, the pass protection is holding up, and the way the Packers are able to push the ball downfield right now and then have those checkdowns available when Love needs them, the offense is in a really good place.

He averaged four point one yards per carry. Mike, do you know what his longest carry was in this game?

that ag Dillon was running the football exceptional. But the thing I loved most was how I've opened up the play action game and everything started building off one another. The end a rounds, the jet motions, they were almost like the Aaron Jones, so to speak. As far as

the contrast to the power running style of aj Dillon. Sure, and when you got the play action game going, you could just see Kansas City's defense especially want to be as aggressive as they are, but fuddled and probably my favorite image of this season so far, and we've started to see it in recent weeks because you can see not from an overconfidence standpoint, but you can see Jordan Love feeling himself. You can see him enjoying it. You

can see him having fun out there. It's when they've gotten some of these plays off play action where everything is blocked, the protection is there, and Jordan's kind of hoppen a little bit as he's looking downfield trying to find something. You can see the excitement in the young man at making plays and from the greenmat Packers' perspective, twenty five completions on thirty six attempts. His overall passer completion percentage is now over sixty percent on the season.

That was a big thing we talked about earlier this year. Two sixty seven, three touchdowns, one eighteen point six pass rating. Michael, we're talking right now in terms of the NFL. One of the best guys performing at that position.

a poor game by any stretch. But you mentioned earlier that the Packers never blinked, and this was a game that as it was going along, you know, the Packers score, the Chief's answer, you know, Packers score, Chiefs answer with another field goal. But then the Chiefs get the ball. Packers, you know, botched a chance to get a two score lead going into halftime. There was a there was a false start there and the passing game kind of broke down. They weren't able to get the field goal attempt to

make it seventeen to six. The Chiefs get the ball coming out of halftime and they go right down and get their first touchdown of the game. Packers stopped the two point conversion, but so it's fourteen to twelve. But at that point it became a game of like, okay, who's gonna blink first, right, and you look at the you know the next well, I shouldn't say the next couple of possessions in succession, but to two possessions in

the second half as this thing unfolded. One was the Packers, face to fourth and one, decided to pass on what would have been a very long field goal attempt, went for it, and that became the Romeo Dobs catch that you mentioned, where you know, Jordan Love has the pressure right in his face, Chris Jones is as close to burying him as Chris Jones got all night long, quite frankly.

But Love sees that the Kansas City secondary is a little bit mixed up and doesn't think anybody's really going to be able to make a play on Romeo, so he throws it up there and Dobbs is able to come down with it between multiple defenders who are converging but couldn't get there, which is exactly what Love thought when he let the ball go, that they wouldn't get there in time. Huge fourth and one conversion. So that was a moment where maybe the Packers were going to blink.

The Chiefs are going to get a fourth downstop and take over with just a two point deficit. It would have stayed fourteen to twelve at that time, but you convert the four and one and then against the blitz you hit Christian Watson for his second touchdown of the game.

The other blink moment then became when it's twenty four to nineteen, the Chiefs have the ball, they get a pass interference against the Packers that puts them just across midfield, and then Keishawn Nixon comes up with an interception, and that was the first time either quarterback blinked in this game.

Nixon gets the pick with about five minutes to go, and you, I'll let you take the story from here, because you heard from Nixon in the locker room and wrote about how he had used some pretty extensive film study to get a read on what was going to happen there that led to his interception.

And in this particular case, it was one of the checks that Patrick Mahomes was making that he had talked with I should say, he being Keishawn Nixon, had discussed with his coaches and in the cornerbacks room as Okay, if this happens and this is the look that you're getting with two receivers over on the right side, this might be what the check is going to be, and ultimately how the play is going to play out. The one thing, maybe you deduced it a little bit better

than I did. Watching it unfold from the Kansas City perspective, I was trying to figure out if they were trying to run a rub route or if it was just a quick stop and then the guy going underneath it. It was kind of a weird sort.

the inside receiver, is looping underneath. I believe it's Rashi Rice who who's running just a quick stop route from the outside, so he's looping underneath. What Nixon was able to do is he is he stayed back so that he didn't, you know, run into Rice or Rice's defender on the short route. He stayed back, he was able to loop behind. And really then what happened when you look at it closely on the film is when sky Moore it kind of looks like a wheel route, and

it does. It's not a wheel route out of the backfield, but it's a wheel route from the slot around the other receiver. What sky Moore realizes is how good a position Nixon is in, and he sort of realized I'm not going to win this route, and he starts to slow up, but Mahomes has already let the ball go because he's counting on his guy to run the route, and by slowing up like he did, he didn't have a chance to sort of defend Nixon from being able

to pick the ball off. Nixon had a clean open catch because because More wasn't running full speed on the route. Because Nixon played it so well, it was like it was sort of like I got you, I beat you, and More gave up on the play. So that's the kind of thing that it was a mistake by the Chiefs offense. The Packers were able to take advantage cash in and then and they ran the clock down almost to a minute left to go before kicking the field of the field goal to go up eight points.

four and four on the season. When Patrick Mahomes has an interception, they haven't lost when he doesn't have one. So it shows you just how quickly that can all turn on them if it doesn't work out that way. Yeah, Keishaw Nixon, I said it was one of the finest over the shoulder interceptions I've ever seen. I'll say this, I don't know if I've ever seen it over the shoulder interception within ten yards of the play. Sometimes it happens if a guy lofts a ball and that the

receiver doesn't run it rout right or it's overthrown. Keisha Nixon had an over the shoulder interception that ended up in sort of a toe taper on the sidelines, all within like ten yards. Yeah, it was kind of a wild thing, and I know a lot of people the reactions of this thing I've seen, I mean, just people completely awestruck at it. But as Nixon said afterwards, he's like, I've had a couple of those chances already this season.

We remember one of them, I believe in Denver, where he was so close to being able to just couldn't get his feet Downes caught the ball, but it's the other part of the process of the catch that one. He did it, and it was a huge moment for greenback.

sit in the playoff picture in a minute. It came at a cost, however, unfortunately, because Christian Watson in the fourth quarter, as he picked up a crucial first down to move the chains, keep the clock moving there late in the fourth quarter, he tweaked his hamstring, went down, was helped off the field. We don't know the extent of the injury where things are at. It is an injury that he has dealt with in one form or another throughout his two seasons in the NFL, So that's

very unfortunate. Christian Watson was really getting going, not only having the two touchdown catches against the Chiefs, but four of his five touchdowns on the season. We're in this three game winning streak that the Packers are currently on. He was, you know, starting to certainly starting to look like the Christian Watson that you know that took the league by storm over a four or five game stretch

last season as a rookie. In November, we'll see how long he's going to be out, and it's it's a big blow to the Packers offense when you add the fact that Luke Muskrave, your rookie tight end who had been just starting to stretch defenses a little bit and get more attention and whatnot, he's also out now. He's on injured reserve and we don't really know if or

when he'll be back this season. So offensively, another hurdle to deal with here as Matt Lafleur and the offensive coaches are going to have to game plan presumably, you know, I would think at least this game against the Giants and maybe another one, who knows. We don't know the timeline, but there's going to be some time here that Christian Watson is going to miss and they're gonna have to game plan and set up the offense moving forward without number nine on the field.

Set career high seven receptions, but it was only for seventy one yards, but so many of those plays, none of which were more than twenty yards on an individual catch, but so many of those plays contributed to either the Packers sustaining a drive or as we saw the two touchdowns the first one in the second quarter, in the second one and the third, and how strongly he attacked the football and just being able to use all of his tools together as one. You had to edit it.

When I wrote it last month, Christian Watson was going to be just fine. I liked his mentality, I liked his athleticism. I felt like he was going to be able to pull himself back into this thing and finish strong, which he has been doing. Unfortunately, the inner the hamstring does pop up. One thing he did clarify, and I want to make sure we make this point. His people had kind of been asking on social media or some of the media had been talking about, well, him trying

to stop himself to stay in balance. Is where the hamstring injury happened. Watson said, No, it happened during the process of it. He just went down, not to make anything worse. I mean, obviously he wanted to stand bounce, but they had already had the issue before that, so you hope for the best. It was good to see him walking around. Obviously, he was talking with teammates afterwards. It you know, it's not like Desmond Bishop situation, which is always the one in the back of my head

when a guy goes down like he did. But hamstring injuries also don't heal themselves overnight. We're gonna have to see what the Packers do here.

point about that. What I considered an extremely chaotic final drive, I don't and I don't think it was just because I was live blogging the game and trying to figure out and keep up.

manage the clock correctly? Absolutely not. And then you have the Hail Mary, which apparently, and I'm not watching the NBC broadcast, but apparently they were making a big deal out of Travis Kelsey getting shoved in the back by Jonathan Owens on the Hail Mary. And it's like, Okay, when's the last time you ever saw a pass interference flag?

I mean, come on, folks. I literally I have seen I believe in my lifetime, I have seen one pass interference flag thrown on a hail mary and it was literally when a guy got grabbed and dragged to the ground where they had there was like no choice if you are jock for a position to go try to get the football. It's an anything goes free for all situation. The point I wanted to make about all this is hearing the comments afterward from Patrick Mahomes and from Travis

Kelcey with regard to the final drive. Mahomes is asked about the interference on Valentine, the deep ball to MVS that wasn't called, and Patrick Mahomes says, I need to throw better football. Travis Kelsey's asked about the hail mary and he says, I'm not putting this loss on anything but ourselves. That's how champions talk. That's how champions two Super Bowl championships in the last handful of years. That's

how champions deal with defeats like that. They are not pointed the fans are gonna do what they want to do. Those players are not pointing the fingers at the officials for how that thing went down, and I think that's just it's an important thing to remember. It's an important thing to file away. How the Kansas City Chiefs dealt with this.

Bay in twenty fourteen. Here there's teams that chase the playoffs, were trying to make the playoffs, and there's teams that are trying to build themselves into Super Bowl champions, and that's what the Patriots did in twenty fourteen. It wasn't a controversial ending like that, but I just remember Bill Belichick talking about what they'd learned from that game in the fact they ended up not losing another game the

rest of the season. For the Chiefs perspective, there's a lot of things that Kansas City has to shore up. We've seen it it's been something that's cost them some games. In this particular one, it was chaotic no matter which way you slice it, Packers, Chiefs, whoever. The officiating kind of started to alter the way that this what extremely entertaining in exciting football game was playing out. But you

have to overcome it. The one thing I found most interesting about the discussion about the hill Mary was just that it's like, have you ever watched the play before in the understanding that when a hail Mary goes up? It's not It's the one play where the defense is kind of seen as in a second offense, so to speak. Everyone can attack the football.

Guessing we're not going to see it. I'm guessing there's just going to be some reports coming out on Saturday about whether or not John Nathan Owens was fine, and that's all we're going to be left to deduce from this. But as Dean Blandino pointed out, there, when you look at the way that everything played out at the end, the officiating call on the Mahomes thing, he was clearly in bounds that should not have happened. That's where it all started. And then the MBS play Obviously you watch it,

you see the contact there. But when think but Matt Lafleur touched on it and the little bit that he discussed it on his press conference on Monday, It's about how games are officiated and augmenting yourself to that officiation of the game. It's why I took such an issue with Clete Blakeman's crew in twenty twenty with those playoffs in the FC Championship game, game is officiated one way. They changed it over in the last two minutes and

officiated completely the other way. Whatever. That's where really Brad Allen's crew got into a jam because it was a terrible call. On the Mahomes thing. If you happen to look up and see the screen, even though it's not a reviewable play, they left it up there. You can clearly see Jonathan Owens making the contact with Mahomes while he's still in bounds, not even one foot out of bounds, And I think that's what started to alter the way the rest of the game unfolded.

exactly fall into that category. So I think a potential solution, a potential improvement, is staring the NFL in the face with regard to the safety rules, whether you're talking about late hits, whether you're talking about roughing the passer, whether you're talking about defenseless hits on defenseless receivers, helmet to helmet contact, Just if these calls are going to these are all fifteen yard calls and they cost players money.

Get them right. And I think if you just put the safety rules in the reviewable category, you can get a lot more of this. Right.

talk about where things are in the NFC. This is the easiest way to explain where things are right now. There are four teams in the NFC that are tied at six and six. You have the Packers, the Vikings, the Rams, and the Seahawks, and there are two as far as those teams at six and six, they are fighting for two wild card spots that are available, the number six and the number seven seeds in the NFC.

You also have two teams at five and seven. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New Orleans Saints are both five and seven, one game back of those four teams that are six and six.

breakers as they sit right now. I mean that's valuable only in the sense of, okay, if you don't lose any more games the rest of the season, you know, this is the spot you're you know, this is the spot you would you would occupy. Right So, but there are five games left for all these teams. There is a lot of football left to be played and a

lot to sort out. But the most important thing, of course, is that the Packers are the team that have thrust themselves into this going from three and six to six and six, and I think there's no argument that of those six teams fighting for those two spots, the Packers are the hottest club right now. And it's just up to the Packers to keep this thing going starting next Monday night against the New York Giants.

about what the outcome is going to be. And the Packers have to keep that same mentality because you're gonna look and we'll discuss it later this week. But you know, the Giants are humbling some teams right now. People forget, Giants went into the bye week with back to back wins. They didn't beat the Kansas City Chiefs, they didn't beat the Detroit Lions, but they got back to back wins. So you have to respect the opponent and the threats

that are presented. But for the Green Bay Packers to be able to dig themselves out of that hole and put themselves back in a situation where it can even be a funny little tweet or a nice little thing that's going to get some engagement about how, oh they're technically the seventh seed right now, if the season would end, that is a testament to Matt lafleuor it's a testament

to that locker room. And now that they've tasted some of that success, especially with the young football team, understanding that you can look past no opponent and that schedule gets to be a little bit more favorable. The dark woods are behind you, here. You no longer have to be fearful of the big bad wolf. You still have to be cognizant that there are dangers out there, and the Green Bay Packers have to be able to take care of business or you can get humbled very fast.

on a roll. They are looking, I would argue, even better than at any point they may have looked last year before they lost their quarterback initially when you know when Perdy then had to had to jump into things. It's interesting. The Eagles are still the you know, still have the best record. They're the only team with two losses.

But boy, you know, with the Niners having that tie breaker on the Eagles, now all they have to do is tie them at the seventeen game mark, and the Niners are going to get that first round by eighteen.

Does that locker room think he's the guy?