Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by the one and only Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from our studios at Lambellfield to talk Packers Giants Monday night football. It's coming up from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey and West This Giants team not having the
season that they envisioned. After an impressive run to a playoff spot and chalking up a playoff victory last year on the road in Minneapolis, the Giants started this season two and eight. They are now four and eight after back to back victories heading into their bye week. They are now coming off the bye when they face the
Packers at home on a Monday night. Not the year that they were looking for, but a team that with these back to back victories heading into their buy you wonder if they're starting to figure something out.
Not easy to win in the National Football League, and the fact that the Giants have won back to back games for the first time this season. The big message that I had in our insider inbox calm this week was the Packers have to proceed with confidence and caution. This is not the time to start overlooking opponents. The
greevad Packers don't have that benefit. When you're six and six, you got five games to go, and you need every single one of these victories possible to improve your situation, to potentially make a playoff spot, and then maybe even try to improve that positioning in the postseason. Yet, you can't take anybody for granted. I think Tommy DeVito has
given this team some life. I know it was a little bit of controversy earlier this week with the decision that hey, Tyrod Taylor's back, but they want to still run with DeVito. Yeah. I think that's the right call. I respect Tyrod. He's had a tremendous career. Maybe they have to go back to him at some point. But when you've won back to back games, I know what
the opposition was. I know it wasn't they didn't beat the Detroit Lions and the Kansas City Chiefs, But there's a little bit more swagger in this team, and it was a team that has been struggling to have confidence lately. And if you have somebody that you feels odd hand, you might as well ride him. Yeah.
Well, one of the things that was certainly detrimental to the start that the Giants got off to was when running back Saquon Barkley had to miss I believe it was three games back in late September, mid October, sort of in that range. When he came back from that injury, he got on a pretty good run. He averaged about ninety rushing yards per game for a stretch of five games until the Patriots kind of shut him down that
last game before the Giants bye week. But he was up there, you know, four and a half yards per carry over a stretch of five games there. But this offense has been They've struggled to protect their quarterbacks, whether it's been Daniel Jones or Tyron Taylor or Tommy DeVito. They're also missing one of their downfield threats and tight end, Darren Waller, who is injured and it sounds like he will not be back for the game on Monday night
against the Packers. You look at this from the Packers' perspective. Defensively, you absolutely cannot let Saquon Barkley get going. You have to make this what has been a struggling passing game for the Giants. You have to make them turn things over to that struggling passing game and try to beat you that way.
Yeah, it's the number one key to victory in this thing. And I know we'll talk about that later. But with Saquon Barkley, when you talk about that season they had a year ago, a lot of that I had to do with Barkley, and it had to do with it as much as I know Daniel Jones got the contract and everything, Saquon Barkley is the one that ultimately pushed into the postseason with his play throughout the course of that year, kind of reminding everybody of what this guy
is capable of when he's healthy. Unfortunately for him, as you talked about, wasn't healthy earlier this season, but showed, you know, against the New York Jets he could still be a belkow who touches the ball thirty plus times. Yeah, in some of the you know, two weeks ago that win over Washington to receiving touchdowns, again reminding you of
what this guy is capable of in space. And the greenwad Packers have to have their intentas up for that because the fact of the matter is the Giants offensively as much as everyone's been so focused on the Jets, the Giants have really struggled on offense this season. Two in New York, I think second the league right now in scoring off or second to last in league excuse me, in scoring offense, in dead last and total yards. They have not been able to move the ball effectively. Defensively,
we'll talk about that in a second. There's been some positives there, but offensively it's been pretty lethargic. They haven't had a lot of guys step up in the passing game. So, yeah, if you're the Green bit Packers, it starts with Saquon Barkley, starts with pressuring de Vito, and from there allowing your secondary to handle the rest of it.
Again, we've talked obviously over the last couple of weeks about how important these fast starts have been for the Packers and how detrimental that was earlier in the season when it was taking so long for the offense to get going. This New York Giants team wes scored sixteen
points in the first quarter the entire season. Yeah, you know, a couple of weeks ago, the Packers were at twenty points in the first quarter through ten games but this is now sixteen points for the Giants through twelve games in the first quarter. If you want getting off to getting off to a good start on the road, you know, in a primetime game. This is this is a big time opportunity for the Packers to do that and to keep the Giants struggling in the early portions of games.
Well and pressuring the quarterback here too, right, I mean, when you're looking at these numbers that they've given up this so far the season, what DeVito's already been sacked twenty eight times? I mean, is this I didn't even know if it was this extreme. They have sixty nine sacks allowed? Is that my reading that? Right? I mean, I don't know that's actually a number. I did not look so so Daniel Jones thirty. I knew Divito was already at twenty eight because that's been a big thing.
But Daniel Jones sacked thirty times, Divito sacked twenty eight times, and then Tyrod Taylor was sacked ten times. My goodness, I mean, it shows you why we were talking about the people talking and mentioning that the issues they've had in pass protection. Evan Neil this week, I know that's been another big topic in New York and what's happening at right tackle. But be that as it may, you
can't take it for granted. For Shan Gary's pressuring, well, Prescott Smith is pressuring, well, you have to be confident going in this matchup. You have to show that we are the team that has won three in a row. Now we're the team that has won four of our last five and we are turning a corner. But you're doing it on there couturf yep, and you're doing it against an opponent that obviously has a little bit more of a hunger along with them after this recent uptick.
Yeah. Well, on the defensive side of the ball, it's it's almost the opposite in a sense, because defensively against the pass, this is a team you have Caveon Thibodeau with eleven sacks eleven of the team's twenty one. He actually has more than half of their sacks. But you have Thibodeaux with eleven, you have Dexter Lawrence with four. That guy is a beast in the middle of any defensive line. They have twelve interceptions against the pass, two
of them are turned for touchdowns. Opposing quarterbacks have just an eighty three point four passer route against them on the season. But the flip side of it is they haven't been able to stop the run. They're giving up four point eight yards per carry on the season. They've allowed eighteen rushing touchdowns. They've allowed more rushing touchdowns than passing touchdowns defensively, which almost is unheard of in this
day and age of the NFL. So again, like the statistics, the blueprints sort of lays itself out that you pound the ball with aj Dillon, you make them stop the run, which they've struggled to do. It ought to open some things up for Jordan Love. But at the same time, you have to be cognizant of protecting the football because twelve interceptions is no small number. These guys have taken it away. They're fifth in the league in third down defense.
When they get you in third down, they can make life difficult for you, and that's when you have to be conscious of protecting that ball.
It's the wink Martindale's defense. We've had so much, you know, said so much about him over the years, and I know people, despite the numbers, really hold him in high regard. Out there in New York of what he's done there, and it's been this feast or famine kind of unit so far this season. But Keevon Thibadeau is a guy that I was super impressed with. I joked. I remember with the draft, I was like, man, if somehow he would have fallen to green Bay, what a great pick
that would have been. With him coming out with the green and gold suit from orgon green and yellow suit from Oregon, I've been perfect for green Bay. But the guy has eleven of their twenty one sacks so far this season. He is their pressure force there. Dexter Lawrence is coming off I think the first game he's ever missed of his career with the hamstring. It sounds like from what Brian Dabble said that he will be back
for this one or it's trending that way. Yeah, maybe he didn't practice on Tuesday, But they have some legit playmakers on that side of the ball, and as you said, if they do when the opportunities that they get where they do stop the run and they get you in third downs, they get off the field for green Bay standpoint though, especially coming off offor rmans like they had
against Kansas City. I don't know what the status is going to be with Aaron Jones here, but you have to be able to go north and south on this team. You have to be able to set that up because if you do, it makes everything easier for Jordan Love, it makes everything easier for this Packers offense. And the opportunity is there, you have to execute on it.
Yeah, absolutely, I mean Thibodeau. Thibodeau is a guy who he was I guess, you'd say, taking a lot of criticism as a rookie because he was such a high draft pick and didn't really burst on the scene the way everybody everybody was hoping for in New York. But you're seeing that guy develop. He's a he's a tough
customer on the edge. He's racking up the sacks this year, and I don't think I don't think we've seen the best of Dexter Lawrence this season, because man, I mean, I know you and I talked about it last last winter. He was he was an absolute force in that playoff game when they went into Minnesota and beat the Vikings in the wildcard round. And that's the that's the Dexter Lawrence you have to prepare for bad hamstring or not,
because he's capable. He's capable of causing all kinds of problems in the middle of that defensive line.
And I mean it shows you how tough and durable this guy's been too, that he went this long, and I mean for that to be what took him down a hamstring to an interior defensive lineman, that tells you it's not that was not a happy day for him. Yeah, that is a pretty significant deal to sideline a defensive lineman because a lot of times I remember Mike Daniels dealt with it for a stretched during one of his
seasons too. If there's one position where sometimes you can overcome the hamstring, it tends to be the interior stuff. But it took him down. If he's back out there, I mean, that does another game changer for them. They just are a very opportunistic bunch and if you look at the games in which they've won this season, it's been executing. It's been finding those ways to sort of, I don't want to say manipulate, but being able to capitalize on some of the mistakes the opposing offense is doing.
Green Bay needs another clean ball game to come out on this one.
Yeah, and that's certainly where the Packers offense has been trending, and you want that trend to continue in that direct.
By the way, I did the look up the stats here quick, I apologize I didn't do my research. Fully, I knew the Giants offensive line has had some issues this season. Sixty nine sacks allowed for the Giants. The next closest is Washington at fifty eight, and then the much maligned New York Jets offensive line fifty one. So it kind of gives you an idea of how far in front the Giants have been so far this season
as far as pressure on the quarterback. And honestly, that's kind of been a recurring theme for them the last few seasons.
Yeah, they they they found they definitely found something last season with getting Daniel Jones on the move and even with some design runs and whatnot, and and but but that part of things it didn't come together for them. You know, they took the they took it whatever, it was, forty to nothing, you know, on the chin, right right out of the gate Week one against the Cowboys, and it just seemed like that was a that was a
blow that they that they haven't really recovered from. And but again, to me, when you look at this game from the Packers' perspective, Saquon b Sekon Barkley is the guy that you're most concerned about, especially because the Packers run defense throughout the course of the season has been
so up and down. Yeah, there have been games where the Packers have played the run really really tough, but we also know there are three games this season where the Packers have allowed two hundred plus rushing yards and obviously they've lost all three of those. Those are three of the six losses on the Packers ledgers. So obviously, when we start talking keys to victory, which we might as well do right now, stopping Saquon Barkley ranks at
the top of the list. But the other one for me, just knowing what we see in the numbers and what we've seen from this Giant's defense, is that is that the Packers need their own ground game to be to be reliable and productive throughout all four quarters of this game. You don't want to just get into a drop back, a straight drop back passing game against the secondary with all those picks and against two pass rushers like Thibodeau and Lawrence.
No, you can't do it. And I feel like with green Bay and looking at some of these statistics for the Giants sixteen hundred and thirty three rushing yards allowed so far this season, as you mentioned, the eighteen touchdowns, four point eight yards per carrie, which I believe is thirtieth in the NFL for most yards per carry allowed. It does sort of set the blueprint there for what has to happen in these games. And honestly, it's gonna sound kind of dumb, it's gonna sound very basic, but
it really comes down to just scoring points. The Giants are zero and five this year when they've given up over thirty points. When you're not scoring, it's hard to win those type of shootout games. And I think from green Bay standpoint, when you're protecting the football and you're running the football, well that is that's as simple as it gets in terms of what you need to do to execute this game. More headlines are going to be about Jordan Love Now the guys eight touchdowns, no picks
the last three games. You know, people are throwing them out there is one of the young up and coming quarterbacks now funny how quickly a month can change things in the eyes of the national pundits. But I think it's mostly about the hole and Green. Let's just be honest, Mike. On paper, in recent results, they are the better football team. Yes, you can't allow yourself to make the mistakes that kind of haunted them earlier this season. You come out fast,
you sustain that. I think the path to victory is there.
Yeah, And I thought it was very purposeful on the part of Matt Lafleur when he addressed the media on Monday, and it's one of the reasons I wrote about it. The story was actually posted Wednesday on our website. You can go check it out with regard to some of the things with the Packers defense, because as impressive as it was and holding Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs to nineteen points as a result, you will take any day of the week and twice on Sunday, as
they say. But he made a point of emphasizing that there were a couple of instances against Isaiah Pacheco where the Packers had called a single safety defense, meaning that one of the safeties was down in the box as an extra run defender to help against the run. But then the guys, the guys didn't fit the gaps properly, and Pachecko, against a defense designed to stop the run,
was able to get an explosive and gash them. I think he specifically mentioned that on Monday because Saquon Barkley is coming up, and because the Packers are going to I think bring an extra run defender into the box quite a bit against Barkley in this game on Monday night. And that's the biggest thing with the run defense. They
have to shore up. I mean, if you're gonna if you need to sit back in certain situations to safeties, the other team is going to be able to get some runs that you know, the five and six yard runs like those are going to happen. When you call a defense to stop the run, you need to be able to stop the run at the line of scrimmage or within a couple of yards of the line of scrimmage. And that's what the Packers have to do. They have to get that short up, they have to get the
gap fits right. You have to tackle better than you did against Pachecko and the Chiefs, And I think that's the biggest emphasis defensively going into this game.
Yeah, it's a great point. I mean, Pacheco is a different type of running back in Barkley, and that I mean a lot of it. He doesn't have the size of Barkley, but a lot of is based on expo explosion and seeing how much he was running through contact. Really just with pure speed. Barkley is going to be a guy that's going to try to wear you down, especially if he's fit for twenty five carries in this game, it's going to be a four quarter battle in that way.
But and last year out in London, you know, obviously the Packers had trouble with Barkley in the second half is the game war on, It got harder and harder to get him on the ground. And certainly the Giants know what they did to be successful in London with Barkley against the Packers last year. You know they're going to turn back to that absolutely.
But yeah, looking at the Giants very quickly, thirty first in the league and third down offense when you give up that may sacks, that's not too big of a surprise. Thirty point nine percent, thirty first in red zone offense. So even when they've been getting down on drives, have not been able to finish those off. And honestly, the biggest stat that is just going to jump off the page to you, nineteen points six percent sacks to pass attempts.
So basically, every five times your quarterback's dropping back.
He's getting he's getting sacked.
Pretty wild, Yeah, for sure.
Well, I'll take care of a little bit of sponsor business here West and then we'll look elsewhere around the league. 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 cards, 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.
Two things to look at with regard to the NFC playoff picture for this week. The first is what directly involves the Packers, which is that all four of the wild card contenders with the six and six records in the NFC, all of them are on the road. The Packers are at the Giants the Rams are at the Ravens, the Vikings are at the Race, and the Seahawks are at the forty nine Ers. So any thoughts you want
to share on those other games. I think it's just it's interesting when we talk about this cluster of teams that are six and six, and I'm not including the Falcons because they're leading their division technically not in the wild card chase. At the moment that all four of them are on the road in the same week, everyone's looking, everyone's looking to chalk up a road victory before coming back home to friendly confine.
Well, and before I just touch on that, as you mentioned with that Falcons game, the Packers aren't a point right now that they just cheer for the Falcons to win any opportunity they get.
Absolutely, you want the Falcons to win the NFC South, so they are not in the wild card picture because that's a team that you lost to head to head. So if a tie breaker comes into play, you don't want it to be against the Falcons.
Yeah, So obviously from a Packers fan perspective, hoping for them to hold serve there against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Some interestingly difficult matchups though, I mean the Rams having to go into Baltimore with the way that Baltimore is playing right now. Baltimore is another one of those teams has gone through some adversity. They lose Mark Andrews, but defensively have been continually be a tough unit to be able to penetrate.
I think that's interesting too, because Matthew Stafford seems to have that Rams offense cranked quite a bit. The Rams offense that the Packers faced with Brett Rippen at quarterback and whatever. The Rams are in a completely different place right now, but that Ravens defense is going to be a big challenge for Stafford and Cup and Nikua and those guys.
The fascinating thing too about the Rams is as much as it's been built around Cup and Stafford, they are just it's been like this since the beginning with McVeigh. With the Rams too, they don't always prioritize the resources put into the running back position, but that offense is completely different whenever they have a productive running back. With Williams back in the lineup and doing what he's been doing. The first game he had coming off of ir whatever,
he had one hundred and fifty rushing yards incredibly productive. Yeah, and even though Nikoua and some of those guys have been banged up a little bit, that sort of helped them in that regard Seattle with a gut check game now against San Francisco.
Yeah, I mean they played the Niners at home very recently, obviously on Thanksgiving Night. Then they had to go on the road for a Thursday night game at Dallas, and then and then now they're hitting the road again to go to San Francisco and playing the Niners for the second time in three games.
Yeah, they're desperately hoping you can get Kenneth Walker back here and get him involved in that offense once again, and certainly with Gino kind of wondering what you're gonna get with him taking on a very stifling San Francisco defense. But with the way that Christian McCaffrey is running the ball brock Purty last week, I mean, I said it
on our last show. I mean, when you have a quarterback that is playing the system the way he's playing it, I think it's sometimes you overlook just how good Brock Purdy has been as a quarterback in general. The kid is doing all the right things to help that football team win, and certainly that the forty nine ers when you pressure him when he doesn't have Deebo Samuel Babel,
different football team. And then if I may just very quickly to touch on this with Minnesota, this is kind of almost as big of a Josh Dobbs sort of heat check as anything else and seeing, okay, is this going to be the guy for us? You're going up against Vegas who has had their own issues, but you're on their turf. The Vikings, I think probably desperately are hoping that Dobbs can perform here and look like the guy he was early on because otherwise now you're trying
to mount a playoff push with a quarterback controversy. So what and that's never a good formula.
Yeah, And the Vikings are hoping that by sticking with Dobbs and getting Justin Jefferson back from his injury, that that combination that those two can maybe find, you know, find a way to click. And you know, really the bottom line for Minnesota is it's been the turnovers. When they turn the ball over, they look like a bad football team, and they struggle to get victories and they look very poor in doing so when they protect the football,
that's a tough team to beat. I mean, and it's been it's been one or the other with the Minnesota Vikings so far this season. The other thing to look at with regard to the NFC playoff picture, the big game everybody's going to be watching, of course, is the Sunday night football game. It's Philadelphia at Dallas. Dallas is one game behind the Eagles in the NFC East race.
But where this could potentially get really interesting, Wes is if the Niners beat the Seahawks, if the Lions win their game, and if the Cowboys beat the Eagles, you suddenly will have a four way tie for the number one seed in the NFC with four games to go.
And not saying that that's what's going to happen, but it's certainly very plausible that that's how that's where the NFC playoff picture could be sitting after this week with four teams at ten and three and four games to go to decide who gets that number one spot, and the first round by the only one now with that only going to the top seed as opposed to the first two like it used to be.
Yeah, I mean, this is what the NFL wanted, right, They wanted that type of battle not only for playoff you know, berths, but also the positioning to get that number one seed. And if I'm mad a Eberflus in Chicago right now, I'm reminding my football team of exactly what we did to the Detroit Lions a couple weeks, no questions, So that that's a game with a lot on the line for them. Buffalo's trying to go to Kansas City. I mean, I think that's a huge game
for both of those teams for an entirely different reasons. Yeah, it is a very compelling Week fourteen slate of games that are going to have huge implications for how the rest of this thing goes. But Dallas, you know, Mike McCarthy, I saw the reports out there with the appendicitis. You hope everything's going okay with him. What's his availability going to be for that game against Philly? A lot to keep your eye on here as the Green Bay Packers prepare for that game on Monday night.
Well, I had my emergency apendectomy last year on a Wednesday night, and I was in the press box to cover the game on Sunday, So Mike McCarthy Bert. I'm just I'm kidding. I hope every time stood. I hope everything is good with Mike and there. I mean, it sounds like he is expecting to be able to be on the sideline on Sunday. So I don't mean to I don't mean to make to make light of it, but if you went through it last year, it's not fun.
But obviously sitting up in the press box with my laptop is a little different than being on the sideline with the headset and calling plays and trying to trying to you know, dodge three hundred pound guys making tackles. And I mean, we've seen not to go off on too big of as we've seen, we've seen some like ugly sideline collisions in NFL games this year. Like people got to start protecting themselves a little bit more like
this is this is getting out of hand. I just I hate watching those moments in games where somebody just very innocently, you know, on the sideline, a chain gang member or whatever the case might be, and uh and they you know, they need medical attention and all this, and it's like it's been happening too much in this league.
Yeah, it makes it hard for me to transition back, but I'm going to force it anyway. Could you have stood for three hours covering that game last year after the appendectomy?
Yeah, I could have.
I could have.
I could have stood.
I mean if I took your chair away, and I say, if you asked you asked.
Me to ask me to run down the sideline to call a time out, you know when when when you've got a bad look on offense or defense or whatever. No, wouldn't have been able to do that. But Stan standing still a few days after, Yeah, I could have. I could have probably pulled that off.
Yeah, but to your point, yeah, it's been it's been very scary. You know that. I think that was what one of the chain game guys last week got a pretty bad deal. Yeah.
Down in New Orleans it was the Detroit the Detroit New Orleans game.
Gotta stay heads up, very fast, very athletic, very big human beings.
And that's why you and I don't spend any time on the sideline. We just stay safe up in the press box, not just because it's warm, but because we we can protect ourselves up there.
I will never forget as we can close out the show on this Uh. I believe it was twenty sixteen. It wasn't it was was Was it after Farv got his NF I think it was after Farv got his Super Bowl. He was getting a Super Bowl ring at lambeauf or not a superring, his the Hall of Fame ring. Yeah, I think it was sixteen and they were doing the halftime show. So I walked down early. I think I was working for the Packers at that point. I think
you stayed up in the press box. I went down early to cover the halftime thing with Farvre and I spent the last five minutes of the first half down
on the field. And that experience of watching I think Dallas was driving and so the defense was they had their back to me, but they were getting into Green Bay territory and like Julius Peppers was out there and like all these guys, and I'm like, it gave me a new appreciation not only for the speed of these guys, but just how many monsters there are out there on the fields. It is startling. Yeah.
Or earlier, earlier in my career, both with the Packers and when in the news paper business, there were moments for different reasons where I would spend just brief periods on the sidelines. Maybe I was, you know, running digital cards for photographers or whatever the case might be. You spend any time right on the sideline while the action is going on in an NFL game, The speed of the game, the power of the collisions, as you said,
the size of the players. I mean, it really hits you when you are that, when you are that close to it, you know, hits you, no pun intended. You realize that, you realize that the game that you're watching on TV looks and feels a heck of a lot different when you are right down there on the grass. And I've always you know, filed away those memories because it is it is a different game. And you and I both spent plenty of time on high school sidelines,
even college games sidelines perhaps here and there. In the NFL, man, it's a whole different world.
And you might get a kid that that's a really good tackler. You might get a kid that's really fast, Very rarely, at least in our part of the country. Do you see the guy with the whole total package. Yeah, the probably the closest I came to that was Alec Ingold over at Bayport, and he was just a quick, kind of sized up quarterback. But it's just it's it's incredible to watch, and it gives your respect and profound admiration for what these guys do on a weekly basis
to get themselves ready for it. I was tired enough. It's Thursday morning. I think I finally came back today as far as getting on my sleep schedule. And I don't even have to do anything athletic.
Yeah, now and and now we have to now we have to do it again. And I don't know ones are playing going to get back like three in the morning or three thirty.
And I gotta shoot daily on Tuesday morning.
See, so yeah, well we'll we'll have to uh, we'll have to readjust again next week. But hey, Packers are uh, Packers are in the playoff chase, and that beats the alternative.
It's the best. It is the best thing to cover December football when your team is in it. Yeah, it's there's nothing like it. They even you can see the article views, you know, the engagement on stuff. People are just revd up for it. Yeah and yeah Greenmit, Packer's got five more to go here, trying to get another one on Monday Night.
No question about it. With that, we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers Own Script To be sure to follow all of our coverage of Monday night's game from MetLife in New Jersey. We will have it all for you on packers dot com for Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time.