Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my trusted colleague West and hodkow it'z. We're coming to you hear from our studios at lambeau Field and Wes Unfortunately here to talk about a tough loss for the Packers twenty four to twenty two on Monday Night football against the New York Giants on the road. A
walkoff field goal decided this one. But bottom line is this was a performance the Packers are not proud of the fact that they even had a chance to win the game at the end was kind of a miracle and it didn't go their way and it was a big opportunity missed as the Packers fall to six and seven.
So I did our insider Inbox column for Wednesday morning, making sure I have my days correctly here and before we start breaking down this game, because there's certainly a lot to go into. It's a conversation we've had a lot of times by I think it's so important to have because I'm not clairvoyant, I'm not a soothsayer, I have no psychic capabilities whatsoever, but so many times not
so much teams. I don't think the Packers did this, but I definitely think in the media people just look at records and they say, well, this team is doing this, and this team is doing that, and then this team by proxy is going to win. There's a reason why Matt Lafleur always talks about why you have to do it on Sundays, why you have to go out there and perform at your highest level regardless of who the opponent is. Because, yeah, New York Giants, not a lot's
gone right for them this year. They were four and five going in this matchup.
But four and eight excuse me, Yeah, four.
And five was the Saquon Barkley sat I had. They're actually now five and five with Barkley this season. But it comes down to how a team is playing and where you're building towards and in a lot of ways, for as much as people didn't want to give credit to the Giants, they were in the same boat as green By. Hey, green Bay's just a little flash here in terms of how they've definitely gotten better throughout the course of the season. So there's so many things that
go into this thing. But My number one aspect of this was you have to respect every opponent. And much like how the Green Bay Packers won a lot of these games recently with complimentary football. Conversely, they lost it with complimentary football on Monday Night.
Yeah, there's there's always a lot to be said for the adage of it's not whom you play, it's when you play them, and I think that has I think that has played out throughout the season here for the Packers, both in some of the wins, whether you're talking about quarterback injuries on the other side, or the fact that you know, the Lions and Chiefs haven't quite hit their stride and the Packers were playing really well in those
moments and got those wins. And you know, the Giants were coming off of a two game winning streak, got their bye week to rest up, to gear up, and whether you know they're going to make a run in a playoff spot or not, they're looking to finish strong with Tommy DeVito as their quarterback and seeing where things are going. So that whole you know, whom you play when you play them thing definitely applies. We sat here.
I guess I'm having a hard time keeping my day straight last Thursday on our show that led into the Monday night game, and I even said it on our final Thoughts video. To me, this game is all about stop the run and run the ball. And the final numbers were two, nine to one twenty three the wrong way. So right there, your chances of winning the game aren't going to be very good when it was obvious what the keys to the game were and the Giants won
that battle decisively. But I like the fact that you referenced what Matt Lafleur said because I'm going to reference something that he said as well, and he said it many times throughout the course of his five seasons here, and that is that this league can humble you quickly. And that doesn't just apply to a team. It can
also apply to individuals. And there are a lot of them, a lot of them you can point to in this game, and I'm going to point to a couple of them because they are guys who have had a are a big reason the Packers turn their season around. But then things didn't go so well Monday Night. Keishawn Nixon was the hero against the Kansas City Chiefs. He was the one guy who got an interception against Patrick Mahomes with
five minutes left in the fourth quarter. That was played a huge part in a huge victory for Green Bay. But he has two really really rough plays against the Giants. The muff punt that sets up the Giants for a touchdown, he gets beat for the pass that puts the Giants in field goal range. At the end, this league can humble everybody. Jordan Love was riding high. The offense was in a rhythm, right, I mean, everything's going right. There was no rhythm to the Packers offense on Monday night.
Jordan Love started the game with some off target throws. Things weren't going well. He did, you know, he turns the ball over twice in the second quarter. He does settle down play much better down the stretch and did give the Packers a chance, But even then, it just felt like there was never any rhythm offense. The offense did not look anything like what it had recently, and obviously the absence of Christian Watson certainly had something to
do with that. But again, you know, this game was all about the things that the Packers had been doing you weren't able to do. You know, against Kansas City, you take a sack and it pushed the field goal back ten yards. But the kick is made this game. You take a sack, it pushes the field goal back ten yards and then the kick has missed. You know, the punting the field position. The way the Packers were winning that battle over the recent weeks, you know that
that wasn't going well. And the other thing that stood out to me, you look at these games the Packers have won. They handled Aaron Donald up front, they handled Aiden Hutchinson, they handled Chris Jones. They didn't handle Kevon Thibodeaux. He was He was all over the place in this
game and had an impact everywhere. And as much as it was a collective effort to handle those other big time defensive front you know, pass guys for those other teams, it was a collective effort that Keveon Thibodeau had the impact he did. There. You can go down the line. There are all kinds of things that the Packers were doing to get their wins, and all of those things seemed to escape them in one really bad Monday night in New Jersey.
Yeah, cave On Thibodeau, to be fair to everybody, is a former fifth overall pick and Saquon Barkley is a two time Pro Bowl running.
Back and a number two overall pick, Number two overall pick.
Excuse me. They've done so many good things throughout the course of the year against some of these premier players.
Right then you get the Tommy DeVito experience, and that was probably the most disheartening aspect of this for me, because Mike, I'll tell you what, if you would have told me in the middle last week, hey, Green Bay Packers, point five over under for the mon of sacks, they're going to get on to Vito, I would have easily taken that sure point five over under sacks they are and get on to Vito even after the first quarter.
I would have gladly taken that because of the way they were pressuring him for one reason or another, and I wasn't able to really put my finger on it. The kid just proved elusive to that defensive front. Guys got out of their rush lanes, they sometimes over pursued, and when he got to the second level there was a lot of green grass there for him to execute with the wildcat formation that haunted them last year in London pop back up, although this time it wasn't Saquon
Barkley running it. It was Saquon Barkley handing it off in Robinson being the guy that was doing the damage with it. Wandel Robinson, a guy five to eight, was former teammates with Carrington Valentine at Kentucky. Guy looked dynamic in this game. One hundred and fifteen total yards in Green May didn't have an answer for it so well. The dexter Lawrences and the Thibodeaus and the Barkleys, you expect them to
get theirs. It's how the Giants were able to produce with the guys that maybe aren't necessarily until now you know the household names. And the big line I had in our Insider Inbox column was in a game of follies, the Giants had fewer than the Packers did they got the win.
Yeah, and even when you look at the turnover battle in this game, which we talk about all the time. Of course, the Packers had three giveaways. Jordan Love had the fumble and the interception. As I mentioned, Nixon had the muff punt. The Packers got two takeaways, but they weren't really takeaways. They were balls that the Giants literally gate.
The Packers didn't do anything to cause those turnovers. There was the punt that hit the unsuspecting guy whatever, and then you know, and then the Packers get the recovery. And then there's the play by Barkley where he runs for thirty four yards on a run with what less than four minutes on the clock, and it's looking like the play that essentially is going to salt the game away. Packers may not even get the ball backer if they do, they're going to be down by too many points to
be able to do anything about it. But he fumbles the ball completely on his own, and not only do the Packers get the ball back because but because everybody's standing around on the field, Carrington Valentine gets a fifty yard return to set up the Packers in tremendous field position to get a touchdown to take the lead. My point is the turnovers were three to two in this game, but in terms of make you know, in terms of making those making the plays to get the turnovers, it
it wasn't. It was definitely worse than a minus one, I guess is what it is what it felt like to me. And it was.
Barkley's third career lost fumble, too, by the way, just his third third, sixth in his career. Third one he's lost. Wow, and no one even for I don't even know, how do you rule that as far as a force is the guy recovered, it just gets credit for them.
Yeah, the guy gets there. I don't think there is a forced fumble. I think it's just I think it's just credit for credit for the recovery. I mean, one of the most bizarre plays, and I guess that's the That's the one thing that other than just the overall and overall poor performance by the Packers, I think the biggest thing you regret coming out of this game, just because this league is so crazy and so nuts and
you never know what's going to happen. To get a lucky break like that, that really is like the luckiest of lucky breaks you could possibly ask for. In a game where you're down by seven points or down by five points at the time, I guess, excuse me, down by five points and the other team is literally on the verge of completely salting away the game, and they just hand you the football with a chance to take
the lead. I mean, the Packers cashed in on it, but then the defense doesn't hold up at the end and you lose on the walk off. But to get to get a break of that magnitude and then to not be able to win the game, the Packers wouldn't have deserved to win the game based on how they played. It's not as though the Giants necessarily deserve to win
the game either, But it's a huge opportunity that. I mean, a break like that comes along once every what five or six or seven years or something like that, and to not win the game is a big opportunity you let get away well.
And as you even said when you and I were kind of breaking down the game yesterday, you know, Tommy DeVito made the throw and he needed to make it in the end zone.
He made one dynamite throw in this game, and it was on a third down in the red zone and a rifle shot to the pylon. Receiver makes a great catch and they get a touchdown instead of a field goal, and that four points was monumental.
The other thing, I will give a lot of credit to wink Markindale's crew too, in addition to the fact that I like the looks that they give. Matt Lafleur touched on it. I mean, they're going to pressure, but they're also the illusion of pressure is important there too. They kind of had their inside backers working up, sometimes one dropping back, one going different things that Jordan Love was having to account for was very well disguised but defensively.
One stat that I didn't write about and I didn't really realize until afterwards. I think you have to kind of look at what this matchup is. The Giants had thirty thirty seven solo tackles and thirty assistant tackles green Bay I think it was, Yeah, it was forty one solo, eleven assisted. The Giants flew to the ball, they tackled to the ball, multiple hats to the tacklers, and for green Bay, stampoint just some of that whatever happened there.
Two hundred and nine rushing yards. And again you can bottle up Saquon as well as you do for three quarters and even when he has the big run get the fumble. But if DeVito's going for seventy one, if Robinson's going for thirty six, that all kind of fits in as well.
Yeah. That that the tackle statistics statistics you mentioned are really interesting because because one of the things that stood out when you when you look at this game, and I went over a lot of the film yesterday, was you know, really for the second straight game, the Packers had a poor tackling game. They weren't a sound tackling team.
And mistackles really hurt you when you don't have enough hats to the football, right, and that the statistic you just you just mentioned with the disparity between the two teams in terms of in terms of the solo and assisted tackles and how that how that matched up, It makes sense that the Packers got burned on so many mistackles because they never it was too many one on one tackles and they miss them, and then you don't have another hat there to the to the ball to
be able to to compensate for it. So just very frustrating.
And and and Matt Lafleur, you know, went over a lot of the frustrations in his press conference on Tuesday, talking about, you know, the final drive, after the first couple of plays you go to you go to man coverage, man de man coverage calls and uh and you get burned on two Manda man coverage calls that end up covering forty one yards and get to get the Giants into field goal range where where the defenders in a man coverage call are just they're not up on their
guys the way the way they're supposed to be. And and you know those are those are mental lapses that turn into physical lapses that you know that cost you and and uh, that's how the Giants get in position to win.
Yeah, and it turns into points and yeah, you know, Joe Berry, like you said last week, a lot of times when you look at defenses, it's that final number of what's on the board, both for and again is how you judge these things. And for Green Bay, unfortunately, it was kind of a it was it was. It was a difficult way to lose it because of the poeticism of how it ended in terms of you had Balik Heath that you know, they drive down, Jordan Love
has his best drive of the game. Malik Heath gets a chance for the touchdown, can't get that third foot down, you know, and established possession before the ball gets batted out of his hands, right, they dial up a play for him. On the next play, he runs it perfectly to the pylon, gets the touchdown, but a minute thirty three left and the Giants had the two timeouts and that was the end of it.
You know, It's funny one thing I didn't realize in live time, as you know, things are kind of frantic with you know, the replay and is Heath going to get the touchdown there? But then no, the call stands that it's incomplete, So then the Packers have third down there inside the ten yard line. The Giants sent like eight guys yea on that third downplay. I mean that was Wink Martindale going all It's like, this is it.
This is the money, this is the money play of the game right here, going all out for and uh, you know, and Heath was one on one there at the pile on the ball, was in a good spot, really really good catch. Unfortunately, then you know what it's it's all the it's all the little things that add up, right. You miss field goals and you miss two point conversions
and eventually those are going to cost you. And I know the Giants missed a field goal earlier in the game as well, so that kind of ended up you know,
one a piece in that respect. But obviously, if after the touchdown, if you can get the two point conversion and you go up by three, then you know that final drive plays out very differently potentially, you know, you never know then how aggressive are the Giants going to be to maybe get a touchdown, which then who knows then if they if they make a mistake, or if the Packers play things differently with a three point lead instead of a one point lead. I don't know. But anytime, anytime,
those opportunities for points are are missed, you know. And and on top of that, you know, going back even to the two turnovers in the first half, the Packers had very very good if they were in good position on the field, and turning the ball over there certainly cost potential points as well.
Yeah, and that's where it gets difficult because they adversity defense early on was fantastic. Yes, that you lose back to back possessions of the ball, and I don't even know how much time came off the clock between all that, between stopping them on fourth and one and then also getting the ball back. It was pretty wild how it worked out. But again, situationally, if you add them all up, Mike,
you put them all in a row. The Giants took down more of those jars than Green Bay did, and the result was what it was now, as you wrote in the Monday inbox or the Tuesday in box, See, I did end up messing up one of my days, you know. Now it's what the response is, and the Packers have to respond.
Yeah, well, we'll look at the bigger picture here after some sponsor business. Serious XM NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need twenty four to seven, three sixty five and had 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 subbs fifty years of better. All right, big picture, the Packers are certainly very much alive in
the playoff spot even despite this loss. A huge opportunity was missed, however, because, as I had mentioned last Thursday, these four teams in the wild card picture that were six and six, the Vikings, the Rams, the Seahawks, and the Packers, all of them were on the road and heading into Monday night, the Rams and the Seahawks had already lost the Vikings had squeaked out a three to nothing victory in Vegas, so the Packers could have put themselves as one of only two teams in that mix
that would be seven and six along with Minnesota. They failed in that regard, So right now, the Vikings are in the number six playoff spot in the NFC, and as far as the seventh spot is concerned, you have a whole bunch of teams now at six seven, Packers, Rams, Seahawks, Falcons, Saints, and Buccaneers. Out of the Falcon, Saints and Buccaneers, one of them will win the NFC South, So there's really only two of those teams competing for a wild card.
But in effect, you don't know right now which two of those are going to be because they're all tied at the moment. And don't look now, but the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants are five and eight, which actually puts them only one game back of all of these teams at six and seven that are fighting for a spot and with still four games left to go.
I know that's a ton of teams in the mix, but right now, right now, if you have a chance at nine wins, which a team that is five and eight mathematically has a chance to get to nine wins. If you have a chance to get to nine wins in the NFC, you have a legitimate chance to make the playoffs. That's really where it sits right now.
Yeah, the Giants, they still have their work cutout for them because they got those matchups as Philly, they have a matchup with the ram I mean, their schedule is pretty daunting here coming up Chicago, isn't Chicago's interesting because Chicago they have Cleveland with Joe Flacco coming up. Then they got Arizona Atlanta, who you never know where you're going to get, and then maybe a potential consequential game
at the end of the season against the Packers. Here's the part I wanted to kind of talk about, because we just spent all this time discussing, Hey, here's everything that went wrong against the Giants, and the update is nothing's changed. It's all the same right now. Because green Bay's strength of victory here is as good as anyone in the conference. I think they're only behind the number one seated forty nine Ers right now. It's just like green Bay's lost too many of these games too.
Again, the strength of victory is where it is because of beating the Lions and the Chiefs at this point.
Yeah, and then you look at it conversely on the other aspect of it. You got a team like the Saints where it's like, you gotta win the division because right now I think their strength of victory is like twenty eight percent. I mean, it's not good in terms of how things line up. So everybody is kind of josting right now for this PiZZ psitioning with this playoff field. I think the South is pretty much concentrated on somebody needs to win that and that's going to be the key to that door.
And it could and it could be a second straight year that the NFC South has a sub five hundred champion. I mean, eight and nine is entirely possible to win that division again for a second straight year after the Buccaneers did it with Tom Brady last year.
Yeah. But to your point, just getting back that, this is why this one hurt, because I think it is a race to nine wins. I don't know how many wild card seeds are going to be determined by nine wins, but it is a race to nine wins and Green Bay missed out in an opportunity. Credit to the Vikings. We'll talk about some of these games here in a second, but the Vikings took care of business as ugly as the business could look, they took care of business. They
got that seventh victory. Now they're going to be making the switch over to Nick Mullins at quarterback. But that's the race. It doesn't matter how much tape is on the leg, it doesn't matter how much the hamstring hurts. You're just trying to get to the finish line right now. And the Vikings have a leg up on everybody else.
Yeah, And I mean it just goes to show how you know, things can change and you never know how anything is going to go in a given week in this league. You have you know, suddenly the Seahawks don't have Geno Smith, so then you know they They were in it with the Niners for a while, but end up losing by a couple of touchdowns. The Vikings can't figure anything out on offense, but their defense keep their
defense keeps the Raiders shut out. They go to Mullins late in the game for a drive for a field goal that ends up being the only points in a three to nothing victory. And then you have both the Rams, the Rams and the Packers in very different fashions, but both of those teams end up losing on walk off scores. The Rams lose in overtime on a long punt return by the Baltimore Ravens, you know, heartbreaking loss for them. The Packers lose on a walk off field goal. You know,
the margins are so slim. Every week can be so different. You mentioned now the Vikings, the Vikings, who are the team that is, you know, sitting the best in this wild card race at seven and six, but now they're changing quarterbacks. Yeah, you know, with with four games to go, so who knows? Who knows where that goes? And then at the top of the NFC, you suddenly have a three way tie for the number one seed with the Cowboys knocking off the Eagles and the Niners got their wins.
So San Francisco, Philly, and Dallas are all ten and three. All three of them are tied for the number one seed, which is which obviously has the only buy playoff buy that comes with it. But one of those out of Philly or Dallas is going to drop all the way to the five if they don't, you know, get the one.
You know, if they don't get the one, two, if they can't get the one or the two by being a division winner, the second place team in the East, regardless of what their record is, is going to drop all the way to the five seeds.
So meet the champion from the NFC South. There's no other way to make it fair. But it's never cease to make me smile.
Yeah, you've got I mean, it's crazy, It's it's crazy right now. You've got you've got three teams in the NFC tied for the number one seed. You have three teams tied for the NFC South lead, all of them below five hundred. And then you have this whole hodgepodge of other teams that are six and seven and jockeying with one another to try to get to try to get a wild card spot. And you know, I, as I said in one of my Insider Inbox answers, I like to say a lot at this time of year,
buckle up here we go. I mean, you know, there's there is so much football left there. Every team has got four games left to go, which means every team could go four and oh or every team could go zero and four or anywhere in between, and so there's no telling. There's no telling how this is going to sort itself out. And and job one for the Green Bay Packers is simply to get past this one, learn
what you need to learn from it. Gear up for a Tampa Bay team that is feeling pretty good about itself with a chance to win a division in the NFC South. They're coming in here on Sunday to lambeau Field, and the Packers are going to be scratching and clon to get themselves back in the wind call.
The Packers gave one back. That's what happened on Monday night. And I said, with that stretch of games against the Chargers, the Lions in Kansas City, they needed to go too and one. I thought for sure they definitely needed to go one and one with Detroit and Kansas City to put themselves up in a situation here to get on a big run late. They did that. They went three and oh, two and oh. But now you got that
one finally crept up unexpectedly against the Giants. But no matter what way you slice it, it is going to be difficult to make a playoff run. If you don't take care of business at home against Tampa, you don't beat the Panthers on Christmas Eve, and you don't hold serve against Chicago in the finale, no matter which way you slice it. Yeah, that's what the green bait Packers have to do, not saying they're gonna win them all.
And if you do it, if you don't, it becomes a lot harder though, and Green Bay is back at six and seven, and they need to have that feistiness, that fire of a six and seven team that's trying to prove that you know what, in this NFC picture, we are one of the top seven teams and we deserve a ticket to the dance.
Yeah, Packers have been fighting since Week three to get back above five hundred. They haven't been above five hundred since they were two and one. After the comeback victory over the Saints, you had a chance, you finally had a chance to get back above five hundred. You let it get away. The goal is still to get back above five hundred because you know what that would mean. But now you have to get back to five hundred first before you can get above five hundred. It's one
step at a time Packers took a step backwards. Now you got to get moving forward once again.
And that requires putting the best foot forward, which the Green Bay Packers will look to do this Sunday a Lambellfield nude Central start time on all your.
Hey Fox noon Central start time. That means omelets after these back to back night games. That's like music to my ears.
Your ears on has a birthday on Sunday, I could have used the night game.
That's okay, though, celebrate on Saturday.
Yeah, yeah, that's that's actually what we're gonna do, assuming no one else's signs smart work.
All right, Well, with that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscript, but be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com. We'll be back with another show right away tomorrow to look ahead to the Tampa Bay game. Things obviously a little messed up this week with the Monday night road trip, but we get We're getting things back under control here, folks as best we can. So for Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody, and we will see you next time.