Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spafford, joined as always by my partner in crime, Wes Hodkoitz. We're coming to you here from our studios at Lambellfield to talk about another Green Bay Packers victory with backup quarterback Malik Willis West. This one was thirty to fourteen, a very convincing victory on the road at Tennessee. Packers get to two and one,
Titans drop to zero to three. A lot to talk about here, whether you're talking about what Malik Willis did on the offensive side, what the Packers did on the defensive side. So I will let you decide where you want to start with this one.
Well, I think we have to start with all due respect to the defense and all due respect to the Packers and everything they did offensively the floor, going to his podium and this postgame news conference and talking about just how inconceivable it is what Malik Willis has been able to do on the short timeline with which he's had to work in the fact that he has not played a lot of NFL football up until this point, and has been able to play winning football at every turn,
whether it's him using his legs, it's whether he's using his arms, or whether it's just him managing the offense and the motions and everything that functions on time. This is unlike anything I've seen. And for as much as we will celebrate in Harold, you know, like what Matt Flynn did coming back in twenty thirteen and helping the Packers with the playoff push. Flynn had been in the offense before, he'd worked with Mike McCarthy and Tom Clements.
For four years.
For four years. Malik Willis showed up with a bag and was like, all right, let's play some quarterback and you go, Milike Willis what We'll see what happens with the Vikings game, and whether or not Jordan Love plays. We'll talk about that later this week. Let's say Love does. Let's say Malik Willis, it's a good Lord Willing doesn't see the field again this year. Because Jordan Love's so healthy and play at such an incredible level, we never have to talk about it again unless they want to
use him in some certain types of packages. The Packers gave up a seventh round pick for this guy, and they got two wins out of it.
Yeah.
I mean, that's the biggest return of investment I can even think of when you're talking about trades that happen at the end of training camp.
Yeah. And I don't like to and I'm going to keep this brief because I don't like to disparage other NFL franchises by any means. This is a tough business. It's the most competitive business there is professional sports. But I don't think I've witnessed in all my time doing this an egg on the face as badly as what happened in Tennessee. There where the quarterback that they had discarded,
that they had relegated to number three. They were going to cut him, maybe bring him back on the PRAC squad, we don't even know that for sure, and they dumped him for a seventh round pick. And he walked back in there less than a month later, into that same building and beat that team and badly outplayed the quarterback that they have pinned their hopes to for the future.
That's as embarrassing as it gets in this league. I'm sorry, you know, and I feel bad for Titans fans to a certain extent, although, as I said, an insider inbox. They didn't even show up to support their team. On Sunday, Packers fans took over that place, took over Nissan Stadium in Nashville. Hats off to the Green Bay fans for that. But Malik Willis two starts, his passer rating is over
one hundred and twenty. The offense has rushed for more than four hundred and fifty yards or right around four hundred and fifty in the two games that he's been the starting quarterback. He got in on the rushing act in this last one, not only with some scrambles, the improvised stuff when the play breaks down in the pocket, but with some design runs a well the zone read keepers. Those were working early seventy three rushing yards and a
touchdown rushing for Malik Willis. All of that in the first half as the Packers build a twenty twenty to seven lead in this game. And quite frankly, I mean, you know the Titans. I mean, once Jayi Alexander got the pick six to make it seventeen to seven, right, the Titans. We never made it a one score game again. It was a multi score game the rest of the way.
And that's what you want to see. I mean, as Aaron Nageler talked about it after the game in his podcast, and a lot of people discuss it. You want to play a four quarter football game, you want to keep your pedal to the floor. And I felt like Green Bay did that, especially the fact that seven of those eight sacks came in the second half, most of them
came in the fourth quarter. The Packers were able to push the Titans to the brink and then did exactly what you want to see them do a as the team that they're played better then, and they overall looked superior to and just quickly to mention about the Malik Willis rushing aspect of this thing a week ago, they kept it very manageable for him, especially early on. He had to make some throws in the second half when
the running games started to slow a little bit. But it was Josh Jacobs, it was Jaden Reid in this game. With how much the Tennessee Titans were buckling down against wanting to stop Jacobs, things became open for the Packers on the outside. And what I loved about this game, and this is the hallmark of a good football team, regardless of who your quarterback, is you play one way one week, can you play differently than next? The green Bay Packers absolutely threw the change up that they needed
to throw against the Tennessee Titans. And what was that change up? Explosive plays two thirty yard completions on the
opening series that ends up generating a touchdown. They finished that drive, they got the seven points, and from there Green Bay was able to have enough of those ruptures that even though they weren't running the ball great in the first half, they were able to counter with big explosive plays on the other side of it, several of which came on third and long situations, situations you do not anticipate converting on third and fourteen, on third and eighteen.
The Green Bay Packers efficiency in this game on both sides of the ball. We'll talk more about the defense here momentarily, but for them to play clean football back to back weeks, no turnovers offensively with a backup quarterback Mike, it don't happen like that in the NFL.
No, it doesn't. Yeah, Malik Willis's ability to be efficient, to be explosive, but also protect the ball all at the same time has been a It's been a remarkable combination for somebody who just got to Green Bay roughly
a month ago. I want to talk about those third and longs and this will help us transition also to the defensive side, because as I've spent a couple of days processing this game and with some of the coverage and the film review and different things that I do, I don't think I appreciated at the time, and when we're writing all our postgame stuff on the bus on the plane coming back all that how pivotal the drive at the end of the first half was for multiple reasons.
Packers are up seventeen to seven, they get the ball with six h two on the clock yep, and there are multiple times during that drive where the Packers are in serious danger of giving the ball back to the Titans, with the Titans down by ten points and a chance for the Titans to double up with the possession at the end of the first half, and then getting the ball coming out to start the third quarter because they
had deferred on the opening coin toss. Packers had three penalty three offensive penalties on that drive, twenty five yards in penalties, but in overcoming those penalties, Malik Willis converts the third and fourteen on the deep en route to Romeo Dobs, then third and eighteen because of penalties, and he hits Christian Watson, who then is able to slip down the steine because Lagerius sneaed fell down as Watson is cutting across, and that third and eighteen turns into
a thirty seven yard gain. The Packers end up now they weren't able to finish that drive. They end up kicking a field goal, but the Packers ended up killing the entire six zh two. At the end of the first half, they get the three points and they go up twenty to seven. So the Titans didn't get it back, didn't get the chance to double up. And the reason I'm emphasizing this drive so much is because then what happens at the start of the second half. The Titans
come out, They get I believe, one first down. They have the ball at their own thirty seven yard line. Maybe it wasn't even one first down at that point, but they decided to go for it on fourth and one inside their own forty yard line. Down by thirteen points. They they had initially sent out the punter, the crowd, what was there of a Tennessee crowd was booing. They
called timeout. They decided to go forward on fourth and one, and I didn't realize this at the time, but Tennessee had only run eighteen offensive plays in the entire first half. They had ten yard ten play drive for a touchdown, a one play drive that was Alexander's pick six, and then back to back punts in which the drives were only four plays and three plays. Eighteen snaps in the
first half is all they had. There is no doubt in my mind that the Packers killing the last six minutes of the first half and Tennessee coming out not only because they were down thirteen, but they'd only run eighteen plays. They'd only had the ball four times. That strongly influenced a highly risky decision to go forward on
fourth and one in their own territory. They fail on the fourth and one as Kway Walker, Isaiah McDuffie, jy R Alexander combined to take away you know, a run pass option thing they were trying to run with Will Levis. Packers hit the screen pass to Emmanuel Wilson for a touchdown. It's twenty seven to seven that sequence. End of first half. Beginning of second half just completely turned this game on
its head. Yeah, and it's a credit to both sides of the ball for the Packers with the offense overcame with the penalties to kill six minutes and get a field goal, and then the defense to get the stop on the fourth and one. A very questionable decision to go for it there when it's so early in the third quarter. Was that was a pivotal sequence in this game, and the Packers were in command the rest of the way.
Brian Callahan, first time first year head coach, made two pivotal errors. I felt like at the beginning of the first the second half, you can't do anything about the Packers and the drive they went on at the end of the first half, you could.
Have stopped them, You could have the defense's got the oupards day to come back, and actually third and eighteen you have a chance to get the ball back at the end of the first half and possibly the the double up thing, and with having deferred and their defense completely blew that they.
Did so, and then the second half you go back, you end up coming out right out of the gate. The fact is is that I felt like, if you send your punting team out there first, that's the move. You already told your offense that you think you should punt there. Now you're killing a timeout where you're down thirteen points and you're having to use now you're punting. And then also from the standpoint, the other thing I
thought was almost inexcusable. They didn't run the ball at all on that series out in to start the third quarter. Right they were down thirteen points, and they were acting like they were down twenty one points. They were still in a position, as it even showed Mike when they finally did get back in the end zone there, even at that point I think it was twenty seven to fourteen, you're still in a manageable situation in the middle of the third quarter. And then slowly the yarn began to unravel.
Yeah, I mean, they'd run eighteen plays in the first half. You're barely out of whatever, whether you want to call it a fifteen play script or your first fifteen thoughts or how the game plan is designed. You're barely out of those initial thoughts of various situations, you know, on
the game plan. It just felt it felt like they got they got completely rattled by the fact that they were walking out at the start of the second half, not only down by thirteen points, but feeling like they hadn't they hadn't had the ball on offense really since the op since their opening possession of the game when they did move it and they got a touchdown, and them trying to force the issue just completely backfired.
Yeah, and with a young quarterback like that who's already been turnover prone, when you're playing from behind, that some bad things can happen. And in this case, I mean you look at the fact that DeVante Wyatt had two second half sacks, Presco Smith had sacks on back to back series to end the game. You had kay Walker again, like you were talking about, step up and make a huge play stopping Will Levis to along with Isaiah McDuffie.
But that's a pivotal position there for the Packers to get the ball at the thirty seven yard line, it won't count towards those takeaway numbers we keep referencing, But the Packers got the ball at their thirty seven and they had a thirty yard screens to score a touchdown. Yeah, now maybe fourth maybe it will be oh yeah, go ahead, No, sorry, go ahead? No, Emmanuel Wilson, maybe he goes, maybe he still scores on like sixty yard touchdown there. We don't
know once he gets in the open field. But the fact is you're dealing with the short field. And one of the things that have really been hurting the Packers through these first two games, the first eight quarters, was the fact that they weren't able to finish those drives. And in this game they did and with a few small exceptions, one of which you know, being the penalty situation, green Bay played a pretty clean football game, buying large in all three phases.
Yeah, I mean, we'll get back to the penalties in a second. You said it though, a fourth down, a fourth down stop, especially in that area of the field, that's as good as a turnover. That's that functions as a takeaway, even though statistically it's not a fumble or interception. But you talk about forcing the issue. As the second half war on, Jeff Hafley started dialing it up, man, I mean he you know, will Levis was having trouble
making plays. He wasn't really using his legs and trying to scramble and do things, which is what I thought he would do. Uh, quite a bit going into this game. He didn't really do that. He was trying to sit in the pocket and make throws and make plays, and the Packers pass rush just kept caving in that Titans offensive line, sometimes sending a fifth guy, sometimes sending six guys, and sometimes just the straight four man rush. With the stunts and things they were running, Packers end up racking
up eight sacks. Statistically, it ends up as three takeaways with Alexander's pick six, Anigbari with the strip sack that Luke's Faness recovers, and then late in the game, Xavier McKinney. What more can we say about that guy? Three games as a Green Bay Packer, three interceptions. The defense, The
defense really came to play. Unfortunately, you know that offside on Preston Smith allowed the Titans on the first drive to m scoring a touchdown when the Packers were going to hold him to a field goal where Shuan Gary had gotten a sack on third down there ended up not counting. But that was one of the only mistakes the Packers defense made in this entire game, and it
was just right in the very beginning. As the game wore on, the Packers defense really found its legs, found its footing, and you know, they made life miserable for a young quarterback who has had a pretty miserable first three weeks of the season.
They very much did, and which is what you have to do again. The most sacks the Packers are having a game in almost twenty years, It was January of two thousand and five, closing out that season that they actually were able to get eight sacks in a game. And when you break it down too, I was talking with Preston Smith in the locker room afterwards, and you know, you could tell how much that bothered him that he
had that neutral zone in fraction. This is the guy is very prideful about what he does and he is a very very close friend and mentor to where Sean Garrett he didn't want to take that sack off the board shirt them, but then to be able to rally. He mentioned this even the two series where you know, you look at the two touchdown producing series at the Titan had they moved the ball pretty easily for not to be disrespectful, but it was a pretty seamless efficient drive.
The one thing Preston mentioned was the way that this group is put together the amount of players that they have, the veterans that they have who have played football here, they're not rattled by that. They still feel like on the next play, the next series, they're going to get a sack, they're gonna get a negative yards play, they're
going to get a takeaway. And now nine takeaways through the first three games, the most since two thousand and nine that the Packers have had three consecutive games with three takeaways each. This is winning football and what you did, even though they still have some issues to answer for with the run game, this will be a huge test
coming up this upcoming weekend. Yeah, they forced the Tennessee Titans to play one dimensional thirty three rushing yards in this game, with Will Levis's twelve yards contributing to that. That changes the complexion of everything. And listening to those defensive ends and those defensive linemen talk about this in the game afterwards, if they were over the moon about what that was like playing in the fourth quarter and
just how much fun that was. And to quote Elton Jenkins in one of his you know things, quoting Drake, I mean they were on their ass like a back pocket. It is there's no better way to put it. Yeah, And the fact is is that when you're facing a young quarterback that hasn't played a lot of football at this level, when you can generate that much pressure, you can create that amount of doubt. That's the result.
Yeah, What what I sensed is when the Titans had that drive in the third quarter where they went right down the field they cut it from twenty seven to seven to twenty seven to fourteen, Levis was looking kind of comfortable in the pocket. He was making the plays. You know, Packers were sitting back a little bit, just doing straight four man rush kind of stuff. And I think after that drive, as you said, it was a
little bit too easy for Tennessee. I think after that drive, Jeff Haffley said, Okay, I don't know how many times we're going to be able to sack this guy, but we need to start. He needed to start dialing it up. He needed to start coming after him to make him uncomfortable, to speed him up, change the rhythm. The Packers needed to change something there. And then when those changeups, you know, speeding up Will Levis started to lead to the mistakes and the sacks and all that. Then they just kept
after it. They just kept going because the Titans didn't have an answer for it. And I thought, I thought the way the rest of that second half was called was very much a result of that one touchdown drive by the Titans and just how comfortable Levis looked. And it's like, Okay, can't let him just look that comfortable out there, even if you're not going to sack him, You've got to do something to disrupt him. And then
those disruptions ended up being successful. It ended up really working in Green Bays faith.
So it won them the game, and it's why Matt Lafleur was so excited about the defense in the postgame locker room, in the huddle afterwards. Two things that stood out to me though I was thinking about while I was watching this game. One, you unfortunately have to read everything I write, as it's a part of your job description. But Heyshawn Nixon had said last week when I was talking with him at his locker, you know, he feels like he's blitzed more this season from the slot than
he has all of last year. You saw how they used Edger and Cooper in this game. I think Edge played sixteen snaps and he came down on a blitz and he was able to get his first half sack. He did the Packers are it's not just okay, well, it's Kenny Clark, Preston Smith and ra Shaun Gary. No, it is a wave of players that Jeff Hafley threw
at Levice. And I think when you think about this defense and them talking about vision to the football and aggression, it's not just sending engage eight that worked out really good for Cincinnati at the end of the Washington game. It's about being strategic about how you blitz guys and occasionally, yeah, you want to push the gas and send six. The Packers got home with that too, yep. But it's about
the creativity, the quality, not the quantity. And I thought this was a good representation of that.
Yeah, I agree with you. The one black mark I would say on this team maybe maybe two, one being Brayden Narbison did miss another field goal ended up not counting because the Tennessee Titans were penalized on that missed field goal, So the Packers got a fresh set of downs and then that's what led to the screen pass for a touchdown by Ammanuel Wilson. So still hoping that
Narvison can smooth things out here. He did come back later in the game and drill the forty seven yard er with plenty of room to spare, so that was good to see. But the penalties are something that the penalties are plaguing the Packers a little bit, and plaguing is a little bit strong of a word the way. I wrote a story about this on our website Monday night, with Matt Lafuer talking about it in his Monday press conference.
That and comments from players in the locker room on Sunday that you had gotten from your interviews that the penalties are just there. Are are preventing the Packers from sort of reaching their from really playing at peak performance. They've now been flagged twenty six times and that's not including declined or offsetting penalties twenty six in fractions through three games. I believe the penalty yards is somewhere close to two hundred. I can't remember the number, maybe it's
one ninety six or something like that. But they've been flagged for they they've been flagged too much in the first three games. Mattle fulor knows it. He knows that they have to clean it up. The players know it. It's part of their film review on Monday, you know.
And whether you're talking about the holdings or the lining up off sides and things like that, it really comes down to it really comes down to the details, whether it's the details of your technique or the details of how you line up before the snap, those kinds of things.
It's definitely stuff that the Packers can clean up and that they can fix, but they need to do so because you're staring at a pretty big early season game against the NFC North leading and three and oo Minnesota Vikings coming up, and you don't want to be walking out a lambeau Field with another eight to ten penalties on your register because it's going to be awfully tough to beat Minnesota if that happens again.
And before I dive all into that, I want to quickly give a shout out to the Tennessee Titans, who, according to Klay Martin and his crew, played the cleanest sixty minutes of offensive and defensive football in the history of the National Football League. No penalties on either the offense or defense.
Yeah, they're all They had what two special teams, both on special team, both on and it killed them it was bad. Yeah, the one. The one was a killer because, uh, instead of getting the ball back at at twenty to seven with the missed field goal, they get Packers get the screen pass for the touchdown on the fresh set of downs and it's twenty seven to seven, and that game was that game was headed a different way.
Tug in shoot, tug and shoot, hole and shoot, pull and shoot. That's what it was.
Okay, the poll and shoot.
I learned one during this game.
Yeah, I did too. I had I hadn't actually heard a referee like say that, like, yeah, crafo, you know to explay in a penalty that he called it. He called it defensive holding. The poll and shoot where you grab onto a guy and you yank him out of the way so that one of your teammates can shoot the gap to try to block the field goal. Well, they caught him. They caught him at it, and the Packers took advantage.
There's a lot of bodies in there too. I'm surprised they did. But be that as it made, Mike bring this back to the Green Bay Packers. You brought up some excellent points there, one of being that both of those long third down conversions were brought on by penalty. Yeah, the holding issues that green Bay was working through, and then also the illegal hands of the face Hummer sheet Walker. That's what led to green Bay having to make long third down conversions. You can't live in that world. It
is incredible what Malik Willis did. I mean that passed to Romeo Dobbs is about as good as it's going to get in the National Football League. And then he gave Christian Watson a chance to make a play. Watson can make those plays. It was beautiful thing to watch, but you have to clean that stuff up, and I appreciate how people took ownership for it. I mentioned what Preston Smith said about, you know, of feeling guilty abou
what happened on his neutral zone infraction. You had Elton Jenkins, who I think in a lot of ways is playing at a Pro Bowl caliber level again, but got busted for two holding penalties and this thing. Zach tom who's probably playing at an all pro level at right tackle, had won illegal formation as well. So there are procedural
penalties that the Packers have to clean up. I've always said this, Michael, you are going to get called for holding this league unless, of course you're the Tennessee Titans in this campaign, but you are going to get called for holding. You are going to have defensive holding and past interference. Those things are going to happen to you. Illegal formations, illegal motions, false starts, encroachment, neutral zone infractions. That's where you got to be smart.
That's the easy that's the easiest stuff to clean up because that's all the priests, that's all the pre snap stuff, and that's just really a matter of focus and concentration and all that. The as you say, the combative stuff. Mike McCarthy used to use the word combative when it came to the POSTNAT penalties. Those types of penalties, Yes, they're going to happen. You want to try to reduce them. The players know that sometimes they lose control of their technique.
By the same token, those offensive linemen are out there saying, we don't want to get our quarterback killed. So if they feel like they're getting beat and they're gonna grab onto somebody, they do that. I think what somewhat's been unfortunate is the Packers have been called for offensive holding a couple times on running plays where it isn't about protecting the quarterback and they just aren't executing the way they should in those instances. I'm going to take care
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All right, looking back other results in Week three, of course, the biggest one you and I were sort of keeping an eye on it, although it got out of hand early Minnesota against the previously two and oh Houston Texans. It ends up a route thirty four to seven in
favor of the Vikings. There are two teams in the NFC wes that are three and oh, the Minnesota Vikings in the Seattle Seahawks, and one of those, Minnesota is coming to lambeau Field on Sunday in Week four, just as we all figure the Vikings with the quarterback change, and then the draft pick gets injured, and they turn
it over to Sam Darnold. They're three and oh and the Packers, having lost their starting quarterback in Week one, win two games with a backup, and they are two and one, and now they square off in a pretty significant early season matchup here in Green Bay.
I think it really One thing I really like about the way the schedule did layout is you did have a chance to get some of these non conference games in terms of like the college reference to it. Obviously they played an in conference game against the philadelp Eagles, but now you're getting up against your division. Both of these teams have kind of built some wind and got some wind in their sales. I made the line an
insider inbox. I wrote the line that, you know, I think there's reason for both of these teams to be confident, and in a lot of ways, the Minnesota Vikings kind of remind me of the twenty nineteen Green Bay Packers in that I personally left them for dead. I thought they were the fourth place team in the division. I thought there was especially once JJ McCarthy went down, I'm like, what is this team going to be able to accomplish this year? I was very wrong Brian Flores is doing
remarkable work with that defense. Kevin O'Connell is one of the brightest offensive mines in the game. And then here's the other thing, Mike, And this is why I draw the peril of twenty nineteen. The Vikings had to get new personnel, they had to find upgrades, and they've done that, you know, bringing in a guy like Aaron Jones. Yeah, he's going to be a big talking point because of his connections to the Packers, But let's take all that away.
Multiple time Man of the Year nominee, a guy that has been a Pro Bowl running back in this league at twenty nine years old, still is finding ways to get better and is off to a great start. That's what they this run game for Minnesota needed after last season. Yeah, the answer when Delvin Cook left, it wasn't Alexander Madison.
No, it wasn't.
They had to find a new path. They did that, and there's countless examples of this with the free agenc they've acquired, Sam Darnold being one of them. But the Vikings made smart signings and it's helped make up for the fact that they basically have no draft picks.
Yeah, that's true. I mean for as much as much as they've struggled to help themselves in a lot of ways in the draft. And of course, the jury's still out on JJ McCarthy. You know, he's out for the year, and I think we'll be talking about him plenty in the years to come. But you're right, and what Minnesota was able to do in free agency has compensated for not being able to help themselves as much in the draft as they would want to. It's already looking pretty
darn interesting. In the NFC North. I know the Bears are struggling. They lost to the Indianapolis Colts on the road. They're one and two. But the Detroit Lions went out to Arizona beat the Cars twenty to thirteen. So you have the Vikings at three and oh, the Packers and the Lions both at two and one through three games in the NFC North. Did you see the at the end of the first half how that Lions Cardinals game?
Just I did that.
There was a there was a play Jared Goff throws what turned into a pick six by the Cardinals, and then after the play was over, the officials decided that the clock had reached the two minute warning of the first half before the snap, and they like just said the play doesn't count.
Wow.
And then a few plays later the Lions got a touchdown you know, and got seven points going the other way. Very strange sequence of events there. Just to update everybody in case you want you're paying attention not paying attention. Three teams in the AFC are three and oh the Kansas City Chiefs, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Buffalo Bills, who put a herding on the Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday Night football. The Jaguars now zero to three with Trevor
Lawrence and his big monster contract. But in reflecting on Monday Night Football, we'd be remiss if we didn't bring up what happened in Cincinnati on Monday night. Jaden Daniels, the Heisman Trophy winning star from LSU, has arrived on the scene in the NFL. Man on the road against a pretty darn good defense with a veteran a veteran defense with a veteran defensive coordinator, he carved him up. Man. Basically, they scored points every time they touch the ball. Would
they end up racking up thirty eight? Was it to win that game. Jayden Daniels only throws two incompletions the entire game. One of those would have been a touchdown if he had if he'd been able to hit it. Sometimes when young quarterbacks are thrown into the fire right away, they can hit the ground running. There is no tried and true set formula for how to do this, because sometimes Jade and Daniels shows.
Up and there is one. There is one kind of somewhat tried and true formula. Give the guy an offensive line and give him some playmakers.
Very good point.
The more I read about the Washington Commanders, the more there really was a belief there that they had the pieces in place there to compete this year if they could find the quarterback. And I think they did it with this young man because it and this is a lot of what Houston did too, man where they really struggled mightily for a long time, but then they get CJ. Stroud and they have guys around him to pick him up, and then they let the guy make plays.
Yeah, and Stroud ends up being the NFL offensive rookie of the year.
Absolutely, and watching Jade and Daniels and there were so many great moments in that game, but I'm sitting there watching the end of it because I have just give you some insight here. I have some fantasy football stakes into all this. No gambling at Bushwood, but a very competitive league that I'd been in for twenty years, and you know, I might have had Moss and waiting to see what he does. And yeah, obviously a garbage touchdown which very well appreciated at the end of that game,
won my game. To take that Dave vander Moss three and oh he's two and one. It's all good. But be that as it may. Daniel's throw and Cincinnati sent everybody except their safeties basically at him on that play, including a free rusher because they have eight going after him.
He stands up, does not wielt under pressure. And Michael, I'm telling you, if this would have been a play out at Nichgie Field and he's throwing that ball from the forty yard line into those little nets in the end zone that they do that drill, he would have put, if not in it, right by it. He could not have thrown a better ball to Terry McLaurin.
Yeah, and it was a heck of a catch by McLaurin. Incredible overage was outstanding, incredible, but yeah, amazing, absolutely absolutely amazing performance and an amazing finish to that performance by Jade.
Can I tell you a funny story. So I do the pregame radio with James Jones and Dennis Crousey and Mike Keller, and they did this whole thing where they get they listed off all the three and O t or all the two and O teams, and Dennis asked us like, Okay, who's who's the most you know, for real team and all this. Mike picked Houston, I picked Tampa Bay and and James said none of them. And it's fool He's probably like really, he's like, the Texans
probably are the best one. But I mean, I an'm believing it in these teams, and I think that's really funny. I said Tampa Bay because I just felt like they figured out a formula and then that formula unraveled against Denver and then you know, conversely, man, I don't know if it was a Joe Mixon effect. I don't know what it was. I did not watch enough of that.
Game, but yeah, I didn't see enough of it either.
The Vikings got after the Texans and a Texas team that I thought was going to be infallible and was going to, if not maybe not win every game, but not get blown up by you know, twenty seven points points. Yeah, that that was an eye opener for me.
Yeah, absolutely about the and I want to look into that game a little bit more as the week goes along, and we'll talk about it more on Thursday when we go into a little bit more depth with the Vikings. But I did see, like right off the bat, the Vikings got an interception of Stroud, like deep in Houston territory, and that just seemed to kind of set the tone. The Texans were kind of off kilter, the Vikings were rolling their home crowd and you know, and all of
that in Minneapolis. So but yeah, let's let's talk more Vikings on our next show.
And I'm gonna close with this because I just want to remind everybody in how difficult it is to win in this league. The Los Angeles Rams survive San Francisco to go to one and two. The forty nine Ers now are one and two. A lot of injuries, but there's still one in two. Sean McVay is going to his post game news conference saying, Holy bleep because his team just finally got on a win in a very.
Difficult situation, incredibly difficult situation for the Rams.
Cincinnati oh to three, Baltimore holds off whatever that was in the fourth quarter by the Cowboys. Both of those teams are one and two. Tampa Bay or excuse me, Miami loses to is one and two. And then you're sitting here looking at a league where there's so much parody, there's so much hype in just how quickly teams are
put in the crosshairs. Never discount a victory. The Green Bay Packers found two very hard earned ones coming out of the AFC South, and now they've put them in a position to be in a very competitive game on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings.
Thirty two teams in this league and only five still have zero in the lost column after three weeks, and hopefully the Packers can take that zero out of the lost column for the Vikings this weekend. But we'll get to that later this week. For now, we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted'd be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com. For Wes Iammike, thank you for tuning in. Everybody, We will see you next time.