#798 Packers Unscripted: Work to do

going to start by saying this. This is my nineteenth season covering Thepackers for Packers dot Com, and my days of covering Packers games extends back mid nineties, late nineties, early two thousands before I got here. That game, if it's not the most bizarre football game I have seen, it definitely ranks up there. That was just a weird football game.

to get in the locker room. You go to the auditorium for Matt and Jordan's pressers, I'm standing outside getting my notes together for the availability, and I'm like, I didn't know how to make heads or tails of that game, because, Okay, it could have went one of two ways here. The Packers could have won, which was completely on the table in the second half, yes, and they also could have gotten completely blown out when they were down twenty eight

to nothing, it seemed like nothing could go right. It ends up being a thirty one twenty nine game, which is just sort of the weirdest outcome possible in a game in which the Packers had real chances to win

late in the fourth quarters. But all that put together, I looked at it this way as I laid my head down to go to bed on Sunday night, I'm like, if you were ever gonna have a quote unquote I'm not calling at this because I know fans will go nuts, but that preseason type game, allowing Jordan Love just to get into a rhythm and find himself a little bit and just get the throws out and get the rust off, that was kind of it. Yeah, he found Jayden Reid.

He had some really nice throws to Dontavian Wicks. The defense did some good things. It wasn't good enough to win, and the Packers have a vast amount of corrections to make. But by and large, I left that game for as bad as I felt about it prior to Daniel Wheeland's punt in the second quarter. Yeah, I walked out of that game being like, all right, these guys are gonna be fine.

for Green Bay. The defense gave up the three consecutive touchdowns on Minnesota's first three possessions, and that included, you know, allowing a third and fourteen on the opening drive after a potential interception was dropped, then on the next two touchdown drives, if the Packers defense even got them in third down, it might have been third and one or third and two. They never even felt like they had

a legitimate chance to get off the field offensively. The first four possessions in whatever order result in two missed field goals and two interceptions, so it really doesn't get too much worse than that, and the second interception then sets up Minnesota's fourth touchdown with a short field. They

punch it in twenty eight to zero. It was just a case of, you know, if something could go wrong, it did, and then, as this crazy NFL works from that point, suddenly, with roughly ten minutes left in the fourth quarter, the score is twenty eight to twenty two. The Lambeau crowd is into it, and the Packers have a legitimate chance to pull off what would have been the biggest comeback in franchise history, which is twenty three points. It's been done twice, a comeback from twenty eight points,

but the Vikings settled things down. They did what they needed to do. The Packers then reverted to making mistakes a couple of more turnovers in the fourth quarter when the game was still within reach. It's hard to make head or tail of it, but I'm with you in that. For as awful as things were for pretty much the entire first half, you left that game saying, oh, okay, it's a tough loss. It stinks, there's all kinds of stuff to work on. The Packers are going to be okay.

Here was This was not just a complete and total utter collapse against a division rival. They stood up, they fought back, They gave themselves a chance. It didn't work out, and Minnesota is sitting on top of the NFC North at four and oh the only undefeated team in the nf sound right now. The only other undefeated team in the league is the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.

But it's you know, it's pretty simple to just say, all right, you know, you get back to work, get your work done, get on the plane, go to LA and try to chalk up win number three. That's all this week is about.

was not an encouraging start. Sam Darnold was way too comfortable. They had way too much success. But you know, whether it was you know what you might have missed or some of the other you know, different types of film review stuff that's out there, I mean, you give credit to what Kevin O'Connell did. I mean they did a lot structurally with their offensive linement, a lot with their overall philosophy of offense to be able to get into that rhythm that they did early on. It wasn't just

like okay, there was breakdown after breakdown. It was a dropped interception that could have shifted tied with isamh McDuffie absolutely, it was Naylor. I believe it was leaking out on third and fourteen and being able to get the first down, and then after that, it just seemed like the Packers couldn't catch a break there for about the next twenty five minutes. Yea, once they did, once they slowed things down, you started to see the team that we saw in Nashville.

The problem is is that when you're playing from behind like that, you have to take more chances with the football. You're not going to run the ball as the way you want to. And in Tucker Crawt trying to make a play ends of fumbling, you know, with a really nice play by Byron Murphins Jr. That's that's the that's the precarious position you're in when you're playing from behind.

And the Packers just weren't. They set themselves so far back from the cart it was hard getting that thing reattached to pull out a victory.

So the Packers are going into this game when you've got Justin Jefferson on the other side, and two of your top four cornerbacks are on the sideline. The only the two of your top four who are available are Eric Stokes and Keishawn Nixon. Nixon being mostly a slot guy, but then he gets playing you know, some boundary corner. And I think that the situation in the secondary and the fact that Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison are pretty darn good pair of receivers, I think that influenced jeff

Halfley trying to stick with the foreman rush. He didn't want to really come after Darnald and make from a numbers perspective, the secondary and the coverage that much more vulnerable, and the fore man rush just couldn't get there. This is, to me, this is an example of the once you get into a season there are things that are on tape and other teams are going to be prepared.

the defensive line to freeze somebody up. And the Vikings just looked like they were prepared for every single one of those that the Packers tried to run with the fore men rush. They were picking everything up, they were executing their pass protection, and the Packers only really were able to harass Darnold a couple of times in the

second half when they did bring the extra pressure. So Packers were kind of behind the eight ball defensively with the laid injury to Alexander and then things with what they were planning just didn't really work out and the snowball started running downhill. That said, Xavier McKinney keeps points off the board with his fourth interception in four games.

Kuway Walker comes on a blitz and gets a thirteen yard sack that leads to that leads to a punt for the Vikings, and Keyshawn Nixon comes off the slot on the blind side. The Vikings don't pick it up. You get the sack fumble and that's you know, leads to a touchdown that gets the Packers back into the game.

So the defense made some big plays, but the Vikings were just in command for so long and building that twenty eight point lead that the way everything ultimately ultimately unfolded, it was too little, too late.

to generate pressure to create opportunities for yourself. But the thing about you talk about the Packers and how they have to adjust to having Justin Jefferson out there in Jordan Addison, the benefit for the Minnesota Vikings is when you have weapons like that that people have to pay so much attention to, there's things you can do in your offensive front to be able to compensate for that. Green Bay eventually did start to find answers in the

second half. This is something I brought up on Twitter. Some people had mentioned to me. This is something that Sean McVay has been doing in LA. I have not been privy to it, but this idea of basically lining up your running back a yard in front of your quarterback and shotgun. That's a thing to kind of take away the eight gap blitzes and some of the pressure inside.

But then Jeff Haffley had the right call to defend against that when he sent Keyshawn Nixon on that blitz right off the edge, right off the strong side edge, and it leads to a big play. They started to find the answers. I think kay Walker this game was a perfect embodiment of the type of player Kway Walker can be in this defense when used appropriately. Edgeran Cooper gets a fumble recovery off of the Keyshawn Nixon play.

There were a lot of positives to show to. But again, when you fall behind twenty to nothing, there's certain things that are going to go against you. The Packers ran seventy six offensive plays in this game. They actually ended up dominating tom of possession like I talked about, but it's because of the interceptions, it's because of the turnovers. The Packers can clean some of those things up. If

they can avoid five penalties in the first quarter. There are opportunities here for them to really become a very good football team.

were were struggling there stalling out. Vikings made My Vikings made a really good play the middle. The middle linebacker made a really good play on the first interception, you know where he basically read Love's eyes, and instead of staying with the tight end who was running the deep the deep scene kind of the go down the middle, who was supposed to clear out that middle linebacker, he stayed home because he saw that Love was going to

try to go to Christian Watson there. Unfortunately, then Watson gets hurt on that play, and he's going to be out for at least a little while here. The second interception for Love, I thought was I mean, it was bad luck. It was bad luck for Love. The route combination wasn't run quite right, and so then Musgrave didn't realize the throw wasn't intended for him, It was intended for Dobbs behind him. It ends up getting deflected twice and then picked off. But then Love started to settle

down the accuracy started to come around. They're moving the ball and getting some things done. But then he almost starts feeling it a little bit too much. Yeah, because then when it's thirty one to twenty two, about six minutes to go, and it's a first down, and he responds to the blitz off the edge by Harrison Smith by trying to take the shot deep down the field one on one for Wis against Murphy, and Wicks really

had no chance to catch that ball. So you know, like I say, almost almost feeling a little bit too good, tries to make too much of a hero play, and that towards the comeback effort. In the end, it was it was a little bit of everything game. I mean, Jordan Love set career highs across the board completions, attempts, the three hundred and eighty nine yards, the four touchdowns, also tied his career high with three interceptions, so kind

of all over the board there. The best news about it is that is that one from a health standpoint, he looked better as the game went up, and he looked like he settled in and from everything that we've heard, other than the knee being sore, which is to be expected, He did take a hit on the one scramble in the second quarter, but health wise, he came out of it no worse for wear, and he should be able to practice the requisite amount of reps this week to

get ready to play the Rams, and hopefully, you know, just having this first game dealing with you know, how to play with the knee, dealing with it, managing it the way he needs to manage it throughout the course of the game. He's now been through that and now it's just all I was looking forward, Yeah.

That's where they need to get back to now, especially if they're not going to have Watson for however amount of time, especially if there's certain things, you know, Tucker Craft has kind of been battling through a shoulder injury when when the Chips were down last year, Jordan Love was the one that was pulling everybody together. And to have him back, I think you felt the energy with that.

Craft even mentioned just hearing him in the huddle Kite gave them just a little bit more confidence knowing that the field general is back out there. And I thought, more importantly for me, it was just that second half just seeing Jordan Love look like himself again. And you're right, he probably felt it a little bit too much at times, but seeing him hopping, seeing him looking downfield, see him having that confidence, standing tall in the pocket, that's vintage

Jordan Love. That's who this quarterback is, you know. And now seeing where they can bring this thing. I mean, they lost to a very good Minnesota Vikings team. Now they're going to be taking on and we'll previewed on Thursday, but they're gonna be taking on an LA Rams team that is one very narrow win over the forty nine

ers away from being oh to four. They're gonna be facing an Arizona Cardinals team in their own house here that has showed a lot of promise and explosivity with their offense, but still is one in three and having some stuff to come back from. So they got two wins against the AFC, they got two losses against the NFC. They're zero to one and what potentially could be the

best division in football this year. This is where you need to be able to take what you did wrong, shore up some of those details, and now become the team and get together with these wins they ended up getting late last season, but probably would have been a little bit easier on them if they could have gotten that together in October and November.

eight of the twenty two. The Packers held Jones to one game or less zero or negative yardage the other he got the essentially got the ninety three yards on the other fourteen carries because there weren't a whole lot of three and four yard runs. It was either zero or one or he was busting out for twelve or fourteen. So the whole feast or famine nature of the way the Packers played run defense in this game was kind of a microcosm of how everything went on all on

all sides of the ball here. And you know, you don't want to have you don't want to be riding that roller coaster and whatnot. But you know, I think there's plenty, there's plenty to look at to correct, but there's also plenty out there that shows the Packers, all right, yeah, we can do this. We just have to just have to do it more consistently and do it more often. And I think that's what you have to try to hang your hat on moving forward.

We defended the run pretty well. It was sort of those screens that he was leaking out on early that we were kind of having a hard time adjusting to, and then the vikings just stopped. So for him to go out of this game with a seventeen yard long carrying four point two yards per carry, that's not why the Packers lost this game. They lost it because they got off to a very slow start and when they needed that stop in the fourth quarter, they couldn't get it.

And again, I will say this one last time, because you've had to read this in my inboxes a couple times now. I give Kevin O'Connell a lot of credit for how he handled that fourth quarter. Yep, there's a lot of people, maybe even myself included, that would have tucked tail and started running two yards into a brick wall to protect the lead and to drain the clock. He said, no, Sam Donald made a mistake. We're gonna come out. We're gonna throw this thing. I have justin

Jefferson on my sideline. You're gonna get the ball to our playmakers, and they shot downfield and got the three points they needed ultimately to put this thing out of reach.

And O'Connell just stayed aggressive, kept dialing it up and they were able to at the twenty eight to twenty two point, they were able to drive it down the field mostly thanks to Jefferson, and get the field goal that made it a two score game again. And then the Packers were really playing uphill.

went even worse with the Panthers. And as we talked about last week, he's pulled himself back together into being a real playmaker and he made place. He had some real big gaffs with some of those aid incompletions, but he needed when this team needed him to make place, he did it.

a reason. Yep, right, I mean, so if they get in the right situation with the right coaches, the right system, coaches that can emphasize emphasize their strengths, and they have the right kind of team around them. Mean all that, it's all about the environment and whatnot, and those guys can can take advantage. And we've we've seen those high draft picks who look like total flame outs become really really good quarterbacks for teams that are playing some pretty

good football right now. A couple of lingering issues with the Packers that definitely need to be addressed moving forward. The two the two that stand out to me that are lingering are the issues in the kicking game with narvice and missing two more field goals. That's five misses including the one that was wiped out by the penalty in Tennessee. Five miss field goals in four games. All of the missed field goals under fifty yards. Packers have

to do better there. They're expressing their confidence in Narvice and they want this young man to work through it. They need to get more production when they send the field goal unit on the field. The other lingering issue is is penalties eight more in this game, most of them in the first half. Packers played a lot cleaner in the second half, but with eight penalties, that's now thirty four penalties not including declined or offsetting thirty four

penalties and four games. Yeah, it's got to change. I mean it's it's got to change for the Packers to be able to be the team that they want to and expect to.

didn't put themselves in negative yardage situations. This offense is five times more explosive today than it was in twenty nineteen. But the twenty nineteen team was so methodical and so successful because it negated the takeaway turnovers and it negated the negative yardage plays as far as nervius. And this is going to be a real quandary for the Packers because I agree with Matt Lafleur and I agree with

Brian Goodikunz. This is the guy they went with. And I said it to you the day that the Packers made that decision We're going to cut our kickers and we're going to claim this guy from Tennessee. That's a big decision and you have to really take that decision to heart as far as what your plan is going to be and how you're going to proceed with this

young man. Anders Carlson had the full bandwidth of last season, would have been interested to see how Green Bay would have handled that if he hadn't gotten off to the start that he did last year. He was very hot for those first five games.

learn a playbook. So when you look at guys that end up buying themselves time and end up earning opportunities and becoming entrench kickers in this league, Michael, it's not a big secret. It's usually because they made a boatload of kicks right off the bat, and that's how they did it. That's how that young man has done it in Atlanta these last few years. So it's a tough spot to be in. The Packers believe them. You and I have seen the leg strength. It is prototypical leg strength.

But you got to put it through the upfarts.

My takeaway was, and I don't I'm not. I'm the last person that's going to label receivers, but I thought Jayden Reid proved in this game that when the chips are down, he's the guy you go to. And it's not because always better than anybody else. The catches he made, in the situations he made in his body positioning in that game, whether it was in the middle of the field and the backfield coming across the middle, Jaden Reid showed that he he's not the Green Bay Packers Deebo Samuel.

He is the Green Bay Packers Jayden Reid. And this young man, Tom Fanning cooked up the stat I don't have it all in front of me, but his pro production through his first twenty games in the National Football League is almost unparallel. And when the Packers needed a playmaker, when someone needed to step up, that man was Jayden Reid and I don't think you can give him enough flowers for that.

his own guy. And you can't compare him to anybody in Packer's history either, you know, whether you're talking about you know, some of the greatest playmakers that we've seen this century in Green Bay. He's different. He's different, and he's a he's a treat to watch. I will take care of sponsor business here and then I'm just going to get one more thought from you before we go serious.

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years of better. You said it earlier in the show, the NFC North might be the best division in football where things stand right now, the Minnesota Vikings are four and oh, the Detroit Lions with their quarterback going eighteen for eighteen on Monday Night football, knowing completions and catching a touchdown passive of his own from his wide receiver.

The Detroit Lions are three and one. They knocked off the previously undefeated Seattle Seahawks who put up over five hundred yards of offense and still lost by two touchdowns. Go figure on that one. And then the Packers and the Bears are both two and two. So if the math is right in my head, four three two to two, eleven and five, the NFC North collectively is eleven and five after five weeks. That's pretty good, pretty good, And there's only been one division game Powers and Vikings where

you get the automatic win, automatic loss for somebody. There's only been one division game through four weeks in this division, and the collective record of the division is eleven and five.

because they all do different things. Well, but I mean, you look at what the Lions are doing and the way they're built and how they've responded to how last season ended for them, they are not to be trifled with the one thing I will say though, Gino Smith, Kenneth Walker the third they did take it to that defense a little bit and they had to, but.

they played the whole game Detroit territory. But Detroit's defense, with its back against the wall on several drives, just stood tall and got the job done to where the point total ends up being what was it, twenty seven or twenty nine or something like that, with over five hundred yards of offense. The Detroit defense, for all the yards they gave up, they still got a lot of stops and that was really the difference in the game.