#803 Packers Unscripted: Showdown with H-town

Brandon Narvison is out. Veteran kicker Brandon McManus is in. Packers have gone basically a season and a third now with rookie kickers and it hasn't worked out, and so now the move is to go to a veteran, a proven guy, and Brandon McManus was Brian Gudukunk's choice.

to move forward here. One thing Guda Kunts did reiterate though the Packers did their due diligence, they leaned on the NFL and their investigation into the whole situation, and ultimately felt like this is with where this team is at, it was time to go back to the veteran route. And I've said this time and time again. It applies typically more to the courtition, but when a team struggles in the quarterback play is not where you want it to be. If the quarterback's a veteran, it tends to

be that that's where they end up drafting somebody. If it's a if it's a draft pick or a recent young player, that's when typically they go the veteran round. It's one of the other, and Green Bay is swinging the pendulum back towards the veteran route. In McManus, a guy that is an eleventh year veteran out of Temple. I thought this was a really salient point that you

raised them. Maybe you're going to get into it here in a second, but the fact of how efficient he's been within fifty yards and I as much as you want to have the big home run hitter, there's times where you just got to get you have to get the gotta have them kicks. And I think that's what the Packers, with where this team is ated for and too and where they think they can get to this season, they feel like McManus can be that guy. Yeah.

had last year as a rookie for the Packers. And I was like, wait a minute, Brandon McManus kicked for nine years in Denver, and I just remember from watching games and whatnot, the Broncos had him try a bunch of long kicks fifty five, fifty six fifty eight yards. He was doing that all the time. So I dug into his statistics, and he's tried eighty five fifty plus yard field goals in his career. I believe it's eighty five. Maybe it's eighty two. Anyway, it's a number in the eighties.

He's made more than half of them. He's made roughly fifty five percent of those. But if you take out the fifty five percent on fifty plus, which isn't bad by any means, I think that's still a pretty good clip for those difficult kicks. If you take out the fifty five percent on the fifty plus inside fifty yards in his career, which is ten years nine with Denver, one with Jacksonville inside fifty yards, this guy's been ninety

one percent for his entire career. We have watched Brandon Narvison miss five field goals six if you count the one that was called back by the penalty in Tennessee in six weeks. All of those misses were under fifty yards. We watched last year Anders Carlson miss five extra points from thirty three yards away. Brandon McManus has missed nine thirty three yard extra points in his entire career. Carlson missed five of those last season. The upgrade here is obvious.

Now there's never any guarantee things are gonna work out. Hopefully for McManus, all of this off the field stuff, as he said, the NFL investigation, the civil lawsuit, it's been resolved. He's moving forward. He's looking at this as a fresh start, a new opportunity. Is very thankful for the Packers. The Packers are thankful that a guy with his track record was available to be able to make

this change. Some people are wondering, Okay, well, how come you know there was so much patience with Anders Carlson last year, not so much patience this year with Braden Narvison. You have to remember last year the Packers were three and six after nine games. They were trying to figure it out. They didn't get above five hundred until they got to nine to eight, winning the last regular season

game just to get into the playoffs. This is a four and two team that is in right now the toughest division in football, and the Packers have expectations this year that are way beyond what they had a year ago. There's no wait in around here when this opportunity was available and the off the field stuff was looked at and the Packers were comfortable with it. This is a big time move to make to get a proven veteran kicker who's been through it all, including kicking in a Super Bowl.

fifty yards. Mason's was eighty six percent within fifty and exactly the same fifty five percent beyond fifty as McManus. So thirty three years old, it's not been kicking for a while. He had the one year with Jacksonville, was working out on his own down in Florida. We'll have to see how it all fits together. But for the Green Bay Packers at four and two, with what it looks to be, there is not going to be much

wiggle room within the NFC North Division. This was one of the big glaring weaknesses on this team and thirty first ranked in field goal efficiency this season. The Jets only the team behind them right now, and a lot of that was because of what happened on Monday night with Greg Zuerlin. This is their feeling that, Okay, we're going to get a guy again, feeling comfortable with the human,

feeling comfortable with the person. We're going to get a guy that has done this at a high level for a long time and is going to have already developed some of that scar tissue that unfortunately, you know, Brady Narvison on the field is kind of working through right now. Despite having a really solid leg yeah.

to dig themselves out of way. It started with an interception and the Vikings scored right away, then they got another touchdown. It was fourteen to nothing almost before you know, all those Minnesota fans were in their seats and so but that is Houston's only lost this season. They bring in the reigning offensive Rookie of the Year from last year and quarterback c J. Stroud, the reigning defensive Rookie

of the Year from last year in will Anderson. This is an immensely talented team and head coach Demiko Ryans a former defensive Rookie of the Year himself for the Houston Texans. Demiko Ryans as the head coach. Along with this personnel, they've changed the fortunes of that franchise very very quickly. And this is a team was a surprise entry in the playoffs last year, much like the Packers were, and a team with a lot of high hopes and expectations here and off to a five and one start.

They had CJ. Stroud fall in their lap at number two, and he's been just everything and more you could have ever asked for in a young, developing quarterback, and certainly the year right now, it all signs point towards this is going to be a player in this league for years to come, no doubt, and a guy that brings you a lot of versatility as well. I know we

usually break this down with offensive and defensive. It I'm going to do that in a minute, but I wrote this an insider indux and I have to say this again because I really feel like Will Anderson doesn't get the proper credit because of Stroud being drafted at number two. What a pragmatic decision for the Texans making a sizable investment, got their quarterback, but then decided, you know what, we want to get our anchor of our defense for years

to come. They invest three first round picks and some other picks as well into this thing, and they get Will Anderson, who looks like as much of a game changer as it's been with Stroud on the offensive side of the ball. Anderson's providing that on the defensive side at the ball right now. And if you look at pass rushers, you look at quarterbacks, you can bring up all the window dressing and all the other players that

factor into that. But that's how you very quickly change the fortunes of an offense and in a defense, a guy that can handle your offense and can lead your team, and defensively, a guy that is going to be absolutely ripped through the competition. Packers have a very significant challenge on their hands on Sunday.

and Daniel Hunter, the former Minnesota Viking. On the other side, they do not have Mario Edwards. He has now been suspended. But all you have to do is as far as what this defense is capable of is look at the statistics from Houston's victory, a down to the wire walk off long field goal victory over the Buffalo Bills from a couple of weeks ago. Josh Allen, Buffalo quarterback, no slouch of a quarterback. Last I checked, he was nine

of thirty passing against that Houston defense. They made life really, really difficult for Josh Allen in that game. And this Minnesota Vikings certainly have a good defense. They've been doing They've been doing some pretty impressive things. I think this Houston defense is probably the best one the Packers will have faced so far this year.

going to be looking at. And while they do lose Mario Edwards, they're getting back Denico Autry, who is coming off a career year last year with Tennessee this suspension, he's missed these first few you know, first what five six games, But this is the guy the Packers are well familiar with. They almost signed him as an undrafted free agent when he came out of college back in twenty fourteen or whatever it was. I believe it was a medical issue that kind of negated that, but the

dude has been a consistent guy. Reminds me a lot of like Lawrence Guy in terms of it took some time for him to develop, but I mean, coming off career high in sacks last year, what he brings to that rotation. It's a lot of things to worry themselves with. And at the end of the day, the Packers have to find a way forward. And another thing that's going to help them is the fact that this game is taking place at Lambeau field. It sounds like it's going

to be a nice day at Lambeo. We're not going to have to probably have the benefit of some fall conditions like you did last week.

off to Now. They still have Stefan Diggs, they still have Tank, they still have all these guys, Joe Mixon his back, There's a lot of weapons still on that offense. But Nico Collins has been a game changer for them. I think he was already up over five hundred receiving yards on the season. I mean, just off to just a torrid paced start to this year and the hamstring injury keeping him out now landed him, I think on injury reserves.

returned to the backfield. Mixon missed a few games due to injury, including the Vikings game, which was the one game that that the Texans did lose, but boy he came back. And this this guy, this guy is a powerful, powerful running back and uh and he really provides. He

provides the balance in the offense for CJ. Stroud, much in the same way that the Packers have been looking and working toward the balance with with Josh Jacobs a power back, and then and a guy like Emmanuel Wilson behind him to balance things out for Jordan Love Joe Mixon does that for C. J. Stroud and and the Packers are going to have their hands full with this running back.

been out there. Their only lost came the first game they were without him, and they had to kind of find another way and grind out some victories there to

keep things moving in the right direction. That has been a bit, you know, as much as we talk about Josh Jacobs here or Aaron Jones in Minnesota, them bringing in Joe Mixon has really kind of filled one of those very few holes on their offense and gives them a capable every down belcow back to kind of work off of the other one thing too, And maybe I can get into this too at the Keys to victory that that stands out to me when you look at their defense top five defense in a lot of different

categories past they only have five interceptions, So Xavier McKinney has as many interceptions as the Houston Texans. Houston Texas have thirty passes defense this year, Packers have twenty six. I think with their nine, I mean they.

that was the hallmark even before CJ. Stroud became the offensive rookie of the year, the way that defense turned things around last year. It's again it's a formidable task. The Packers are going to be poised to try to take down.

very attractive. It's very awesome how many interceptions they have and the takeaway number seventeen four more takeaways than any other team right now, the NFL, what have you. But the fact is that Green Bay has also been much better against the run, with the exception of really one leaking out last week against the Cardinals, they've really contained the explosives there in this little turnaround that they've had

since Jordan Love got back under center. If you can contain Joe Mixon, I think that sets you up to better defend what Houston is going to throw at you schematically down the field. It's not easy. Mixon is the guy that will grind you out. He's that sake Que Barkley, the type. Okay, we'll see what the first half looks like and then suddenly it's one hundred and twenty rushing yards in the fourth quarter and you don't know what happened, right,

But that is the basis for everything and how it starts. Also, they traded Cam Acres too now, so I guess Damian Pierce would probably be the next guy up.

they're doing and really build on what we saw last week. Now, Houston's defense is much much better than Arizona, so this is a totally different ballgame in that regard. But I'm talking about the balance that the Packers had between the passing game and the running game and all of the variety that is part of the running game, whether it's the running backs, the wide receivers on the end to rounds,

you know, stretching the defense laterally. And in line with that is also the offensive line, which I thought played its best game of the season collectively against the Arizona Cardinals. The offensive line rising to the challenge of a Houston defensive front that is probably as good as it gets in the league right now, Jordan Morgan got back into action from his shoulder injury. That rotation with Sean Ryan at right guard seems to be working. The Packers are

getting production there. It looks like Josh Myers at center no worse for wear from, you know, coming out of the last game with an injury, but then going back in he seems to be okay. He is, he is practicing. We've seen, uh, We've seen Rashid Walker at left tackle

the pack The penalties have settled down. He's really played some good football the last couple of weeks and looking a lot more like the Rashid Walker from the stretch run last year when he really took over that left tackle position and they ditched the rotation with yash Niemen and said, okay, Rashid, like that's your job. That's the

guy we're seeing now at left tackle. We all know what Elton Jenkins is at left guard, and and Zach Tom, as we talked about before, you would never know that this guy missed almost basically the bulk of the offseason program and was very limited throughout training camp before the regular season started. Zach tom is playing like a Pro Bowl level right tack here very quietly, not getting a lot of attention for it, and he doesn't draw attention to himself and all that kind of stuff. This Packer's

offensive line is coming together. We're seeing it come together faster earlier in the season than we did last year with some of the injuries and shuffling around and everything like that. Last week needs to be just a building block though, for that group. With what you've got coming in this week, I think I think this game falls a lot on those guys up front for.

What you have to feel good about, though, is when you look at someone like Zach Tom who again another fourth round pick, Day three guy that has come in from everyone, does it different. Rashid Walker did it very different, but it came in day one and looked like he belonged so much, reminding you of of Elton Jenkins. But then green Bay really had to just sit there and figure out, Okay, so where do we want this guy

to play? Because to this day, I still think no matter what position he's at, the guy can perform at a pro bowl level. He can perform it on all pro level. Yeah. And he's so freaking consistent at a position which is very difficult to be consistent at, especially when you miss your half your off season program with as an offensive lineman with a peck injury.

with Sean Ryan in that rotation. Yeah, it's impressive what Base been managing to do with it, basically all coming on day three.

Fifty plus years of better quick look around Week seven in the NFL, the one that everybody at home will sort of have half an eye on while watching the Packers and the Texans, the Detroit Lions at Minnesota against the Vikings. Detroit is four and one, the Vikings are five and zero. We're being asked in insider inbox like as Packers fans, like, you know, who are you supposed to root for here? My initial answer was, well, you know, one of them's got to lose, which is a good

thing because they're both aheady in the standings. They both can't win this week, so that's a But you got a you got any kind of a gut feeling if you're a Packers fan on just who you're supposed to root for here?

it's time for the Minnesota Vikings. For as many adverse wins as they got, as much rallying as they've done, you need that first arrow to hit in the siege, right, and it's just they they're five and oh they're feeling themselves. If the Detroit Lions could go into US Bank Stadium and do what they did to the Dallas Cowboys, suddenly you start to get some questions in your mind. I'm not saying you got to beat them forty seven to nine, yeah, but then you say, everybody knew the Detroit Lions were

going to be a very talented juggernaut this year. Coming off of what they did last season. Nobody expected this out of Minnesota. My question is, let's say there is a loss there, then how does Minnesota bounce back from it? Now? The contrast says the Packers have to play the Lions in two weeks anyway, do you want them having so much momentum? I don't know, but I do think there is something to be said for potentially the Lions taking that zero.

left with the Lions. They only have one left with the Vikings, so that in that circumstance, it probably is better for the Vikings to take that first loss, because because the Packers don't have as many opportunities to tag more losses on the Vikings themselves, whereas they do have two games left with the Lions. I thought I thought that was a worthwhile perspective.

Aaron Jones. So they really really want him back. And as we mentioned then, they made the trade for Cam Akers for depth a running back because they obviously have concerns there. And this will be the first game for the Lions without Aiden Hutchinson, who suffered that that horrific broken leg you know, had to be rushed off for

emergency surgery in Dallas. He's out for the rest of the season, and you know that Lion's defense now has to has to deal with not having not only the emotional leader and all that, but the guy who was you know, certainly already in the discussion for possibly NFL Defensive Player of the Year. And that's something that the

Lions have to react to. One other game obviously that a lot of people will be watching on Sunday, the Super Bowl rematch Kansas City chiefs San Francisco forty nine ers and the Niners need to win in order to not be below five hundred after seven games, which is kind of hard to believe. Kansas City has taken on all comers. They haven't looked the prettiest in getting to five and zero. But Patrick Mahomes is proving that he's just a find a way to win guy with you know,

with whatever the circumstances, whatever the stakes. This is a guy who finds a way. He's going to have to He's going to be working to find a way in San Francisco on late Sunday afternoon.

they're feeling it right now. I mean, when your kicker gets hurt, you know, things are not going well for you right now, you know.

it was originally. Maybe it was Perry Goldstein that was the one that originally was talking about the Jets being in primetime Again, do you think they made the NFL made the Jets schedule and then after that just did the rest of the leading the way that this has worked out, they're either they've either been in primetime or they're in London.