#808 Packers Unscripted: At the bye

game was played. There was one team on Sunday that made a bunch of mistakes, there was another team that didn't, and who won and who lost was pretty obvious.

that all right. You know, Lions went two for four in the red zone. They outyardaged them one fifty, you know, by one hundred and fifty yards. But when you have a swing and that's what I kind of isolated an insider inbox like they had at the end of the first half into the second half, Packers giving up a pick six offensively, the defense giving up a touchdown out of the break that ultimately was the deciding factor in this game, and a menagerie of penalties and drop passes

and you know, kind of missed opportunities. This was the final result. I thought green Bay battled. I thought there were a lot of positives to draw from in terms of if you're going to play see them again next month, things you can build off of. But at the end of the day, Michael, the Detroit Lions, especially their offense, are just so freaking efficient that if you don't break their rhythm and then don't find some heavy punches on the other side of things, you're gonna have an outcome

like this. It was twenty four to fourteen, but realistically it was more twenty four to six, twenty four to three. Yeah, and Green Bay just could not find that momentum to be able to knock off really the front runner right now in this conference.

they were creating for themselves. Because that the way that first half in particular went, the explosive plays the Packers got, and that was something I had talked about last week.

It was, you know, when the explosive play equation limit the ones that Detroit got, which green Bay's defense I thought did pretty well for Yeah, a juggernaut that was averaging forty plus points a game over the past month, and the Packers were getting their share, but then they weren't cashing in on those and getting the points on the board the way the first half went for the Packers to only have three points, You're scratching your head, going, how in the world are there are only three points

on the board with what the Packers were doing offensively, And it was really frustrating in that regard. You said it. The possessions that sandwiched halftime was really where this game swung. The Packers defense gets a key stop in the red zone laid in the first half, the Packers are using their timeouts to save time for one more possession before halftime. The Lions have to kick a field goal, so the

game is ten to three. But then Jordan Love tries to do a little bit too much and Kirby Joseph makes a great play, gets the pick six, and then, as you said, the Lions come out a halftime then getting the ball, they marched down the field for the second time in the game, get a touchdown on fourth down where they went forward on fourth down in the red zone, and suddenly that ten to three game with a minute to go in the first half is a twenty four to three game. The next time, Jordan Love

and the offense get the ball back. So and that's where kind of the game plan gets thrown out the window you've got a hurry to score because you don't know if your defense is going to be able to just hold them at twenty four the rest of the game, which the Packers defense did. But you can't just sit there and take, you know, seven eight minutes off the clock to try to score points in the second half

when you're down by twenty one. So the game plan was out the window and and things went from there. I do think this was a commendable effort by Green Bay's defense, actually missing two of your starters in the secondary j R. Alexander Evan Williams did not play. If you had told me before the game that the Detroit Lions were going to have two hundred and sixty one yards and seventeen points on offense, I would have said, the Packers are going to have a tremendous opportunity to

win this game. And I think the Packers did have a tremendous opportunity to win this game. They just they couldn't get a get out of their own way with their own miscues.

sitting on six wins heading into their bye week. But at the same time, when you face a team like Detroit who was also sitting on six wins entering this game, there's so many things that the Lion do well. And defensively, I still think there's a lot of holes. Certainly, you know, they've reportedly added Zadarias Smith. That's going to help the edge rush a little bit, but you know there's still whatever the twentieth rank defense, they still there's yards to

be had out there. I thought green Bay ran the ball really well against that front when they were able to, when that's what the game was dictating, right. But the challenge is is that Detroit. It almost felt like a high school football game where Detroit really locked in once you got farther down the field and they just were not green Bay was not able to cash in those

opportunities you have. Brian Branch gets a huge penalty in game ejection after you feel like, Okay, this is going to be that moment where green Bay is going to be able to put some points on the board. They're gonna be able to get some touchdown swing momentum in their favor. They didn't. They didn't do it. Josh Jacobs breaks a thirty seven yard run on his first carry on a series,

green Bay can't turn it into a touchdown. Those type of incidents are ultimately the lead in the yards on the field, leaving the points on the field, and he just can't do that against a team like the Detroit Lions. And I'll say this too, and this is not any disrespect at all that Jared Goff. They made the plays they needed to make, They caught the football passes, the footballs that they needed to do, the passes that they

needed to do. But the way they ran the ball in how they avoid pre snap penalties and procedural penalties, Goff's mo becomes very simple in terms of what they want to accomplish and how they want to do it. I gained an appreciation for that watching because you look at a stat sheet. Mike and I don't get to watch these teams every week. You're like, how is Jared Goff completing twelve straight passes? How is he going these games where there's two or three incompletions for an entire game.

And then you watch what they did in this game, the way he's protected, in the way they're able to set up their offense with favorable down and distance. I'm telling you, man, this will be Ben Johnson's last year with Jared Goff. That guy is going to be one of the most highly sought after head coaching candidates I can think of in the recent twenty first century at the end of the season because of just how a fish they've been and how well they execute their offense.

Hafley goes aggressive calls for the blitz. Unfortunately, two blitzing guys, Cooper and McKinney, both blitz the same gap. Jamior Gibbs takes the handoff and cuts to the one gap that there was no blitzer, and he basically waltz into the end zone for a touchdown. But the Detroit because of the mistakes the Packers were making. The Packers didn't make the Lions make any great plays in order to win

this game. Right the way the game was going, the lineons, you could feel it that the Lions were like, Okay, these guys keep screwing up. They keep making mistakes. They're they're you know, they're false starting, they're dropping passes, all this kind of stuff. If we don't we don't have to do anything great to win here today. We're going

to play our game. We're going to be mistake for you, which they were, I mean, aside from aside from you know, maybe the one, uh, the one mistake where Pinay Sewell trips on his yeah, on his lineman's foot and so Aaron Moseby gets a sack, and then I think they had maybe one illegal shift on offense as far as a pre snat penper right, but they were like, hey, if we don't make any mistakes, uh, we're going to win this game, because you know, the other guys are

the ones who are making the mistakes and the game just the game unfolded that way. You have to make when you come into a game like this against a team that's been playing as well as the Lions, you have to make that team make some great plays to beat you. And uh and and the Packers didn't do that. The Packers had to summon their best game of the season to date in order to beat the best team that they were playing to date, and quite frankly, they

didn't come close. And that's something they have to think about now for two weeks over the bye. Maybe it's a good thing. Maybe this one, you know, Matt Lafleuir talked about, you know, a loss like this, as you know, you sit and stew about it, and it's gonna stick with you longer because of the bye week. Maybe that'll be a good thing for this even the long run.

We'll see, you know, there's already discussion from lafleur about maybe changing some things up in practice because the drop passes and the pre snap penalties and stuff like that is it's something that's it's been an ongoing thing. Yeah, it goes away for maybe a game or game and a half, but it's cropping up in every single game that the Packers play. So it's got to it's got

to get corrected or at least get limited. Nobody's gonna play perfect football, right, but it has to get limited if you're going to beat these teams like the Lions and the Vikings and the forty nine ers that are on your second half schedule when you come back from the buy, if you're gonna beat those teams, you've got to play cleaner football. And that's what the Packers have to aim.

to handle all that. And then also the other aspect of this that I'm just very interested to see when we come out of the bye week is exactly where Jordan Love is at. Because you know, we're nine weeks into this, we still have not seen the best version

of Jordan Love. And if we can finally start to see the penalties get correct, if you see Love, you know, looking more like he did during the second half of last season, and guys catching passes and lifting each other up, I still think the sky's the limit for this team compared to where they were at last year at this time, when Rasul Douglas gets traded and you're not sure which direction this whole thing is going to go the second half the season and the Packers just catch absolute fire.

Because the one difference between green Bay the way I look at it and where Detroit is at is it's almost like green Bay is a year behind Detroit in terms of just how they've built their football team. Detroit is on this third fourth year. Now if this reclamation with Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes and now you've got guys that have come up together, have lost together, have started to win together, made an NFC Championship game together, and now feel like, hey, we're trying to make that

last step. We're trying to make this thing, you know, be it at the top level here, whereas green Bay had to go through their own process here with the transition to Jordan Love and going very young two straight seasons. Kind of fighting those battles and learning from that adversity, that's the challenge. Now, can green Bay close that gap? You cannot worry about the Detroit Lions again. For another, you have to worry about the Chicago Bears in front of you. But they saw it was right in front

of him, it was on their home turf. Exactly what the standard right now is in this conference.

Everybody knows he needs to protect the ball better. You know. It's finding that balance between the playmaking and protecting all that kind of stuff. And there's plenty of truth in all that. This is what I want to say about Jordan Love. I'm hoping that after the bye week and for the rest of the season, that Jordan Love gets to focus on his game and less on his health. Yep, because he dealt with the knee injury right at the end of Week one. He missed. This is two games.

There was a process to come back and to be able to play with the knee injury for a week or two before he really started feeling and looking like his old self again. And then all of a sudden in Jacksonville, the groin injury hits, and so then you come into the following week. I meant, Matt Lafleur told everyone from the podium after the game on Sunday. Jordan Love didn't take any eleven on eleven snaps Wednesday or

Thursday of last week. They were obviously focused on his health to get him available and ready to play, and I understand why they were why they were focused on that. My point is, from Jordan Love's perspective and everybody talking about his statistics and where things are at, he has spent the better part of these nine games concerned about his health and trying to just get his body ready

to be able to play football. If he can get healthy and he can practice, take all the reps every week and not have all the extra time I'm in the training room and everything, and he can focus on his game, I have every confidence in the world that we can see the Jordan Love that we saw in the second half of last year, and I think in

some respects that goes for the team in general. You and I see it every week West the number of guys who are on the injury report, and it's not just it's not just the fact that yet JayR Alexander has missed games this season and that's been tough. The Packers have missed some key guys for some key games

throughout the course of this season so far. But when you look at that list every week and so and so is missing this practice or missing that practice or limited practice reps, not being a full participant in practice, that kind of stuff is going to add up over time in terms of your sharpness, in terms of being able to reach your peak level. And I think this game against Detroit was an example of the Packers needing to reach their peak level against a team like this,

and they simply weren't able to do it. And I think the overall health of the team and all limited practice and the missed practice and whether it's Jordan Love and other guys and everything else, my point is there's a cumulative effect to that. And I think we saw we saw the cumulative result in that performance when the Packers couldn't summon their best against the best team that

they were playing. I think that's I think it's a big it's it's a big picture look at things in terms of Okay, now, where do you go from prior? And I think it starts with using this bye week to get healthy. Yes, maybe Matt Lafleur changes some things with regard to practice and whatnot, but this is like, this is a chance to take a deep breath and reset and at the end of the day. Last year, at this time of year three and six, this year,

you're six and three. Get healthy, get everybody practicing. This is still a young team that needs to practice and play together to reach its peak. So let's see if they can do that over the last two months of the regular season.

the names. Yeah, you're right about the injur report, the length of it. A lot of teams deal with lengthy injury reports though, and you but when you see Jordan Love of jyr Alexander, Evan Williams, and Evan Williams doing what he's doing right now, you know how he's looked the first half of the season. You know, Josh Myers is not able to play in this game because of a wrist injury, so and Elton has to move to center.

We have something for everyone, like our Wisconsin cheese curds, mac and cheese, golden fries, and creamy shakes, all paired with your favorite sub or sub and a bowl cousin subs fifty plus years of better all Right, NFC North, the Lions are seven and one, the Vikings are six and two, the Packers are six and three. Certainly a lot of football left to be played and nothing's been

decided yet. But when you look at things from as far as how the schedule is laid out and who has done what, the Detroit Lions have won games at Minnesota and at Green Bay. So the rematch is that both of those teams will get against the Lions will both be at Ford Field. I don't like to jump to too many conclusions, but I'm gonna say this right now. If the Vikings and the Packers, I think the Vikings and the Packers both have to go into Ford Field

and win for the Lions to not win the division. Yeah, I think I I you know, I think it's going to I think it's going to come down to that now. I mean, anything can change from an injury perspective, this and that, you know whatever. But but my point is the Lions are absolutely in the catbird seat in the NFC North right now with winning those two division road games, and the Packers are in a tough spot having lost two division home games to the Vikings in line.

conference games. The Packers got into the playoffs last year because of commonality and conference wins and things of that nature. So it's just so pivotal to be able to pick those off, and certainly they'll have their opportunity to do that against Chicago. The frustrating thing for me, though, watching how this unfolded with Minnesota in particular, was Indianapolis had

several opportunities to win that game. They went with what I still think was a pretty rash decision to go with Joe Flacco, not because they're losing, only because I think it's pretty obvious that that Anthony Richardson is the future of that team. I don't think by any means this is that bryce know, young situation where it's wavering

confidence and a young player. I just I don't really understand the analysis because so much times, so many times teams will make a move and they'll go the veteran because it feels good and they won a game or two and they feel like they have momentum, and then you get a couple weeks down the road and then you have a performance like Flacco did against Minnesota, and now you're kind of back to wondering where you're at with this thing. And again that division is up for

anybody's grabs right now. But still I mean Green Bay as it's worked cut out for it and just seeing all the rest of these things align. Chicago, we talked about the you know, kind of the hangover after the hail. Mary did not play well against Washington, struggled to do anything in terms of, you know, threatening the end zone, and now they're sitting at four and four after all that hype early on. So you just got to you gotta ride those waves, man. You have to find wins when you can get them.

won a game. They're six and two, but they won a game with their quarterback turning the ball over three times. There are a lot of questions in Minnesota as to just where they are because, quite frankly, the quarterback changed to Flacco, and then what Minnesota's defense was able to do to frustrate Flacco and to frustrate that Colts offense. Minnesota's defense really won that game for them on Sunday night.

that's all that matters, is what's on the scoreboard. And now, you know, seeing where Minnesota goes with this thing is going to be very interesting as well, because they're a team that's still making moves. They still are trying to potentially make a run this season despite all the setbacks that they've had, and yeah, Green Bay will see them again of course at the end of the season.

lot of a lot of jockeying for position. And you know, the conference as a whole, I think is so strong that you don't I don't think you look at anybody's schedule and you say, oh, yeah, you know, pencil pencil rights guys in for eleven or twelve wins. It just doesn't it. It doesn't feel that way. It does feel in some ways though, that that eleven wins maybe is the target to feel to feel safe with a playoff spot.

There could be a there could be a ten win team or two in the NFC that maybe doesn't get in depending on how this fall.

there in front of that group. But again, they're playing Chicago, They're going to play San Francisco. Yeah, you're gonna have to fend those challenges off. It's interesting because I thought what you opened with was a good point when you look at where Detroit stands in this conference, and I don't know, man, like I have total respect for Washington. I love what, you know, everything Daniels has done this year,

but they're sort of the upstart. Yeah, Atlanta is a team that has not had a lot of success recently. There they stand. It's just it's these teams that you're you're unfamiliar with being at the top of the conference, and it just it creates a lot of usion in terms of Okay, who's going to last and who's going

to fade? You noted what you're getting in Detroit every single week, but seeing how teams like Washington, Atlanta, if Arizona is a much different team than the one that the Packers face, that it's it's gonna be an interesting second half for sure.

We won't have a second show this week, but then we'll be back with our usual two shows next week leading into the the road trip to Chicago. What you got planned?

So he goes and does that. I've never shot a bow. I have no desire to shoot a bow, but that's something that he's big into. But I'll probably be just hanging out, maybe finish watching Peaky Blinders. I'm not the Netflix guy like you are, but I've been trying to get through Peaky Blinders and find with little windows to watch that. I'm into season three right now. But yeah, otherwise, rest up and recover and get ready for next week. It's gonna be a fun one.

I don't think since, you know, since my college years, that I've actually set foot in my old high school.

we will be back next week. Thank you for tuning, everybody to see you next time.