Hi, everybody.
Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by my partner in crime, Weston Hodcoats. We're coming to you hear from our studios at lambeau Field to continue previewing as we did on our last show, the NFC Wildcard Playoff.
It'll be coming up Sunday.
It's a three point thirty Central time kickoff from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Packers against the Eagles. Probably the best place to start here, Wes is the injury update with both teams. Because Jalen Hurts, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, is back in practice on a limited basis, but all reports are he is on his way to getting out
of cushion protocol. The Eagles even released one of their backup quarterbacks, both Ian Book, the former Notre Dame quarterback, which is obviously a sign that they expect everything to everything to go to full clearance for Jalen Hurts by the time Sunday's game rolls around. On the Packer's side of things, Jordan loved practicing, but on a limited basis. His elbow is still sore from that injury. On Sunday against the Bears. He has the feeling back in his
hand and all that. It's not about gripping the football as it was, but the initial injury that led to all the numbness in the hand, the banging of the elbow. The elbow is sore. So he's still trying to work through that, and obviously the Packers are hoping that maybe by the end of the week he could be a full participant in practice and getting closer to full health.
Yeah, I mean the other thing was too. I mean, we only saw the stretching at the time in wits for shooting this. We haven't seen him throw. I will have that privilege of going out to practice and see what the throws look like. I'm sure I will take a video and we'll have the NFL Network news desk sending me a DM asking me if they can use it, because everybody's going to be concentrated on how he's throwing
the football. But yeah, the fact of the matter is that you know, we're talking with Bull Melton number of guys in the locker room on Wednesday, and as both said, he's like, listen, he's going to be out there. We've taken so many reps with them, We've taken all these things that the main thing is just how Jordan feels going into game day. The pieces around him will be ready for this thing. So but but certainly this is the way this thing works. I mean, Edgrin Cooper talked
about it to it his locker. You're not gonna find even guys that aren't on the injury report. You're not going to find anybody that's feeling great on January ninth. I mean, these guys have been through some battles here for the last four four and a half months. So for Jordan and his sake, you know, we got to see what the downfield passing game looks like, what the the accuracy looks like. But I mean, he's a gamer, and he's tough, and he'll be out there on Sunday.
Yeah, He's certainly done his share of playing through injuries so far. This seaon not something he necessarily had to deal with last year in his first year as a starter.
Was that funny the knee injury. The knee injury from Week one, which he missed a couple of games, But then you know, wasn't really all the way back when he was back on the field, and then the groin injury, which then he also had to try to play through, and then he never really got healthy until after the bye week when we saw his season start to take off and start to resemble the Jordan love we saw at the end of last season.
I got to go back and make Lauren Stone now Lauren Anderson, our wonderful colleague out there. She was the one I think I put on that, or maybe it was Nicole Tim. I did that project last year looking at all the starting quarterbacks in the league that started all seventeen games that were not on the injury report, and there was only four of them. One of them was Dak Prescott. We know how his season went. And
then obviously Jordan was another one of them. And fortunately he's been out there all year, but he's had a battle through some things as well.
Yeah, well on the defensive side. As far as injuries go, the Packers getting a little bit of good news. Kway Walker Evan Williams Walker with the anchor Williams with the quad injury. Both of those guys have missed the last three games of the regular season. They were back on the practice field for the first time since those injuries, both on a limited basis, but trending toward potentially being available on Sunday. And those are two guys, you know,
basically full time starters. Williams wasn't a full time starter at the beginning of the season, but essentially as the season went along, both of those guys full time starters, and the Packers would obviously love to have them back.
Well, and you're gonna need all your inside linebackers for this one. You would imagine the Packers will probably play a fair amount of base just because of the threat not only of Barclay but also with Jalen Hurts and being able to contain their running game and some of the short yarded stuff. So yeah, quay Walker is a huge part of this. I think ISAIAMH McDuffie has a big role to play. Eric Wilson potentially could as well.
But at the end of the day, Mike, you and I everybody wants to see kway Walker and Eddrian Cooper on the field together. That type of speed, that type of athleticism, being able to cover those fifty three yards sideline to sideline. There aren't a lot of teams that can do that, and for one reason or another injuries wise, they haven't been able to see that combination a lot
this season. Also the inexperience of Cooper early on. But where Cooper's at right now in the progression he's made, Yeah, I mean, the more fifty six is on the field, the more sevens on the field, I think the Packers' defense in terms of especially the speed of it definitely increases.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And Zane Anderson, the safety, he is still he has not yet returned to practice.
He is still in concussion protocol.
So if the Packers can get Evan Williams back, we know Green Bay doesn't have jay R Alexander, but if you get Williams back, you at least get back to that nickel secondary that is the preferred group when you don't have Alexander, which would be McKinney and Williams in the back end, Javon Bullard playing the slot, and then Nixon and Valentine playing the outside cornerbacks, and then you have guys like whether it's Corey Ballentine or Eric Stokes.
Guys like that.
If you want to go to six defensive backs at some point, that may not be something we see. As you just mentioned because the Packers may be playing more base defense with regard to the running threat of both Saquon Barkley and quarterback Jalen Hurts.
We broke down a.
Lot of different aspects of the Philadelphia Eagles on our last show. Was there anything you felt that we missed or that you think is worth pointing out here before we get into the Keys to victory for Green Bay?
I'm gonna be a little self serving here. Obviously. I wrote a story this morning on hackers Dualt Palm about to use an old catchment phrase, uh looking at Christian Watson's injury yea, and in the follout from that, the emotional impact of that, the on field impact of that, and it was great. I mean, a lot of guys talking about this in the locker room afterwards on Wednesday. Had a long conversation with bau Melton about it, and I really like something both said at the end of it.
And obviously, these guys are playing for Christian and certainly they want to be able to step up in his absence, and you know, leadership wise, performance wise, they've been in the spot before they want to do it again. But I thought it was really interesting what Bo said in a question I'd asked him later on in the interview about you know, everybody talks about how deep they are,
but just how tight knit that group is. And as he said, I mean, you got to remember when Dobbs and Watson were drafted and then they added Reid and Wix the following year. For two and a half years, they heard about how young they are, how inexperienced they are, how you know, these guys they're not going to be able to do it, and they've continually had that chip on their shoulder and overcome those types of things. Certainly they've gone through some different stuff this year as well.
There were drops. There was the issue there early in the season with Romeo Dobbs and then him not being available. You know, certainly you look at Christian Watson and his injury. It is a huge, huge hit to take right on the cusp of the playoffs. But this this room, by and large, how close it is and how battle tested it is, they feel like this is a great opportunity
for them. Now they have everybody from Jayden Reid at the top to the guys right at you know, they're gonna be filling in these spots with some of the opportunities lower on the depth chart. Each guy, to a man feels like they owe something to Watson, they owe something to this offense to step up their game. And I'll tell you this too. It didn't make its way into the story because there's only so many words that can be written, but Jaden Reid is very hungry to
kind of change the narrative with himself as well. Great start, fantastic start against Philadelphia. Came up big for green Bay during the first half of the season. It's been a little bit more of a slog in the second half. He understands his role to play in this as well. And I just they're going up against the number one ranked pass defense the National Football Leaguey're going up against the number one ranked defense by what twenty yards per game?
Twenty five yards per game. This is a significant test. But green Bay is not backing down for this. And I will close this point by something that Maliki said, And it doesn't matter who's on the field for green Bay, who's ever lined up in front of them, you are not going to be able to stand in front of us. They feel like they have the explosivity within this offense to still make those plays even without number nine available.
I tell you you can't say enough about the culture that has been built in the wide receiver room in Green Bay, because it is a bunch of guys that are competing for playing time, completing, competing for snaps and opportunities and targets and everything like that. But quite frankly, you know, the the culture in the culture in that room is so impressive, and I think it goes back to, you know, even my early days with Packers dot Com.
And I'm talking about back in like two thousand and eight, nine and ten, when the group is you know, Donald Driver and Greg Jennings and James Jones, and then and Jordy Nelson joins the group, and then a few years later Randall Cobb joins the group, and then a couple of years after that, DeVante Adams joins the group. And the culture in that room and the coaches right now, Jason Rabel, Ryan Mahafey, they deserve a lot of credit.
But it's also about was what was built in that room over the years and has been passed along and doesn't really seem to have ever been disrupted, even as the as the personnel has changed, It's just the torch continues to be passed in terms of the standard that's being set how everybody interacts with one another. They understand everybody wants to get their catches in theirs and their touchdowns and their paychecks, but those individual numbers is not
what it's all about. And that wide receiver room in green Bay, I think is you can't ask for anything better in terms of the culture.
No In Romeo and Christian have good heads on their shoulders. I mean, if they would have come in without any of that knowledge whatsoever, I think Green Bay would have been fine. But I go back to twenty twenty two
and so much about that season was lost. But having the opportunity to work with Randall Cobb and Alan Lazard that year, I mean I remember rome even talking about his interactions with Sammy Watkins, who was only here for a short time, right, but a guy that was a former number four overall pick, that had done it at a high level, was on the tail end of his career. But kind of showing those young guys how this thing works and how to carry yourself as a professional, that's
a huge, huge thing. And green Bay we've talked so much about the depth all season long and guys not getting their opportunities, guys like Bull Milt and Malik Keith having to be patient just to get on the field, let alone get a target. Well, now this is the chance. And Bo did it last year in Minnesota, he did it in Dallas. You look at you know, these guys who have stepped up when they haven't had Christian Watson
in the past. Green Bay needs all of it because as much as this game, in my opinion, as we slide into Keys to Victory, is about running the football, well you have to be able to keep them honest with the passing game, and all four or five guys that'll be up in this one are going to have a hand in it.
Yeah.
Well, one other thought, just in terms of something I heard in the locker room on Wednesday after practice that I really liked, and hearing it from Jordan Love, who is answering all these questions about his elbow and how does he feel and you know, are you cutting it loose or not? You know, et cetera, et cetera. But he's asked about the playoff experience of last year, not only for himself but for you know, for a lot of these guys who were in the playoffs for the
first time last year, just like he was. And I thought what I heard from Jordan Love was was to me the right the right mental balance, I guess for lack of a better phrase, and that, yes, what these guys did in the playoffs last year provides a bit of confidence that you can you know that that you've been in this situation, you know how to perform, you can get it done. The moment's not too big for you, right.
But in the same breath, Jordan Love says, but we can't live on what we did last year against the Dallas Cowboys. This is about going out there and having
to do it again, you know. And I just I felt like it feels like mentally, for everything that's going on with regard to the you know, the injuries with the quarterback and with Christian Watson and JayR Alexander being out now and all of that stuff that is swirling around this team, and the huge challenge that you're facing in the Eagles with the number one ranked defense, the number one running back, all of all of this stuff, it feels to me like, mentally, whatever happens on Sunday.
I think mentally, this Packers team is in the right place. Yeah, and it was just it was good to hear that. I think that I think that stems from the way Matt Lafleur leads this team, but also the way the locker room leaders lead this team. When you're talking about guys like Jordan Love and Elton Jenkins and Xavier McKinney and Josh Jacobs and those types of guys. I don't know what's going to happen on Sunday, Wes, and we'll talk about what the Packers need to do to win
the game. But the Packers are not going out there intimidated. But they're also not going out there and you know, in any sort of overconfident way because oh, yeah, well we were the seventh seed last year and we walked off the two seed and blew them out of their own building. Like nobody's living off of that. Yes, it's part of their history and it gives some confidence, but they know that it doesn't matter once the ball gets kicked off on Sunday.
You played baseball at the collegiate level, I did. Did you ever have a game? Thinking back? And I don't know how good Lawrence was back then, but we.
Weren't very good.
Did you ever get off to a big lead, you know, five to six run first inning? Sure, like what I was thinking about. I wasn't a part of the love press or scrum, but I was in some of the other stuff. And in these topics come up about Dallas. Yeah, I think the lasting takeaway from that game, and honestly probably carried a little bit into the season, was when you talk about the importance of a fast start. Yeah, it's about building five six runs, or it's about scoring
twenty seven points against Dallas to get up. You know, Dallas doesn't score in that game until literally the clock hit zero in the first half. Right, Yes, it's important to have that fast start, but it's also the momentum that's derived from that, it's the confidence that's derived from that, and it's the way you can take the air out of the balloon. In a road venue. This is going to be a much more hostile vironment than at and T Stadium. Credit to the Cowboys. It's a good place.
It's an unbelievable venue for football. But Philly is different.
Yeah, it is.
It's walking into the ECW Arena, you know, with those fans, you know, cheering and shouting at you. That same type of vibe is going to be at the link and for green Bay, I feel like the lasting takeaway. Yeah, you can't take anything from that. Nothing that you did in Dallas last year is going to help you on Sunday in terms of point that you put up on the board. Yeah, but the reminder of how you have to jump out on teams in the momentum you have
to build in that first quarter. Packers have talked about it every single week of the season fast starts, how critical it is in every game, but especially for this football team, regardless of whether or not you take the football first, regardless of whether or not you get the ball first. That is I think one of the big lessons that Green Bay learned from that game over Dallas, and it is going to be absolutely critical to being able to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles.
Yeah, well I want, I do want to get to our keys to victory, but I will take care of some sponsor business first. XMNFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need twenty four to seven, three sixty five and at cousin subs. 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, Wes Keys to victory, there are a lot of them. You've got to do a lot of things right to beat a fourteen and three football team in their own building in the playoffs. What's at the top of the list for you?
I made an excellent point and insider inbox you always do. I don't know about that, yeah, But going back to the Saquon Barkley games the end of the twenty three season, which honestly, if you think back on it, that loss to the Giants, probably you're gonna go down as one of the worst ones we've had in the laflor Era.
But that's bad.
But the lessons that were learned that day, I mean, I think that was kind of in some ways the beginning of the run for Green Bay when they finally were able to start stringing the victories again at the end of the season. But you go back to that game, green Bay defended Saquon Barkley so well. You go back to this opener in Brazil, they defended Saquon Barkley so well.
And the point I was making with the insider inbox Barb was that forty nine rushing yards on eighteen first half carries in those two games, two point seven yards per carry. In the second half of those two games, one hundred and forty rushing yards on twenty six attempts, five point four yards per carry. It's not even that the Packers defense, oh they stopped defending the run. Well, No,
this is the problem that Saquon Barkley presents. He is going to keep hammering on you until that door finally bashes. In Green Bay, to the best of its ability, cannot allow that door to fall. You have to be able to keep up that wave of momentum. Certainly, you don't want them to get off to a fast start, but even if you get to halftime and he has ten rushing yards, you have to treat it like he has one hundred and forty. You have to treat it like you have to be able to stop this guy on
every single down he touches the ball. Because you're talking about all these different things that have to happen in this game for the Green Bay Packers to win. Number One is Saquon Barkley not running through this defense that has been historically solid against the run.
Yeah, this is the type of challenge when it's when it's a running back like Barkley, that is, it becomes a different stop the run challenge because when an offense has the best running back in the league and a guy who I believe this year he had four touchdown runs of sixty five plus yard yep. The thing is, no matter how much the Packers stop him, the Eagles are going to keep feeding him the ball because he is as much a big play home run threat as anything that Jalen Hurts can do with AJ Brown or
DeVante Smith or anybody else out there. So you can stop him for two and a half, three even three and a half quarters all you want, He's going to keep getting the football and they will make you stop him for all four quarters. You know, thinking back to the Dallas game last year, if the Packers are able to say, the Packers are able to jump out top and build a lead, so maybe it's thirteen nothing, seventeen nothing, something like that, and you're getting close to the end
of the first half, steikwon. Barkley is going to keep getting the football even if the score is seventeen to nothing, even if the score is twenty to nothing, because he can bust a seventy yard touchdown run. He can take it to the house at any time. So the Eagles
are going to keep pounding away like that. So the four quarter challenge that he presents in terms of stopping the run is really unlike anything I think the Packers have faced all year, since since Week one in Brazil, when Barkley kept pounding away, you know, all the way along to the very last possession.
And that was one of the few games where Green Bay allowed to carry more than thirty yards this entire season. They still have not allowed to care forty yards this season, which they have to be able to continue to come up with this victory. But I just it's funny, man, Like two years ago, people were ready I'm going into the twenty two season, people were ready to sell the ship and sell the farm on Barkley. Too many injuries. They felt like, Okay, maybe this is sort of a
flash of the pan. What he did earlier in his career. He put the injuries beside behind him, he willed the Giants to the playoffs and it didn't happen for them again in the second year. But this guy has always been the guy he has been since he entered the league. It's him, It's Josh Jacobs. It's been Derrick Henry for almost a decade now. I mean, like, it's just crazy that we even got to this point that people are
talking about devaluing running backs and things like this. But the Philadelphia Eagles have nine hundred more rushing yards than they did last season. I don't even think they've carried it that many more times. Yeah, but that's the Barkley effect. I mean, Jalen Hurts. His stats as far as running concerned are almost identical to last season. The difference is their lead back had twice as many rushing yards. Yeah, you have to be able to stop him.
Well, you mentioned the name Josh Jacobs, and I think that's a big one here for Green Bay as well, because regardless of what Jordan Loves, health is going to be, you know, his elbow and obviously the the Packers are going to need to stay balanced on offense. One way to do that, of course, is to is to not fall behind by multiple scores. Don't let the other team make you get into a one dimensional type of game,
because that's what Philadelphia will be wanting to do. And then they'll want that crazy crowd at the Link to be cranking it up, you know, on third downs, knowing the Packers have to throw all the time, et cetera, et cetera. Josh Jacobs is a huge key to that in terms of keeping the offense balanced, keeping the keeping the Eagles defense honest, and as you said, Wes, the keeping the keeping the defense honest, things sort of cuts both ways, right You. The Packers can't just completely lean
on Josh Jacob. They're going to have to throw the ball. They're going to have to you know, work the ball horizontally as well as vertically. Make the Eagles defend, you know, absolutely as much physical territory as possible and.
See what you can get done.
And when I think back to Week one and that game game in Brazil that we watched on that Friday night, what the Packers absolutely cannot afford to do, which which really cost him the game back in Week one, is to is to stall out in the red zone. You've got to be able to finish drives because the Packers did enough offensively in terms of moving the football and getting opportunities. They did enough to win that game offensively, but they didn't put the points up that they should
have because they didn't finish enough drives. And that's going to be it's going to be that much harder to do in a true road game against this defense to be playing at the link as opposed to be playing at a you know, quote unquote neutral field. But finishing drives is the other thing that's at the top of my list here, because if the Packers are settling for field goals, you just it's going to be very hard to put up enough points to outlast the Philadelphia.
And you also have to go even think of like last week, you know, without Jalen Hurts, they still beat the Giants twenty to thirteen, but you'd have to go all the way back to Week four for the last time they scored fewer than twenty points.
Yeah, this is one of the.
Most high octane, high efficient offenses in the National Football League, And now you have Vic Fangio's defense complimenting that. You have, guys, you know, when you look at Quinjon Mitchell coming in. When you look at obviously Cooper dejen what he has added as sort of a versatile piece in that secondary. The areas that it seemed like Philadelphia came up short last season what sort of led to their fall during
that final stretch of the year. They filled those holes on both sides of the ball, and it has allowed them to be a much more complete football team this season. The Green Bay Packers have to understand that, yeah, we are still the youngest team in the NFL. We were the youngest team in the NFL for the first time in back to back years, but we also are much
more experienced than we are last year. You have that experience now of going down to Brazil, playing on that surface, playing that far away from home, against an opponent of that caliber, and coming up short, but understanding where you came up short. Protecting the football, situational offense and defense. These are the keys not only to winning in the National Football League, but lasting in the playoffs. You don't do those two things, You're going home.
Yeah and this and this game isn't going to be isn't going to be won with any kind of you know, psychological tricks or anything like that because what I'm sensing in a granted I'm not there, but paying attention to kind of what's out there in the media and the comments that are coming from Philadelphia. What I sense is that the Philadelphia Eagles, they are perfectly content with the fact that all the attention in the NFC for the last couple of weeks was on the Vikings and the
Lions and who was going to get the number one. Absolutely, they knew their quarterback was in concussion protocol and there were certainly some concerns there. But now you head into this week and they're they're absolutely fine with all the analysts talking about what the Packers did last year as a number seven seed and went down to Dallas, the NFC East champs and blew them out of their building and all that. The Philadelphia Eagles just strike me as a team that is they they are, they are lying
in wait. They know everybody knows how they completely collapsed at the end of last season, and there were all kinds of questions about where the franchise was headed. They've answered a lot of those questions. But this is a team that strikes me as one that is that is ready to answer a lot more and uh and the as I said before, I think the Packers mentally are in a really good space, uh going out there to
uh to take on this challenge. But man, you have to you have to be able to match every ounce of intensity that the Eagles are going to bring into this game, because this is a team that's out to prove something.
They're intense, they're physical. But I'll tell you something else though, Mike, You're right, they've answered a lot of those questions, but the real answer doesn't really matter until now.
That's right. You're right.
There was a thing that happened with Marty Schottenheimer for a lot of years, especially during his run with the Chargers, where they'd have these really good regular seasons and then they didn't get it done. Now, credit to the Eagles, they've made a super Bowl, they've taken that next steps, more steps than a lot of teams make, but they still haven't brought back that Lombardi Trophy since the Nick Foles year. So that part of it makes me think, Yeah,
you should be confident your fourteen win team. You answered the skeptics, You survived what was going to be a really tenuous first month of the season. If you don't start fast. Yeah, and you're at this point, but yet you still need to win. And that's why I made the comment and insider inbox, I'm like, the pressure is still all with them. Green Bay can take as much pressure and they want to put that on their shoulders. That's fine, But realistically they're in the same spot as
last year as far as playing with house money. And that's why I'm really interested to watch this first half on Sunday afternoon. If you get off to a fast start, how do the Eagles respond? How does that fan base respond?
Right?
But you got to earn it, yeah, to be able to see it.
Yeah, no doubt about one hundred percent.
Well, I do want to talk about the rest of wild Card weekend here in the NFL. Will start in the NFC. The other two games, both of which will actually take place after the Packers play. Washington is at Tampa Bay in the Sunday night game, and then Minnesota is at the La Rams in the Monday night game.
As far as Washington Tampa Bay, it's fascinating. I know I was having conversations with you about this and then I did a little bit more research and posted it in my road to the Super Bowl story that went up on the website on Tuesday afternoon. Washington enters the playoffs as a twelve and five team. Literally half of their wins, six of them have come in either the last five seconds or literally the last play of the game.
Six of their twelve when you look at their season, including for like four in a row here down the stretch to get to twelve and five, which got them the sixth seed, and the trip to Tampa Bay absolutely fascinating in that regard, like, you know what that team has done in all these down to the wire games and then Tampa Bay. Baker Mayfield is as hot a quarterback as any in the league right now. Over his last I believe four games, he's got one hundred and
twenty plus passer raatee essentially over the last month. Tampa Bay is a team that, yeah, they don't have a great record, they won a crappy division, but that's a team that's confident they can go out win games right now.
Too. The way that that draft class is rallied too, has just been incredible. I mean, Darnold obviously is in this playoff right with Minnesota, but right Baker Mayfield man when he is hot. There is nobody that strikes the match hotter than he does. I mean when he catches fire, that guy is just an inferno. Yeah, and he's doing it again. I'm really interested to see him at up with Dan Quinn's defense and how they counter that. Quinn's defense have been up and down at various points of
the season. It does seem like they've sort of peaked towards the end of the year, though, And certainly when you talk about Giden Daniels, you're talking about the NFL offensive rookie of the Year. I know it's going to be probably a couple days before we hear any of that, but that is it has to be what happened. Oh yeah, Yeah, this guy has been electrifying, but he's also been incredibly clutch as a rookie player in his first NFL season.
You just that aspect of it you can't say enough about because at the end of the day, you can have fancy stats and you can do this and that, do you win football games? He wins football games? Did you I got to kick out of this? Did you see that stat? Not that this is anything to do with the games you lined up for me, but this is the eighth playoff trip for the Houston Texans and they've never not been in the three thirty time slot on set.
Yeah I did. I did hear.
Every single time every Houston Houston Texans Wild Card AFC Wildcard game is at the three thirty Central on Saturday afternoon, they had They've been in the same time slot every time.
The Houston Texans are like the ginger ale and like the combination box with like the cherry soda and the orange and what ends up being left at the very end, and they just they keep throwing into that same spot, like all right, well, this is the playoff game. We'll get it out of the way and then we'll move on with the rest of the tournament. But also the fact that the three AFC games are all happening before the NFC game.
Yeah, it is. It's kind of interesting how that fell.
Pittsburgh and Baltimore are playing for the third time in fifteen days or whatever it feels like at this point.
Yes, yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's third.
Yeah, it's been like two months. But I mean, like it's still crazy, like those teams. It just seems like every time I turn on a television they're playing each other.
Well, here, let me get your thoughts on the AFC games and then we'll go back to Minnesota and La.
Can you tell the ones that I can watch?
Yeah?
Yeah, I'm actually really yeah, the ones we're going to get to watch. So the Chargers are at the Texans, the Steelers are at the Ravens, and the Broncos are are at the Bills. The vast majority of the football analyst world is going to pick the Chargers, the Ravens, and the Bills to win those three games overwhelmingly. That
will be the sentiment. Do you do you have one of those three games that you that you would say, not to say you're gonna predict the upset, but that you think would maybe have the best chance of going the other way.
I wonder if CJ. Stroud can catch something here. Okay, it's weird to say a team that's a four seed and is hosting a game is like the underdog. But I mean, like, well, the way.
The way they played against the Ravens when they had at home very recently, that was that was ugly.
But is it that you know what I'm talking about?
No, I got I mean the guy was the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year last year, and and yeah, this is a this is a guy who's capable of throwing for four hundred yards and four touchdowns at any time. Now, the Chargers defense is one of the best in the league. That's gonna be risingly big time challenge there. But but yeah, you can't whenever you have a playmaker, especially a young playmaker who's gone through the ups and downs and everything, you can never count a guy like that out.
And in the other aspect, sometimes this stuff just doesn't make sense right, Like you will just be like, Okay, well the Chargers are rolling hardball's got these guys going well, and then just something happens where you remember, oh, yeah, this is the National Football League. Any of these teams can beat each other at any time. You know, if the Chargers have all the pieces. They've gotten really banged up at receiver, but they have the pieces to be
able to contest with that game. The other two. I can't sit here and honestly tell you the Pittsburgh Steelers on the losing streak that they're on going up against Lamar playing the way he's playing right now, the way that entire team is playing that they're going to have a chance, and then ultimately, I'd be silly to be sitting here talking about how good Buffalo is all season and say, oh yeah, bo Nix is going to go in there and knock them out of the playoffs. Now,
that would be demoralizing. But I mean, when you look in terms of the overall consistency of a season, it's hard to find a team. Maybe no, I don't evenk you say de Troit because Buffalo beat him in their own place, But maybe it's Detroit. But Buffalo has just from beginning, middle and ends, has been the team that has just been the most consistent one throughout the course of this thing.
Yeah, I agree with you. There the one thing I will say and then we'll move on. But the one thing I will say about Pittsburgh and Baltimore and the reason it intrigues me, even though Pittsburgh is on this losing streak and they're not playing all that well, something about division games in the playoffs. Y, when it's the third meeting, and as you said, this is the third meeting in a very short period of time between these
two teams. When when it's division opponents that meet and they know each other so well, and you know one team is obviously Baltimore's kind of had Pittsburgh's number here this year. It's one of those things that I know everybody is writing the Steelers off. And yes, if gambling weren't illegal at bookster, I would be putting money on the Baltimore Ravens to win this game. I absolutely, one
hundred percent believe the Ravens will win in advance. I'm just very curious because it's a division matchup, it's a familiar opponent, it's the third time in a short period of time. Maybe just maybe that gives you know, Pittsburgh goal will will find something here and make it a better game than a lot of people think it's gonna be.
And I'm sure Mike Tomlin is telling his guys, we beat these guys. You know, it was in our place, but we beat them. And Russell Wilson did not play well like but they still found a way.
And that's the other That's the other thing too about this one that intrigues me because Mike Tomlin is he's one of the best coaches in the league. He's going to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, someday, and this is the guy who hasn't won a playoff game in quite a while. Yeah, I think you go back to you have to go back to twenty sixteen or twenty seventeen, something like that for Mike Tomlin's last
playoff win. Good coaches, coaches that are that good, you know, they'll they'll find a way to end a drought like that. And uh and again, it's just it's it's the thing that intrigues me about about the Pittsburgh Baltimore matchup, and I'm really curious to see if if Tomlin can can change the narrative.
Yeah, you have to go back to I think it's it was twenty sixteen.
Twenty sixteen. Yeah, I knew it'd been. It'd been a while.
I think I think he's lost either six or like six playoff games in a rowers.
One thing that's really unfair to him though, that I mean, it is what it is. You're no one's crying for you in the n NFL. But like there are some teams that he got there that probably shouldn't have been.
Oh yeah, that's that's that's you get dogged for that. Yeah, that's the thing. That's the beauty of Mike Tomlin is he get he gets teams to the playoffs that nobody that nobody thinks would would even have a chance to get there over the course of a long season, and and they get into the playoffs, and yeah, in recent years they have been able to win any games. But I just wonder if if he's going to be able
to uh, to flip the script a little bit. Yeah, got to get your thoughts though Minnesota at the RAMS, I made the comment and insider inbox, Uh, you know, we're talking a lot about the Packers' resiliency being tested. Obviously, a tough loss against Minnesota, a big division opponent there, then you don't play well at all the Bears and end up losing right at the end. Going into the playoffs on a two game losing streak, you got to hit the road. The Packers' resiliency is being tested big
time here. I think Minnesota's resiliency is being tested just as much because of everything that went into I mean, such a high stakes Week eighteen game on the road.
It's the difference between the one seed and the five seed, between getting a bye and playing at home in the divisional round to having to go on the road right away, and they're going up against a team that beat them early here in the season in that building and b a Rams team that where Sean McVay didn't care about the seed, He didn't care if he was the three
or the four. He felt it was better for his team to rest his guys, get ready and try to have everybody as fresh as possible for whatever opponent would be coming into to Sofi Stadium. It's a this is this is a this is a big time challenge for Minnesota and.
It was a big time gamble. It was a big time risk by McVeigh. Yep. We're going to figure out whether or not it pays off because there's a number
of ways to look at this thing. The probably the biggest one is, well, okay, you're picking your poison as far as who you're gonna play, but do you just want to start to bite through that right at the beginning and start to get through that elephant you know from day one, and if you beat the Minnesota Vikings, you take on the world, right you just see where it takes you from there.
Yep.
So you had the half round by or whatever you want to call this with with sitting in all the guys they did. And the other thing too. You'd be remiss not to say the Rams have been banged up every way a team can be banged up but still be in the playoffs with its core players, Like it's insane, Like the fact that they got San Francisco never got everybody back right. The Rams somehow did like and they had bad injuries, especially at the receiver position, and.
They were able to outlast the Seattle Seahawks.
It's had.
The Seahawks had a very tough schedule down the stretch. They lost home games back to back to the Packers and the Vikings. That put the Rams in control. And the Rams snagged that division that got there and got their playoff spot. And then once they had it, Sean mcvage was like, all right, then, I don't care what seed we are. We're gonna rest up our guys and get ready to make a run.
And for how bad that defense was at certain points this season, the way they finished out against the division, finished out against Geno Smith. You saw what Gino did in the finale. I mean, like that guy still he threw for a career high passing yards. This year, I think more touchdowns than he's ever had. I mean, like, the guy is a real threat that you have to find ways to get through the Rams. Did that, here's your reward, You get to face a fourteen win wild
card team. But you know, seeing where this takes him is going to be really fascinating to watch, because as long as the Packers are alive, I want to see the fewest amount of NFC North teams available, you know, the rest of the way. Not because I don't think they can beat them, because you don't want to sit there and play you know division, you know, on cheer
for your division, whatever. But there is also the aspect in the back of my head that's like Minnesota is such a strange team in the way in which they've done this thing this year. Nobody expected them to be here. No, I had them down for fourth place in the division. So I had them behind the Chicago Bears, and here they are Sam Darnald showing what he flashed with the forty nine ers was no fluke and this it's crazy, man.
But this photon of youth that has emerged out in Carolina, where these guys go down there and they kind of flame out and then they go to another team and become Baker Mayfield again, and Donald becomes the player that he's become. I mean, it's it's it's been crazy to watch.
I think we won't be able to probably enjoy that game at all, But I think that's probably I can see why that was the one that was put on Monday Night Football because it is a real juggernaut of a matchup in terms of the wild card round and how that is formulated.
Yeah, it is one hundred percent. And the whole Sean McVay Kevin O'Connell thing is interesting as well, obviously, as amongst the many coaching connections and all that that we talked about over the years with the I guess what you'd call the Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan tree.
Yeah, the double tree.
Yeah. Uh.
I want to mention this too when I say we can't really enjoy it Monday Night. And the reason I say that is for two reasons. One, if the Packers lose, I don't care about football anymore. And two, if the Packers win, correct me if I'm wrong here. You're playing on Saturday night, right, There's no situation in which Green Bay could even play the following Sunday.
Correct, I that's that's the part I don't know.
Yeah, or because they because they haven't announced, they haven't announced what timeslot Detroit is in.
So you could potentially have both of them on Sunday.
Yeah, Okay, never been.
Yeah, because well because see here's the thing, like the way I understand it, like they what what the NFL is not going to do is the NFL is not going to have the Monday night winner between the Rams and the Vikings play on Saturday. Right, Yes, so, but but you don't know which of which opponent, the Rams or the Vikings winner is going to get until all the other games, like you know, until all the other games play out, and then you know, and then you
figure out who's going where. So there, so there's there's more to sort out, you know, because what they used to do when there were the two bys, when they were the two buys per conference, they would actually, like when the Packers would have a bye as one of the top two seeds, we would actually know right now during the during the playoff, by what timeslot the following weekend the Packers had. They had that all set up in advance.
Now that they're.
Playing a wild card game on a Monday night. They can't do that anymore because you can't have the Monday night winner play on Saturday. Like, that's just not that's just not fair at all. So so they have to wait for things to sort out before you know what the schedule is the following week.
And this is where I was coming from is because in at least the best I know, there has never been a weekend where it's been the AFC both games on a Saturday, NFC both games on a Sunday. It's always NFC and AFC. So under that idea, let's say let's say that that is the truth, then the team whoever wins with the vikings in the rams conceivably would happen.
Would play would play Sunday. Yeah, so I hear what you're saying. But these days, with the way the whole television part works, I honestly don't know.
Let's put a pin in this and after the packers wait on Sunday we can discuss it all over a.
Good We've gone quite a bit overtime. Apologies to our producer Zach and the regular listeners who count on us to be a little bit more short and concise. We weren't today, but I will finish with this. Folks, be among the thousands of football fans cheering on their team's NFL picks by joining us April twenty four through April twenty six of twenty twenty five for the NFL Draft. Visit green Bay dot com slash Draft twenty five for
more information. And with that, we're going to call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscript to'd be sure to follow all of our coverage of Sunday's NFC Wildcard playoff game from Philadelphia. Wes and I will both be there. We'll have it all for you on Packers dot com. For West, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time.