UTSKRIFT 🔗
00:00:06
Speaker 1: Hi everybody, welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers.com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by the one and only Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from the Pottawatomie Sportsbook studio inside the walls of Lambeau Field to review, Wes, a 45-27 victory over the New England Patriots on the road, Gillette Stadium. As Matt LaFleur said, Jordan Love said, everybody in the locker room said, this was... A total team victory, all three phases, really at the top of their games. This was, without question, the Packers' best performance of 2026. And the question that we're all asking now is, where does it go from here?
00:00:52
Speaker 2: Exactly. And listen, Mike, I think games like this are just so critical. They're so important to good team seasons because it showed the Packers on Sunday what's possible here. when everything is in alignment. It wasn't perfect, but the fact that Green Bay played as well as it did in all these various situations, they got the fast start, right? You had the picks from Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams, Packers get three takeaways, almost four interceptions in the first half. Kamal Haddon's probably going to be thinking about that one for the rest of the season. But then it's what the offense did with those opportunities. 22 points converted off of those takeaways altogether. Jordan Love throwing the ball downfield at ease, looking great with his deep ball accuracy, the receivers making plays on the ball. You go through the issue there, Josh Jacobs breaks his finger, but then the run game ends up having its best game of the season. There's so much about this matchup that I think the Packers, as they got on the plane and went back to Green Bay, you had to imagine the back of their head. The players in that locker room are thinking, we can be this type of football team. We can go into a road environment against another good team and impose our will. And I'm telling you, there's the soothsayer next to me, Mike Spofford. He talked about it in one last look and throughout the week, the importance of takeaways, particularly against that quarterback and that opponent, and it shined through.
00:02:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, when Drake May threw that interception on the second play of the game, his first pass of the game, Terrible throw a terrible read by him a great read and great communication in the secondary You can see Keyshawn Nixon pointing to Xavier McKinney like the crossing route Hollins is going over there And the ball was basically thrown right to McKinney you kind of knew like okay this this is gonna be the Green Bay Packers defenses day not so much Drake Mays day and Yeah, they just they gave him trouble now Yeah, at the end of the day the Patriots put up 27 points some of that was in garbage time They did make some plays to try to get back in the game after the Packers jumped on top 17-0. And the way this Packers defense plays so aggressively, and we talked about it last week,
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and Jonathan Gannon, the way he dials up the blitzes and all the disguised coverages and all that, good quarterbacks are going to make plays against this defense. It's going to happen. What Jonathan Gannon is trying to do is wear you out as a quarterback mentally, physically. He's going to come after you. He's going to challenge you with the schemes and the looks. And ultimately, he's going to count on his defense being able to make just as many, if not more, plays than you can offensively. And when you come away with four takeaways and four sacks, and you mentioned the one miss was the potential pick six by Kamal Haddon that could have really turned this game on its head. When you look at the opponent and the Packers being on the road, this was the epitome of what of how Jonathan Gannon wants to play defense, and then when you flip it over to the offensive side, and Jordan Love throwing for. 370 on only 29 pass attempts, and Matthew Golden and Christian Watson going off and setting all kinds of team records as far as a duo in one game, this was as complete as it gets.
00:04:10
Speaker 2: And one thing I really like that Gannon has talked a lot about, and I think sometimes we can not listen fully to what he's saying because you're just thinking more of the macro level, but He's reiterated times this year the idea that every call that you make has a stress point and a strength to it. And I think we're still sort of in baseball season, right? The Brewers won the World Series.
00:04:34
Speaker 1: I'll be celebrating all offseason, so yeah.
00:04:37
Speaker 2: So pardon me a Brewers analogy or a baseball analogy, but when you look at the way you play as a pitcher— you have to eventually put the ball over the plate. You're not just going to get away by constantly throwing balls and expecting the batter to mess up. There's going to be times where you're going to have to put yourself in danger a little bit and see if the offense makes the play. What has impressed me about this Packers defense this year is if you take away the mental errors, you minimize those, and you make a guy like Drake May have to find the right guy at the right time against the right look... That may happen once or twice. You may catch a guy wide open across the middle. That is football. But it's how difficult down in and down out Jonathan Gannon's defense makes it on the opposing quarterback. And as we saw in this game again, Mike, the Packers lose yet another linebacker. Tyron Hopper is dealing with this chest issue during warm-ups. They didn't know how much he was going to be able to give them. He goes out of the game after the first series. Isaiah McDuffie has to be, pardon me, I'm getting excited.
00:05:37
Speaker 1: That's okay.
00:05:38
Speaker 2: Isaiah McDuffie has to be that, not only the green dot, but he has to be the big playmaker there. He comes through with a forced fumble, with a fumble recovery, a sack, two TFLs first time. That's been done by a Packers defender since 2000, going back to 2000. You have Brandon Cisse batting up passes. Evan Williams being opportunistic. The defense has to force opportunities, but also has to maximize the chances that they get when they're presented to them. And I feel like that's where the marriage has really worked out really well here with Gannon, his scheme, and how Packers defenders have reacted to it.
00:06:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it sounds like it's good news, at least to this point, on Tyron Hopper that whatever he was dealing with, this uncomfortableness that he kind of brought up to the team and to the trainers before the game started with what's been termed a chest injury, It doesn't sound like it's anything serious. Matt LaFleur not thinking he's going to miss any time. But LaFleur also wanted to shout out Nick Neiman for stepping in. I mean, Neiman ends up playing 84 snaps in this game, 59 on defense, all 25 of the special teams snaps. And really, aside from the one play he would love to have back, which is where Ramondre Stevenson beat him on the wheel route for the touchdown down the sideline. Now, mind you, Nick Neiman had played, I believe, all of two defensive snaps all season until– He was thrust into duty here. But yeah, we've talked about the Packers' depth at inside linebacker, and it definitely showed up. Because other than that one play with Neiman, we would have been talking about him as one of the potential stories of this game. The way he filled in when you're looking at a guy who essentially started the season as the fifth inside linebacker on your depth chart. and he goes out there and does what he did.
00:07:22
Speaker 2: And if I can just interject quickly, I was talking to Isaiah McDuffie about that afterwards, and that was the first thing that Isaiah mentioned when he was reflecting on Neiman's game, the fact that he did not leave special teams. Other than that first series, he had to play the rest of the way, and just based on the way that Green Bay was built and the injuries they were dealing with and the guys that were down, it was on Neiman to still be the personal protector on punts. It was on him to still be in coverage on kickoffs and punt coverage. So like, There was a lot to be said about the performance he had, but unfortunately, there was 12 guys that all had huge days on both sides of the ball that it's one of those things that's just going to kind of go unsaid.
00:07:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and on the offensive side, I mean, we'll probably talk about this more perhaps as the season goes along. I hope we are talking about it more, but Jordan Love is squarely in the MVP race now. I mean, this game, a 325 game on Fox that was beamed to most of the country, you know, Tom Brady in the broadcast booth in Foxborough and Jordan Love puts on the performance that he did 5.1 rating points shy of the maximum 158.3. And, uh, and that was really the difference of about six inches on that seam pass to Tucker Kraft, that if that goes for a
fourth touchdown for, for Jordan Love on that sequence, as opposed to the Packers settling for a field goal there, um, he almost certainly max, maxes it out at 158.3. Um, it was bombs away. Um, and, uh, The Packers really offensively, it's about the individuals, right? It's about how Jordan Love is playing. It's about how dangerous Christian Watson and Matthew Golden are as a duo with the speed and everything that they bring to the field. But this was also a message being sent. Defensive coordinators are going to look at this and go, all right, well, if you're going to blitz Jordan Love or if you're going to play man coverage predominantly against the Green Bay Packers, they are going to try to make you pay. The Packers look at blitzes and man coverage as opportunities for explosives. Now, it's not always going to work out, right? And it's going to be put to the test this week, which we'll talk more about on our next show, with the Vikings coming in and Brian Flores and his blitz-happy defense. But the Packers aren't going to change who they are. If you're going to come after their quarterback or if you're going to try to single up man-to-man their wide receivers on the outside... they're going to look to burn you. And the Patriots got burned all day long.
00:09:51
Speaker 2: I mean, there are a million superlatives you and I can discuss here through this game. The fact that Matthew Golden had a career high established a new career high for receiving yards in the first quarter alone. 126 yards receiving off of six catches and the touchdown. Christian Watson, after all these 140 plus yard games, he finally got his new career high. 171 receiving yards off seven catches and a touchdown. Jordan Love threw for 219 yards in the first half alone. That was a new career high. He got his new passer rating career high for a game in which he threw at least 15 passes. I mean, you go on and on and on as far as the statistical anomalies with this game and just how proficient Green Bay was through the air. But I want to bring it back to the very beginning of what you said. For whatever reason, the last three years, Jordan Love at a position that is a superstar position He has not gotten his love from the national media, the national public. Mike, this is a guy that, and maybe it's because he sat for three years, maybe it's because he's a little bit more low-key personality, but Jordan Love came out of the gate, threw for 4,000 yards and 32 touchdowns right out of the gate in 2023. If that would have been Caleb Williams, ESPN would have been building monuments for him. But there was just something about the slow pace of what people catching up to to the things that Jordan Love has been doing. I think if you talk to people here, even you could talk to the media here. I don't think this is necessarily a surprise. We've seen signs of this for the last three and a half years.
00:11:26
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's not a surprise to those of us who are around it every day. And we've seen what Jordan Love is capable of. On the national scale, as far as I'm concerned, it's all about the level of team success. Because When Jordan Love, in his first playoff game back in January of 2024, when he torched the Dallas Cowboys and then got the Packers within an eyelash of the NFC Championship game the following week with a near upset of the San Francisco 49ers on the road, everybody was talking about, okay, here come the Packers, here comes Jordan Love, and the spotlight was there. But what happens the next two seasons? For Jordan Love individually... He missed some games with injury. Malik Willis had to fill in here and there. Love wasn't completely healthy through 2024 and 2025. And the Packers didn't win a division title. They got the seventh seed again each of those last two years and bowed out of the playoffs in the first round. Now, mind you, Jordan Love threw four touchdown passes on the road at Chicago in that playoff game last January, but the Packers didn't win it. So you don't get the attention of On the national scale, when the team doesn't win, that's just, that's just how it goes. Now, if the, if, as we talked about at right off the top of the show, if this type of performance, both for Jordan Love and the Packers is sort of the launching pad, so to speak for the rest of the 2026 season, there's going to be all kinds of chatter and it's going to be more of like, okay, you got to block all that out now, you know, you're asking for it in some ways. But then it's like, all right, you've got to block all that out because there's more important things to focus on. But as far as I'm concerned, there are a handful of guys being talked about for the MVP this year in the National Football League as we're here at about the midway point. I think Jordan Love is right in the mix, and there's a ton of football left to play. What I think is really intriguing about this Packers team moving forward is that There are two, I guess I would say, dynamic duos, so to speak, on this team that we are going to continue to talk about. One on the offensive side with Watson and Golden, that wide receiver, and then on the defensive side with Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams at safety. The Packers have elite talent on this roster around Jordan Love, and we're starting to see it come together.
00:13:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the development process, right? And it all goes on different wavelengths and paths and Christian Watson's in year five. You have Golden that's in year two. Williams has grown the last two and a half years alongside Xavier McKinney, who, I mean, for 45 interceptions now through 42 games, that puts him in pretty exclusive company in terms of the proficiency of being able to take the ball away. I mean, we're putting him right now in a category of a Charles Woodson with how much he's been able to get those interceptions. And Bobby Dillon, who has the record, I think, for most career interceptions and also the the record of
which you know the most average of how many games he's done it in but the other thing I want to mention too just quickly about Jordan Love that that stands out to me the most right now is the aerial attack that they've established and the fact that when the opposition knows what's happening they can't do anything about it right now now there will be answers there's you know we saw it in 2011 where more teams went to shell dared the Packers to run a little bit more and that ended up being their downfall against Kansas City and against New York at the end of the season. Green Bay is going to have to stay ahead of those trends. But the thing that stands out to me the most right now, I was looking at this. I'm going to steal Larry McCarron's fun with numbers a little bit if I can. Okay. Jordan Love, 40 20-plus completions this season. Do you know who is second in that category right now? Two players tied for second. Pick one. Maybe I'll give you the other.
00:15:19
Speaker 1: Jared Goff.
00:15:20
Speaker 2: Close. Josh Allen.
00:15:22
Speaker 1: Okay.
00:15:22
Speaker 2: And C.J. Stroud. Do you know how many 20-plus completions they have? Jordan has 40.
00:15:27
Speaker 1: Jordan has 40. I'm going to guess they've got maybe like 24, 25.
00:15:31
Speaker 2: 32.
00:15:31
Speaker 1: So pretty decent.
00:15:34
Speaker 2: Jordan has 12 40-plus yard completions this season. The second place guy is Geno Smith, so I'm not going to make you try to guess that. Wow. Geno Smith has nine 40-plus yard completions. The way that Green Bay has been able to dial this up and throw this ball downfield, you even asked Matt LaFleur about it a little bit, that there was a time where there was questions about the downfield accuracy of Jordan Love. And now that they've established Watson, they've established Golden, I mean, what an offense they've built right now with this passing attack.
00:16:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fun to watch. And getting back to the running game, Josh Jacobs had four carries in this game, unfortunately broke a finger. that Matt LaFleur then announced on Monday that finger needs surgery. So Jacobs is going to be out for the time being. Injury reserve remains a possibility, which if he is placed on IR, then that's a minimum of four weeks that he would be out. We'll see what the Packers do, but certainly a lot of encouraging signs from Caleb Johnson, who had sort of been... you know, shifted to very much a background role and not getting a lot of action for a little while there, combination of the fact that he had the bad fumble by the goal line down in Tampa Bay, but also Matt LaFleur clarifying it wasn't just the fumble. They were working with him on the protection calls and whatnot because of the blitzes that teams like to try to throw at the Packers. And And a running back in this offense needs to be trusted with those protection calls to be able to know who he's got and what his rules are to protect the quarterback. But a lot of positive signs here
with Caleb Johnson and this quarterback. could be his running game now for the foreseeable future while Jacobs heals.
00:17:30
Speaker 2: This guy, man, I mean, he's their leading rusher right now in terms of statistics this season. He's averaging 4.1 yards per carry right out of the gate. I mean, there was a reason why Green Bay went and pursued him. I mean, we knew how much Brian Gutekunst liked him and obviously what he said about him to make that trade, to give up some future capital to bring him in when it was clear that Josh Jacobs wasn't going to be with them at the start of the season. But everything's a transition and I think as he talked about after the game, he's had the benefit of working with Ben Sermons, who's one of the very best running back coaches in the NFL. He's been able to catch up to these last few weeks. He hasn't been thrown in the fire as much. But with Marshawn Lloyd unavailable and Chris Brooks at this point not back on the roster yet, Green Bay was down their three preferred starters if you went back to the beginning of the offseason program in terms of who they thought their run game was going to be built around. So to be in a position to have a Pierre Strong is beneficial. He's been sturdy in pass protection. He obviously has been here for over a year. But Green Bay wanted a little bit of a boost in the rushing attack, and they gave Caleb Johnson a very critical touch inside the five-yard line. When you go back to Tampa Bay, that's where he had the fumble. They gave him another opportunity. The dude runs hard. I said he bulldozed his way into the end zone. It was his first career touchdown. And then he gets more opportunities in the second half. He breaks the 34-yard line. run that's the longest of Green Bay's season. I mean, this is no coincidence what happened and how it all turned out for Green Bay. The fact that they did finally go over 100 yards and they did it comfortably at 129. It showed them, again, I think the way this offense is going to have to operate this season is it's going to be the pass setting up the run. But the run held up its end of the bargain in this one. And as they Play teams like Minnesota next week, where if you allow them to pin their ears back, you saw what happened in week one. They need to be able to keep units honest. And Caleb Johnson, holding onto the football, learning the strategy and scheme of this offense, if he can shore those two things up, this guy can play. Yeah.
00:19:30
Speaker 1: And I want to talk more about this upcoming matchup with the Vikings and what is turning into a fascinating NFC North race. But first, we need to pay some bills, so let's hear a quick word from our sponsors. Sirius XM NFL Radio delivers hard-hitting analysis and up-to-the-minute NFL news that true football fanatics need 24 hours a day. 24-7, 365. Did you know Lambeau Field is just one of our state's many wonders? Start making unforgettable memories on your next vacation. Discover Granddad Bluff
and more at TravelWisconsin.com slash wonders. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. All right, the NFC Northwest. The Chicago Bears have jumped into first place at 7-2. They survive. I think survive is the best word to use there. A five turnover performance by their offense. And they beat the Buccaneers at home on a walk-off field goal on Sunday Night Football. The Minnesota Vikings now 6-2, having lost two straight. All kinds of quarterback questions that we will get into. The Detroit Lions also 6-2. And then the Packers who have won five of their last six and are at six and three, but six and three is only good for last place in the NFC North. Um, at the moment, this is, uh, um, boy, I mean, we'll see as at the time we are taping this show, the NFL trading deadline for the 2026 season is roughly five hours away. We will see what the Minnesota Vikings do because they did turn it over to Carson Wentz. Um, saying Kyler Murray was injured and Murray was inactive in street clothes on the sideline. And it was an absolute disaster offensively for Minnesota. Carson Wentz only completed eight passes for 81 yards out of 25 attempts or whatever it was, his passer rating in the single digits. And Minnesota's defense, really these back-to-back losses now that the Vikings defense has had, you see Minnesota's defense doing its thing, causing all kinds of problems early in the game, looking like this world-beating defense that nobody can crack. But then because the Vikings offense can't do anything and they keep sending their defense back out there, they're getting killed in time of possession. And as the game rolls on, you get into the second half and that defense just wears out. I mean, you can't I mean, what did Buffalo have on Monday Night Football? Was it 42 minutes of time of possession?
00:22:00
Speaker 2: 42 minutes and 32 seconds.
00:22:03
Speaker 1: So 42 and a half minutes to 17 and a half minutes. You lose the time of possession battle at home by 25 minutes. Now.
00:22:13
Speaker 1: We'll see what that means come Sunday at Lambeau Field when the Vikings come in on a short week with their defense having been on the field for whatever it was, 80 plays?
00:22:22
Speaker 2: 80 plays.
00:22:23
Speaker 1: 80 plays on Monday Night Football against the Buffalo Bills. I don't know if I can ever recall talking about an NFL team that is 6-2 at the quasi-halfway point that is in complete crisis mode. The Vikings are trying to figure out what what can they do to try to get things back on the right track?
00:22:47
Speaker 2: That was the nightmare scenario for the Vikings on Monday night. And if you go back to, honestly, last Thursday's show, you and I talked about this was going to be a very, regardless of who played quarterback, a huge moment for Minnesota going up against Buffalo, a Buffalo team that can beat you in so many different ways. And in this particular case, they did it with time of possession and ball control and obviously making life miserable. for
Carson Wentz. I got to be honest with you, Dennis Krause on the pregame radio show was asking about who should be the quarterback the rest of the year for the Vikings. And I was unanimous in the fact that it was Carson Wentz. I just thought he fit the offense better. I thought he, we saw it up close. I mean, when it was on time and things were running and cooking, they looked formidable. they did not look formidable on Monday night. And so to answer the question, I don't know what they do. I don't know what the right move is. Now, maybe this grade two hamstring strain for Kyler Murray isn't that big of a deal and they can reset the offense with them. But if you were looking like someone like myself was on Sunday afternoon for, okay, it'll be Carson Wentz's show. That was not what you wanted to see in terms of the type of performance. Now you go back to, you know, should you have traded J.J. McCarthy for, you know, basically 10 cents on the dollar. Should you make a move today to get another quarterback? Those answers will probably be out there by the time that this is really out in the public. But the fact of the matter is, when that passing game isn't going, everything shuts down for the Vikings.
00:24:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and you can, you know, you can see the the frustration, almost resignation on the face of Justin Jefferson when they continue to show him on the sideline, you know, he's not getting the ball, not able to have the impact on games that he wants to have. I mean, the Vikings are 6-2, and, you know, in two of their six wins, they didn't score a touchdown. And this was the third time now this year, three times in eight games, they have not scored a single touchdown. This one, you know, obviously the what Buffalo did. Detroit kind of gave everybody the blueprint where if you can keep that Vikings defense on the field, then pound them with the run in the second half. I mean, what did James Cook have, like 32 carries or something last night? So eventually that Vikings defense is going to wear down. Now, it's not the most promising formula for the Packers because of all the questions with the run game and this and that and the other, and we'll talk more about this on our next show. For the first three quarters of week one, the Packers' explosive offense was pretty darn dangerous, and it wasn't until the fourth quarter when the protection breakdowns, the communication breakdowns, and Flores' blitz scheme just kind of overwhelmed the Packers in the final quarter of that game, but the Packers put a lot of stuff out there that showed that they can beat this defense. Um, so I'm fascinated both with the rematch against Flores' defense coming up on Sunday, but then also what are the Vikings going to do on offense coming in on a short week when they're trying to, when they're scrambling and trying to figure out something that can work with the level to where Green Bay's defense is playing right now with Gannon and the safeties and the pass rush and everything. Um, This is really something. But the bottom line for the Packers going into Sunday is this is your chance to leapfrog the Vikings as far as the division standings. And then if you win this one and leapfrog the Vikings, then you start looking at, OK, how are we going to catch the Bears and the Lions? Yeah.
00:26:36
Speaker 2: And Sean Hockley is not going to come save you this time. And I mean that.
00:26:41
Speaker 1: I was going to let you say that.
00:26:44
Speaker 2: That's the other variable to this. You have to point it out. And it's going to be the same thing I'm going to say when the Packers close the season against the Lions. Those are two big variables that change the complexion of those divisional games. And you've obviously seen the trickle-down effect of that now. The one thing I want to close on, though, because I was thinking about this. I'd be curious to actually get your opinion on it, maybe more than even mine, saying it. When I was watching the game, and I'm really glad you brought up the thing with Justin Jefferson, because obviously the cameras are just looking for him every single time. You know where the Vikings made a massive miscalculation? Obviously, they made a change with their GM, so it speaks to that. But they made a massive miscalculation that I actually give Brian Gutekunst a lot of credit for getting right. Sam Darnold threw for 4,300 yards and they had this great year. They make it that far. They let him walk in free agency and everybody's like, well, why are you letting him walk? Well, we want to let J.J. McCarthy develop. None of those things isolated were wrong. But what I do go back to, and now that you're seeing it play out in real time, was Justin Jefferson had a 1,500 yard receiving year that year. He had double digit touchdowns. He is the best receiver in the game, in my opinion.
00:27:50
Speaker 1: I agree.
00:27:51
Speaker 2: And That set a standard of his expectations for what his role was going to be in the office and what's going to happen. If you would have kept Darnold, yeah, okay, again, playing the hypothetical game, there would have been no scenario in which Justin Jefferson could be upset with Sam Darnold. I mean, a year earlier, he fed him. He was prolific. He was an all pro. They won. And who knows how things play out? But unfortunately for them, they then asked basically a de facto rookie to go in there and work with this now superstar receiver. I think back to like, you know, in 2021 or 2022, if you would have put Jordan Love in that scenario with Davante Adams, you don't know how those things are going to play out. A very difficult situation. It just shows you again, the butterfly effect that all these personnel executives, the decisions they make and the trickle down and how it can affect the rest of your team. Fascinating.
00:28:42
Speaker 1: Yeah. And what I want to say is I remember saying on this show, and you and I were talking about it, that part of the
risk that the Vikings took that I think was overlooked in some respects when they turned it over to J.J. McCarthy is that McCarthy had not had a year of development. He'd had a year of being injured. He wasn't practicing. He wasn't learning the offense on the field and running it and connecting with the receivers and all those things that you get to do when you're Jordan Love and the understudy to Aaron Rodgers for three years.
00:29:20
Speaker 2: J.J.
00:29:20
Speaker 1: McCarthy, he had one year of being hurt, and then they decided to move on from a quarterback who won 14 games for them because things went sour at the end. He had two very bad games at the end that cost them playoff position, and then cost them the playoff game. when things didn't go well with Darnold. And they didn't want to make, you know, Darnold's obviously looking for his payday. They didn't want to make a big multi-year commitment to Sam Darnold when they had made the first round investment in J.J. McCarthy. So they, you know, they kind of got stuck, but they decided to turn it over to their first round pick when he essentially had a red shirt year and he hadn't done anything. And now here they are a couple of years later. I mean, you know, a friend of mine texted me last night that the scenario, because he lives in Minneapolis, he's a huge Packers fan and he can't stand the Vikings, of course. And he texted me and I hadn't thought of this, but he said, what, as a Vikings hater, what he would love to see happen is for the Minnesota Vikings to make the playoffs and go play the giants and lose to JJ McCarthy in the wildcard round. Wouldn't that be, if that actually like comes to pass.
00:30:31
Speaker 2: That'd be some like league of their own kind of stuff.
00:30:33
Speaker 1: Holy cow. But anyway, that's, that's a bit of a, that's a bit of a tangent, but it doesn't take away from how big this game is coming up at Lambeau field Packers and Vikings. It's the rematch from week one, both of these teams just in a completely different place from, uh, from where they were back in September. And we'll have a lot to talk about on our next show. But before I sign off, anything else you want to throw out there today?
00:30:59
Speaker 2: 7-2, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. That is wild. 6-3 in last place, man. I keep saying it because it's not something....
00:31:08
Speaker 1: We've ever said or that we're probably ever going to say again. For a team that is 6-3 to be in last place in their division is absolutely mind-boggling.
00:31:15
Speaker 2: And business is going to pick up down the stretch because you had to edit it, but in Insider Inbox I pointed out, I mean, the four hardest strength of schedules the rest of the way are the NFC North. All four NFC North teams with how much they have to play each other.
00:31:27
Speaker 1: They have to play each other. And the Vikings have to play the Niners. The Packers have to play the Bills. I think Chicago still has to play.
00:31:36
Speaker 2: Jacksonville, I think.
00:31:37
Speaker 1: Chicago still has to play Buffalo this season. So yeah, I mean, it is. It's wild where everybody is in the NFC North. And yeah, statistically, the strength of schedule, the NFC North teams have the hardest road the rest of the way.
00:31:54
Speaker 2: It's just wild.
00:31:55
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's, man.
00:31:56
Speaker 2: It kind of lines up the best for... the Lions, but even then, they still got to play the Patriots. They still have to play a Buccaneers team that looks very game, and they have the Giants.
00:32:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Buccaneers have to be just, you know, I know we got going on the Vikings there. The Buccaneers have to be just kicking themselves that they couldn't win that game at Soldier Field.
00:32:15
Speaker 2: You have to win it.
00:32:16
Speaker 1: You win the turnover battle 5-2, and you can't find a way to win that game. I mean, man, that was a huge opportunity the Buccaneers let get away, but You know, the leader of that division is 3-5, so there's nobody who's out of the race in the NFC South, everybody fighting for what is almost certainly going to be, you know, division champion or bust as far as the playoff goes.
00:32:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's what makes it so maddening, though, because it may only take 8-9 wins to get that division, and you just gave one away against a good football team.
00:32:47
Speaker 1: Might only take 7.
00:32:47
Speaker 2: 7-10.
00:32:51
Speaker 1: 7-10 could win the NFC South this year, Wes.
00:32:53
Speaker 2: Hey, guess which game would be on the Saturday noon block for Wild Card Weekend?
00:32:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. All right, well, we've run a little bit over time here. So with that, we're going to call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers.com. For Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody. And we will see you next time.