#907 Packers Unscripted: Long battle, short week

0:02Speaker 1:Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers.com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by the newly clean-shaven Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from the Pottawatomie Sportsbook studio inside the walls of Lambeau Field West to review the Packers' 20-17 overtime victory on the road against the New York Jets. There's a lot of Ground to cover when it comes to this football game. And we also need to preview the next one because the Packers are playing on Thursday.

0:35Speaker 1:So this is our only show this week. We won't have a Thursday show due to that being game day. But with regard to the win over the Jets, I think as time goes on, we may look back at this. as the Lucas Van Ness game because boy, was he something out there.

0:53Speaker 2:Yeah. It, uh, every pass rusher specifically always seems to have one of those performances that when you think back on their career, um, that was the moment. Right. And for Lucas, I think the most impressive thing about this game was the fact that it was all five quarters, right? Like it was, Beginning, middle, and end, this guy made an impact. I thought it was going to be a big day for him right from the get-go, the end of that first quarter. He gets the three-yard tackle for a loss, which also sort of set the tone for the run defense in this game. And then two plays later, he's sacking Geno Smith. That's the way you draw this thing up, right? When you're talking about being able to not only get off the field in three plays, but also just demoralizing an opponent, The tackles for a loss, people don't talk about those in the same breath as a sack, but minus three yards for a running back or minus three yards for a quarterback, either way it's a negative yardage play, and it has a domino effect on how you can play defensively. So one set up the other for Lucas, but to finish with nine tackles,

1:53Speaker 2:four quarterback hits, three TFLs, and a sack and a half, and then played some of his best ball in overtime to help Green Bay get that football back and put themselves in a position to win the game... I mean, you can't say enough about number 90.

2:05Speaker 1:Yeah, his finish to the game was really something because, as you said, he was a factor right from the get-go. He had the early sack. He also had the play. He didn't get credit for a sack, but he chased down Geno Smith outside the pocket, put a pretty good hit on him there along the sideline, but Smith gained a couple of yards, so it didn't go as a sack. But then at the end of the game, the game is tied. The Packers have rallied from 10 down, gotten the game tied late in the fourth quarter, and the Jets are near midfield. They have a third and two in Van Ness along with Carl Brooks. They get in on stuffing Brees Hall for a one-yard gain. Fourth and one, the Jets decide to go for it. And with Jonathan Ford clogging up the middle a little bit, Van Ness just beats the block across from the other side and buries Braylon Allen. And I thought at that moment, I mean, you and I both thought the same thing in the press box. At that moment, the Packers were taking over at midfield and This comeback was going to be completed in regulation. I thought Green Bay had him right where they needed him. Unfortunately, the offense wasn't able to finish

3:06Speaker 1:that off. The game did go to overtime. But then in overtime, Van Ness is in right away, a half a sack. A couple of other teammates share a sack on the next play. So you get the three and out to start overtime, and then the offense does put it away at the end. Just a really, really impressive game. He had that fifth-year option exercised this past offseason. He's under contract for one more year. Everybody was wondering, okay, who's going to step up? Who's going to be the bell cow of the pass rush for the Packers until Micah Parsons comes back? And I think that question was answered on Sunday.

3:40Speaker 2:Yeah, and we were talking in the locker room afterwards, and Tucker Kraft mentioned it, the kind of relationship he's built with Van Ness. And that 23 draft class, just the number of playmakers that have come out of that thing for Green Bay, there's a lot of confidence within that locker room that if the foot injury wouldn't have happened last year against Cincinnati— This is the Lucas Van Ness the Packers would have seen last year, too, that he was on that type of trajectory. And to get the amount of respect and the amount of praise that he has from Micah Parsons, that doesn't come out of nowhere.

4:14Speaker 2:They feel like this guy is fulfilling his potential. He's making those strides. Now, I know Packer fans, they can get a little impatient at times because it's like when you draft a guy, you want to see immediate returns, right? That's the way it's been. probably even going back to when Aaron Rodgers came here, right? It's like, well, what are you doing drafting this guy? Because we need somebody that's going to come out this season and help us. But regardless if you play quarterback or defensive line, those investments are always made for two or three, four years down the line. I think Van Ness is showing that right now. And let's be honest, Mike, without Micah Parsons in the month of September, this is the type of Lucas Van Ness the Packers needed. They needed a guy to step up, provide that type of pass rush. And I'm telling you, As we get ready for this game on Thursday night against the Atlanta Falcons now, who's going to be the guy on the film for the Falcons this week that we've got to neutralize this dude? That's going to be Lucas Van Ness. And the exciting part for me, if the Packers can get to the other

5:08Speaker 2:side of this here in three, four weeks, when Micah Parsons is back, that's another guy that offenses are going to have to account for.

5:18Speaker 1:Right.

5:18Speaker 2:Through two weeks of the season, Green Bay second in the league right now in run defense, right? Sixth overall in total defense. And that's without one of the best players in pro football right now. So Lucas Van Ness has had a big deal, a big role in the pass rush in addition to a lot of creativity from Jonathan Gannon.

5:35Speaker 1:I'm glad you said what you said about last year with Lucas because... I said it on this show. I said it in Insider Inbox. People very easily forgot. Not only did Van Ness get hurt, injure that foot on a sack when he's sacking Joe Flacco, and that gave him one and a half sacks through basically the first month of the season last year. But then after he missed all that time, came back late in the year, who was the one guy who got a sack of Caleb Williams in the playoff game in Chicago? It was Lucas Van Ness. And everybody just sort of conveniently forgot that and He was going to, I think, be showing more of this last year. It's just the injury and all that didn't get him the opportunity. I want to stay on the defensive side of the ball, though, because another big moment late in this game, and there were lots of them on both sides of the ball for the Packers to pull off this comeback. But safety Evan Williams.

6:31Speaker 1:That play he made on the deep ball, Adonai Mitchell, I believe, was the receiver. Yep. Packers are in a zone coverage on that side of the field, and Williams sees him getting deep down the sideline. He takes off. Everything about breaking up that pass, Wes, the speed, the range, the timing, the technique, a perfectly clean play, not even anything that could be considered pass interference. And for as far away... as he started to get over and make that play. That play is potentially the death knell for the Packers in that game. If that's completed and the Jets are in scoring range, they can start to work the clock and everything else and get the potential game-winning points there. That play by Evan Williams was really something.

7:25Speaker 2:There was so much about it in the way the press box is orientated, that play was coming towards us. So when we, you and I both saw Evan Williams crossing the hashes to get downfield and to be able to get himself in position to make that play. But as you said, out of all the various attributes and all the things that Williams did well in that play, the timing of it was exceptional because there's so many safeties. I think some of this is experience. Some of it's just instincts. There's so many guys, almost like a pass catcher downfield when they're completely open that end up dropping the pass because they overthink it. Evan Williams could have pressed there. He could have gotten nervous. He could have seen what the situation was and, hey, I got to make this player. It's not getting made at all. This is going to be an explosive. This could potentially lose us the football game. But yet he stayed within himself and and got to the pass catcher in the football at the exact moment that he needed to to break that pass up. And it ended up not even being close.

8:17Speaker 2:When you think of safety play and the versatility that the Packers utilize with their safeties, and they always talk about it. They've talked about it since the beginning of time. Well, all of our guys can play all these different positions. What's a real strength of this defense is they truly can. That easily could have been Xavier McKinney. He's been in that position before. We've seen Javon Bullard when he's had to play deep safety being able to make those plays.

8:40Speaker 2:But since day one, as a fourth-round pick out of Oregon, Evan Williams has shown that knack. It's why he led the Packers in interceptions last year. It's why he was a PFWA All-Rookie player during his rookie season. This has been a real find and a real strength for this defense. And yeah, there is a litany of things to talk about. In addition to the fact that the Packers' run defense was just truly exceptional in this game. They gave up barely anything other than those two stretch plays there, I think, in the third quarter. Everything else, they pretty much kept in front of them. And when the moment came that they had to eliminate in a potential explosive play, Evan Williams was that dude.

9:16Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Well, there's also stuff to talk about with regard to special teams in this game because not only does rookie kicker Trey Smack hit the game-tying and game-winning field goals in this game, a couple of real pressure points there for the young man, But Sky Moore provides the boost to the return game. He did exactly what he was brought to Green Bay to do. And not only does he have two big returns in this game, unfortunately one of them the offense wasn't able to capitalize on the field position early on, but he did it in a big moment, right? A clutch moment. The Packers are looking like they might get pinned inside their own 20-yard line down by three. you know, late in the fourth quarter. And he makes the first guy miss, and then boom, he takes off. As the old saying goes, and one of the guys said it in the locker room after the game, and I don't remember it, and I've heard other past special teams coordinators say it, it's called running through the smoke. That's what returners have to do.

10:20Speaker 1:And Sky Moore did that on that 63-yarder. Unfortunately, the offense wasn't able to turn that into a go-ahead touchdown. The offense bogged down in the red zone and had to just kick the tying field goal. But boy, did that provide a spark for the team. You really felt, okay, yeah, this comeback is definitely happening here. And, you know, hats off to Sky Moore on a heck of a return.

10:45Speaker 2:Yeah. It's like that when ESPN always does those little like standups where they're like, Sky Moore told me in the locker room. That's what it was. Like I was, I was talking to Sky about that afterwards. And he said, I mean, and my question was actually not even about the punt play. It was about the kickoff because the punt play was impressive from this standpoint. It wasn't the most well blocked. No, it wasn't. Sky got enough of it and did the rest. The kickoff really impressed me because Sky saw the holes and we saw him accelerating through the holes, but they were there. That's exciting. And obviously the Packers offense, unfortunately, was not able to do anything with it. But Sky said he wants to get Jordan Love as close to the 50 every single time.

11:22Speaker 2:He wants them to be in field goal range when he gets done touching the football. And while it didn't happen in the kickoff, it happened on the punt. And Michael, I thought one of the, there were so many different superlatives that Tom Fanning and our communications department provided about the special teams impact of this game, including the 208 total return yards being the most since Will Blackman had 209 back in the 2008 season. But what I liked the most, because it brought me back to the beginning of when I covered this football team, was the fact that Sky was the first Packers player in the same game to have a 60 plus yard punt return and a 40 plus yard kickoff return since Randall Cobb. in his rookie season, November of 11 against Minnesota. That, respectfully, is probably the last time that I had a feeling about Green Bay's special teams unit being a real weapon and not just being something that needed to mitigate damage.

12:20Speaker 2:There was flashes of it. Jeff Janis had some good years as a kickoff returner. Micah Hyde was an exceptional punt returner after Randall Cobb, Jeremy Ross had some good moments, but unfortunately for Jeremy, there was a, you know, a ball control issue there that kind of took away his explosive opportunities, but it's been a real grind, a real grind to be like, okay, just, just catch the ball and get down. This is the first time, especially on punt returns, where it felt like the Packers had the foot on the pedal and comfortably doing so. That's why Sky Moore's here. That's why Cam Acord is here. And Mike, as Christian Watson also told Packers.com afterwards, They probably don't win this game. They might not win this game if not for Sky doing that. Because they might have been playing there just to protect it, just to see if you can get something going downfield. They needed at least three points. Sky Moore made sure that they did that.

13:10Speaker 1:Yeah, a couple other quick thoughts there. It took Brian Gutekunst two cracks at this as far as bringing in the returner, right? Because he tried it with Mikko Hardman in 2025. But that didn't go the way they thought. They didn't feel like he was worthy of a roster spot. They ended up letting him go at the end of training camp. So then this year, that offseason signing was Sky Moore, and they were committed to having him on the roster and being in this role right from the jump.

13:38Speaker 1:The other thing, too, you mentioned the kickoff return, which is where there were some really good blocks. Not surprisingly, one of the really good blocks was thrown by Isaiah McDuffie. He wears that C on his chest for the special teams for a reason. Another one of the really good blocks, though, somewhat surprisingly, J. Michael Sturdivant. J.

13:55Speaker 2:Michael Sturdivant.

13:56Speaker 1:Making his NFL debut as an undrafted rookie. Um, that unfortunately segues into some of the bad news from this game, which is that on the opening series offensively, both receiver Jaden Reed, right tackle Zach Bacaboweli go down. Um, Both injuries, very serious, hard to watch, quite frankly. Reed ended up staying overnight in New Jersey, staying in the hospital, did not come home with the team. It was initially announced as a neck injury, and Matt LaFleur said after the game he had the feeling in all of his extremities.

14:39Speaker 1:Those types of things were all checked out. With the Packers' right tackle, Baka Boweli, it sounds like he's going to be out for a while. That's how Matt LaFleur termed it after the game. We'll see perhaps later today. It's kind of a goofy week in terms of media availability because of the short week and the Thursday game, but perhaps later today we get a little bit more of an update on these injuries. That was tough to watch. It was a tough way for the game to start for the Packers, and you know, You don't like to make excuses, but you wonder in some ways if things starting that way and losing two of your starters, two of your best players on offense right on the opening series of the game, if that just threw things off the psyche of the team, whatever it was. Because for the first three quarters of this game, it was pretty sloppy out there. I mean, it didn't look good. Fortunately, the Packers got their act together and did what they had to do in the fourth quarter to come back and win it and win it in overtime. But this was an ugly one for a while, and it doesn't feel good. I'm glad the Packers got the win, obviously,

15:47Speaker 1:but it doesn't feel good to have played like that, and now you have a short week where you're not really practicing. It's just walk-through mental stuff and all that because you have to get ready to play again on Thursday night. This team's got a lot of work to do and a lot of stuff to clean up.

16:00Speaker 2:Yeah, there's so much to talk about that, Mike. Just first and foremost, before I segue into anything as relates to football, Yeah, just a really scary back-to-back incident. You don't want to see Reid or Bako Biwale go down like that at any juncture of the season, let alone on back-to-back plays. And just speaking strictly from a football standpoint, a humanistic standpoint, obviously good to hear the positive reports on Reid, and hopefully everything works out okay with Zach from just a life standpoint, and then we'll see what happens with football. But the mental... toughness and resolve that is required for those guys then to go back out on the field. Think about it. Those offensive players had to reset twice in a span of what, maybe 15 minutes between when unfortunately Jaden was put on the back stretcher, carted off, and then Zach also having to get carted off.

16:54Speaker 2:And then they had to play football again. And we were talking with Sean Ryan about that afterwards. And it's just, football is such an interesting, strange little sport because As difficult as that is to see your brothers go down like that, you have to flip a switch and you've got to get back to playing football. And that dovetails into the bigger point I'm trying to make here. I am not at all comparing the situation of two significant serious injuries to those guys to what happened with some penalties in Minnesota. But when adversity hit in Minnesota and Green Bay couldn't get off the field, mostly out of their control, the response wasn't there. Offensively, defensively, it just wasn't what it needed to be. It took the Packers a little time. It didn't happen instantaneously. But their ability to show that resolve, to one, stay in the game the way they did in the first half, not let it get away from them. The defense continued to hold up their end of the bargain. But in the second half, find little ways to gain momentum and win. That's how championship teams are built. And I know there's a lot

17:52Speaker 2:of people that are going to talk about it was an ugly win and it was the Jets and all these other things. But they all count the same. And the last time I looked walking into the studio, the Packers are 1-1. And unfortunately, with everything that happened in Minnesota, maybe they let one get away a little bit, but it also felt like they grabbed one in New York. And now they get to reset. Now they have the Falcons. Now you can try to respond and get into this little mini-buyer, whatever you want to call it, on the better side of 2-1. But this is what happens in the National Football League. It's what happens during a regular season.

18:24Speaker 2:You're going to have these moments. And for the Packers, luckily, they were able to find a way through it.

18:28Speaker 1:Yeah, a couple of things really plaguing this team right now. The penalties is a big one statistically, and the penalties are all over the board because they're everything from the pre-snap stuff to the personal foul stuff. It's been all of it. And the Packers need to do a better job there. You're not going to completely eliminate penalties. They're part of the game. But to have 26 of them accepted, not including the declined and offsetting ones, which would add to the total. That's way too many in two weeks.

19:02Speaker 1:But the other thing that was a little disconcerting about this game is offensively, the Packers put the ball on the ground four times. Tucker Craft, Caleb Johnson, Marshawn Lloyd, Jordan Love all put the ball on the ground. Fortunately, only one of those resulted in a lost fumble. And the defense put on the field in its own red zone, was able to hold the Jets to a field goal after that turnover. But those are the types of things that normally you're talking about that get you beat in this league, and you're talking about a loss instead of a win. And on the defensive side, dovetailing a little bit with the offense, another thing with the offense is the third down conversions have not been good through the first two weeks. Defensively, opposing offenses are converting third downs at too high a rate. I believe I counted four in this game against the Jets where Geno Smith was able to convert on third and nine or longer, four times. Now, the defense rose up big time at the end of this game And as you mentioned earlier, the run defense throughout was really good. And that's been the biggest strength

20:15Speaker 1:of this defense through the first two weeks. But even as many positive signs as there are there, they've got to be looking at that film at those third and long conversions and going, man, how many more opportunities did we have to get off the field, right? How many more opportunities are we going to give another team? Because you always feel like if you're in that third and eight plus position, you know, 75, 80% of the time that should go the defense's way. That hasn't been happening.

20:43Speaker 1:And that's something to keep an eye on going forward.

20:45Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, Mike. And two things to that. The first thing, when you look at going into this game against Atlanta, the things I want to see corrected immediately, because you're back on your own soil, is you got to get a hold on the pre-snap penalties offensively. Whether it's false starts, whether it's illegal procedures, any of that type of stuff, it has to get cleaned up. I think it was twice that Jordan Morgan was uncovered on the line of scrimmage that led to penalties there as well for illegal formation.

21:12Speaker 1:Right.

21:13Speaker 2:And secondly, okay, so this is what I think about when people talk about controlling what you can control. You can't control what happened in Minnesota where Chris McClellan gets flagged for unnecessary roughness and then just doesn't get fined the next week. The NFL absolving him of that penalty. And as nasty as it looked, and thankfully Kyler Murray's okay and he's going to play this week, he passed the concussion protocol. Right. But Javon Bullard was not fined for his hit on Kyler Murray. Nasty looking play. I think it was the lowest common denominator to flag it, but that's what happened, right? But the problem is then Javon gets flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against the Jets where it's just a little bit too much jibber jabber after a play. Yeah. You got to cut that stuff out. You have to be able to remove it because You're unfortunately going to have moments of physicality in football, violence in football that referees aren't going to know any better and they're going to throw the flag because it's happened instantaneously. And we're asking 48-year-old men that are trying

22:09Speaker 2:to do their best athletically at that point of their life to make these calls in real time with some of the fastest athletes on the planet. You have to cut out those other penalties that are just too obvious, that are just too disciplinary. You have to find a way past it. Those are the two things right now going into this week I want to see corrected. The third down thing, I don't really know what to make of it because the reason the Packers were in third and long is because of how well they were defending the run on the early downs.

22:32Speaker 1:Yes, exactly. They were putting the Jets right where they wanted them and then just letting some plays get away.

22:39Speaker 2:And here's the other thing. You're going to have moments where they're just going to complete passes on you. It's a league. I mean, there's a reason why when you look at Christian Watson's stat sheet, it says he's averaging... 18 yards per catch it's not just because it's all three yard outs I mean this guy is working downfield he's creating opportunities for himself oh and by the way he's six foot four and he runs a four three plays are going to happen what Green Bay needs to change defensively and it's not just with this one it goes back to last season with Halfley in those third and long situations it's not just about getting off the field you have to be able to take the football away there was a couple more moments in this game where again whether it was Bullard having an opportunity at it some other guys The ball's up there. There's a chance to make a play on the ball and get it back to their offense, and Green Bay's still struggling to get to that point. If you can make that happen, that's where you become a fully well-rounded defense. Packers are doing some good things really well right now defensively. Super

23:28Speaker 2:impressive without Micah Parsons on the field, but they can still get even better. That's the intriguing piece.

23:34Speaker 1:One last word about the penalties. I agree with you. I also want to mention there has been... Some bad luck with those calls. I think the roughing the passer that was called on Lucas Van Ness against the Jets, I think that's another one. He's not going to get fined. I think the league is going to absolve him. Maybe I'm wrong. But again, it's like it gets tacked onto the ledger, right? It becomes part of the statistics. But then when you go back and look at it, it's like, can you really ask your guy to do anything else, right?

24:02Speaker 1:So there is some of that going on. But there's also too much of the other stuff, like you said, going on with the penalties. And I want to.

24:08Speaker 2:And to be fair, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but the Chris Brooks play, I mean, that wasn't a malicious play where Brooks gets thrown down, but it's just a Jets defender going a little bit too far, a little bit too long. The refs are going to throw the flag on that man. Those are the type of things that are going to happen. It's when you're in the heat of battle, those are the penalties you can accept because ultimately it's just, what are you going to do?

24:31Speaker 2:You can't force the refs to call or not call something. It's just going to happen at times. It's just about being smart. And I know that's difficult to do. Extremely competitive, athletic, young dudes going out there, a lot of ego, a lot of machismo going on out there. People want to play football, but you just have to be smart about it. Yeah.

24:50Speaker 1:And I want to say, because we've been talking about the penalties and the pre-snap stuff, and there's been some holding and whatnot on the offensive line, With what the offensive line is going through, Anthony Belton having to step in for Baka Boweli at right tackle. Packers went from Aaron Banks to Donovan Jennings to rookie Jagger Burton at left guard because of injuries in this game. I do want to say when Sean Ryan and Jagger Burton stood up for their quarterback when he got whacked at the goal line on what was clearly unintentional, as they say in college, targeting, you know, helmet-to-helmet shot by the Jets defender, that was, it felt like something that sparked this team.

25:32Speaker 2:It did.

25:33Speaker 1:And for, I mean, you and I have talked to Sean in the locker room several times. I mean, he brings an attitude to everything he does, right? And it was on display in that moment. So I know there's issues with the offensive line, you know, as we've talked about with the penalties and whatnot, but I thought, even with everything they were dealing with, I thought overall the offensive line performed better in week two than it did in week one. I think things are trending in the right direction, and the way they stood up for their quarterback at the goal line was good to see.

26:08Speaker 2:Sean has always been a big, bad dude since the day he came in here. I mean, he's a tough guy.

26:15Speaker 1:He's got a mean streak to him.

26:17Speaker 2:There's no doubt about that. But what's cool about watching this iteration of him is that He's becoming a leader now on this offensive line. And I think Sean understands that he can also be a tone setter for that group. It was when Sean went to the fire, Jager Burton was right behind him. You have to have those moments. And I'll say this too. I don't know what the PFF grades were. And I understand the pressures and all this stuff. And the Packers got to get better up front.

26:42Speaker 2:But I did see a lot of progress in this game for Green Bay.

26:44Speaker 1:I did too.

26:45Speaker 2:Considering what they were up against offensively.

26:47Speaker 1:Yep.

26:47Speaker 2:For Anthony Belton, and so much was written and so much was talked about, and I understand people want to look at position competitions during training camp, but let's be honest about something, Mike. As you and I have discussed several times before, Jacob Monk is an interior offensive lineman. Jager Burton is an interior offensive lineman. Anthony Belton, like Jordan Morgan, is a tackle that the Packers were trying to see what they could do inside because they wanted to get their best five on the field. And while it wasn't perfect, and while there were still some holding penalties, I, watching that game back, Anthony Belton looked so much more comfortable at the right tackle position than when he was trying to make a go of it at right guard.

27:27Speaker 2:It had nothing to do with Anthony Belton. It had nothing to do about the Packers, you know, feeling like, no, the fact is, is that Darian Kennard... Fell down the depth chart during training camp. By the end of camp, that last preseason game, he's running at guard with the threes, right? The Packers, very obviously, before any cuts were made, were looking at Anthony Belton as their swing tackle. As the sixth offensive lineman, as the backup to both Jordan Morgan and Zach. What happened in this game? Zach went down.

27:54Speaker 2:It's the reason why Packers kept 10 offensive linemen. Same reason why, unfortunately, losing Aaron Banks. They needed to have depth at that position. Belton went in there and I thought held up his own and for as much as been talked about with this weight that Jordan Morgan's had for the last two years and this weight that Anthony Belton's had for the last year and a half, the time on task for those guys now is here. They're going to be playing every single snap and everything that they put into this in terms of the patience and the learning of this offense, it's all going to be put to the test. And that's where the improvement comes from now for this offensive line.

28:25Speaker 1:Yeah, and I will say, too, going back and watching it, with regard to the holding penalties, there are holding penalties.

28:29Speaker 2:The one was really tough.

28:31Speaker 1:There are holding penalties where a guy gets dragged to the ground and it's an obvious call. There are other times where a guy's arm just gets in the wrong place for a split second, for a second and a half, and the official sees it because the technique isn't quite right, and then the flag comes out. So that was a little bit of what was going on there.

28:50Speaker 2:Man, you know who couldn't get that for the life of them? Barron Sorrell. Barron Sorrell was held like three times after beating their left tackle off the edge. And there was two back judges and neither one of them wanted to call it. So yeah, maybe Anthony was on the wrong team on Sunday.

29:05Speaker 1:All right. Well, we do need to start talking about the Falcons here. So let's first hear a quick word from our sponsor. Sirius XM NFL Radio delivers hard-hitting analysis and up-to-the-minute NFL news that true football fanatics need 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, west short week atlanta falcons coming in thursday night football home opener at lambeau field for the 2026 season and it's a struggling falcons team they are 0-2 their first two games the starting quarterback was actually their third quarterback in cooper rush yeah And then he ended up getting replaced by an undrafted rookie named Jack Strand in the blowout against Carolina this past Sunday. But all that is potentially changing now because Michael Penix Jr. is back from his injury. He is going to make his 2026 debut on Thursday Night Football at Lambeau Field. And there's going to be a lot of talk this week about, you know, in two games,

30:18Speaker 1:the Falcons haven't run any offensive plays in the red zone and all this kind of stuff. With Penix Jr. coming back, now you're looking at an offense that, you know, Bijan Robinson, Kyle Pitts, Drake London. This is an offense with weapons. They need somebody to get the ball to those weapons, and Penix is a guy who can do it. He is.

30:43Speaker 2:Big arm, lefty. There was a reason why the Falcons drafted him and wanted to try to replicate the Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre, development plan, obviously, as we've seen, often imitated, never duplicated. But here's the deal, and I give full respect to Pennix, and I think it's a really interesting wrinkle. A Thursday night game, I'm sure the Packers were ready that this might be happening, but for him to be making his debut is noteworthy, and they do have real big weapons there. Kyle Pitts is as much has been written about him, if he gets going, he's a difference maker for the Falcons. He can create some big plays from that position as sort of that hybrid tight end, hybrid receiver role.

31:23Speaker 1:Somehow only has one catch through two games so far.

31:26Speaker 2:Which is very surprising.

31:27Speaker 1:Yeah.

31:27Speaker 2:So, I mean, he's just waiting to pop off here. So, but the biggest key to victory. So just skipped all of it, you know, fast forward is it all starts at B. John Robinson and the Packers have to stop the run. The one thing that was really bizarre about that game against Carolina, I mean, they got Ran out of the building, right? Terrible. Falcons still ran the ball 32 times for 157 yards, and there wasn't a single carry above 11 yards in that game. They averaged almost five yards per carry running the ball 32 times. It doesn't matter if they're down by 20 or if they're leading by 10. They're going to run the football because that's their identity. B. John Robinson is their franchise player.

32:06Speaker 2:It's the reason they extended him. It's the reason all this stuff has happened. So if the Packers run defense as good as it's been the first two weeks, they need to bring their pails in this one, right? Because that's how the Falcons are going to want to set this up. It's going to be Penix's first game out there. He's coming off a very significant injury. He hasn't played. Didn't have a preseason. Didn't have a training camp. This guy is going to want to get comfortable in an uncomfortable setting. And what's the number one way to do that?

32:32Speaker 2:The two Robinson guys in the backfield getting him going.

32:34Speaker 1:Yeah. Bijan Robinson, 155 rushing yards, 99 receiving yards through the first two games for the Falcons. That is almost just shy of It is almost 50% of Atlanta's entire offensive yardage output. They get him the ball so much because whether it's a handoff or a short pass, he is as much a threat to make a big play as anybody else on the field at any given time.

33:01Speaker 2:He's their Tucker Kraft with being able to run the ball at the backfield. I mean, this is what he does.

33:06Speaker 1:Yeah, and he makes guys miss, and he can turn something simple into something dangerous. With Cooper Rush and Strand at quarterback, the Falcons have turned the ball over seven times on offense through two games. They've kind of been a turnover waiting to happen. That's another thing that they're hoping gets corrected with Penick stepping in at quarterback. On the defensive side, a couple of big names in the secondary, A.J. Terrell at corner, Jesse Bates at safety. Their pass rush only four sacks through the first two games and two and a half of those coming from Zedarius Smith, who was just signed at the end of training camp, basically heading into week one. That's the best pass rusher they have.

33:48Speaker 1:This is a team that is struggling. And yes, it's going to get a boost from getting Penix back, but this is the kind of game where I say, you know, This one's not about the opponent. This one is about the Packers and what they do and how they play. You mentioned, you know, with regard to stopping, Robinson is a key to victory. The other thing, I'll just parrot what we were talking about earlier. The Packers have to get things turned around on third down. The offense needs to be more efficient. The defense needs to stop more third downs. And I think and I hope that that starts on Thursday night against Atlanta.

34:25Speaker 2:Yeah, and the other thing, too, and... There's a lot of stuff that's happened with Z. Obviously, he stepped away from the game last year. He expressed his reasons behind that to the Atlanta media. Unfortunately, he also lost his mother. I remember him talking about his mom when he signed here about how he wanted to help her retire. She wanted to keep working. Obviously, it says a lot about her. But the one thing from a pure football perspective that Atlanta's doing that I did think Z would be very good at at some point in his career is he's a rotational pass rusher now. they're not playing him every down.

34:54Speaker 2:I think he played, I want to say, maybe 42% of the snaps last week. I mean, he's there for a reason. He's there to rush the passer. And he's been effective in that. I mean, he got Aaron Rodgers twice in the opener. So the Packers have to be cognizant of that, especially with some of the pressure issues they've been working through up front. But beyond that, it just goes back to protecting the football. I think the Packers need to put a better foot forward with their run game. Being able to get Jordan in more third and manageables, I think that's a big reason why you're seeing him at 52% now in terms of the completions.

35:22Speaker 2:There's just a lot of third and long plays that he's having to try to make, sometimes making them, sometimes not. Keeping him clean, being able to have all these different options is, I think, going to be critical. And I will say this, very small thing when we got the estimated injury report on Monday, obviously a litany of things that Green Bay is working through. But the fact that Jordan was not on there was actually a real big positive. I know he kind of got his elbow hit.

35:43Speaker 1:Yeah, he said his hand went numb for a little while and whatnot.

35:47Speaker 2:Good to see that QB1 got through that game in New York, especially with the considerations we always talk about with the field and whatnot. So yeah, run the football, defend the run, and then get in more third and manageable situations to put yourself in a position to win. Because I talked last week about the Packers needed to do better in the red zone. They kind of did against the Jets. It's just that in this particular case, they didn't have enough opportunities. You have to be able to punch that thing in.

36:11Speaker 1:One last thought, because you talked about running the football and we talked about it last week and I mentioned how it helps with your red zone efficiency. It helps with your pass protection when you can run the football. Aside from the one time he put the ball on the ground, I thought Caleb Johnson gave this running game a spark. I think, you know, I think he's going to get some more opportunities. I asked Matt LaFleur after the game what he thought of Johnson, and he hedged a little bit, I think, because of the fumble. He didn't want to overly praise him too much, but I think there was a little bit of a spark there.

36:41Speaker 1:You can see how he is a downhill runner. He likes to get up ahead of steam. Here he comes, and he's going to try to get those extra yards, pushing the pile, stepping over guys, that kind of thing. I think Johnson might get some more opportunities beginning Thursday night.

36:58Speaker 2:You know, I don't know what the long-term forecast is going to be the Packers' run game. Obviously, Josh Jacobs plays into that too. What I liked about Johnson is inside zone run, they were effective. They were good between the tackles in this game. A couple times they got stopped for two yards, but there was, I mean, you talk about the 11-yard, 12-yard carry he had at the end of the game. That helped set them up to win the darn thing. There was, they got just as a way I termed it an insider inbox, they got just enough from their run game with, but still needing more.

37:27Speaker 2:They got enough from it to win and enough from it to, to be able to move the chains a couple of times. Johnson's impressive. And you can see what made him a third round pick. You can see why he was an all American, kind of like Josh a little bit. There was a couple moments there where he made, you know, eight yards, 10 yards out of something that maybe looked like two or three. That's what they need. Unfortunately, as you mentioned, the fumble with him, Marshawn had the fumble late, didn't get another opportunity after that. We'll see how all this plays out for him, though he did get his first career NFL touchdown with his mom in attendance.

37:56Speaker 2:So kudos to Marshawn on that. But knowing Ben Sermons and the fact they're not going to have that like persistent misty rain, you would hope that you're going to see that get turned around here against the Falcons. But certainly that, Adam Senevich said it, it's going to be a committee. Everyone's going to get a shot. Chris Brooks has gotten some opportunities too. that's the way Green Bay is going to have to do this thing until they get a firmer feel for what their ground game is going to be.

38:19Speaker 1:Yeah, and Brooks is the one right after Caleb Johnson's run to start the overtime possession. Then Brooks is the one who catches the swing pass, makes a couple of guys miss, gets 15 yards, and then the extra 15 tacked on for the late hit out of bounds. So for as much as you said, the Packers need more out of their running game. They need more out of their running backs. Those two guys, when they were on the field in overtime, they both came through on that possession.

38:42Speaker 1:Hopefully that's something that carries over here.

38:44Speaker 2:I'll say it again with Chris Brooks. If you would just take away the nameplate, switch the letter on the front of his number, this guy is Tony Fisher. He reminds me so much of Tony Fisher because the pass protection, the third down back thing is one thing, but What's going to keep him in the league for a long time is the fact that he can do it on all three downs. And I don't know if he'll ever be a featured back, but like that catch there, you know, there's a couple moments there where earlier in the game, they weren't able to get those type of check downs going, but when they needed it as that last option, you know, Brooks said, okay, this isn't just going to be three yards and on the ground, I'm going to make something happen with it.

39:24Speaker 1:He made a couple moves in the open field and they weren't fancy moves, but they were very effective because he had made two guys miss and turned what was probably only a four or five yard play into a 15 and then 30 yard play with the penalty tacked on when the, when the DB came over and threw him out of bounds. So, yeah, I, you know, you love how the Packers finished that game in overtime, the defensive possession, the offensive possession. Hopefully that's just the springboard to getting things started right on Thursday night in the home opener.

39:55Speaker 2:And I got to say this because this is going to be it. And then we're going to flip the page next week. Trey smack to be able to make those two field goals, dude, I'm telling you, I've watched plenty of PGA. It doesn't take a lot to miss a four foot putt, but for him, the field goal operation to seal that thing, there was a time in Minnesota where he had to make a 59 yarder, but I'll tell you what, sometimes it's those 34 and 26 yarders that win a football game. And for smack, it definitely did on Sunday.

40:18Speaker 1:Absolutely. Well, We've run overtime, but it's our only show this week. So Dylan, our producer, you're just going to have to deal with it.

40:26Speaker 2:We're going to call it a wrap. We didn't even preview anything either for the rest of the week. No, we didn't. We got to go.

40:31Speaker 1:But we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. For Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers.com, and we will

40:41Speaker 2:See you next time.