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OPE Season 3 Episode 26 Packers Hand Bears Another Loss
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Aloha and welcome to another episode of OPE! On this episode we look at the Fresh, Stale and Moldy moments of the Packers slim victory over Da Chicago Bears!
Be sure to like and subscribe wherever you get your favorite podcasts! also be sure to visit our website ohanapackers.org for our latest articles, past episodes and our merch store!
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Transcript
Intro
Celebrating the Packers' Victory
00:00:20
Speaker
Aloha and welcome back to another episode of the Ohana Packers Edition podcast. The podcast where Iowa Joe and I, two dudes talking football, the Packers have beat the Bears, and Packers fans, this one is out to you.
00:00:36
Speaker
The Bears still suck. The Bears still suck. The Bears still suck. The Bears still suck. We really, really, really, really, really, really suck. Yes, the Bears still suck. I always forget how long that song actually is because the most others. The next clip right there was just 17 seconds. That song is like three minutes. I did bring it up to Ramage and a couple other people that I think with as old as it is, somebody needs to like revamp it.
Revisiting the Bears' Song
00:01:09
Speaker
Because I mean, it's still referencing like Jim McMahon and Dick Butkus and Mike Dick. Got to update it to all their, well, they can do all the quarterbacks since, since, since McMahon and do it to dubstep or something like
Analyzing the Game's Critical Plays
00:01:25
Speaker
that. But
00:01:26
Speaker
well
00:01:28
Speaker
I joked on Twitter and Blue Sky that this was a University of Michigan sees get degrees win for the Packers. ah I mean, talk about, this is the definition of how you let inferior teams hang around for the upset. So many sports cliches were putting on, but the ah most important one is Green Bay snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Granted,
00:01:58
Speaker
jaws that they themselves like kept sticking their feet in but thank goodness honest to god when i saw when i saw the the broadcast angle when carl brooks shot up the a gap i was like please carl i was like i was like carl let your arms grow like mj at the end of a space jazz i was like please and then
00:02:23
Speaker
It helped that, for whatever reason, um Santos kicked that ball flat. And it's not you know it was only like a 46-yard field goal, but he did kick it flatter than he his 50-yard field goal earlier than the game. But thank you, Karl Brooks. Thank you for getting us another victory today. And we talked about it on our preview show.
00:02:45
Speaker
this win was absolutely paramount like basically the you have no hopes at winning the division if you blow this game which green bay tried to do for fifty nine minutes and
Spotlight on Key Defensive Players
00:02:56
Speaker
fifty seven seconds of this game so the The irony of it is it didn't start that way. you You run the gamut of everything from Jair trying to go, but not being able to go the whole 60 minutes. The offense looking great to open the game and then just stubbing all 10 piggies along the way. Little bit of everything, but let's just cut to the chase, Joe, for fresh.
00:03:25
Speaker
In addition to my new underwear after watching that game, what what what was fresh for you from today's game? You know, surprisingly with as, as what's the word you want to use for it, as horror of a game, as a of ah ah when it was, there are a few freshes here. So there's one obvious one, I'm going to take
00:03:54
Speaker
I'm going to take the one that is, is kind of like middle road. I'll let you have the obvious on top of the office, but Britain Cox. I mean, this guy has been riding the pine for the majority of the season so far gets his little bit of a chance to, to go today. And what's he do? One sack, two QB hits, two tackles for loss. Uh, what was his total tackles? I think it was like three total tackles.
00:04:23
Speaker
He had three total tackles, two solo, one sack, two tackles for loss. And then I've read that he had two QB pressures. Like I said, for a guy that was riding the pine for the majority of the season, it's good to see him really get his chance to go. This is a kid that we've all kind of been hyped on that if he can keep his head on straight, he should be a baller.
00:04:46
Speaker
That was the only issue with him and you know at the two schools he went to, Georgia and Florida. you know that He was just kind of a bonehead. but if I think Monty tweeted about that. He goes, you know how much of a head case you have to be to be talented at football and kicked off of Georgia and Florida's football teams?
00:05:06
Speaker
see And to that point, the most hilarious part of his game is the fact that he's the one that drew the unsportsmanlike contact on the Bears and because someone headbutted him after that one punt or whatever. I forget who it was. I saw someone tweet it. They're like, that's a bold choice headbutting Brenton Cox Jr. after playing. So keep your head on straight, kid. Good job.
00:05:31
Speaker
you could tell that he wanted to go back at him, but that coach or assistant was there and was like, no, nobody, no, we're not going to do this.
00:05:42
Speaker
But yeah, like, you know, and i don't want to take and i'm gonna I'm with you. We'll stay in the positive with this one because if you want to parse the film and stuff like Cox just was like, fuck it. I am popping this thing into Ford and we are putting the accelerator to the floor and I'm going to tackle someone on these plays.
00:06:03
Speaker
and yes he's got to read his keys and all that kind of stuff but how many times we saw it later in this game guys missed you know clean tackle or sack attempts you got to give a guy who like you said has not played who has not been active for a game this season you have got to give that guy credit for when the opportunity was there for him he converted both times for big negative plays and It feels like since Super Bowl 45, the story for not just young defenders, just Packers defenders is too often in key moments when there are gimme chances. to you know Will Redmond drops an arm punt from Tom Brady. You've got all the other dropped interceptions in playoff games by Packers DBs and stuff like that.
00:06:49
Speaker
and you've just got to appreciate that Cox sees the moment and completed the opportunity that was available to him. And that's just, I don't know what the future holds, but, know, like I said, you've got to just be happy that he had his opportunities and he took advantage of them. and I know there's probably going to be some negatives to his game today, but I have to give him the benefit of the doubt just because
00:07:18
Speaker
Again, we've both said it, you know, he's not played all frigging season. He's not even been active all frigging season. So for him to be active now and do what he did, what others on the team that are getting paid a ton more money than he is, couldn't do, he was able to do. So, and he took advantages of his moments because the sack and the tackle for loss He was uncovered. There, there was nobody, you know, they were missed blocks and he took great advantage of it. And that's what you expect out of this team. ah ah You know, how many times have like you were saying with the dropped interceptions, I'll one up you on that. What about the arm tackles and the missed opportunities when it comes to taking those free shots, you know, you get a free runner and they slow up because they don't, you know, because of some stupid ass reason. And.
00:08:15
Speaker
you know they they don't make the play on that end so like i said i gotta give yeah uh cox's do on that one no absolutely and you know just to take it a step further like other teams are gonna see that you know the the margins on difference between him making those two plays and Lucas being taken advantage of on a couple zone read plays, that's the margin is like Cox happened to do it on plays where, you know, he just like this bears offense, he's unscouted as well. He hasn't played many, many worthwhile NFL snaps. So it's like, okay, like,
00:08:52
Speaker
He was more in like, we don't care about that guy. 57 can do whatever the fuck he wants and we just don't give a shit. And to that point, that's what we're giving him his flowers for is like the the bears treated him in that way. And he said he shoved it back in their face and that deserves to get that deserves to get celebrated.
00:09:12
Speaker
don
Special Teams and Key Players' Performances
00:09:12
Speaker
i don't I don't know if I'm going to have the same one as you, but so because I have two and neither one of them was the Cockspoy, but the first one I'm going to go with. So a guy that not just us, but a lot of people have been bashing questioning this season.
00:09:27
Speaker
and going back to last season a little bit, Bassaccia. But I thought that, you know, we didn't kick a field goal today. I thought kick coverage was pretty good today, punts were good, Whelan had a good punt. You know, it wasn't the greatest ball off his foot, but the thing rolled inside to the five-yard line. But The biggest play of the game, the final play of the game, was the result of Misachi appointing something out in the special team's meeting room and saying that the Bears on their field on their field goal are point after kicks. they do not they They basically open up a free rush lane.
00:10:02
Speaker
And we're going to take advantage of it. And to a man, all the guys on that that interior D-line were basically just saying, like, who's going to be the guy that's going to get the block? And it was Karl Brooks. Because they they all, to a man, said, like, we saw it all week. Coach was pointing it out that they're going to do this thing. And it's going to open. And really, both A-Gaps were open on that final field goal. And it was just a matter of who got there first. And it was Karl. But, I mean,
00:10:30
Speaker
if we're gonna bash him every week when just dumb shit happens, you gotta to give him his flowers for when it happens. And also one more, so the return that Jaden Reed had before the Packers final touchdown drive, that was a massive play because catches the ball at like the five yard line. I know some people have issues with you know where people catch punts and stuff like that. To me in the modern NFL with how good punters are, you've gotta be comfortable fielding the ball between the 10 and the five because with the way these punters can, you know, put the ball, the nose down and, it you know, it does that golf kick up and all that kind of crap. Like you've got to fear catch balls from the five out. But Reid finally towed the line, played on the more aggressive side of it and decided, I'm going to return this thing, he returned it like 16 yards or whatever. And it was massive for the Packers to push the ball, you know,
00:11:23
Speaker
let's see what was it was it was it 11 or 16 getting my yards and like yeah 16 so yeah so and that was massive you know you get you get the you shorten the field and set the off it you set the table for the offense so you know, Reid's really only two plays, positive plays of the game was obviously his touchdown reception and then that punt return, but two just monumental plays. And on the back of a special teams unit that's been bemoaned, and so but it deserves credit for really helping to tip the scale in a game that needed every bit of tipping because of things we'll talk about later on in this game. You know,
00:12:04
Speaker
the only thing that I have to say against it is if they've seen this all week how come they didn't block the other one nearly or two and like I said I do think part of it is Santos kick for whatever reason like I said that kick just looked low no matter what but yeah and but I do think they were close on some of the other ones but hey I'll take it on the last one so whatever it takes i just You know, you got to play devil's advocate on that. You know, you see something all week and you know how to defend him, but you only get one out of how many was it? One out of three. you know, if we want to believe me a little, if it's two out of three ain't bad and you know, so one out of three is a failing grade. Uh, but you know, it's great to hear that they actually had something, you know, I even, I even, I hate using this term for the messages over on blue sky.
00:12:58
Speaker
but I even skated it after it happened, you know, you know, Oh my God, Oh my God, special teams has did something right for a change. And, you know, that's the truth. And like you said, even the Jaden Reed one, but I think Jaden had basically knew he had to do something because they needed the field position. Return, what you know, I said this on the, the live stream post game,
00:13:27
Speaker
There really wasn't much for the special teams to do today. They had one punt. They had a couple of kickoffs. They had a couple of kickoff returns. But other than that, you know it was a pretty quiet day for that. There was no field goals or anything to really worry about. So for them, to they had to be well rested to be able to get on the field for that one. So you know it's great. and And if you go back and look, depending on how Santos kicked it,
00:13:57
Speaker
it was going to be blocked either way because it was either going to be Carl Brooks or it was going to be Slayton because both those biz guys had ups and they got up there and there was the only way that it would have not been blocked as if they would have split that like half a foot gap between Slayton and and Brooks. So yeah, you you got it. And like you said, we rip on Versace for the last year and a half. You got to give it to him when it comes true.
00:14:26
Speaker
You know, when he actually, when his unit actually does something worthwhile. So yeah, you got to give him that one. And it's been deserve like, let's not, let's not shake any bets about it. It's been deserved, but yeah, like when it counted, you know, like, like we were saying. Got to give him his flowers when it turns out in it, when he does make a diff at a positive difference, I should say. So I was giving you the low hanging fruit one. So I'm just going to go ahead and take it so we can take it off the board. And that's got to be Christian Watson.
00:15:19
Speaker
I,
00:15:22
Speaker
It's so weird to say because it's going to sound weird when I say this, but on that last catch where he caught it, got up and ran it. I fully believed as a Packer fan, it was a catch. But as a guy who's watched enough of the NFL bungle things, I just had this feeling that the the rest were going to come back and say, Oh no, incomplete and ball on such and such and such and such down. And it was going to deflate the whole damn thing.
00:15:50
Speaker
But there was no conclusive evidence to overturn it. And it was, you know, it was a hell of a catch. And it, and it was a smart move by Watson to realize he hadn't been touched down to get up and run again. The only thing I wish is they would have paid it off and gave you got him the touchdown to to top it off. But, you know, it, whatever, four catches, 150 yards that was it you or was it.
00:16:16
Speaker
somebody else that was talking last week that they were predicting this was going to be the week. No, it must have been someone else. Yeah, they they were predicting this was the week Christian was going to really pop off and for a better way to pop off than four catches and 150 yards. So.
00:16:32
Speaker
I got to give him a real, like I said, this was an obvious fresh. Yeah. And like, I know he had the rough game in Detroit, but like I said, those conditions were not good. Jordan was ah ah enough off and bad weather conditions that, you know, and I'm not going to put that totally on him that, you know, he's just like lost out there or anything. I do think Christian has really improved on.
00:16:56
Speaker
To the the the layman, this is going to sound stupid, but I do think he has vastly improved this season on doing standard wide receiver things and not just being like a deep threat and a decoy for to pull coverage and a gravity player, so to speak. We've seen him make more hitch routes, more digs, you know, and stuff like that. But today was a sign that Love is healthy because they're able to do more from under center because Watson, he's improved in those things, but he's still better at it when we're doing it from under center and or there's an element of play action to the play. And it just helpps it helps cover up the line between his still developing route running precision against his just just gaudy natural athleticism.
00:17:50
Speaker
And you saw it on display, like the the first improbable catch that looked like one of those far fuck it, chuck it throws from 95 and 96 where you've seen it where um I think it was 96 where he throws that Hail Mary at the end of the half to Antonio Freeman. Pretty much that same style where he's rolling to his right and he just hugs it down the field and really Watson is not in the best position to catch that ball out of the the two, you know, out of the three came in the two defenders. I thought the two defenders had a much better positioning on the play and Watson just used all of his God-given physical and athletic talents to pull that ball in. And then, like you said, that over route
00:18:33
Speaker
You know, love is on the move because he's maneuvering the pocket, dives, same thing. I had that same feeling like the whole way I was like, that's a catch because his left hand, I don't care what his right hand does. His left hand is clearly under the ball the whole time. And.
00:18:50
Speaker
And then my part of it wasn't even the like, oh, like the Packers always get screwed on this kind of thing. It's more the like, Oh no, all the guys in the booth believe or agreeing with me and saying not the same thing, but you know, you just get that like, Oh no, like it's the whole like, Oh, I had that too. Yeah. Yeah. It's the whole, it's, it's like what everyone picked does the like for prime time games. They're like, Oh no, everyone's picking the Packers kind of thing and stuff like that. So yeah.
00:19:17
Speaker
had that thought, but I was like, okay, good. They didn't, the rest didn't screw the pooch. They lifted as it should have been a catch. And yeah like you said, just a heads up play by Watson to get back up and run.
00:19:30
Speaker
And it's like you said, it's too bad he couldn't get a touchdown. I saw some people saying he should have stayed outside on that one. that Eli Hicks can run too, and he had the angle on him. i I actually thought if anything, he should have cut back one more time across the field instead of trying to like lightning bolt his way back up the sideline. So I like you said, hands down a great game for Watson. And then one more that deserves to be in the fresh pile is three penalties, all game. And I don't think they had any more that were like, they might've had like one more that wasn't accepted because the Bears had a better player or something like that. But for a team that we've been just so critical on for the whole season about this team is too undisciplined, too into, they were still undisciplined in other ways today, but
00:20:22
Speaker
but it was just good to see them, play a discipline game from a, penalty standpoint. And the other side of it kind of went into it with the Watson thing. Love looks healthy. I don't know if he's a hundred, a hundred percent, you know, his two injuries are kinds that'll linger or whatever, and he's still getting hit and stuff, but.
00:20:41
Speaker
the the amount of under center work they did today, basically all his throws except the interception were good throws and even the interception was good read, good decision making, just unfortunately uncork that thing high and of course the DB, had the corner covering the route in back of Kraft happens to be looking right at the ball. so I thought overall it was a very good to a great game for love. The interception is more of an unfortunate one than a what the fuck are you doing one, but I don't know. I kind of disagree with you on that point that I think it was a what are you doing type thing because he had craft pretty well, like wide open, right? Didn't have to put any air on it. He just had to nail craft in the chest. And I also had to pull it a little little bit on craft because why did he alligator arm it?
00:21:34
Speaker
I I I didn't think he was going to make the catch but he alligator or whatever you want to call it alligator arm it or terrain or source racket arm it or whatever He could at least knocked it down because yeah Or even if you like if he tips it with both hands it like drops behind him kind of thing instead of Going all the way to the goal line and stuff like that. So right like I said, I I do think it's I put it more in the unfortunate pile because it is just like a It's not a what the fuck, like the pick sixes he has against all the lions and the Rams.
Offensive Challenges and Interceptions
00:22:08
Speaker
It's more just like shit. Like, of course that happened. But yeah, decision making, like I said, you know, cause it looked like he had craft where all he had to do was put it in craft's chest. And for some reason he sailed it. So I don't know if that's part of the injury tweaking or, you know, uncomfortable, you know, not sure of the injury, whatever, but
00:22:31
Speaker
It definitely was not a ball that should have been intercepted had he done what he should have done and just put it where Kraft was not try to up it, not try to, you know, do something special with it. So.
00:22:46
Speaker
I agree, you know, it wasn't a major, well, I just, I think it was a major thing because that was kind of a tide turner. they don't know allowed In terms of, in terms of game flow, all that kind of, I agree. Like it's a, you know, you can't have red zone turnovers and you're really going to put Chicago under the, because you're about to go up 14 to three. If you at at worst you're going to, you know, I'm pretty sure craft gets the first down and you can argue,
00:23:13
Speaker
with the rest of the Red Jones struggles, whether they would have scored or not after, but you're at least walking away 10 to three after that. More likely 14 to three. But so from a game, I'm just talking about overall, like how love played in the game. I thought he had a pretty good game outside of that one throw. So it's more that side of it. Yeah. Health-wise, yeah, I think he did. But I think there was some decision making between him and the floor that kind of marred what the offense was. Oh, that's in my moldy pile. So that's, yeah I'm not going to bury the lead much on that one, but yeah. So, but anything else for you that's fresh semi fresh for you today, or you want to go into, uh, I mean, Josh Jacobs, he's continuously being fresh. Uh, yeah. Statline. He's not like,
00:24:08
Speaker
I mean, it's still pretty good. 18 carries 76 yards, one TD, and then added four receptions, 58 yards. So I mean, total yards is up there, but he didn't hit a hundred in either aspect, but man, was he moving well out there. And then just if you want to add all together, the running backs as a whole, Emmanuel Wilson looked like he is, his butt was on fire the way he was running some of through some of them holes.
00:24:36
Speaker
So, you know, I definitely got to add them to a fresh pile. Yeah. Really. And really, the fact that they didn't have a lot of carries is not their fault. Green Bay only had. What did they have one?
00:24:53
Speaker
you only had what six offensive possessions one two three not counting the end of half yeah you only have six possessions so and one of them was a four and out so five and out so not it's not like They had, you know, so many opportunities to be given the ball so yeah, they, they did more than enough with what they were given and I agree with you, Wilson looks like a guy who's like, I am not losing the RB to Brooks is still going to have a role because I do think he is still the best pass protector out of the group.
00:25:28
Speaker
but Wilson just the way he runs suits what Green Bay wants to do on offense so even better than what Brooks because Brooks is sort of like a light James Starks where it's a very like cut backy and like against the green kind of thing, but like Wilson kind of brings the like sledgehammer that Jacobs does. He doesn't cut as much as Jacobs does. That's why I liken him to, to Ryan Grant, where it's like, Wilson's going to pick a hole and dammit. I'm putting my foot through the floor on the accelerator and it worked really well today for the Packers, but overall, very good game. what's a weird yeah I just looked at it that Wilson is like,
00:26:17
Speaker
10 pounds heavier than Brooks and Brooks is like two inches taller. So they're similar to each other. But yeah, Wilson just when he gets the ball in his hand, he's dynamic. He's got like amazing speed. So yeah, all together, they'd have to be a fresh pile. Yeah. So We'll start to get into it. There's going to be a lot of stale and a lot of moldy in this because this was not a hunky dory win for the team. This is a glad they got it, not a feel good way for the Packers today. But what is up the top of your stale pile today?
00:26:57
Speaker
So many that could go either way. I'm going to go. ah This could even go in the multi-pile, but I'm going to put it in stale for right now. The offensive play calling, some of those decision-making, some of that play calling just, it it was not a typical the floor, uh, offensive game. I don't know if he was worried about, you know, love re-injuring something. I don't know if he was worried about whatever, but, and I kind of said this during the live stream, I get that people are getting upset about the end of rounds and shit that are getting
00:27:32
Speaker
done with Jaden Reed and they're failing, but I don't want them taking out taken out of the playbook because when used properly, but we'll we'll take this quote from one of my favorite movies, when done correctly, no can defend.
00:27:51
Speaker
and you know you though it just yeah Too bad you guys can't see this because Mike is dying over there. But that's how I feel about the end arounds and stuff is that if they're done properly and used at the correct times, you can't stop them. You're going to get continuous yards with them. It just, for some reason, the floor just throws it out there like, yeah, go for it. And that's the times when the team, the defenses are prepared for it. You got to do it when they're not prepared for it. You got to do it when you're doing a little bit more of.
00:28:31
Speaker
You know, play out a shotgun a little bit more play out of, you know, pistol a little bit more. That's when teams aren't suspecting it because it's kind of like a play action thing. You know, you're faking off to one and you're handing it to the other. Well, if you're using a ton of play action, teams are going to be ready for it because that's how they're going to know it's an end around. So while I don't want it taken out, I think LeFlore needs to be a little bit smarter when it comes to using those calls.
00:28:58
Speaker
I agree, and I was actually going to put Lafleur in the moldy pile because I just thought he had a craptastic game. in those those So those two empty red zone possessions, you can't put the first one totally on because Love throws the bad ball that becomes the interception. But from the second and one play to that interception play, he was I did not like a single one of the calls. So that sequence, your second and one,
00:29:25
Speaker
I hate RPOs in the red zone because my whole thing with it is be all in on something. Don't try and you know don't try and toe the line in the, especially against a good red zone defense in the Bears, commit. And if you have to meet them head on head, so be it.
00:29:49
Speaker
but Why does that play draw penalty is because they run in, the Packers run in Arpio. Love pulls the ball to throw, you know, its second one love pulls it to throw. The wide receivers are all, they either didn't know they were going to run in Arpio or everyone takes a step too long to get into a route.
00:30:10
Speaker
and therefore love has to hold it and then by the time he throws the ball you know Elton is like you know something should have happened by now so it's you can't blame Elton for that penalty that's on guys not being in the right position and then the second down play is the Jaden Reed run. So after the penalty, it's second and sixth, and it's the Jaden Reed run. which So it's it's not an end around that one. it's a Jaden Reed lines up as a split back in the backfield. And the point that I agree that i definitely agree with with you is I absolutely hate that
00:30:53
Speaker
they didn't disguise that look at all. There was no, like, look like you're having, you're handing it to Brooks and then you turn around, you know, you reverse pivot and turn around and hand it to Reed. You just run a straight sweep with Jaden Reed, which, like, I get wanting to get the ball in his hands however you can, but throw him the, you didn't throw him the ball, you know, after the second drive of the game kind of thing. And it's like,
00:31:22
Speaker
Yeah, I just think that's that's a case of LeFlore getting way too cute for no reason at all. And then, so that's the first, yeah, and then Love throws the interception in the next play on third and 11. Then the the second empty position is when they just, you know, Love ends up getting stopped short of the goal line. The first mistake he makes, so it's after the fuck it, Christian's down there somewhere play. First in goal from the eight eight or nine yard line.
00:31:52
Speaker
They I knew the play was kind of fucked when they come out of the commercial break Christian is Christian Watson is they show Christian Watson on the sideline as the camera pans and backs out a little bit Dobbs is right next to him and Jaden Reed is like kind of like a few people down from them on the sideline and it's like you are gold to go in the low red zone and you do not have your top three wide receivers on the field. And then you run a straight long developing sweep run. And it's like, you you have nobody who's going to make the Bears think you're throwing out there because you walk out Malik Heath and Bo Melton out there. And it's like,
00:32:37
Speaker
that, like you said, that's one of those words, it's like, I don't know where Leflore's brain went on that play. And then on the fourth downplay, Watson isn't out there I can't remember if Dobbs is on the field and then Jaden Reed is running an orbit motion in the backfield so he basically doesn't matter because You've got to score on that play and you know by the time he runs a route that takes him into or near the end zone The balls got to be out at that point because Chicago is gonna blitz or they're gonna have so many guys in coverage It's not gonna matter at that point and so
00:33:12
Speaker
I just didn't like his red zone sequencing. I thought that it cost the team points. But I will say the one thing I did agree with is going for it on that fourth and goal. No, they didn't get it. Love comes up like a yard short.
00:33:28
Speaker
but I do agree with it's such a fine line because you know some people are like oh do you kick the field goal get within two all that kind of stuff but I like the aggression going for the touchdown your defense is playing a little too loose because of you know the injury to Jair all that other kind of stuff.
00:33:50
Speaker
But yeah, so I do agree with the aggression there. But the things that led up to that point and that led up to the love interception, I do not understand or agree with any of those play.
Critique of Play Calling and Missed Opportunities
00:34:01
Speaker
I think that the floor, whichever you want to say he got too cute, he got too smart for his own good, whichever way you want to look at it, I did not care for any of those sequences and it cost the team six to 14 points because of it.
00:34:16
Speaker
Yeah. And I think the only reason it's in my stale instead of the moldy is I just got to give him the benefit of the doubt just because up until the last couple of the games, you know, his offensive, you know, you tell her she's interrupting stuff. I'm, I'm, I'm keeping tabs over here. the last, up until the last couple of days games, his offense has been just, his offensive play calls had just been soaring.
00:34:43
Speaker
And, you know, the only reason they haven't had success is just because, you know, loves injury and stuff like that. Otherwise he's called great games and everything else, but yeah. And the, the two point conversion I thought was a frigging, uh, boneheaded call. His fourth, like his goal let to go on short yardage, like those like critical get a yard plays.
00:35:13
Speaker
I'm kind of like like it's the opposite on those ones instead of like overthinking it he like goes complete caveman and just takes football back to the stone age and is just like we'll just run it up the middle or something like that and it's like yeah that that point and that was one where it's like i'm okay running the read option on and and it's weird that they didn't run the read option there and if the whole concern is that jordan isn't healthy enough to do it put malik out there and do it and honestly
00:35:46
Speaker
And I know some people are like, but then they're, no, you're going to do something with Malik. But then it's like, maybe two guys are like, Oh my God, Malik Willis. And someone doesn't go for Josh and it opens, you know, and then Malik will hand the ball off kind of thing. So like if ah ah Jordan, you're not doing it because Jordan's not healthy. Then go put Malik in and do it kind of thing. So yeah, I'm with friended the piggyback on that.
00:36:10
Speaker
They may know something's up if he put Malik in, but they don't know what is up because of how well Malik has been when he's been put in. So you know is he going to throw it? Is he going to run it? Is he going to hand it off? What you know what are we doing here? Or you had a great play a couple of games ago with Tucker Craft.
00:36:30
Speaker
you know Why couldn't you do the same exact thing to get two yards? Yep, exactly. That's, you have your own version of the Tush push where you just run Tucker craft and underneath the, the center and you just shove them out there. Hell go back to the, the, uh, early 2000s and bring you 71 back the old, uh, what was Barry, uh, play. I can't think of what his first name was. was It was a Kevin Kevin Barry. Yeah.
00:37:04
Speaker
Where it's an extra lineman, everybody knows it's a run, but they couldn't stop it because there was a beefy offensive lineman out there. Or how many times have we seen in the past? Kenny Clark's lined up in the black backfield. Mike Daniels is lined up in the backfield. BJ Raji lined up in the backfield. You can't tell me there's not a guy that they can't put in the backfield just to eat up blocks or just to help shove Tucker craft into the end zone.
00:37:33
Speaker
There's a lot of things that they could have done. They could have got a little cutesy with it. They went plain Jane and it ended up blowing up in their face. And this game was a lot closer than what it should have been. Yep. So.
00:37:45
Speaker
For my scale, it's going to be something also on coaching. It's Halfly, and I love 90% of what Halfly has done this season. I really like the direction he's trying to take this defense in. The one that I do not like is anytime Jair is not in a game or leaves a game with an injury, his reaction every time is,
00:38:11
Speaker
And I understand it. I understand why he does it, but he can't make this his binky where it's like Jair is out. We're playing off coverage, softer zones. And it just, you know, and you know, people are saying like he turns into Joe Barry. It's not because you still see him blitz. You still see him to try to do other things, but the coverage is just so loose that those blitzes, those pressures, they don't matter. And like on, you know, I saw on one of them,
00:38:38
Speaker
you know, bemoaned Lucas Van Ness. He has like a power rush where he puts Braxton Jones into Caleb Williams' backside, but it doesn't matter because Caleb's throwing to a wide open Cole Comette. And then and the 3rd and 19 play that led to the tipped field goal. What happens? so they you know the first and second down we see this this front finally get to know like they can't run it at this point they i know they have like a timeout or whatever but they can't chance running the ball at this point you've got to get yards they've got to get in field goal range and so it's like the pass rush is like fuck it we're there
00:39:15
Speaker
Two plays in a row. Rashawn puts Braxton Jones into Caleb Williams. The first one gets TJ Satan ah like a sack. And the second one, Rashawn sacks both Caleb Williams and Braxton Jones on it.
00:39:28
Speaker
And then on third down, back off the coverage and, you know, Caleb breaks away from Inaugury and it gets like a very easy throw on the run to, to, uh, Raul Modunze for a, you know, a pickup of 15 on third and 19 that sets up, first, you know, it sets up the first down for them. And so.
00:39:49
Speaker
I get it. So the the concept is is like, okay, I don't have my best cover guy. I can't count on one side of the field being covered. So I'm going to know play it a little safer to you know just to try and hedge my bets and you know make sure we keep everything in front of us, blah, blah, blah, all that kind of stuff. But you've got to give defenses something to look at, especially an offense that has been so out of whack. And the I will talk about the misconception about how, the not misconception, the lack of understanding by the average fan on how difficult it is to prepare for this situation where the Bears fire their offensive coordinator and have unscouted offense for the Packers to deal with.
00:40:37
Speaker
but you cannot let your personnel dictate how you call a game like that. I know it's players not plays and stuff like that, but it goes twofold. So one,
00:40:50
Speaker
you you just let a guy in Caleb Williams who has struggled for like five, six weeks straight, you let him have just warm up throws because there's not a you know there's not a defense there's no tight windows because guys are just running free because you're playing soft zone. And the second part of that is because you're not creating tight window throws, you're are just allowing the Bears to bleed you to death by a thousand. What did I say earlier? The Packers only got six possessions in this game.
00:41:20
Speaker
you're the better team, you should want more possessions because you're better. So you want more opportunities to score and put the worst team at a deficit. But because you just let Chicago and Chicago won the time of possession like 36 to 24. So that's a 12 minute, you know, that's that's 20% of the game that disparate discrepancy in time of possession. And That's all a result of just playing like, and I hate to say that he's playing scared, but he is playing afraid of his personnel. And it's like your whole scheme at the back of it is being aggressive. it's you know to To play the way that Halfly wants to play, it's aggression, it's striking first and all that kind of stuff.
00:42:07
Speaker
Sure, maybe you don't have quite the guys. You don't have Jair out there. You don't have corners. You truly trust whatever. But you know what? Just go out there, be aggressive, play it 100%. And if you play man and press up, maybe someone gets beat and you give up a big touchdown. Hey, that happens. The other guys are paid to play as well. But maybe so everyone gets a good jam, the quarterback holds the ball a little longer, and you get a sack, you get a strip of forced fumble, whatever. so
00:42:39
Speaker
have it in the still because like i said i understand why halfley feels like he has to play it and i do think it's more i do think it's as much on the offense not producing enough as it is halfley being like stuck between a rock and a hard place but i do want to see and you basically had several weeks now you've had different color commentators basically begging the Packers to be more aggressive in their coverage profile at different points in the game and it's something that I do hope we see it and hey I'll be the first to say like you're gonna have to live with some blown coverages or some just wins by the other team but you can't just let them bleed
00:43:20
Speaker
bleed, you can't just let your defense bleed 12 play 60 yard drives for touchdowns because you're just playing soft all the way down the field. If Jair's not out there. I'm not going to go over too much of it because I have it in my moldy, so I'll hit on it a little bit more than, but yeah, it, my main thing is, is if you don't trust the guys that you have on the field when Jair goes down, why the hell didn't you make a change earlier in the season or in the off season? Yeah. You know,
00:43:47
Speaker
And I tried to look at some things earlier today and look for, you know, is there a guy out there in the free agent pool that they could bring in on short term? And you got like Michael Ojumudia and Xavier Howard, but it it and I don't know if there's a tool that I can go on and look at other teams like practice squads to see if there's a ah ah somebody that they could pick up like a like they did with the resul. But that's my whole thing. If you don't trust the guys that you have when your star goes down, why the hell didn't you make a change?
00:44:26
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm not sure where to put this one, but the it's I can't tell if it's stale or moldy. it's It's moldy because of how the game turned out, but you signed Robert Rochelle to the active roster, and then you leave him as an inactive today. When you know that Jair, even if he made it through the game, he was playing you know he was playing limited snaps like the first drive for Chicago I think he played less than half of the defensive snaps out there and so it's like if that's already the plan why don't you have every corner on your active roster up like I just that's one of those where and I don't even like even before the game I was like
00:45:06
Speaker
Jair better be healthy. Like and then the first drive goes through and everyone, you know, Wes hot, Wes hot quits and, Bredl and stuff, they're all going like, ooh, like, so Jair is kind of coming in and sub he started and then he went out and then he came back in for sub packages. He played 10 snaps. That's what they were saying. He played 10 total snaps today. Yeah. And hey,
00:45:30
Speaker
This isn't about how they're handling Jair. I have no problems with him trying to give it a go. The team, he's obviously medically cleared to an extent that it's like you're not doing more damage to it by giving it a go today. And I like that he tried to give it a go, but I also like that the team was just like, no, like you feel anything. We're taking you out. We're, we're, we're not letting this be part of the equation of you like.
00:45:54
Speaker
further aggravating or making this injury worse like we're just not going to have it so I have no problem with that but if that was if you were going to treat it with kid gloves you cannot leave a corner that by all accounts the team likes Rochelle a lot like we've heard it in preseason they were like we've got to try we so want to keep this guy in the active roster and then oh we were so lucky to get him back on the practice squad they you know he's out of elevations they've signed him to the active roster already this season and it's just like ja
00:46:26
Speaker
Stokes is like, they don't want to play Stokes at this point. They didn't want to play valid, you know, to the point that they put Nixon at outside. And I do think it's time to end the Nixon experiment. Like, fuck you, just play them on offense already. That's my moldy. So yeah we'll i will cover that a little bit later. Yeah. But more to the point of, like I said, just sticking with the whole, like,
00:46:49
Speaker
use every it Like I said, get the part I have a problem with is you obviously were going to you obviously came into this game expecting Jair to play limited snaps one way or the other, whether he made it to halftime like he did or if he made it through the whole game.
00:47:05
Speaker
you can't with how your corners have played of late, you can't not have every tool at your disposal available for you. So yeah, like I said, I'm not exactly, I can't decide exactly where because it is a little bit of a 2020 hindsight to it. That's why I'm bringing it up now. But yeah. anything else you had for stale today? Yeah. And this might piss a lot of people off. So sit back and, but Packer fans, you are in my stale this week for a couple of reasons.
Fans' Criticisms and Misconceptions
00:47:36
Speaker
One is the whole Kway Walker thing. Yeah, he didn't look great today, but to be honest, none of our linebackers played great today, but you didn't, you sure didn't call them out. You stuck with the Kway Walker, you know, the Kway Walker stuff. And, you know, that that's that I'm trying to put it into words. It's, I think you're stuck on the whole.
00:48:06
Speaker
Well, he was a first rounder. Right. But how close was edge Cooper to being a first rounder? Everybody and their mother had him ah ah projected as a first rounder. They're the same frigging player. For the most part, they're the same frigging player. They, they're both athletic freaks. They're both off-ball linebackers. I have to say Quay looked decent in pass coverage. It was just more close to the line stuff that he looked kind of rough on.
00:48:35
Speaker
But, you know, now you got to look at edge Cooper there towards the end of the game, when the third and 19 completion that they had, who was the one that missed the sack on Caleb Williams to allow him out.
00:48:50
Speaker
That was edge Cooper. Oh no. That was JJ. That was JJ on that one. Oh, was it? Yeah. I swore it was Cooper. No edges problem today was he could not read angles. He was the reason that the bears got their first field goal because he took a poor angle on Caleb Williams when Williams broke the pocket. I think he had three total where each time he took too shallow of an angle, Williams beat him to the sideline and like,
00:49:18
Speaker
he just he just was terrible as a spy and yeah like you said but it's one of those where there's got to be a scapegoat and instead of just saying linebacker sucked today it's like koi was extra terrible kind of thing and stuff and i you know i'm not giving up on him i know that i'm looking like the fool for being that way but it Like you said, nobody at the second level played good today. It was just a rough, rough game from the second level. I do think, and like I said, I am going to keep referring to it over and over that we will discuss the whole Shane Waldron firing Thomas Brown elevation part of it, because it is a massive part of why the Bears, you know, everyone's like, oh, they were terrible against the Patriots.
00:50:08
Speaker
We will go into that because, trust me, like I will put it into a bunch of different layman's terms to try and make it make you understand why it's not as simple as bears offense bad, Packers defense should beat them up, Packers defense must suck. so But yeah, like the amount of, like you said,
00:50:30
Speaker
hypocris confirming priors and against the confirming priors against not wanting to bash other golden child's kind of thing. It's ridiculous. and But honestly, at this point, I'm just like, whatever, it is what it is. I just so want Koei to start playing better because he was playing solid down the stretch of last season. I thought the Dallas playoff game was one of his better games of his career.
00:50:58
Speaker
It hasn't, you know, it hasn't flipped over him. I was really hoping the bye would help, but we'll see moving. So changed between the playoff game last year and this year, there's a whole new coaching scheme going on. So you've got to give him a little bit of time to adjust to it. But like I, like we've been talking about, it's not so much that he's not been good. I mean, that he's been bad. It's that when.
00:51:24
Speaker
The others on the team are bad. They don't send team to seem to call them out. They just want to focus in on Quay, which leads me to my next part of why the Packer fans are in the stale, the whole Jair situation. Oh, well, maybe it's time to cut ties with Jair. He's always hurt. It would be different if it was like a Christian Watson situation or an Eric Stokes situation.
00:51:50
Speaker
where it's the same injury over and over and over again. But it's not. They are completely different injuries that he suffered throughout his career. His rookie year, it was an ankle injury. The next season, it was like a shoulder injury.
00:52:06
Speaker
Uh, a couple of years ago, it was the collarbone injury. Yeah. The one where he got run over by, Najee Harris. Yeah. That one. Yeah. And then, uh, this year it's been a knee injury and I think he's had a little bit of what the groin too, but it's mainly been the knee stuff. So it would be different if he was having the same injury over and over and over and over again, but it's not, it's just, it it's like freak incidents are causing him not to be healthy.
00:52:35
Speaker
But when he's on the field, he's your best corner. And the defi and like i like I brought up and you were going to bring up in your moldy segment, Halfly just is so much more confident in what he can do. And that's the luxury of a great corner. And to take it a step take this step ah this point a step further,
00:52:54
Speaker
Packers fans were hopping up and down mad that they didn't do the trade that Washington did for Marshawn Lattimore. Marshawn Lattimore is basically the same player as Jair. Great cover guy, little bit bigger and more physical. Jair is a little more athletic, but injury-prone. Marshawn Lattimore was not active for his first game as a Washington commander because he had a pre-existing injury. And so it's like,
00:53:20
Speaker
Yes, Green Bay should have done more at corner in the off season during the draft. They should have done, tried to do more at the deadline, but it's hilarious that people are hopping on it or you know they're jumping Jair about injuries or they're hopping off the Jair support train because of injury, whatever way you want to look at it. But then it's like, you should have traded for, you should have traded for this guy. But it's like that- It's so bad that he's punching his camera right now.
00:53:47
Speaker
But it's like, we want you to trade for a guy who's as or more injury-prone than Jair is. And it's like, what the fuck do you want him to do? So yeah, I agree. it's It's stupid. Honestly, like I said, the way you should be looking at the Jair injury is you should be thanking whatever sports god you pray to that he didn't blow his knee. Because I thought he fucking blew his ACL when he did that, and when he torqued his knee and jacks it. But I thought he was done for the year. And then,
00:54:18
Speaker
on top of it, the fact that he's at a point two and two three weeks after the injury that he was at a point where he's like, I'm medically cleared to the point that we're going to give it a go. He was gutting it out and trying to make it happen.
00:54:34
Speaker
But like I said, the, the reports coming out of this is it sounds like the team is saying we were just being over cautious with it. And he, you know, like all the, like Rappaport, I just saw it. He's like, no, there's no concern that there's no injury. optionary yeah So like you should be looking at this very positively. Like there's no setback to, you know, it's just, it wasn't, it wasn't actually with who the, the, the opponent is next week.
00:55:00
Speaker
Yeah, that and and the part we haven't even talked about, they probably were like, it's not feeling great and it's fucking Soldier Field. We don't want him to step in a divot or have a chunk of grass fall out. And then he really fucks it his knee or something else in the, knee you know, the the knee bones connected to the, you know, you do that song. So yeah, like the Jair shit is just stupid and kind of the same people and stuff and, you know, all that kind of thing. so You know, to each their own, whatever you want to say and stuff. But yeah, it's, it's irritating, but let's just keep it moving along. So I think we both covered one of our moldies because we kind of flip. You had LeFlore in stale and I had him in moldy. You had, I had Halfly in stale and you had him in moldy. Anything else that's. It's not so much that I have Halfly in moldy. I mean, he should be because of the reasons that you, you put him there.
00:55:59
Speaker
Mine is more concerning the secondary without a gyre. Yeah. Nixon needs to be off the boundary. Why they didn't use Eric Stokes, but for a handful of snaps, why they're not doing other things around Jevon Bullard looks like he's uncomfortable in the position that they're putting him right now. The off coverage zone that they seem to run whenever gyres out.
00:56:29
Speaker
You know, I like Nixon as like as much as the next person, but he definitely is not a boundary corner. He may be a red zone boundary corner, but that's because he can use his lack of ability in a small amount of space to do stuff in. He's probably better suited as a slot, and he's shown that he's not even great at the slot. But you know, that's probably his better position. I get that they want to put Jevon Bullard in that position. But You know, you got to do what you got to do to get your best players out on the field. Again, I don't understand the lack of use of other players on the field. They've got guys on the practice squad, you know, Rochelle should have been active where they got Hayden. They've got King. I think there's one of their, uh, corner that they've got on the, yeah on the practice squad. Use them while you got them. And, and.
00:57:28
Speaker
you know, don't just keep throwing the same guys over and over again out there and hoping for a different outcome. Yeah. Like I'm like, there's a part of me that's like, at least they let Valentine play. I know Valentine didn't have a great game. Oh, it's Valentine. Valentine's the other one that's on the practice squad still. that's yeah that But you know, Valentine, they let him play. But there's part of me that's like, I feel like he's in the doghouse for whatever reason.
00:57:55
Speaker
And that was more a circumstance of Jair not being out. And you I do think Stokes was a bad matchup for any of the top three corners the or the top three receivers that the Bears have, because I think that Moore is too physical and shifty for him.
00:58:11
Speaker
Oh, Dunsey is a better route runner than he can match and stuff. And then Alan, you don't want him on Alan because Alan's usually in the slot anyway. But, so, okay, like, sure. But then like, okay, if, if you really don't want to use him on defense, then you should have activated Rochelle and sat stokes. And like, you can have an adult conversation with him and be like, Hey, matchup's not great. We want to have a guy that we can throw out there just in case kind of thing.
00:58:37
Speaker
Because, yeah, like the whole point of them playing Nixon on the boundary is because they're like, we do not want both of Valentine and Stokes out there, but it's like. Stokes, you know, we discussed it with Andy Herman this offseason, Stokes, the likelihood Stokes would be back with Green Bay was a slim like 10 percent or less margin kind of thing. He had to basically have she had to play like he did as a rookie and it it hasn't come back. Valentine is pretty much guaranteed to be on the roster next season because, you know, he had good film last season. He's on a rookie contract. And even if they draft three corners, like I said, I'm counting on like Stokes being gone. Nixon might be gone, but also like, even if he's here, you just, you know, he's basically like a Dallin Levitt or Zane Anderson on this team where it's like that guy's not playing defense anymore kind of thing.
00:59:33
Speaker
But so it's like, OK, my whole thing with it is like you've just got to play Valentine no matter what, because he needs reps. He's going to struggle at points like he did today. But he's also going to have he had some moments where he was physical against some screens. He was he was decent in coverage a couple other times. And you've just got to get young guys like that. You know, he's an athlete. Just let him play, let him make mistakes and live with the outcomes kind of thing. And yeah, I'm with you.
01:00:03
Speaker
what did what did we What did I say all of last season when Valentine was up? No, he's not the most talented, you know, whatever and stuff. But I trust that that guy is at least going to play balls to the pedal to the metal, gonna give it his all and stuff. Like if Stokes is so far in the dog the doghouse that, you know, you're like, either put him on IR with some random injury or cut him at this point, because he's doing you no good if you're like, he's active every game day, but we're like trying so hard not to put him out there.
01:00:34
Speaker
And then with Nixon, it's like.
01:00:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's over.
Roster and Defensive Strategy Issues
01:00:40
Speaker
Like I try not to bag on guys like certain people do, but it's it's been a rough last three weeks. And, you know, I know some will say like it's a Band-Aid fix and blah, blah, blah, all that kind of stuff. But it's like the Band-Aid fell off too. So, yeah. i Well, here's something for you. Valentine is on the active roster.
01:01:04
Speaker
And he played just the slim amount as Eric Stokes did. Oh, yeah. For some reason, and he wasn't inactive today. Yeah, no, he's on the active roster and he was not inactive today. The only corner that was inactive today was Rochelle. So that goes back to the whole thing. Why are we running the same guys out there with the same exact results?
01:01:31
Speaker
Yeah, when you've got all these other, you know, why not throw Eric Stokes out there? I get what you're saying with the matchups and all that. you've got your best corner down. You're not going to know what this kid can do unless you put him out there. And he's still young. He's not and like this 30 year old kid or 30 year old guy that, you know, is on his last legs. He's still got a bit to Valentine. Valentine's older than him. Why isn't he out there?
01:02:00
Speaker
Uh, you know, again, why didn't they activate Rochelle? Why didn't they call up Hayden? Why didn't they call up King? Why aren't we doing these things to fix a problem out there? So that would lead to another part of my moldy is roster development or roster building. How many of these guys are on the roster that we don't, and that aren't being used, but are just wasting a spot?
01:02:30
Speaker
You know, I know if we've ragged on this all pre-season and we've mentioned it a couple of times on during the season, but Zane Anderson, he's nothing. He's doing nothing. He's not even providing help on special teams because his name's never called on anything. So what good is he to be out there and be on the active of roster if you're not using him for anything? Anthony Johnson Jr., you could have at least used him for something.
01:03:01
Speaker
yep what else is there? There's, uh, uh, right now the, the, uh, backup offensive lineman Morgan was just put on the IR. So that just, you know, uh, killed your, your, uh, backup lineman. If something happened to any of them.
01:03:27
Speaker
And we know Walker's dealing with a knee injury. We know Myers is dealing with the knee with an injury. We've seen Elton on the injury report several times. You know, that, that doesn't inspire me with, uh, hope if something happens to those guys and the backups have to come in, uh, linebackers.
01:03:55
Speaker
I get Eric Wilson's been having his moment, but he's definitely not a guy that's going to be a starter. He's going to be a rotation guy. I like Isaiah McDuffie, but again, he's not a starting caliber, uh, linebacker. He's going to be a tackle machine, but he's not going to be a coverage guy or anything like that. They're not using Tyron Hopper, uh, defensive side of the ball.
01:04:23
Speaker
You know, it took int until trading Preston Smith to, uh, uh, open up a spot for these guys to, you know, get any kind of playing time, uh, tight end wise, we've got that, they picked up that John fixed Patrick. I didn't see him for nothing today. And Ben Sims has been used very little.
01:04:49
Speaker
Matter of fact, none of the tight ends were used for anything other than blocking today. Tucker had the one, uh, his loan target intersection. Yeah. So, I mean, what, what are we keeping these guys on the roster for if they're not going to be used and they're just taking an up space. So a multi take a mine is just, you know, this roster, uh, build.
01:05:15
Speaker
Yeah, like and to go into that and you know, this is going to kind of go more into what they need to do in the offseason and stuff. But yeah, some of the choices I agree with you, some of the choices they made going into the season. You know, the the one that I harped on today was like.
01:05:31
Speaker
Basically, it's coming more and more clear that their plan at cornerback was, pray that Jair is healthy. he's had Like you said, he's just had some unfortunate injuries this season. So he hasn't been, you know he' he's been he's missed half the time this season. And then just pray that someone wins the cornerback two spot. And it's like, hope, and you know and when I say hoping is like, you're counting on a second year seventh round player who you're not allowing to make mistakes.
01:06:01
Speaker
a guy who hasn't played his position in one and a half years due to injury in Stokes, and a guy you've primarily signed to be a special teams impact player in Nixon who has just been exposed too often over the last few weeks. And you're trying to square pagan brown holding because you don't want to play Valentine or play Stokes for reasons I didn't even know. We're not in alphabet. We're in imaginary, you know, we're in I squared at this point. So,
01:06:30
Speaker
it's it's getting to the point where yeah like you said that part of it co You know, we we put Cox in the fresh, but up until this point, it was like a, okay, like this guy, you kept six defensive ends and he hasn't forget sniffing the field. He hasn't been active once this season. And now it's almost out of the necessity that he's active because you traded Preston away, which I do think is a good bet for the future. I do think it's going to pay dividends and stuff, but like you said, until the whole.
01:07:02
Speaker
I'm not against the whole press and trade. I understand on both sides. well like yeah just That's what it took to get yeah you know somebody else on the field. So yeah, there's overall, I do think, I do think Gudakut has done a pretty good job of reshuffling the deck after, you know, turning the page from the Rogers, the Rogers and Davante years. He turned the page overall pretty well, but on the margins and a little bit in the meat, because cornerback can't be treated, can't be considered an in the margins position, but
01:07:40
Speaker
there's just been some head scratchers that you're kinda like, especially when at the base of it, what has the talk been did for this season? We're competitors this season. We are here to make noise and be contenders, but you've left a a key position in quarterback on the shoulders of hopes and prayers and some other roster spots where you're, like you said, you've either kept guys for special teams reasons and you,
01:08:09
Speaker
You know, in the Zane Anderson case, you hope he never plays defense or in the Wilson case where it's like, okay. And, you know, there's some Wilson truthers out there that are like, no, like he should start over Quince. You can't draw up a play for Eric Wilson every, you know, for 60 plays out of a game.
01:08:29
Speaker
The only non-drawn-up play that he's made is one where Anthony Richardson threw the ball right into his chest. like I'm sorry, like I know that sounds really harsh, but all the plays that everyone pats him on the back for, they're all ones where the thing was drawn up for him to be in the ideal position to make something happen. Again, credit that he made it, to but when it's like read the play, make the play,
01:08:53
Speaker
it's very hit or miss with Wilson and not saying that Welch would have been great here but he's a younger player with I think higher upside so yeah we we can go back and forth on this oh these are like I said these are questions to be answered in the offseason and um but I do think it is you know it is bringing the ceiling down on where this team can go because you've taken potential talent off the roster for you know players that you know who they are, but we know that at their listed position, they're not ceiling raisers. Getting back to the point you're making, it's just like, why did we do certain ones of these moves? so
01:09:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's unfortunate, but that's the deck that the Packers are dealing with. Like I said, at the heart of it, the faces of this team was always that you were going to have a top five offense with a strong run game and not necessarily MVP candidate play from love, but at least knocking on the door of it. And injuries and poor decision makings have met in the middle to hamper this offense.
01:10:04
Speaker
and at the end of the day At the end of the day, I do think, which is not great, roster building consideration. But I do think they were like, we are screwed. like We're going to fix the safety room. We have we should have a strong pass rush room. We're going to start to rebuild our linebacker room. We'll get to cornerback later. But this team rests on the shoulders of this offense scoring more than the opponent kind of thing. And defense is going to make enough plays to help win the game and stuff.
01:10:39
Speaker
so I don't like that they kind of just punted on cornerback this season but that's what they've done and alas that's why it's in our moldy this week but also it's what they've got to work through to get through the season so anything else you wanted to put in moldy or otherwise i was going to go into the topic that i wanted to touch on which was the the concept of the unscouted offense the bears throughout there today
01:11:10
Speaker
one Last thing, and then you can have your say on it. Moldy is the refs for today. How they missed that friggin' false start, I really have no clue. It was plain as day. And you know that was what led me up to thinking that they were going to overturn the Watson catch. Because if you're going to miss that big of a false start, how are you going to make the correct call on on ah whether it was a catch or not?
01:11:40
Speaker
It was clear as day, the running back stepped when he shouldn't have stepped. It wasn't like it was just a little motion. It was a full on step to his left. And yeah, yeah. And I tweeted it, two guys, four eyes and you missed it kind of thing. And I'm sure that the league's quote unquote cover up will be like, Oh, he reset. And so, but that's, it doesn't matter that he reset, he moved to start the play before the play started kind of thing.
01:12:08
Speaker
And the other one that I thought was pretty egregious, and Paul and paul Noonan was on it too, was the the offsides that Lucas got called for. Wright clearly gets out of his stance before Lucas moves. because And how can you tell? Lucas is staring him in the face, and he literally moves because Wright moves, and the rest botched that one too. and And I think also the part that was funny about that one is Davante was Absolutely adamant that one of the interior like because he wasn't pointing at Darnell, right? He was pointing at whoever was across from him that like but yeah, that was a funny camera moment because they both had their fingers in each other's face yeah, and and Davante was actually slapping the guy in the helmet and Yeah, so I mean and if you think about it, that's been the The only times that they nail Lucas on offsides is when they friggin
01:13:06
Speaker
mess up a a false start penalty so yeah so okay so i'll try to keep this ah because we are getting toward we are crossing uh hour and 15 minutes at this point but so okay every show is going to kill you So a lot of Packers fans, you know the only looking at the game on paper, which you should not do. So they look at last week, the Patriots played the Bears. One, I believe the game was in Foxborough. So it's a broad game for the for the Bears. So Patriots have a really good defensive system. Even during the Brady years, the backbone is that Belichick is one of the greatest defensive minds.
01:13:54
Speaker
Jarad Mayo, the new coach, he is a Belichick disciple. They still play really good defense. It's whether they have enough offense to win some games out there. So the Patriots rack up nine sacks. I think like eight of them were in the second half of the game against the Bears. It was something ridiculous. And so everyone's like, oh my God, the Packers should feast and all that kind of stuff. So timetable of this.
01:14:17
Speaker
The Packers are on their bye week leading up to that Patriots Bears game. Waldron gets fired like the day or two days after that game. So to that point, the Packers, so that's week 10, the Packers have nine plus games worth of film that they're like, this is what the Bears are doing. This is what their keys are. This is what they do with their personnel.
01:14:41
Speaker
And you looked at it from a league wide stat point, everyone was going, there are no hot routes, there's no this, everyone, you know, it's Waldron's offense is like a, it's the air raid in like what you would think the air raid offense would be where it's like four verts all the time and, you know, we'll we'll get a mismatch out there and stuff. So you go from that and the Packers are building their defensive game plan off of that's what we're going to see.
01:15:08
Speaker
you're And it gets compounded because you're on the bye week. So you're like you're not practicing on the field. So you're just doing film study meetings. And you're just doing a lot of between the ears training leading up to the game. flash Fast forward to last week, Monday or Tuesday, Waldron gets fired. you have you know Everyone's like, oh, well, this you know Thomas Brown was in the same position with the the Panthers last year. You can't use that. The Panthers have no talent on offense.
01:15:38
Speaker
no quarterback last or you know Bryce Young last year and it's like so you're like you you're trying to say like okay we'll try and pull film from what the Panthers did last year but we're also going to try and figure out what how they're going to utilize it with the talent they have on their roster which the receiving talent is miles better than what the Panthers had last year and Caleb, I know he struggled the last few weeks, but he has at his highs played better than Bryce Young did. And so the Packers are, you know, they have,
01:16:14
Speaker
the idea of an idea of what they're going to see when they take the field on defense. But what they're greeted with is instead of if anything that resembles the offense the Bears ran for the first their first nine games of the season, they come out and what I deem a pickup to Mississippi offense where, you know, when we all played recess football and it's like, how how long do you know it's three Mississippi right so the bears are like on two Mississippi the ball is gone and Brady did a really good job of saying like they were taking 2.2 seconds to throw the ball they're just over two seconds and like this is where it combines with halfly going to soft coverage when Jair is not on the field is like
01:16:56
Speaker
their thing halfly is partly hedging his bets on i can play soft coverage because there's still going to be some element of four verts so they're going to be running into our off coverage and yada yada all that kind of stuff instead the bears run more of like a college spread offense where it's like we're going to throw quick screens we're going to spread the field horizontally we're going to stretch the defense sideline to sideline instead of line of scrimmage to back of the end zone and so what the packers are prepared for is just totally out the window. So the layman's term I would put this into is you're studying to take the driver's look the the driver the driver's test. And then you know you you you know you can get all the like the, whether you're taking the written or the on-road, you can get the test book. So I'll do it for both sides. You can get your states, drivers, you know your written test,
01:17:57
Speaker
notebook for the road test it's like okay I'm going to take the road test in this area I know that we're going to go you know through us you know I might go on a freeway over a highway over here I might go on the interstate I'm gonna have to park in some way I might have to reverse or something whatever and then the day before
Unscouted Strategies and Pass Rush Criticism
01:18:17
Speaker
the test, they're like, you're so for me, it's like, you're not taking the Hawaii written test, you're taking the Michigan written test, or for you, you're not taking the Iowa written test, you're taking the California written test. And it's like, wait a minute, like, what? And then so you're trying to
01:18:39
Speaker
pick up that book and study. And it actually, this is so you know this is where I liken it to your you're you know you do the Packers. You're like, well, this happened to Thomas Brown last year. He ran the Panthers offense after their original OC got fired. So we'll see what he did with the Panthers. And it's like, OK, maybe that matches up what they're going to do, but they have different personnel kind of thing.
01:19:04
Speaker
And then on the the driving the dr the driving test, it's like, oh, you're expecting to take the you're expected to drive from this police station in this city, district, whatever it's called. But then it's like, oh, the station closed. You got to drive 50 miles the other way to this city you've never been to and take it over here. And you're like,
01:19:24
Speaker
Does this have the same, you know, what's the what's the tolerance on rights on red or who has right of way at, you know, can you you turn it every left turn, can you know, there's different nuances to what you can do and stuff. And it's.
01:19:42
Speaker
that going in blind where you're like we've prepared a certain way for you know for a whole week and because it's a division opponent you've got scouting obviously it's a little different because Kayla Williams is a rookie quarterback and all that kind of stuff but you've seen a bunch of these players before And it's like, oh shit, like, it's out the window because... And the way you can tell this is a problem is because the Packers offense, until it got into the red zone, they were just chewing up the Bears. Like, Lefleur knew exactly what Iber Flus was going to do in certain situations. You know, all of... Christian Watson's receptions were off of brilliant, schemed up routes because it's like we can manipulate his coverages, his coverage tendencies and get Christian open on a follow over, that kind of stuff. Same with Jacob's, it's like if we crease them on the inside, Josh is going to have some good running room.
01:20:43
Speaker
whereas on defense, it's like, Oh, like, what the fuck are we looking at? There was different moments where you're like, they didn't do that. And you know, one of the plays that I point to is when they just flat out, it's the play that we got called for the bogus personal foul penalty where they.
01:21:02
Speaker
pivot out and they basically run a lead sweep with Caleb Williams as the running back and the reason I say that penalty was absolute bullshit is he is not a quarterback. When you take the ball and you tuck it and run following a lead blocker you are no longer a quarterback and his feet were not touching the ground. He wasn't out of bounds yet. And McKinney tried not to hit him and he fell down and acted like he died. It's like, to me, if you're going to get that call, you better be concussed or something or something better be broken. like
01:21:37
Speaker
and the and a lot of Packer fans and writers were right to point out like Jacobs was clearly out of bounds on a later drive and the same thing happened and no flag and like I said I'm all for protecting quarterbacks when they're in the pocket and all that kind of shit but when you you clearly dictate that my quarterback is a runner on this play you don't get no protections that you usually get because you can't you know and i that's the part you know i hate the mahomes thing where he tiptoes down the sideline and he's like oh like you know that was the play that we got bullshit is the same play from last year where it's like he's like oh i'm gonna tiptoe down on the sideline get like five extra yards and he got blasted while he was still in bounds and it's like penalty it's like no you play stupid games win stupid prizes so yeah but
01:22:29
Speaker
getting back to the, you know, everyone's complaining like, why isn't there pressure? Why isn't there pressure? Two things combined. so The lack of knowledge of what the bears are going to do because it's completely unscouted look. And then you tie in Halfly being a little more conservative because Jair is not out there. You're already behind the eight ball with just one of those things being true. But when you combine the two, like, I know people are going to say that Green Bay was bad overall on defense,
01:22:58
Speaker
But realistically, they did for what Halfly was asking them to do and how the offense kept putting them in adverse situations because you come up empty on two red zone possessions, the defense did enough. And yes, like I want more from it. But like I said, at the end of the game, first and second down on the Bears final drive,
01:23:28
Speaker
At the point of the game where it's like, they have to throw the ball. What happens? Roshan kicks Braxton Jones ass on two consecutive plays, you're playing tighter coverage, and you put him into 13-19, and then Halfly backs it off. Enogbery misses the sack. And then Caleb rolls out and throws into soft zone coverage coming across the field. It's like,
01:23:51
Speaker
And so, yeah, you combine all of those things. And, you know, everyone, the the part about it that makes it so frustrating is instead of truly looking for the why, everyone just wants the easy answer. And it kind of goes back to your point about like dashing on Quay where it's like, well, the pass rush has been disappointing all season. But instead of considering why, they only look at, oh, there's no pressures.
01:24:18
Speaker
the pass rush still sucks. We're paying Rishan Gary a shitload of money to be shitty. know, we drafted Lucas 13th overall to suck ass. Like, no, like context matters here. And if you can't understand the context, don't go belittling players because your understanding of the game is lacking. Off the soda box. We're hitting an hour and a half. Joe, any final thoughts on this game?
01:24:43
Speaker
last One that I would have to say is you kind of hit it within this kind of the same thing with Nixon I think Inaug berry has been has played out I don't think he's been adding anything more special to this defense than he had in the past so I'm ready for that experiment to be done to why he's taking up more snaps than a lot of these other guys I really have no clue on but other than that I I'm with you 100% on what you said, so I'm good
01:25:13
Speaker
Yeah, my my whole thing with the inaugural report is I do think he's had and he's making at least one or two plays a game that it's like good play kind of thing. But my whole thing with it is like to my whole thing with it is you're making the Preston play to give Lucas yeah that move is for Lucas.
Reflecting on the Game's Impact
01:25:35
Speaker
And
01:25:37
Speaker
Yeah, and that's just where I'm going to just end it there is like, let Lucas and Roshan play together. And I'm going to just nip it that there for this week. so At the end of the day, it was a frustrating game. It was a stressful game. Marisol's Chargers also had a stressful game for very different reasons. But we're both just grateful that we both have W's on the record. And like I said, Green Bay, they're slim hopes because Detroit is just playing so fucking well this season. They're, you know, all the things that we're criticizing Green Bay for doing, you know, mental mistakes, turnovers, whatever. Detroit is just playing such overall clean football.
01:26:20
Speaker
So you know the the margin, the chance to win the division is so thin right now, unless things change. But there's there is a there is a chance. there is There's a slim, but they're so they're by winning this game, you have a chance. If you lost this game today, the division is fucking done. I know some people are like, oh, they'd still be in the seventh position because the Niners blew their game and blah, blah, blah and all that kind of stuff. but the division would be just totally ixnay unless the Lions and Vikings both fell in the gutter because they both win they stay at one and two losses respectively and the Packers just have to keep pace and obviously they're gonna play both of those teams one more time but
01:27:04
Speaker
To have a chance, to have a chance, you had to win this game today. And they did, by the so the tip of Karl Brooks' finger, they did that much enough to win this game today. But we'll wrap it up today. We'll put a pin in it until our preview for the 49ers coming up.
01:27:22
Speaker
Please check out the website ohanapackers.org. More blog posts are going up. I'm sure our writers will have a bunch of things to say. you know Carlos wrote this great article about why this game was super important for the Packers to win. And like I just went over, like Joe went over in the show. Thank God they decided to get serious for but one play at the end of the game to secure the win.
Community Engagement and Future Hopes
01:27:46
Speaker
Check out our merch, support us, support the channel, of support the initiatives that Joe's got going on with support or with a true appreciation and cancer awareness.
01:28:01
Speaker
Follow the podcast on your po on social media, ohana underscore packers on Twitter until it finally dies. of We will be making a blue sky account sooner than later, but it's not quite ready yet. Instagram, at ohana packers edition. And on Facebook, just ohana packers edition, you know, find the page, it's there. All of our new posts are getting announced, their podcast episode updates are getting posted on all those social medias, so keep it focused there to get of our updates. Please follow the podcast on your favorite podcasting apps, give us a like and a subscribe if you're enjoying it, and positive or negative comments, we want to hear it all to make the content you're looking for. The Packers, I can't stress this enough, they do the bare minimum to keep pace in the division and keep their keep their chances alive.
01:28:53
Speaker
it's got a pulse comment from the p that section back there
01:28:59
Speaker
oh the Packers stay, they keep their slim division hopes alive with this win over the Bears. Matt LaFleur extends his streak to 11 and 0 against the Bears. They pour one out in memory of Preston Smith's Packers career. they He was on the team that kept going, ah ah you know, that kept this undefeated streak going. But remember, at the end of the day, go, Pack, go. The Bears still suck, and
01:29:30
Speaker
The bear's still a sign