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NFL Week 6 Packers Cage Bengals
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Join us as we break down the Green Bay Packers’ impressive victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 6 of the NFL season. In this episode, we discuss the standout moments, key players, and strategies that led to the Packers' success.
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Transcript
Intro
Packers' Victory and Challenges
00:00:21
Speaker
Aloha and welcome back to another episode of the Ahana Packers Edition podcast. Joe, for the first time in over a month, the Packers have won a football game. I don't know what word you said. It wasn't quite a buzzword, but it was also a celebratory word.
00:00:37
Speaker
Right. What was it Harlan said? It was like 51 days since the last time the Packers had played in Lambeau. And of course, that also corresponds with the last time they actually won a game too. So...
00:00:50
Speaker
Yeah, that was crazy. We'll get into it as our usual segments. But overall, the first thing I want say is I get it. It was frustrating. It wasn't as clean or as pretty as any of us would have liked it to be.
00:01:04
Speaker
But honestly, This is like the NFL season is a weird like reversal of like, you know, the NCAA basketball tournament has the like catchphrase of survive and advance tied to it.
00:01:16
Speaker
Honestly, at this point of the season, the NFL season is survive and advance
Importance of Home Wins
00:01:20
Speaker
at this point. It's all about just racking up wins, trying to figure out who what your identity as a team is.
00:01:28
Speaker
Stay and or get healthy. And just like that's been the Packers problems the last two years is that, you know, they've they've won their opening game or no, they haven't won their opening, but they've, you know, they started the season off like.
00:01:44
Speaker
two and two, three and one, and then they've got it in the hole after that and stuff. you know, at the end of the season, they're climbing out of the hole to try and make the playoffs. So, like I said, we'll get into it. There's a couple of points that I know that we'll be touching on that we've been touching on for the past month. But overall, like, I'm not here to just like gaslight you about, you know, what, you know, how the game went or anything like that. But you should be happy that you're young. You know, this is still the youngest team in the NFL that they figured out how to win game that, you know, and like, you know, we brought it up in the preview episode.
00:02:20
Speaker
I hate big point spreads because, you know, Andy Herman kind of pointed this out in a bunch of his episodes on Packer Day this week where it's like the big point spreads, what it does is it makes any win,
00:02:33
Speaker
undesirable basically because it's like you win by 30 it's like okay great you were supposed to do that that team sucks if you barely win it's like oh you've got problems kind of thing and stuff and if you lose that's the main thing is like you didn't fucking blow it and you're still undefeated at home yes there's a lot of things to get better at but i will get into it but i stick by most of it should be improvable or correctable
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, like I was talking with Brian on our postgame show, it wasn't pretty,
LeFleur’s Coaching Concerns
00:03:06
Speaker
but it was a win. So we just got kind of happy with the fact that it was a win and it wasn't pretty.
00:03:12
Speaker
But, I mean, it does. It goes back to a lot of the same stuff that we've talked about for the last month when it comes to LeFleur and his team and a little bit with what's going weird with the half-lead defense.
00:03:28
Speaker
But, you know, overall it was a victory. It was a team that we were supposed to beat. So you can't ask for much more than that.
00:03:38
Speaker
Yep. Do you want to just go into our segments?
Matthew Golden’s Impact
00:03:46
Speaker
Sure. Fresh cheese.
00:03:50
Speaker
I'm going to take the first one because I got to talk about this. I'm going to be riding high with this kid until the wheels fall off just because of everything that happened and, you know, leading up to the draft. And, you know, I pretty much – I got to ride it because I called my shot on this kid, and that's Matthew Golden.
00:04:10
Speaker
I said it on the postgame show that the way he was moving around the field and when he had the ball in his hand, the way he was making his catches, he already looks like he is on tap to be that number one wide receiver.
00:04:26
Speaker
Somebody, I can't remember what account did it on the Elon machine, was passing something around leading up to this game that, well, will Golden just end up being another number two like we've, you know, in the long line of number twos that we have, or is he going to make himself actually the wide receiver one?
00:04:47
Speaker
And the way he was moving around today, especially once he had the ball in his hand, this kid's special. And I would have loved for him to be able to cap it off with a touchdown to get his first one of the season on tap.
00:05:04
Speaker
But what was it, 86 yards on five catches and then another Just three catches, five targets. Three catches, five targets.
00:05:14
Speaker
And then he had another 16 on the ground with two rushes. So I couldn't remember the catch when I was talking with Brian, but maybe you would know it a little bit better, but it was the one where he was like crossing the field and then he makes this like jump step and oh yeah it was just a hitch it was just a short hitch and yeah yeah yeah jump step and basically juke the defender out of his shoes and and took it for another five ten yards and
00:05:47
Speaker
I just couldn't believe how he was moving because that you would see out of like a Devontae or a Greg Jennings or somebody like that. Jennings is the one that came to mind.
00:05:57
Speaker
Yeah, for me. Yeah, they've been in the league for, you know, three, four years. But he's only in his sixth game or sixth week, fifth game.
00:06:11
Speaker
And just I'm really excited for him. I know the big thing is, is once we get Watson on the field, you know, how's the room going to look when that happens? You know, is Golden still going to be fighting for targets because of what Watson can bring? Or, you know, is he going to be able to continue to build on what he's already been doing?
00:06:34
Speaker
But, man, I'm really looking forward to seeing how this kid can turn out. Yeah, I mean – I always really liked Golden as a target too.
00:06:45
Speaker
My whole thing was was just never sure they were going to actually pick him at the spot you would have to take him to get him in the draft. And I mean, I'm so glad that they finally just picked the fucking receiver in the first round instead of trying to reinvent the wheel and getting way too cute with the pick. That's how you end up with a...
00:07:02
Speaker
jordan morgan uh eric stokes kind of pick where it's like i guess it's a need and you're kind of forcing it because you're holding these like oh we don't pick first round receivers and all that kind of stuff but like you said the the in a way kind of like the koi walker and devante wyatt pick a little bit too yeah you know I do, you know, we'll get back to those two are proving how important they are to this defense. But I agree. Like, I appreciate that. They just truly went best player on the board.
00:07:33
Speaker
And the biggest thing for Packers fans and, you know, everyone's seen the advanced stats about how he's like the best separator in the league and all that kind of stuff. But I think the most important thing is that he is making plays down the field it's not like it's not screen passes it's not like trick play you know like or gadgety plays or anything like yes he's getting reverses he's getting those swing passes and stuff but he's making his hay on like he's got the play against the cowboys last week he's got the hitch that he turned into a catch and run that you talked about and he's got the
00:08:10
Speaker
big the massive third down conversion when you know since he was trying to make the game more interesting than it deserved to be at that at that junction of the game but like i i think people don't appreciate recognize how like massive that impact is that he's making that kind of a direct impact on this offense this early and i know that he's a first-round pick and stuff but you know it's not like it's not like he's this like huge target or he's getting fed a bunch of throws and stuff like that like
00:08:46
Speaker
He's getting his impact sprinkled in
Jordan Love's Development
00:08:47
Speaker
during the game and stuff. You just have to really enjoy watching him play because it's just so important for this offense to get more playmakers in, especially if the O-line is going to continue to be a black spot on the team.
00:09:00
Speaker
But yeah, just got to really love seeing what we're getting out of Golden so far.
00:09:09
Speaker
And it's not like he was like a Calvin Johnson type, you know, top five draft pick. You know, was still bottom of the draft, which is nothing against, you know, wrong with him.
00:09:21
Speaker
but i i know where the knocks are on him right yeah he's not the biggest guy he's yeah the speed like does he play to the the and that's my thing too is like the 429 it's more of that it's it's that play it's that play on the hitch where it's like he just it's like a rubber band exploding when he breaks like when he makes a break in the open field He just like he snaps and he's gone kind of thing and stuff. And that's the kind of like you said, you know, it's it's Jennings like where he catches a hitch and it's like, oh, he just split two guys who had him dead to rights kind of thing. Like Jennings used to do that a bunch.
00:10:01
Speaker
What's it called? Golden did it on that play. You know, like Dobbs is really reliable. Wicks has been reliable to start this season, but they don't offer that kind of game breaking athleticism, you know, that elite change of direction and explosiveness skill.
00:10:15
Speaker
And That's the kind of stuff that's going to add an extra dimension to this offense. And it's an absolutely necessary thing to get him. You know, that's the thing, too, is, like, I see so many people that are, like, get his target share, his play share up and stuff. But on one hand, I do think he's picking up the playbook at a really good pace.
00:10:34
Speaker
But you also don't want to overload him to where he's not out there just playing. And, like, Jordan is a guy where... he's gonna throw the ball where someone's supposed to be kind of thing like he's just gonna lay it out there and he'll and and and i you know that's one of those things i really appreciate that he's not afraid to look stupid because like you know that was one of the things with rogers is it's like if this guy isn't running this route the exact way that not just how it's drawn on the board but the exact way i expect him to run it
00:11:06
Speaker
this fucker's not seeing the ball. Like, Aaron made it so clear that that's how the ship was run. I do appreciate that, you know, like, Jordan's not as good as Aaron was yet.
00:11:17
Speaker
He might, you know, he could elevate himself to that level. But especially where this team has a bunch of warts, potentially some flaws given on how much they're able to cover those things up, it's good that you have a guy that's just like, fuck it, let's roll the ball out and let's just see what's going to happen kind of thing. And You know, it's the whole you can't make shots you don't take kind of thing. It's that mindset. And, you know, it gets Jordan into trouble at times. But especially for a guy like Golden, I think LeFleur is trying to do the best job he can of like, let's
00:11:51
Speaker
get him as fully into the offensive system as possible. But also, we don't want him getting bogged down by like, oh, Matt, you did these four things really good, but you did these dozen things wrong kind thing and stuff. And so I'm really excited to see where it goes from here. Like, you just see the sky is the limit for him. And I know some people are bringing their hands over. They're like, oh, why is he the reverse guy? Why is Even though he's not the best at reading them all the time, that change of direction skill that you saw on the screen, I mean, you saw the one that he converted the second down into a first down where he cuts on a dime, shows off some decent contact balance, and just, you know, if he's 190, I'm 240, but...
00:12:36
Speaker
Like,
Josh Jacobs’ Performance
00:12:37
Speaker
it's just good to see the progression from Golden. So, like, going through. And I know everyone's like, oh, my God, when are they going to get him his first touchdown? All that kind of stuff. It's coming. Like, they've tried.
00:12:48
Speaker
they're going to keep trying. Like, they're going to get there, guys. Right. And that's what I said. I'm not. I mean, I want to see him. That would have been the capper for today's game, would have been to have him get his first touchdown.
00:13:02
Speaker
But it's not a make or break right now. He's doing what he needs to do to get the targets. So I'm good with It can come next week. I'll go the guy throwing him the ball. Jordan, yes, the one bonehead play that he can't seem to avoid per game.
00:13:19
Speaker
But, I mean –
00:13:22
Speaker
I'm not going excuse you. You can't throw interceptions in the red zone, but I get it. Like, you look at that hole drive, that hole drive, they're down there on the back, on his back. Like, he carried, he backpacked the team from the first play of the game through up till the interception. He got them down there.
00:13:40
Speaker
And you get into that third and five, it's not a good decision. understand what's probably going through his head where he's like, oh, great. Again, immediate pressure up the middle.
00:13:51
Speaker
I'm flushed, I gotta leave the pocket, no one's open, and... It's easy for everyone to say, like, just throw it away, you're turning the ball over to a guy who hasn't kicked in like two years played in the uf usfl and lambo isn't exactly the easiest place to kick a field goal so like i do hate when people equate it to it's so like cut and dry that like oh it's like no intercept i'm not here to say interceptions are good or fine or anything like that i'm not one of those people either
00:14:25
Speaker
But I do understand where he was And then after that throw, he fucking nails the rest of the game. Maybe he might have bailed a couple pockets early here and there, but the way that O-line was playing in the first half, it was not a good performance to start the day off.
00:14:42
Speaker
And time and again, he just answered the bell. I will go into my rant right now. So I'm seeing a lot of people criticize him for his decision to slide on the late second down, you know, the second down right before the two minute warning.
00:14:58
Speaker
Love's mistake there is sliding instead of diving. And there's three reasons for this. So one, he makes the correct decision to stay in bounds and keep the clock running because, okay, if he...
00:15:11
Speaker
Everyone's like, oh my god, there's so much room. There are three defenders there. And if he gets shoved out of bounds, one, the game is under five minutes, so the clock stops and doesn't start till the next snap.
00:15:22
Speaker
So you don't get to the two-minute warning or force Cincinnati to call timeout. That gets even worse if he doesn't get the first down, because then you might still end up short of the two-minute warning without getting a first down if you don't convert the third down.
00:15:38
Speaker
So that side of it, like I've seen so many people like, oh, he chickened out or he's not a winner because he slid. I'm like, no, that's
Lucas Van Ness' Injury
00:15:46
Speaker
the right football move to keep the clock rolling.
00:15:50
Speaker
The second part of it is if you dive, you don't get the whole like the play is marked where you start sliding. If you dive forward, you get the full extension.
00:16:00
Speaker
And then as long as he's protecting the football, the way the rule book works is that whole the quarterback giving up like any sort of a dive or when your elbow or knee touches the ground,
00:16:14
Speaker
that is a the play is dead at that point so as long as you have the ball at that point and you can just dive like flat and down like don't dive like don't superman dive up or anything like that but at least that way you you you maintain the the yardage you're trying to get you keep the ball in bounds and you're protecting it and stuff so and yeah everyone's like oh just run into the you know it's a corner i'm like The last thing he can do there is run into the corner who holds him up and a linebacker either concusses him or pulls the ball out.
00:16:45
Speaker
Like people look at it as like, oh, they didn't convert the third down. So it's a bad process. And I've seen people do the whole like, oh, that's what he did against Cleveland.
00:16:55
Speaker
And I'm like, Even the Cleveland one, no, I don't need my star quarterback taking on a fucking linebacker in the middle of the field. And like I said, this one too, especially because you're dealing with the variable of the sideline, you're dealing with, you know, you've got to make...
00:17:12
Speaker
Since he either call a timeout or use the two-minute warning, I still do not understand the concept of saving a timeout for after the two-minute warning. That part of coaching absolutely blows my mind. Like, I don't understand how we got there.
00:17:28
Speaker
I don't get LeFleur's obsession with the timeouts anyway because it's either we're going to waste them all we're going to save them all for when we don't need them. Yeah. But what's it called?
00:17:38
Speaker
I'm just kind of like – I'm totally fine with how he handled it there. And even the play after, know some people are like, take the sack. I'm like, no! Like, again, this kicker, he's had a good day to this point, but why are you going to make it harder on the kicker?
00:17:53
Speaker
Like, he made a safe throwaway. Like, yeah. Yeah. got his touchdown, ran the ball when the team needed him to.
00:18:05
Speaker
I thought he was really decisive in a lot of his reads. Ironically, I think a couple of the times I didn't
LeFleur’s Strategic Criticism
00:18:10
Speaker
like some of his reads was when he was throwing hitches to Romeo against Mann. Everyone knows I'm like the biggest Romeo Dobbs fan.
00:18:18
Speaker
That's not the route you need to be using Romeo Dobbs on. Like, he's, you know, you saw him hit Dobbs for the hitch against zone. That's the one you want because Dobbs will turn up field quick, secure the ball, all that kind stuff.
00:18:30
Speaker
But against Mann, it's like he's going to just try box the guy out. And you saw it both times where he looked like a center calling for a pass kind of thing where it's like, okay, like... I'm here.
00:18:41
Speaker
And then love isn't that kind of pinpoint accurate password. It's like, I'm going to throw it half a guy outside of him where it's going to take him away from the defender kind of thing and stuff. That's just not Jordan's game.
00:18:53
Speaker
And so, those are like the only like rough reads outside of the interception where I was like, okay, Jordan, like there's gotta be someone else. The one, uh, screen, the wide receiver screen that he tried to throw where,
00:19:07
Speaker
It was gobbled up like real quick. Right. And, you know, maybe you could have, you should have saw that, you know, in your pre-read.
00:19:17
Speaker
But, yeah, there's not, the interception was probably the worst thing out of them all. You know, maybe you should have overthrown it a little bit more, know, let Dobbs try to make a play on it instead of, know, throwing it short.
00:19:34
Speaker
I probably would have thrown it out and just, you know, if not give the kicker a try, then hell just go for it and shit like that. Because either way, if the kicker misses, they take over at that spot.
00:19:51
Speaker
You fail to convert, they take over at that spot. So whereas if you throw the interception... you don't know what's going to happen. You get no more chances at points. Like that's the thing is, yeah. Yeah.
00:20:04
Speaker
You're done trying to get points on that drive. Yeah. So it's just, I think I would have played a little bit different, but you know, obviously they don't pay me millions of dollars to play quarterback in the NFL.
00:20:17
Speaker
So I'm not out there making the decisions. I just see it on the TV. But I, like I said, that wide receiver scream really kind of bugged me because it's like, You can see the defender creeping up on it because he's read and it just gets blown to hell. So it's like, did you not make your pre-reads and were able to audible it? Or is LeFleur in your headset saying, stick with the play?
00:20:44
Speaker
Yeah, I think that was one more where I think Love kind of got tricked. I think he was like, oh, there's like too many guys in the box. I'm just going to wing it out there, you know. And yeah, I agree with you. Those are ones where get it. Your O-line's not blocking that well, but also like you've got one guy to block two out there. And...
00:21:04
Speaker
Like, those are the ones where it's kind of dead on arrival and stuff. And those are the ones where I do think either you got to just check to a totally different play or just hand it off to Jacobs and just be like, all right, Josh, like, just go run four people over and try and get me four yards kind of thing and live with it. So, yeah. Steal a soul, like mentioned in our merchandise over on shop.fourthwall.com.
00:21:29
Speaker
Yep. See, you got to get these in at some point. But yeah, I mean, Jordan had a hell of a game. And like you said, he was lights out once, you know, after the interception, there was really not any, you know, it's not like he had a multi-interception game like we probably would have seen in the past.
00:21:50
Speaker
And, you know, he really settled in. Again, there were some decisions. I know True North and The live stream said somebody needs to teach Jordan how to properly
Offensive Line Issues
00:22:01
Speaker
slide.
00:22:03
Speaker
And that, but think you just got to live with what you got and he's going to give you what he can. You're going to get at least one stupid mistake a game, but there's no such thing as a perfect quarterback.
00:22:19
Speaker
Because even Aaron Rodgers, for as good as he was in his prime, How many sacks did he take? How many throwaways did he have? Because he just didn't trust his wide receivers to make the play for him, so he didn't want to throw the ball.
00:22:36
Speaker
So you're going to have that kind of stuff. We've just been spoiled by Rodgers because it didn't seem like he was pulling stupid stunts. But when you actually sit down and think about it and rewatch some of that crap, it's like, why did you take the sacks?
00:22:53
Speaker
Why aren't you throwing the ball? Why aren't you doing this? So, you know, like I said, I wonder if it's Jordan not seeing some of this stuff or if he's got LeFleur telling him just stick with the script.
00:23:08
Speaker
Yeah. Like I said, it would be one thing if this O-line was perfect and all that kind of stuff. But with all the moving parts on this offense, I'm like, Jordan's doing more than enough to win these games. Like,
00:23:21
Speaker
That's my take on it is like he's carrying more than his fair share of the load. And I get it. He's your franchise quarterback. He's getting paid the big money, all that kind of stuff. But there's some guys who've got to start growing in the same direction on this team. And I'm going to leave it at that for now.
00:23:37
Speaker
Anyone else for fresh for you? Well, yeah, you got to throw Josh Jacobs in there because this is probably his best – game of the season so far. I mean, he's been good with what he can deal with.
00:23:48
Speaker
But like you were just saying with Jordan, with the offensive line that they've been putting out there, Josh hasn't really been able to get completely going.
00:23:58
Speaker
You can say the Dallas Cowboys game was probably his coming out game of the season. But I think this one really was because you saw what Josh Jacobs was really capable of when he had the openings to do it both with the ball and you know running the ball and catching the ball and you know what was it 80 93 yards on the ground and then he had another 57 through the air and two touchdowns so i mean this is what josh jacobs can be
00:24:38
Speaker
when he's given the opportune time. And then come to find out he's been sick. No, I didn't hear it. I just saw the tweets and stuff like that talking about how he was...
00:24:51
Speaker
talking about being sick after the game and nobody knew it leading up. So I don't know, was it like the flu or stomach bug or something? Probably like a flu kind of thing or something. Hopefully just like a 24-hour bug kind of thing because, you know, you don't want him flying cross-country with that sort of issue and stuff. But, yeah, he said like – Oh, and I was wired up and I had to puke before the game, during the game, after the game kind thing. And he made this comment about like, oh, like, I hope they cut that from the tape. And everyone's like, don't cut that from the tape.
00:25:22
Speaker
but no i i agree with you like you know he had the overall total counting stats against dallas last the the previous game but today was like a truly efficient explosive looking game which ironic because you know he was exploding from one end kind of thing and stuff but uh yeah like i mean explosive isn't the right word to use that situation But, like, his second touchdown run, he doesn't make that run, like, a couple weeks ago because he just hasn't looked that fresh and explosive. And, you know, he, like...
00:25:59
Speaker
I know that was probably like, that might have been the best blocked run play of the season for the Packers, but he sees that whole puts his foot in the ground and he's just gone kind of thing. And I know he gets some contact, but you're not, when he has
Defensive Strategy and Player Performance
00:26:11
Speaker
his head of steam up like that, you're not stopping Jacobs at that point. So, and then he throws that stiff arm out there and you definitely are stopping him. Yeah.
00:26:19
Speaker
And today is one of those games where that whole thing with him not having a receiving touchdown up until last season, and it's still only having the one is one of the most, weird stats in the NFL because he is a really underrated pass catching running back. Like,
00:26:36
Speaker
I know he had those couple of swing passes against Cleveland where like Jordan was just a little off and all that kind stuff. But some of the catches he made today, like he had the one down in the red zone where Jordan steps up in the pocket. It is like kind of like last second dart throwing the ball to him. And it comes out a little high and a little behind. And like the rule with throwing to running backs and tight ends is always like, don't make them work for it. Like put it on them and like just let them catch it and go kind of thing.
00:27:04
Speaker
And he went and kind of like had to snag it up and behind him kind of thing. And he was able to bring it down and turn up field and get first and goal, you know, set up his first touchdown run. So it's just a really good sign. And it's just so important for this team.
00:27:21
Speaker
And, you know, you saw it on... That one, was it a third or the fourth down where they do the bootleg and the ball is definitely supposed to go to Jacobs. And instead, since he's like, oh, fuck, and they put like three defenders on him.
00:27:32
Speaker
And so Jordan goes and cuts upfield and gets the first down with his legs and stuff. So, Getting Jacobs active in both phases really important. I know some people had some stuff to say about Wilson getting a few carries.
00:27:47
Speaker
Jacobs can't get 25 to 30 carries every game. That just doesn't work in the modern NFL. Unless... Unless you start playing like the Flores tried to tell us they play with, you know, all gas, no fucking break or wake up with your piss. Right.
00:28:04
Speaker
If they start scoring, you know, 40 to 50 points a game. then you can start giving him you know 20 to 25 carries a game yeah so and i know a lot of people are going to say like he had 23 touches catching receptions and carries are not the same like the the toll they take on your body is a lot different when you have four guys hitting you and tackling you versus like one guy who's like just kind of shoving you out the sideline kind of thing so yeah it's a totally different thing
00:28:38
Speaker
Any honorable mentions or anything like that you got? Well, I had to look it up because I guess I didn't realize he went out with an injury at some point. But Lucas Van Ness, he had the lone sack for the game. I guess it's a foot injury. They said he didn't break anything so far. So, you know, that's obviously a good sign.
00:28:58
Speaker
It's probably going to come back and be foot sprain kind of thing. Or what's the one? Not a list, Frank. The plantar fasciitis. Oh, maybe.
00:29:09
Speaker
Which sucks. Yeah. And because they're thinking he's going to get an MRI tomorrow, but they're thinking it's more a soft tissue, and that would be a little bit what phantomplastitis is, is more of your soft tissue than anything. But...
00:29:29
Speaker
I thought he looked really good. Like I said, he had the lone sack of the game. In the run game, he was in the pile. He was continuously in amongst the group.
00:29:41
Speaker
I guess you can throw that in there as a total. They were swarming again, which was really looking good on defense. It wasn't just one guy making a tackle. It was a group of them.
00:29:51
Speaker
And so, you know, Lucas has really turned it around. So here's hoping it's not anything too major with the foot. And, you know, if he has to miss time, it won't be too much time.
00:30:03
Speaker
The only thing that sucks about it are there's rumors that Enigbare could be on the trade block. Well, now those trade rumors may be out the window if Lucas misses any significant time. Because If he doesn't, then they have enough depth there, plus Britton Cox coming back.
00:30:26
Speaker
If he misses time, then your depth isn't quite there anymore. So, you know, here's to hoping, you know, knock on wood, it's nothing too major.
00:30:37
Speaker
And, you know, if he has to miss a game, miss a game. But, you know, hopefully he's back out there soon. Yeah, it's one of the, like the Enigbari stuff, I throw it almost into the same bin as the Dobbs stuff where it's kind of like, I just don't see the value in trading him unless you're getting like a corner that can actually play this season for you or maybe an O-lineman, but
Officiating Concerns
00:31:00
Speaker
who's really trading that kind of piece for a piece in the season?
00:31:04
Speaker
It would be nice if it happens. But, yeah, the main point is whatever happens, I just want Lucas to be healthy because he's played really well this season. He's about second to last or last on my list for the guy who gets a sack by timing the snap.
00:31:19
Speaker
Like, he he's, like – That was potentially the best use of his athleticism I've ever seen him have as a pro where you can see him watching the ball.
00:31:32
Speaker
And when he sees that thing start to move, he's already going into submarine mode to get under Orlando Brown because he's like, I know that I've got this guy. And if I can just get under him,
00:31:44
Speaker
I got it. Like it's, it's toast kind of thing and stuff, man. think that's a bit of the Micah effect that Micah, because since Parsons has joined the Packers, he's raved about Lucas Van Ness.
00:31:56
Speaker
So I'm wondering if that's a lot to do with Micah kind of taking him under his wing and saying, Hey kid, you've, I guess not kid. Cause they're, they're relatively around the same age. I think Mike is not too much older than him.
00:32:11
Speaker
But, you know, hey, Lucas, you've got the ability. I see it in you. Let's just let's work on this together. And, you know, if you don't have any more, we can move into our next segment here in a minute. I do want to talk a little bit about something. But with the Enigbare stuff, I view it similar to the Rizul Douglas thing where,
00:32:36
Speaker
He's only got half a year left on his contract. He's getting kind of eaten up with the depth chart. Brenton Cox is on his... Theoretically, we're hitting that spot where Cox can come back off of the IR.
00:32:56
Speaker
Does he really have a... And he's really not been contributing as much this year. So it's like if I got a team saying, hey, we'll give you a fourth round pick for them, you just flipped a fifth rounder for a fourth rounder.
00:33:14
Speaker
So, I mean, like I said, depending the Lucas injury, I would consider it.
00:33:24
Speaker
Now, I would ship them more to the Jaguars than I would the but Because if the 49ers make any kind of run, there's a chance that you meet them up in the playoffs. And I don't want to play, you know, I don't want to see the story being the Enigbare revenge game by any means.
00:33:43
Speaker
But, you know, like I said, if you've got a team offering you something decent, like, you know, with Rizul, it was they're offering you a third round pick. I think you go for it, especially considering you don't have first round picks for the next two years.
00:34:01
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Like you said, it's something you've got to consider because, yeah, your hands are tied in terms of what you're able to do moving forward. But, yeah, I think that kind of does it for our- And one more thing, just to kind of cap it off because it just popped in my mind.
00:34:18
Speaker
If he leaves at the end of the season as a free agent, Most likely the fourth round pick that if somebody offers you a fourth round pick is gonna be higher than the comp pick that you're gonna get Oh, yeah So that's why I'm saying that you know somebody's sitting there offering me a hell if somebody offers me a third round pick We're doing the trade tomorrow But so yeah, okay, we can move on let me hit the button What's this deal shit?
00:34:45
Speaker
So since I went first, I'll let you go first on this one because I don't think going happy with me with my next one. So my main still one for today is lafleur i'm gonna not bag on him totally because one drive in this game got me aroused but overall it was another first half where he kind of like almost looked like he was panicking in a sense where it's like oh no my o-line isn't doing anything and i like you could tell he was like you know it's it's the it's the video of like a chef who's got too many burners on and like food is starting to like
00:35:22
Speaker
like get get burnt and stuff and you might be setting the fire alarm off and all and did not like him punting on fourth and five at the end of the half like i feel like that's one of those opportunities where you've got all the momentum and like i know everyone's gonna say like well look Cincinnati missed the 67-yard field goal, blah, blah, blah.
00:35:45
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, but also look at it. You did all that to avoid giving up points, and they still marched it right down to get into field goal range with limited time. Like, you gained, what, 30 yards of field, 40 yards of field position, and it didn't mean shit. So that's just my attitude. And also the only reason that they missed the 67-yarder was because he luckily was able to get the timeout called in time.
00:36:11
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. If he didn't, that was good. It bounced off the upright and went over. It was good. It was going to be a record field goal. Yep. So, alas, you know.
00:36:24
Speaker
And I completely agree. That's what I keep saying. You know, I know this is a win. It was a team the Packers were supposed to beat and all that stuff.
00:36:35
Speaker
But there were a ton of points left on the field. And you never want to see points left on the field. It's kind of like – I know you guys were kind of roasting me in our group chat yesterday because I had went off on the Kirk Ferentz Iowa Hawkeyes, even though the Hawkeyes – and I know Wisconsinites, plug your ears – the Hawkeyes decimated the Badgers.
00:36:57
Speaker
But it was the same old shit that – it's like you guys could have won like 73 nothing.
Team Performance and Special Teams
00:37:06
Speaker
But you left so many points on the board.
00:37:08
Speaker
You went back to your same old shit to, you know, with the Packers. It was in the third quarter. Now all a sudden the defense – or not the third quarter, the fourth quarter.
00:37:19
Speaker
Now all a sudden the defense doesn't want to play football. In the – like you said, it seemed like the last part of the first half and the first part of the second half, the offense didn't want to play football.
00:37:34
Speaker
So it just, you know, there were so many other things that they could have done. This could have easily been another game where it could have been 43 to not or 42 to nothing or 42 to seven or something like that.
00:37:50
Speaker
But he let off the gas and he, he turtled, you know, kind of joke, cause that's what Kiwano and his kids are going as for Halloween, you know, they turtled. And so it just,
00:38:03
Speaker
I don't know. We got the win. I guess you can consider us nitpicking, but it's going to hurt when it comes to games coming up like the Steelers, the Eagles, the Vikings, those types of teams because you can't just leave points out on the field and expect to win those games.
00:38:28
Speaker
And yeah, and like, I understand the O-line has been kind of a tire fire and stuff, but like, you've got to know that that's your problem. Like, that's the thing that's frustrating is like, as like I said, I would understand if the O-line was really good and then all these injuries happened like today and then it's LeFleur going, oh shit, like, how do I, you know, like, okay, I've got to like change everything up on the fly. It's like, you've known for two weeks that your O-line has struggled and has issues.
00:39:00
Speaker
You've got three guys who have injury designations coming into the game who, you know, Tom didn't start this game off very well. I didn't think Walker was very good at all today. And like Tom- I said it on the Elon machine that I'm wondering if the quad and the oblique were- bothering them more because neither one of them were playing up to top.
00:39:23
Speaker
Tom looked better as the game went on, but early on, he looked... I'm going say he looked horrible, honestly. He couldn't move. He looked like he was either... saving himself or just like could you remember hidrickson went out of the game at a certain point right and that's the other thing is like is like all the success of the second half is really good but the one guy that you're like that's the guy to watch out for he was gone kind of thing We'll go into it a little more with Arizona. Arizona doesn't have a great defensive front or anything.
00:39:55
Speaker
So this is, again, another week of like, if they have problems, is it time to worry and stuff like that? But it's only stale because they did...
00:40:06
Speaker
get the run game going in the second half. You know, Jacobs had a healthy five and a half yards per carry. You know, overall as a team, you averaged 4.6 and that's including Love's like two kneel downs in the game and stuff.
00:40:21
Speaker
And that last touchdown drive where you go back up 24 to 10,
00:40:27
Speaker
Finally, we saw a drive that was fueled where every play on the drive had a run look to it. And that is the part that I'm like, that's the offense. Like, that's what it's supposed to be.
00:40:40
Speaker
I know that it definitely works way better from under center than in the gun, even with the whirly bird and all that kind of shit. But that drive where Cincinnati has gotten back in it and is kind of getting traction and stuff,
00:40:54
Speaker
To go and just say, okay, we're going to play action, play action, run the ball, play action, run the ball, play action, touchdown Tucker Kraft kind of thing. Like that's the kind of stuff where you just haven't seen LeFleur do that in, you know, part of it was Love was injured last year and, you know, all that kind of stuff. But,
00:41:17
Speaker
I like that is one of those where I'm like, OK, like that's what's that's what's boosting the grade for me. It's like and and it's a little bit back to the like when they had to score, they were able to put together some dry, you know, like, you know, we'll worry about the defense. You know, we'll talk about the stuff that was plaguing the defense in the second half. But.
00:41:38
Speaker
The offense also was scoring on every drive in the second half, so LeFleur gets some hay for that. But it shouldn't take you a whole half to get your shit figured out. When you come in off a bye knowing what your issues are, it shouldn't be a surprise that, oh, we're struggling to, you know, Tom isn't moving. Zach Tom isn't moving very well.
00:41:59
Speaker
Rasheed's not moving very well. Like, it... the range isn't moving very well yeah the concern i have there is like okay and i've seen a lot of people that like jordan morgan took the right guard spot from from from sean wright i'm like what if rashid is hurt or gets aggravates his injury further now what are you doing at left tackle and at right guard like that that's the part that i'm like Like, you know, I shut my eyes and, you know, shut and roll my eyes and kind of exhale deeply. And like, I just don't know what the plan is kind of thing. But, you know, that's where I lose patience, sleep, whatever and stuff is because I'm like, those are the questions that really need to be answered.
00:42:47
Speaker
You know, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Morgan in at right guard was the difference. You know, his play over Ryan was the difference in this game being a win and a loss. I can't say that right now.
00:43:01
Speaker
But to me, it's like, I just don't know what the point is. Like, that's the part where I'm a little, not a little, I'm a lot concerned about where the direction of this team is. Because like I said, if Walker turns the wrong way and that quad like rips on him, it's like, well, now what the fuck?
00:43:19
Speaker
Like that. So like I said, you won the game. did manage you know he used his timeouts well you know called the timeout on evan mcsperson what's it called he would and then you know i think there was a couple situations where he did call some good timeouts on defense where it looked like green bay was a little scrambled in the second half so i think one of them was on the final drive right before sin city was about to kick a field goal and stuff so you know
00:43:49
Speaker
overall game I think that was the only weird one was that they had just come out of the two minute warning and he wasted a time out and to me that's not wasting it because I'm like okay if you saw something that that you know tic-tac-toe checkmates your play that you've called, you've got to call the timeout there. Like, like that.
00:44:10
Speaker
And I saw some people like, oh, but I'm like, that wasn't a case of like, they look confused or anything. That looked like a case of like LaFleur looking at like, this is fucked. Like, I know the play they eventually ran didn't work as well, but to me, the people that are aching over that timeout after the two-minute warning, I'm like, no, that's exactly why with the lead you should have all your timeouts is so that in a game-crucial moment, you can be like, wait, wait, like, let's talk this one over again. This one's not passing the smell test for us.
00:44:43
Speaker
What's your stale? So now don't hate me for this.
00:44:52
Speaker
I've got to say it's for Sean Gary. And the reason I'm going to say that is because we all know what's going on with Micah.
00:45:03
Speaker
Micah's being disruptive. Micah's getting double teamed. Micah's take, you know, there were more calls today that weren't called because of holding and stuff like that.
00:45:14
Speaker
I can't fully give the refs too hard of a time because they kept the flag in their pocket for the majority of the game unless it was like majorly egregious or, you know, it was, you know, very visible. But Rashawn looks slow today.
00:45:35
Speaker
And I mean slower than normal on certain plays. And he's outside of like the first two weeks where he got the majority of his sacks.
00:45:46
Speaker
He's not really taking advantage of Micah being on the opposite side of him. And that's the only reason it's stale right now. If it continues on, especially when Wyatt comes back or, you know, they get the D-line figured out or whatever,
00:46:04
Speaker
then it's going to be a little bit more concerning. But it's still right now just because, like I said, it just seemed like he was slower than normal today. He wasn't taking advantage of, you know, there towards the end, Mims went out.
00:46:18
Speaker
Well, he didn't take advantage of having, you know, – I don't want to call him a rookie because he's not a rookie, but a cold guy. You know, this would be like putting in a reliever without warming him up any – And he wasn't taking advantage of that. I don't know. Did he have any pressures today?
00:46:40
Speaker
He had at least two. Well, it's going to depend on how each site grades pressures and all that kind of stuff. He had the one where he's very clearly in Flacco's face. And Flacco just throws a dirt ball. I can't remember if it was a broken screen or if it was one of the ones where he just threw it at a guy's feet.
00:46:56
Speaker
We'll have a talk about that later. And then... He had one where he got the edge, and it wasn't like he tried to speed, speed rush, but it's like the only angle he had was to take the edge, and he got it, but there was no interior pressure, so Flacco kind of just stepped up a half step kind of thing.
00:47:14
Speaker
I agree. Okay, so I'll start this with saying, in a sense, I agree. I do agree that Rashawn should be doing more. I'm not going to just sit here and say, like, it's all because of scheme or what the other team is doing and stuff. Because, yes, like you said, we saw a lot. You know, he was leading the NFL in sacks two weeks ago or two games ago.
00:47:32
Speaker
And he could definitely do better. Like, you don't, he didn't accident into four and a half sacks over the first three games. Like, or the first, yeah, the first three games. That's not the case.
00:47:42
Speaker
That said, I agree, like, you keeping it in the stale is because, like, there's a lot more dominoes happening than just Rashawn's doing nothing. Part of it is, and it's something that I've gone into on Twitter, is, like,
00:47:58
Speaker
What's it? Like, Halfley at some point, and I understand not wanting to do this against the Bengals receivers, but at some point, Halfley is going to have to understand that the corners you've got are the corners you've got.
00:48:10
Speaker
And you're going to, like, you have this pass rush, but what have we seen from every team the past three weeks? is they get into the second half of these games and the pro style offense goes out the fucking window everything is a three-step drop or a screen pass or it's dac like playing like a fucking mvp and throwing it off his back foot and letting the football gods put the ball in his receiver's hands kind of thing so Halfley's got to understand, like, okay, if you keep playing soft coverage, umbrella coverage, and allowing these quarterbacks relief valve options, your pass rush is never getting home.
00:48:52
Speaker
So that's one side of it. The other side of it is the shit we were grilling LeFleur for after the last game. It's like... Part of it is Rashawn is your strong side end.
00:49:06
Speaker
You know, like, there's no dispute between if the two starters are Rashawn and Parsons. Rashawn's your strong side end. Parsons is your weak side end. Rashawn, I understand that everyone's like, oh, but Parsons is seeing the double teams on pass plays.
00:49:20
Speaker
Rashawn still has to read out his run responsibilities. He has set some good edges in the run game. And if they're, you know, Teams are like, they're, you know, he's on the strong side. So when, when they load up for a run play, it's like, okay, I've got to check for a puller, check for this, set the edge and all that kind of stuff. You know, that's the other thing.
00:49:39
Speaker
Like I would be a different kind of upset at Rashawn if, we're always up 17 or more, and he's just not doing anything as a pass rusher.
00:49:49
Speaker
But it's kind of like the old line where I'm like, OK, we haven't seen this team get to play a truly the other team is in a pass only situation. And on top of it, it's like they're playing, call it bullshit college offense stuff where like everything is a three-step drop and out. Like the Jamar Chase touchdown, I don't know if Flacco dropped on that play.
00:50:12
Speaker
He just got the shotgun snap and was like, fuck it, he's down there somewhere. And like I said, I understand where Halfley's coming from that it's like, okay, like, I can't just let these guys get eaten alive by this receiving core.
00:50:27
Speaker
We've got to get a win here. You know, all that kind of stuff. But when you get against the better teams on the schedule, there's going to be matchups and your ace in the hole is your pass rush and you can't let it die because...
00:50:43
Speaker
The quarterback is getting the ball out in three seconds or less. Flacco, everything was out in a flash. Rodgers in two weeks, he's like leading the league by half a second in terms of shortest time to throw or some shit like that.
00:50:55
Speaker
So Halfley's gonna have to make some decisions in that area. But suffice it to say, as much as I'm like... I'm not blowing the horn yet or anything like that.
00:51:06
Speaker
I do need more from Rashawn. I agree with you. Like, you know, you can't go, you can't be getting paid what you have the guy across from you that you got and not have a impact play in a while kind of thing.
00:51:17
Speaker
Like I was hoping basically what I'm saying. That's why I have it the stale right now is he's, he's not giving us what we need because of the guys that, you know,
00:51:29
Speaker
I could understand if he didn't have Micah Parsons on the other side, you know, and he was struggling a little bit because then he's the premier pass rusher on the team that people are going to double team and all that good stuff.
00:51:43
Speaker
But he's still playing like he doesn't have that premier guy on the other side. He's still showing that thing. And I understand what you're saying about, you know, he's got all this other shit that he's got to do. But, you know, when he was going, like there was one,
00:51:59
Speaker
And I couldn't tell you what point in the game it was, but he was clearly going after the quarterback, and he just kept doing the shuffle feet, shuffle feet, shuffle feet.
00:52:11
Speaker
And it's like, why aren't you driving on the guy? Right, and that's one of those... get that if, like, you're using him to contain the pocket against a Jaden Daniels or something like that.
00:52:22
Speaker
But this Joe Flacco who, like, made it very clear, like, boys, I don't want to get hit today. Like, he made it... Completely obvious early in the game, like, every ball is going two feet in the dirt in front of my receiver if I'm not seeing what I want to see kind of thing.
00:52:37
Speaker
And so, yeah, you're right. And it's not like he was getting blocked by a tight end either on those plays. So I don't have anything, you know... Like I said, those are the ones where I agree. I totally agree with you. I need more.
00:52:51
Speaker
Like, I need more from my number two, 1A, whatever you want to, you know, whatever you want to call yourself, Rashawn, I need more. And I thought we had kind of gotten past this a little bit because the Cleveland game, he has the two loud sacks.
00:53:06
Speaker
in the first half of that game. And we haven't seen many impact plays. He's had a couple of TFL or run stop kind of things. But it's like, we need more impact in the pass game.
00:53:18
Speaker
And ESPN did credit him with two QB hits today. Yeah. Like I said, he definitely had the one where Flacco was like, like, you know, Rashawn was doing the thing where he had both hands up as he runs at him kind of thing.
00:53:35
Speaker
And you can tell like, so there was definitely that one. And I think there was that there's another one where he kind of got there a little late and stuff. But yeah, it's one of those where it's like, we do need more. We do need more from you, big guy.
00:53:48
Speaker
So yeah, that's my stale. Do you got any other ones that you want to? I agree with you that they were still, they're still, they rallied better to tackles this week than they did the previous, but I think they're in this like weird, this weird like twilight zone of where they're like,
00:54:11
Speaker
sacrificing the just getting guys to the ground to try and hold guys up to punch at the ball. And I'm like, no, like get the tackle first. If you Charles Woodson or Charles Tillman, the guy on the way down, that's great.
00:54:25
Speaker
But like the play that kicked off Cincinnati's second half scoring barrage, is a third and two that gets stuffed in the backfield. And then you have three Packers on the running back.
00:54:37
Speaker
And then for whatever reason, none of them is like, let me cut the guy's legs out. They're all like, oh, let's go get the ball. And then the fucking right guard comes in and jumps on the pile and pushes it forward and stuff.
00:54:49
Speaker
that's another one where you're marking for later. Like I've got some problems with this ref crew in terms of their game control. There were some glaring deficiencies, but I feel like don't even know how to qualify what I'm,
00:55:03
Speaker
concerned about with the tackling. Like I said, I agree with you. It's good to see that they're gang tackling again, unlike the Dallas game and parts like the late parts of the Cleveland game where you can tell they got tired.
00:55:15
Speaker
But there was just something about it where it's like, you do know that the initial point is to get the guy on the ground as fast as you can kind of thing. And I worry that Halfley's comments about like, oh yeah, we have to create more takeover opportunities and, you know, force fumbles is one of them and the Packers are the only team without a force fumble and all that kind shit.
00:55:37
Speaker
The only way this defense gets screwed is if it gets stuck on the field for too long. And when you have plays like that third and two where you could have got the guy, should have got the guy down for a loss or a stop, and you hold him up to try and rip the ball and end up giving up a first down, it's like, no, you guys lost the plot. Get off the fucking field.
00:55:58
Speaker
I don't care that it's not a turnover. Like, you've got fourth in – it's fourth down, and they're not going for it at that point of the field. Yeah, I mean, like I said, there's warts all over this game. But it was just, like I said, good to see them get back to the rally.
00:56:16
Speaker
And every, you know, I think that's the one good thing Halfley's brought from the college ranks was, yes, this isn't a single person tackle. You need to be at that ball.
00:56:28
Speaker
I don't care if you're a defensive back. I don't care if you're D lineman. I don't care what you are that we need group people, know, a meeting at that, the ball carrier.
00:56:39
Speaker
So, yes, there, there are some issues with it, but I'm glad that they're making their way back to that.
00:56:45
Speaker
Did you have any other ones that you wanted to go stale? No, I think that's it. I have one that... We're going go ahead and jump into the stinky because it can go in or moldy. It can go in both.
00:56:58
Speaker
It's a moldy cheese. And it's kind of a mixture of people, groups, whatever. It's like you were mentioning with Halfley's like soft zone coverage on top of our corners doing nothing but chirping.
00:57:16
Speaker
And, you know, I understand you want to have that attitude with it. And it's good. You know, it's fun to see them chirp when they have a successful play.
00:57:27
Speaker
But don't be chirping on one play and then get blown up the next play. Well, and then like the one that really stands out to me is, you know, Carrington Valentine makes a really nice play on the final Bengals scoring drive where, you he breaks up kind of like, like I said, one of Flacco's fadeaway throws where he's like, I don't want to get hit kind of thing.
00:57:47
Speaker
But it's like he starts celebrating and the ball is still floating in there. He's like, dude, go get the ball. Like, you can celebrate. He's kind of the main one that I was talking about because he makes a play on the ball.
00:58:00
Speaker
And even the announcers said it like he saw that he was going to probably get nailed with a... Trent Green was great today. mean, Harlan is always excellent, but Trent Green was excellent today.
00:58:13
Speaker
And you could see it where he was going to start celebrating over, think it was Chase, and then he turned and started celebrating down the sideline instead because he knew would have got a flag for taunting.
00:58:25
Speaker
But then it was like a player two later, he's the one that gave up a big catch. It's like, I get all for celebrations, all for chirping, all for running your mouth, but make sure you're consistent out on the field before you do it.
00:58:40
Speaker
Yep. And that's why... That's why I said it can either go in the stale or it can be in the moldy just because how it plays out. And then one of the other ones for me that was borderline like, oh my God, it was in the first half and Flacco throws up like a duck, but it's like a deep duck. And Higgins, I think luckily the refs correctly deemed the ball was uncatchable.
00:59:05
Speaker
But Nixon goes and shoves Higgins in the chest as the ball soars over their head. And I'm like, why even invite the chance that the ref could be like, that's DPI kind of thing.
00:59:16
Speaker
And it's just one of those like, dumbass, like read the room kind of thing. And I agree with you. Like, like, yeah.
00:59:26
Speaker
Like I said, the pass rush by the advanced stats, and I've seen a lot of people be like, they're getting pressures, but it doesn't matter because it doesn't mean anything. I'm like, to me, this is a 60-40, 70-30 problem on the secondary.
00:59:40
Speaker
Because every time these guys are a split second away from making a game-changing play, the ball's coming out, whether it's because someone is just wide open or, like I said, Dak just having a...
00:59:51
Speaker
on one MVP night kind game on Sunday night football before the bye week. So like, yeah, to me, this is more of a secondary coaching philosophy, decision-making process.
01:00:05
Speaker
And that's the thing too, is like, you can still play to shell and, To me, my personal opinion on it is they should be as aggressive in coverage as possible because of the two safeties that you, the coverage ability, especially of Xavier McKinney, but Evan has been pretty solid in coverage.
01:00:25
Speaker
And your pass rush, if you give them any extra split second to make a play, they're going to eat offensive lines up. So, and I agree with you. Like, it is the whole, like, the, you know, the stereotypical, the Chihuahua and the Mastiff. And it's like, the Mastiff's the one doing all the heavy lifting and the Chihuahua's always the little, the loud yappy one kind of thing. And it's like,
01:00:49
Speaker
none of you are making the plays because you're just an elite elite cover guy at least you haven't proven to be yet kind of thing so like like you said i totally agree it's it's it's stale moldy border let it i'll let it lean more stale because it didn't cost them today but there were multiple instances where you're kind of like Yeah. And actually I lean it towards a little bit more moldy just because of the half way play call with them being on, know, soft zone coverage.
01:01:24
Speaker
And put this out there on the post game show with Brian that it's weird because he was kind of trashing on Carrington. And I know there's probably people on, on the Elon machine and stuff like that are trashing on Carrington.
01:01:42
Speaker
But you've got guys that are more press man coverage guys, and you're putting them in soft zone. It's kind of the similar thing like they did with Josh Jackson, know, the opposite way, where Josh Jackson was a better soft zone corner, and they were trying to make him a press man corner.
01:02:06
Speaker
And it's kind of that balance right there that's like, I think Carrington is a very good corner if you put him in the right situation. I think Nixon, as much as I don't think he's a true number one corner, can be a solid corner if you put him in the right situation.
01:02:23
Speaker
And the soft zone is not their situation. You know, people were ripping on him on the sequence that led up to the Jamar Chase touchdown.
01:02:32
Speaker
If that's any other receiver that's not at least Justin Jefferson, he's probably got a couple pass breakups and maybe an interception out of that sequence kind of thing.
01:02:43
Speaker
And yeah, I think, you know, I have such a hard time with it because I'm like, On one hand, I don't expect more out of the corners because I kind of like... It's a B-C plus room.
01:03:01
Speaker
And any resistance is good resistance out of that unit. But at the same time, it's like where you're getting at, it's like, don't make the dumb back-breaking mistakes.
01:03:11
Speaker
Don't make stupid penalties that cost your team. Don't... Don't leave meat on the bone because you're too busy celebrating. Don't get burnt right after you make the one nice play you're going to have again.
01:03:26
Speaker
I agree with you. So, yeah, I'm in total agreement with you there. Like I said, I think it's just the whole I've had such like less than lukewarm expectations for this corner room that I'm like, eh, all that kind of stuff. We need Asante Samuel Jr. You know that, right?
01:03:45
Speaker
he might have the same neck fusions you've got at this point. So what you got for a moldy? Okay, so Brad Allen's crew.
01:03:56
Speaker
I'm not even going to get into the whole how many times was Micah held, all that kind of stuff. I've just accepted, especially talking to a lot of Cowboys fans, Micah's going to get held relentlessly, and it's up to the other guys to make something. Micah's still going to make his dozen plays a season kind of thing, so everyone else has to pull their own weight.
01:04:14
Speaker
So first off, Evan McPherson shouldn't have even had a fucking chance to kick the 67-yard field goal because why are you reviewing Jacobs going in or being tackled in or out of bounds so fucking late in the play clock?
01:04:30
Speaker
They let like 30 seconds tick off before someone in their goddamn brilliance in New York is like, let's take a look at this. And you can see LaFleur is pissed.
01:04:40
Speaker
And he's like... What's happening? And I think he got even more pissed because the Packers had a situation where I believe it was 2019 where Jimmy Graham got tackled and it looked like he went out of bounds, but they were like, oh, he fumbled it. So it's inbounds and the clock should run and stuff.
01:05:00
Speaker
And I think LaFleur is like, so are you going to give me a 10 second runoff? And they were like, no. And I think LaFleur is like, then what the fuck are we doing here? Because he's very clearly tackled inbounds.
01:05:11
Speaker
And I say that because if you look at the mechanics of how they handle it after that play, LeFleur was probably going to run the clock down on that sequence. They were doing their usual, like, get to the line of scrimmage, read out the play, all that kind of stuff.
01:05:25
Speaker
I'm sure LeFleur had a play in momentum right after Jacobs picks up five yards. It's like, let's go right into this next play and stuff. all those kind of things and lefleur is rightfully absolutely livid with al like the referee like so i get nothing out of this like and like i said it'd be one thing if it was even close it was not close at all like jacobs doesn't nothing touches out of bounds until he's very clearly down in bounds and so like i said how does that why am i so upset about it because
01:05:58
Speaker
You flash forward and the Bengals are snapping and spiking the ball with somehow one second left on the clock. First off, I think it's absolute horseshit that they put the second back on the clock.
01:06:12
Speaker
I don't think they even got the snap for the spike off with a second left on the clock. Like, that's how slow I thought the Bengals operation was there. But to me, that whole, no, we're definitely putting a second back on, like, screw you, Brad.
01:06:26
Speaker
Like, no, that's absolute horseshit to pull that move on our drive and then to be like, nah, put a second back on the clock. It's like, no, that second don't fucking exist anymore. And then you have, Just some...
01:06:41
Speaker
Weird. Okay. And then, like said, controlling the pace of the game. So the third down play we referenced earlier where Green Bay has the play stacked up. And then they're like, you know, I know that they had mic issues and you couldn't really hear the whistle at any point of this game.
01:06:58
Speaker
But they just let that third down play go. And that play was stoned. Like the running back was not going anywhere. Forward progress be damned. And they're like, I wonder if my dinner reservation... Oh, shit, the play's still going. Oh, look, he's moving forward now, kind of thing. And it's like, dude, he was stoned. And...
01:07:18
Speaker
I... So this isn't even a matter of, like, you're fine with it when it works out in Green Bay. No. When... The ones that Green Bay gets are where it's a mush the whole time through.
01:07:30
Speaker
The pile is creeping forward no matter what kind of thing. That one was dead in the water... And then you're like, oh, let's see if something happens here kind of thing. It's like, dude, like call the play there.
01:07:44
Speaker
You what's really stupid about it is the NFL has this really bad habit of, oh, we'll let the boundaries be pushed. But when someone suffers a fucking catastrophic leg injury, oh, my God, point of emphasis, we're going to change it.
01:07:57
Speaker
And. flash it forward later in the game. The Packers string out a swing pass or a sweep play, and Chase Brown is dead to right stuffed. And they're letting him do the thing where he's, like, kind of hopping on a leg as two guys have his other leg in the pile.
01:08:13
Speaker
And it's, like... What are you doing? Like, there's no forward progress. Blow the play dead. And that's why see people that are like, oh, Hopper's whistle was soft.
01:08:23
Speaker
No, like, there's three refs in his face blowing the whistle, but also at the same time, it's the whole, I hate when refs can't control a game and then they get flustered and upset that players are pushing the boundary and they're like, we'll start throwing more flags or we'll start carving more files. It's like, no, you guys failed at your job in the first place.
01:08:46
Speaker
And then you're like, oh, we're going to paper mache over it to make it look better. Like, no, do your job correctly in the first goddamn place. So yeah. like there was one that noticed that i was like how did you not throw the flag on that and it was it was the one where they got to the like the the it was on a browns or the browns bingles scoring drive and they got to like the half yard line and then they got the penalty that pulled them back and then they were able to push forward a little bit further towards the goal line
01:09:21
Speaker
And it was flat out, I think it was the tackle. It was Orlando Brown. And so he went, he jumped. He was off. I mean, he false started.
01:09:32
Speaker
It was clear as a day. And they just let it go. And that was the touchdown play. And so when they throw the flag, I was like, oh, good. They actually called it. And then they're like, no defensive holding. was like.
01:09:42
Speaker
Are you kidding me? Like, it was, my tweets out there, I'm like, he doesn't play for the Chiefs anymore. Yeah, it was crazy.
01:09:52
Speaker
And I was, I just said, because I was trying to make, I was cooking food at the time too, so I'm like halfway in the kitchen, halfway out into the, by the TV, you know, what's going on?
01:10:04
Speaker
And they had just, they were calling the play just then, and I watched him jump, was like, no flag. I mean, I get it that we complain when there's too many flags and then we complain when there's not that many flags, but there are just some things that you've got to call it.
01:10:22
Speaker
And then there were a couple of times that they called DPI on the Packers, but they like let the Bengals corners get away with, you know, because I know Harlan and green both called it out a couple of times. were like, well, I think he was there a little bit early. You could see the Jersey tug on this and but then they didn't call anything yeah there was that it was the one dobbs hitch where like i said i still don't care for that play but dj turner was definitely there early on that one and and then of course snarky packers fans were like well it we're just gonna go tackle jamar chase before the play happens kind of thing you know all that kind of stuff and
01:11:07
Speaker
the one I'll say all the time is you've got to call the blatant stuff. The one play, like, I understand that, like, okay, you're going to give blockers the benefit of the doubt against Michael Parsons, which that's one of those things that I'm like, do you want your superstars to be superstars? Or, like, I've never understood that train of thought in, like, every sport except for basketball.
01:11:30
Speaker
Basketball is the only one that goes in the opposite direction and is like, we're way too lenient on the superstars. But, like, with Parsons, like it was always the, you know, Dallas fans, if you look, they're all kind of laughing now. They're like, Packers fans, you see it now kind of thing. But it's like, it's like, is he just so good that you can't give him a fair shot?
01:11:49
Speaker
But I'm like, okay, as much as I don't agree with it, I'll bite and say, okay, maybe, you know, you can't throw flag on everything, but you cannot go let go the plays where he is so clearly tackled.
01:12:04
Speaker
by an offensive lineman or the ones where it's like when a blitzing linebacker or a blitzing person comes through the middle and it's like he's not carrying suitcase behind him.
01:12:17
Speaker
He's not going to run after the quarterback with an arm like this. It's one of those where I'm like, you have to suspend your disbelief and use the gumption of your better judgment that there is a hold there.
01:12:27
Speaker
And if you need to get New York City more involved with that kind of stuff, so be it. And these aren't even the ones where we say all the time, like,
01:12:38
Speaker
4k tvs you can see the blades of grass and that's why you can see these different things more like no the orlando brown false start blatant the the micah parsons being tackled oh wait he plays defense blatant like those are the ones that absolutely cannot be missed and Like, you have the one where in this Detroit-Kansas City game where the referee and know Detroit fans are going to bitch and moan about it.
01:13:04
Speaker
They absolutely got the call right that Jared Goff illegally motioned before the play. Like, and you see the ones where it's like, oh, New York has called and has like pre-reviewed and assisted review and shit like that.
01:13:18
Speaker
You should not be doing any of that shit if you're not going to be like, you guys got drop a flag. That was blatantly something. And then since we're on a reference, the other one is you cannot let quarterbacks throw ground ball, intentional ground balls.
01:13:34
Speaker
Like I know that. That's why I've always been confused about the intentional grounding thing, because it's like, you'll let them throw it directly into the ground by the feet of an offensive lineman.
01:13:48
Speaker
But if he happens to throw it out of bounds with nobody around, know, And he's not in a certain area you're going call intentional ground. Right. And where I hate it is, okay, the one thing I'll give passes is screen passes. Because screen passes are like, it's there or it's not there. And like, okay, like, you got us. Like, fine.
01:14:09
Speaker
But... What Flacco was doing, what Tom Brady did for a bunch of his career where it's like, ugh, like the Dak play from two weeks ago where you, because the whole point of intentional grounding, the reason the rule was written is to keep quarterbacks from avoiding taking sacks.
01:14:27
Speaker
That's the whole point of the play. Why do you, first off, have it written in a way where, you and I know that refs want to say like, oh, we don't want intent brought in. You fuckers don't know how to rule intent is a problem or not anyway. So, miss me with that bullshit.
01:14:43
Speaker
If a quarterback... Bounces a ball four feet in front of a receiver the point where the receiver is just like, like, like makes no effort to catch it. That should be intentional grounding. Like I said, the plays where Flacco gets a flash of green in his peripheral vision and he's like,
01:15:00
Speaker
This thing's going in the ground or it's going out of bounds. That should be intentional grounding. Dak Prescott throwing it over his pass-protecting running back. That's supposed to be intentional grounding.
01:15:11
Speaker
And the thing is, is that when it's called on the borderline correctly, but it's like on the fringe where everyone's like, oh, did he really get out of the tackle box or did he really not have a receiver in area?
01:15:24
Speaker
And I will say it every time, like, you know, like the one, you know, Dallas fans were like, oh, well, you got the Jordan Love one. I said, no, they're two different plays because on Jordan's one, he is very, he is making a very clear effort to get outside of the pocket.
01:15:39
Speaker
And he's making a very clear effort to get it towards Musgrave. Like Musgrave is running a route and like Musgrave maybe should look for the ball earlier and make it not look as bad kind of thing. But like, he is very clearly like still trying to make a play.
01:15:53
Speaker
That is a completely different thing than DAC like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Javante Williams is right there. I'm throw it laterally almost over him.
01:16:04
Speaker
And then for the rest to be like, oh, the running back's there and the tight end is there eight yards down the field. Like I said, to have a rule, you have so many rules that protect the quarterback.
01:16:17
Speaker
Can't land on him. You can't hit him in the face. You can't slap him on X. You can't fart in their face. the low block rule is another one that I think is really stupid. The Chargers got called for one today where it's like, he should like, there are so many rules that prevent, that benefit the offense.
01:16:35
Speaker
And the one part about the low block rule is you should not let guys submarine O-linemen's knees. Like, that's the intent of the rule. But if the guy, like, I hate when refs are like, oh, he needs to stay up high in the block early for longer. I'm like,
01:16:50
Speaker
There's a 300-pound guy pushing downwards on a 200-pound cornerback. What do you think is going to happen? Like, is the corner supposed to blow both knees out by getting pushed over backwards on the play?
01:17:01
Speaker
Like, these are the kind of rules where I'm like, you guys so often with, like, intentional grounding and shit like that, you say you don't want there to be intent. Like, why then do you have these other plays where it's like,
01:17:14
Speaker
The cornerback is like, no, that rule is to stop old linemen from blowing their knees out from low hits kind of thing. Like, you guys don't even know why these rules are in your rule, but if your refs to a man, like, and that's the thing.
01:17:28
Speaker
You always hear those like refs talk about like, you know, we have these seminars and it's a great sign when 60% of the room gets the same feeling on a rule. I'm like... That's horrible.
01:17:40
Speaker
They're like, oh, we put this play situation up and 60% of them get the thing right. I'm that's wrong. No, no, no, no, no. That means your rule is broken. There's not supposed to be a dissertation or a freaking grad school level argument debate over what is or isn't a catch or what is or isn't intentional grounding.
01:18:01
Speaker
These things need to be much more black and white. And like I said, you can say intent does and doesn't matter. But the whole point of intentional grounding is that quarterbacks are not supposed to be able to dirt the ball to avoid sacks.
01:18:19
Speaker
And like,
01:18:22
Speaker
The way you know the rule is stupid is that non-quarterbacks on trick plays don't get the protection. That's how you know the rule is absolutely broken. Refs don't know how to call it.
01:18:35
Speaker
It's one of those where it should be challengeable, and New York should be involved on all of those if you challenge it kind of thing. Like I said, the way that the league is intent shouldn't be involved in a call versus oh no maybe intent on this one i'm like the hell are you guys doing but wrap that all up that's my rant on the officiating today i really can't think anything else that i would call moldy because like i said this was outside of a handful of things it was a good win
01:19:09
Speaker
You know, should they have scored more points? Yeah, but, you know, what are going to do about it? This is the team that we've got. This is the coaching style that we've got. So you can't really complain about special teams because they did what they needed to do, especially with kicker.
01:19:27
Speaker
They made it one play without a penalty. Yeah. I made the joke on the Elon machine that everyone's like, oh my god, Haverzik looks actually not bad. I'm like, yeah, because he hasn't been around long enough for Bisacchi to fuck him off.
01:19:41
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, think we covered what we needed to with the moldy part of it. Because unless you've got anything else, I think that pretty much covered it all.
01:19:52
Speaker
No, I think that's it. think...
01:19:55
Speaker
Like I said, this game, this Obviously, everyone would love to win every game 63 to nothing. You have no stress and all that. That's just not how football seasons work.
Division Standing and Future Strategy
01:20:08
Speaker
getting a win, getting back in the win column, securing a home victory, all that kind of stuff. You take, you know, thank you, Chiefs. You take back the division lead. You're now by virtue of win percentage because of the tie. know I'm going to hear a lot about this, but you're technically the second seed in the NFC right now if the season were to end today because of the fact that you have one fewer hole lost than the rest of the league or the rest of the conference behind the Bucs because everyone else has – Every other division winner or division leader has two L's to their record.
01:20:41
Speaker
So, like, as frustrating as it's been to get here, like, it's good that they're, like I said, at the top.
01:20:51
Speaker
This is still a young team. It's frustrating. It's teeth gnawing. It's knuckle grinding. But they figured out how to secure a win this week after they've let two get away from him the past two weeks.
01:21:03
Speaker
And you need to see them build on that, build on that, build on that. Like I brought up before the Cleveland game, this is a big test for them. I know Arizona's not very good, but... You've got to fly cross country to go play them. And that game is a, I think it's just the later. 325. so it's noon for the Packers.
01:21:25
Speaker
But the first time you fly cross country, it's always kind of a test for your team. So. Really need to see. And LaFleur teams haven't done that great flying cross country.
01:21:37
Speaker
You know, 2019 had the bad game against the Chargers, the bad game against the 49ers, two bad games against the 49ers. This is kind of a bad stretch for them anyway because they go to Arizona for the Cardinals and then they fly back to Pittsburgh for the Steelers. So they've got to cross the country. Well, and then to touch on that a little more,
01:21:57
Speaker
The bummer thing about that Pittsburgh game is Pittsburgh's coming off. They're the Thursday night game this week, so they're going to get the mini-buy. So once again, LaFleur. If there's going to be any week where you're going to use a little bit more allotment of your 600 points for the season, this is the one to pour it on early in the game.
01:22:16
Speaker
And hey, sometimes it's good if your backup quarterback gets in the game by your own choice, by your team's performance being great. This is one of those weeks to strive for that.
01:22:27
Speaker
And the more... This is the week that you tell these guys to get that killer mentality because right now, if I remember right, Aaron Rodgers has beaten 31 out of 32 teams. We cannot let him get that 30-second win.
01:22:43
Speaker
Yep. So, like I said, those are topics for another day. We'll get into that as we get to those opponent previews. But a lot on the table for the Packers. Keep stacking successes, keep piling up wins. Like I said, they haven't done that very well the past two seasons under Love and LeFleur.
01:23:02
Speaker
Get in the habit of piling up early season wins so that you can be in the hunt for higher seeding, be in control of a division, be the team getting chased or attempted to be chased. Make that your goal. Don't just, oh, we're looking to be a little better than yesterday. Yes, that's the first step, but have higher goals than that.
01:23:22
Speaker
And this is a rough stretch coming up because you've got Cardinals, Steelers, Panthers, Eagles, Giants, and then you get into your – north teams so i mean this is the stretch that's going to make or break the season really because if you look at it by like record of opponent advanced stats all that kind of stuff arizona new york minnesota those are games that like you've got to figure out a way to win those games because those are all nfc teams you gotta and you know even the steelers are a little bit of a paper tiger but you know if rogers is feeling hot and you let him play the way he wants to play he'll tear you up kind of thing so
01:24:04
Speaker
You got to change up what you're doing and just be the aggressors. Like you said, be the attacking force going into the next month of the season and really establish your team identity.
01:24:16
Speaker
Like said, that last touchdown drive should be how this offense operates 90% of the time. Everything has a run fake or run look to it.
01:24:27
Speaker
Because that's the best way to protect this O-line to therefore protect Jordan Love and to get big plays down the field. And hopefully along the way, you get a little more healthy. You get a Christian Watson back. You get guys coming off IR, DR like... What's it called?
01:24:44
Speaker
From Cox to Colin Oliver to whatever you can get out of Marshawn Lloyd to hell, if you get any decent play out of Jacob Monk, that's a backup that you at least know kind of thing and stuff.
01:24:56
Speaker
So get wins, get healthy. That's the name of the game at this point. So anything else, Joe, or we done for the night? I think we need to call because we're about at an hour and a half. So...
Community Engagement and Support
01:25:09
Speaker
It's the first win in a month. We've got a lot to celebrate. check us out, ohanapackers.org. Check out the merch. Tucker Craft, he only got two official targets, I think. Yeah, two official targets today.
01:25:23
Speaker
And he burned that house down on his touchdown reception. So check out Joe. Joe's got a lot of ideas in his head. Thank you, Don, for helping Joe out with the shop.
01:25:35
Speaker
If you go to the website, the shop is linked there. So check that. Click that tab. Support us that way. Check out articles from Carlos, from me, from Joe when he decides to write one.
01:25:46
Speaker
All the previous episodes of this show and Chief Talk Radio are on there as well. Please follow the podcast on your favorite social medias at Ohana underscore Packers on Twitter, at Ohana Packers Edition on Instagram.
01:25:58
Speaker
Search us on Facebook. Like I said, going to keep saying it until it happens. We're targeting 100 followers at minimum on Facebook. So when we do live streams, we can...
01:26:08
Speaker
have that situated over there ready to go as well. Excuse me. Please follow us on your favorite podcasting apps. Please give us a like and a subscribe. And I know we went a little long and deep in the coverage on this one, but especially for the opponent previews, but also for our game recaps. If you've got any comments, any thoughts, please send them our way we can talk about the things that are on your guys' minds as well.
01:26:31
Speaker
For Iowa Joe, I'm Mike. We're back in the win column. We're back atop the NFC North. Go Pack Goa and Aloha.