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OPE Season 3 Episode 40 Is That It?
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Aloha and welcome to another episode of OPE! On this episode we break down the dismal Wildcard game against the Philadelphia Eagles. We try to find the silver lining in the loss and discuss the dreadful decision making.
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Transcript
Intro
Season Overview and Recurring Challenges
00:00:20
Speaker
And just like that, the 2024 Green Bay Packers season was over. yes you know A lot of the things that we spend a lot of time on this season's shows talking about, the Green Bay Packers once again fell into the same pitfalls, and that was all she wrote for the 2024 season. But for Iowa Joe, I'm Mike. Joe, that was a big old dud, but and This will kind of dovetail into my lone positive. They didn't stop fighting no matter how many mistakes they made. They never really stopped fighting in this game. Yeah, we'll get into that here in a minute, but just overall feel. I think it could have been a lot worse than what it was, especially as they started dropping like flies, but you know they hung in there as best they could I. I think with as much as. Good as Tom Clements has done with Jordan Love over his
00:01:16
Speaker
career to get him to where he needs to be. There's still a lot of work that needs to be done because I can't put all blame on Matt Lafleur's play calling. Some of those decisions that Jordan Love was making was ridiculous and
Player Safety and Equipment Effectiveness
00:01:32
Speaker
we'll get into it later. But overall, I it could have been a lot worse yeah i agree with you it it definitely could have spiraled a lot worse than it did today there's a couple good things we'll get into our usual flow but first off the top you just really hope that none of these injuries are as bad as they see you and the big one off the bat is
00:01:52
Speaker
Romeo just hates seeing him carried off the field like he was. I do think he went home with the team so that's always a decent sign but never can quite tell. It's really early. It's another, you know, he suffered the same he suffered the concussion the same way he had the first one where he's coming down from a jump ball, whiplash hits his head into the turf and just really unfortunate to see it happen the way it did. And you just wish my thing with that is if that's the case, then what good was the Guardian cap? Because isn't that supposed to protect from those kind of because he landed right on the Guardian cap right on the back of the Guardian cap.
00:02:32
Speaker
But I think because of the way he's falling and it's it's not the impact, that I think the Guardian Cap helps with the impact, but it's because of the fact that he's falling. And you have to remember, it's not necessarily the hit on your head that'll cause the concussion. right it' it's your jail yeah she's your Yeah, it's your brain jumbling around inside your head and you know, it's physics at that point and he'd have to forget anything cushioning his head. He'd have to be able to like spin like a gymnast into the ground and let momentum, you know, it would get really freaking nerdy with what he would have needed to happen. But basically he would have needed to like fall into like a 10 foot cushion for it to matter. So
00:03:18
Speaker
it it's just It just sucks. you know And that's the thing, too. We'll just get into this one with the whole Guardian Cap thing. is so you know i see ah I saw a lot of people make a lot of stupid comments about, oh, he got one and he still had the Guardian Cap. First off, fuck off. He had another bad concussion. He needed to get carried off the field. This is for people like you, Matt Freilich, who are deciding to turn it like political or whatever about the Guardian Cap and shit.
00:03:48
Speaker
Dobbs said it was for his own peace of mind. it wasn't he He was an outright saying, like, it's going to stop me from having my next concussion. It was a peace of mind and a comfort thing.
Injury Impacts and Season Reflections
00:03:59
Speaker
And second off, the way he hit the ground and fell, like I said, even if he had a cut open nerf ball on his head, it wasn't going to make a damn difference for that play.
00:04:12
Speaker
So, who gives a shit about whether he was wearing the Guardian Cap or not, or whether it worked or not, or, oh, what does that mean for promoting it for the... Who gives a fucking shit? The only thing that matters is, you just really hope Romeo's okay, that...
00:04:28
Speaker
He's able to play it next season. I know that sounds really Debbie Downer and stuff, but you just don't know. Like that's two within what a month span of each other and little over a month. So you just cross your fingers. This one is, he'll have the whole off season cover from it.
00:04:48
Speaker
I completely agree. i Now, like I said, I do have questions about the Guardian Cap because yeah I get what you're saying where, you know, it was more the impact, but I thought that was supposed to be why they wore the Guardian Caps was to help cushion kind of that impact to keep but your head from, you know, scrambling around like that. Yeah, I don't have all the specs and, you know, I don't i don't know the product data. This is one where I kind of think And who knows if any of these things really work. But the Whiplash one, I've heard it's better. You remember, like, Daguara and Luke Kuechly started to wear it too? That, like, neck thing? The one that looks like the half neck thing? I'm all for the old donkey dicks billion brought back.
00:05:32
Speaker
Yeah. But like, like they would wear that one. It looks like ah looks like a neck massager, but it's the thing that you know that thing I heard that's supposed to help with the whiplash thing and stop the whiplash part of it. But like I said, I don't know. I'm i'm not I'm not a doctor. I don't know what the like the product data is on any of these devices and stuff. And I'm not either. But it just for me, it's a little bit weird because It's the same way he got the previous concussion. So he wore the Guardian cap to help protect him from that. But yet he lands the same way and gets a concussion the same yeah exact way. So in the end, it really didn't do what at least I'm assuming he was told it was going to do. Otherwise, you would think that he wouldn't bother wearing it because, well, if it's going to not protect me from getting the same kind of damage, then, you know, why wear this goofy ass thing on my head?
00:06:29
Speaker
Yeah, so who knows? Like I said, all I care is I hope he's fine for next
Defensive Strengths Amidst Defeat
00:06:35
Speaker
season. um um We've seen how important of a player he is for the team. Looks like Josh Meyer's career probably ended with that with that lower lower leg injury. He said he thinks he avoided any sort of serious ACL or ankle injury, but he probably fractured one or one of the bones in his lower leg.
00:06:57
Speaker
shoot one of the reporters had it where he basically said like if the Packers had made had somehow won the game they would have been in serious trouble for next week going into Detroit because Elton got on the bus couldn't move his arm his right arm Dobbs was concussed Myers was on crutches in a boot and Reed flat-out said he dislocated his shoulder so like
00:07:24
Speaker
you know main most important thing is these guys all get to be healthy in Meyer's case I don't think he'll be back next season but it does suck for a guy who's going to free agency to go out injured in their last game you never want to see that but yeah it's just honestly this game the way love played this game all the mistake this game was a microcosm of this whole season playing out and all the like i said in the the opening all the things that we talked about that we harped about that we saw people trying to wipe away you know at different points of the season especially going into the buy that they weren't that big of a deal they were all a big deal and they all bit the team in the ass today so all right well i suppose we better just jump into it while we're
00:08:13
Speaker
Mm, fresh cheese. That's going to be the last one for the season. Now I'm kind of, we got to do it again. Fresh cheese. It's appropriate because I think there's only about two ways you can go with. So yeah, there's only a ah ah handful of them if that. So there's one major low hanging fruit, one that, you know, I'll go ahead and do it. And that's the defense. I mean, what?
00:08:43
Speaker
This is why I said earlier, it could have been a whole lot worse, but that defense for some reason, well, I can't say for some reason, we know the reason. I mean, Halfly has done a really good job this year with with this defense. So for them to come in, and I have the stats pulled up here, Jalen Hurts only threw for 131 yards. Saquon got his, but they were more chunk plays during the last part of the game.
00:09:10
Speaker
ah ah You know and basically in garbage time to run out the clock They held Devonta Smith to 55 yards got her to 47 AJ Brown to 10 Dots and did have the one catch for the touchdown You know, so this defense really stepped up really did its job if you would have these numbers if you just threw these numbers out to me and and said, you know, I'm not going to give you the score, but here are these stats who won the game. I'd have to lean a little bit towards, you know, the Packers over it because the defense really stepped up. Now, like I said, the, the running, uh, the rushing yards for the, the Eagles is kind of a misnomer because again, you know, Saquon was just getting a bunch of chunk
00:10:05
Speaker
yardages towards the end and he didn't have a touchdown, even though he obviously could have that one. But I, you know, that's really great to see the sportsmanship where he just knew it was better to let the time run out than, you know, rack up the score. So, you know, good on him with his sportsmanship you and that's surprising with this chippy as it was getting during the game. So, you know, that one right there is about the major fresh moment from this game.
00:10:34
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with you. like for but If you're trying to find any silver linings to this game, I do think they finally do have something of a defense. And Halfly did a lot of the things that we were you know asking for at different points of the season, whether it was just being a little tighter in coverage despite your deficiencies in the cornerback room, going with more pressure looks pre-snap.
00:11:01
Speaker
and I was really impressed with what this front did as this game went on especially given that you know they were playing a mobile quarterback again and you know the opening touchdown it is what it is and you know a lot of people were complaining about you know where's the passwords first off people need to freaking re-educate themselves on what a mush rush is and what the rules are. Like the whole point is you're trying to, and you saw it on Rashawn Sack where him and Karl Brooks, they're pushing their offensive lineman and you see like Rashawn pretty clearly cause he's like facing the camera and you can see him like look like, he's like looking over Lane Johnson's shoulder and he's like, is he still there? Is he still there? And he's like, okay, now I'm going kind of thing and you, Well, you can see it in another play where they rushed for
00:11:52
Speaker
And nobody was doing anything but holding their guy there. Yeah. Well, there was no other movement other than that. The two ends weren't doing anything and then the two tackles weren't doing yeah anything. So you could tell that they weren't full rushing. They were just, yeah you know. And you saw a couple of those plate, like the one was the one that got called back for, I think a hold or something where someone got too far upfield and Hertz just took off and luckily someone from the second level closed down. but you know,
00:12:21
Speaker
They were playing with minimal to no support from the offense and special teams. I thought Cooper played a decent game. Quay gave it all he had until the wheels came off at the end because he got crunched up in a pile. The cornerbacks played valiantly. I know the Eagles didn't really throw the ball, but after that first drive, they really took him
Consequences of Mistakes and Penalties
00:12:44
Speaker
out of a rhythm. I know Carrington's going to kind of get clowned because he got run over by Dallas Goddard.
00:12:52
Speaker
okay like he's five inches taller and 60 pounds heavier than him like and oh and my whole thing with that play is so valentine slips as he comes to break down for the tackle and okay at that point he's compromised because it's like
00:13:09
Speaker
It's like trying to catch a refrigerator that's falling off of a truck at that point for him. And the tweet I put out is, what do you want him to do? Dive at his knees? Like certain players we know of who didn't win All-Pro because his fellow players hate the way he plays. Like, you know, it's unfortunate that he got embarrassed. But like I said also, the whole deal gets cut in. And there's no guarantee, even if he jumps at his knees, he's gonna hit him.
00:13:35
Speaker
right and then How many times have we seen the shoestring tackle where they go to swipe and they miss completely? Yeah, exactly. the you know That was Darnell Savage's whole thing. is Everyone's like, oh, he's afraid of contact. He's just diving at ankles. it's like the like He can't win. like so And in Carrington's defense, the whole ego's defense got embarrassed the very next drive. so To each their own. one To that effect, I'll just say, like They never were able to get anything going, but this team didn't just roll over and die. They were trying. The Josh Jacobs did not roll over and die. He did not go quietly into the night. And even to the end, like I know there's a lot of his, he had a bunch of mistakes. Checking to the run on that 33 was not great. but
00:14:28
Speaker
Love could have easily tapped out at any point and said, like, look, I'm not finishing this game. Like, why am I playing kind of thing? Even that last throw, like, I know some people are like, what are we doing here? You have one timeout. It's after the two minute warning. You need to score fast and because you need two touchdowns regardless. And sure, it sucks that it got intercepted. But like,
00:14:54
Speaker
you're you're pretty much the the pooch is screwed at that point and you've got to score faster than you can so like there's a lot of things they got to work on and i will go into those more you know we just to keep this episode as at a trim like hour ish but Hey, I've seen a lot of Rogers apologists come out of the woodworks and say like, oh, maybe we should be more appreciative of what we had. If this was a Rogers game, this would look like the fucking 49ers game from 2019. They would have gotten absolutely railroaded because
00:15:29
Speaker
And for as much people as they're criticizing ah Jordan for like the two interceptions, Rogers threw stupid long passes in playoff games. People that are criticizing him for the dig route, Rogers has thrown some equally bad interceptions. And some people will get on the whole like Jordan needs to show more emotion. Him being relatively,
00:15:54
Speaker
50-50 is better than Rogers doing his hands on his hips, pouting, staring guys down, coming back to the huddle and stuff like that. Like I said, we're we're searching for silver linings after talking about the defense because nothing else really went right in today's game. But give a lot of you know they could have rolled over and died when my especially when Myers breaks his leg at the end of the game, Love could have easily said, like, what am I doing out here? Like, I'm with the JV line, I have no receivers, and not because he, like, threw them into hospital ball. Ironically, the one sort of hospital ball he threw Wix is okay from. So, like, they very easily could have just been like, meh, like, whatever. But, you know, they did try to get back in this game and
00:16:47
Speaker
As good as Philly can be, they didn't pull away at any point, really. Like they and like you said, that does go back to how well the defense played. how I thought how good of a game Halfly called.
00:17:00
Speaker
And the kind of going you know kind of where those two sides intertwined, I really appreciate that Halfly just chose to live with the stuff that he knew would get him results.
00:17:13
Speaker
Yes, it cost you know it kind of led to the Goddard touchdown where he's calling up you know he's calling a pressure look on second and one, and he kind of gets his safety and corner caught on an island. But your best results were simulating pressure pre-snap, showing madden you know changing up your coverage looks and things like that.
00:17:34
Speaker
and Look, the way that offenses are played, especially this Phillies offense, you can't cover everything. And at that point, the offense had already left like 10 points on the field, not even counting the what I'm sure will be in the moldy section. So yeah, it's like I said, it's just a microcosm of what this whole season was for the Packers.
Team Depth and Decision-Making Critique
00:17:57
Speaker
For sure. And I mean, I'm not going to like I said, I can't blame everything on just one person one thing whatever you know you have to blame level or you have to blame the floor as much as you blame love you have to blame you know you you have to blame Gudakins for some of the decisions he made when concerning the the depth of
00:18:26
Speaker
the the team depth. So, yeah. Do we just want to jump into the next part of it? Because I mean, others are going to be really stretching the the meanings of our fresh takes. So, yeah, I'm good with it. And there might be some stale ones that could fold into the the fresh, but it'd be like the best by day is like the 19th and today's the the 18th.
00:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, what's this damn shit?
00:18:59
Speaker
So I I'm going to go with what I just said and I'm gonna put Gudakun's decision-making in there a little bit Like I said, it's not enough to make a moldy because obviously this was a playoff team. This was 11 and 16 but When and I know you can't You can't determine when an injury a freak injury is going to happen. Who would have thought Elton Jenkins would have been out? Who would have thought Josh Myers would have went out? But you still have to prepare some of that stuff.
00:19:40
Speaker
And for them to have no obvious replacement for somebody on the line, like they had to move Sean Ryan into center because both their centers were out. you know Myers and then back up Elton were out.
00:19:58
Speaker
So that means Ryan had to move it to center, and then you had Glover and Telford come in at guard. Well, Glover was doing all right, except for the penalties. And Telford wasn't doing much better on either but either way. And neither one of them are really guards. They're both tackles. And to come into this game knowing you don't have Jordan Morgan, Andre Dillard's going to be out because of his concussion. I think they did have Jacob Monk active. Yeah. And it was weird because he took snaps with Jordan and then they moved right and over. And I think Monk played right guard or no, no, they put Glover back in the game. So yeah, so it was just kind of a weird. Yeah. And I do agree with you that this one goes more in the
00:20:51
Speaker
stale than truly moldy because like the Morgan like they really they really should have been covered because Morgan was training as the the swing guard so you kind of have an answer there and stuff but like to not do something a little more once Morgan goes on IR and then um then um Dillard is dealing with the concussion and yeah, I agree with you. That's where it it definitely goes to stay not quite all the way to Moldy because it's somewhere in that like
00:21:25
Speaker
what's he supposed to do, but also it's his job to do things. So yeah, it's that weird like limbo situation where it's a shitty situation, but your whole job is to have contingency on contingency on contingency kind of thing. Well, you can say what is he supposed to do, but that's the whole point of like practice lawd and and parts of the team like that, that if the guys on the roster can't go, then you have this whole taxi squad that's been riding the bench for the year that you should be able to say, all right, Dillard's out. We're going to bring this guy up, you know, two weeks ago, because it's been what, three weeks since Dillard's the concussion. Yeah. So if Dillard's that gone, you know, this is make or break for.
00:22:16
Speaker
you know, your season. That's why you signed to Michael Jordan. That's why you have Donovan Jennings on the practice squad. There was one other one, I think, you know, that was it. Jordan i Jennings are the two that are because like you said, Jennings been there all year and Jordan was on the roster last year. So it's not like the system is completely foreign to him and stuff. And yeah, like,
00:22:42
Speaker
I don't think. Well, I think Marquise Hayes has been on the on the practice squad for at least half the season. Yeah, I think you're right. So yeah, it's kind of it's disappointing. Yeah, like you said, it's. It's it's just unfortunate, like it.
00:23:00
Speaker
Like I said, it was a microcosm of the whole season. Injuries affected the outcome. Injuries affected the season top to bottom. I know we'll go into that as the offseason goes, but yeah, it it was disappointing. You know, I think Westendorf joked that at some point, if this keeps going, they're going to have to have Latroy Gion play guard in this game and stuff. So yeah. well and The same thing can be said at both linebacker and wide receiver.
00:23:28
Speaker
I mean, you had the open, rock well, technically they didn't have the open roster spots because they never put Christian Watson on IR. But, you know, and I know you can never guess when an injury is going to happen. I keep saying that, but it's the truth. And you can't just make decisions based off of a, but you lose Watson. Yes. You want to roll with the guys that you have on the roster already. Great. I'm a big Maliki truther.
00:23:57
Speaker
And to be honest, I think he could have broke out today. But, you know, that one catch on the sideline was not placed well. And he had a hard time keeping his feet in. He made a big play later on. And then, you know, there were some misses here or there.
00:24:12
Speaker
I'm not completely sold on Bo Melton. I like him for what he is, but I don't think he can be the type of guy that I think he's strictly the gadget guy. He's got the ton of speed. So use him as a gadget. So you've got guys on the practice squad, Julian Hicks, Cornelius oh Johnson. You brought back Alex friggin Magoo, you know, it just if you why did you bring him back? If you didn't.
00:24:42
Speaker
think that you would need to bring him up at some point and then linebacker, you have Michael Barrett, you have was one other one. No, I think that's it. They got rid of the other guy. So, yes. So, I mean, it just there should but what they do on the roster spot for For Jair, they used it on Sean Clifford. Great. you know Both your quarterbacks are kind of you know not 100%. And you need your emergency quarterback. Now, I don't know what the rules are. I don't know if you can label your your third stringer as your emergent. or I mean, not your third stringer, your practice squad guy as your emergency quarterback, or if he has to be on roster for that.
00:25:30
Speaker
If he's got to be on roster, okay, you could have easily used a call up on it. you know again we're on the maker break yeah he's got to be on the he's got to be on the 53 man so yeah yeah yeah but anyway you still have the one roster spot you can open up by you know iring christian watson yeah and because you know he's not coming back there's no way yeah i was really surprised they didn't bring one of hicks or johnson up to take watson's spot because with how much they overlap, especially Melton and Reed on special teams, I was kind of surprised that they didn't bring one of those two guys up. And not because you forecast that three of your receivers are going to go out in a game, or two of them are going to go out in a game, so you're down to three when you have five. But like I said, just because of how much overlapping you do... Uh-oh, Marisaw is getting the drinking point.
00:26:31
Speaker
It's just a coke. but okay I know that because I'm going to have a sip later. But what's it?
00:26:41
Speaker
yeah it Like I said, there's an element of it sucks. And I know you can kind of throw your hands up and you know say, how are you supposed to project for that? Not saying that you have to project to be down to wipe you know down to receivers and down to your emergency third and fourth guard a game day. But like you said, if I can fit it through the camera now. but um um if that's that's it you know it's stale because that's his whole job is to have contingencies and stuff and i get that the floor has a hand in who's up on game day and all that kind of stuff but between the two you have to have a better because it's like
00:27:27
Speaker
Well, what if Myers had gone out first? Because then it's like, does Elton stay at left guard or do you move Elton to center? Do you bring Monk? Yeah, that's a first. yeah all right so my but But yeah, like so even still, it's like, oh, so your backup plan is kind of cooked still. You know like yeah you you don't have a true guard on your roster behind your two starters. And that's where, like you know on one hand,
00:27:55
Speaker
Like I said, that's what's keeping it from all these because Morgan was supposed to be that guy. We saw him be that guy earlier in the season when Myers got there be doing that in practice with Glover too, because Glover's a massive man. and And usually your massive guys are the ones that you put in the interior of the line yeah and you have on the exterior. So, I mean, but we don't know what they're doing in practice, but you also have to realize he's a seventh round rookie from this last draft. He's.
00:28:22
Speaker
from Georgia state. So he's not, you know, top of the line on anything. And, you know, so you can't just rely on that. I know you can point to, uh, Rashid Walker, but you also have to remember Rashid Walker came from Penn state and Penn States from the big 10. And what's the big 10 known more for offensive lineman. Yeah. So like you said,
00:28:53
Speaker
Otherwise it's still the penalty. No, that one, that one's more moldy. Hold on. I gotta, I'm trying to go through. I'm trying to go through our normal. Maybe we should just throw everything out and go with, since it's our last show and just get some moldy cheese. It just, it's so hard to pick and choose on anything because it can slot and moldy and slot and stale. It can. Yeah.
00:29:21
Speaker
So go ahead and just throw one out there. Okay. So my top one is the penalties coming back and like, so not all of them are created equal. Like the first two penalties on Glover, the, the ineligible man downfield, like, okay. Like also I thought that one, didn't they? Didn't that. one No, no, that because that was the one they got it called on. um It was called on the one where Love tried to throw the the fade, the pop fade to Dobbs in the end zone. And Philly took the penalty yards. That one's, it's not a real penalty on Glover because you can't expect the guy who's going in an emergency situation to know like, oh, he might RPO this play that's a called up 100% run. So don't get upfield kind of thing. so
00:30:09
Speaker
that one. I just knew there was one of them that they ah ah because of something the penalty didn't stick. Yeah I think that was it was upstairs reviewed it. And then the other one was his first hold that was such a terror like the first hold he got called for was such like a I don't see it when they showed the replay kind of thing and stuff. His second one was bad. And that one goes to, know, it's a run play. He gets a little out of position. I forget who the defensive tackle was. The defensive tackle spins off and he basically, Glover is falling over and his arm is hooked on him and it's it's pretty blatant. Like I saw it when the play happened. I was like, yeah, it's coming back at that point.
00:30:56
Speaker
And then at the end of the game, you have the Nixon one. like Is it soft? It's pretty soft. Did Barkley flop? I'm pretty sure he did. But you can't be doing shit on the opposing team's sideline when you're trying to come up with a stop. like You just can't. like Any sort of contact out of bounds is good. you know That whole team is going to jump in. We'll throw the slate one in there with that, too. And then that that's exactly, too, where I was going next. is like and I know that Slayton's trying to explain like, hey, I didn't hit him or throw him that hard or blah, blah, blah and all that kind of stuff. But my whole thing there is, there's two refs blowing a whistle in your face. And you gotta just be smarter than that and let go at that point.
00:31:40
Speaker
and It's just like, and we'll get into the refereeing at a later point. And then I'm sure we're both saving that one for the last one because it was a doozy, this crew. And usually I think Brad Allen has a decent crew, but especially when the game has been weirdly called all game, you gotta be smarter. and And like Slayton and Nixon, that like we talked about earlier, that defense fought, clawed, scratched, punched all it could all game.
00:32:13
Speaker
but you got to have a more level head on your shoulders and you can't put yourself in a potentially compromising position at that point of the game where no, the chances aren't great, but you just can't be giving up free yards at that point. Right. And the, I can't remember. Oh, I mean, I know the play you're talking about with the Nixon one, but I can't, I can't remember what exactly the setup was.
00:32:40
Speaker
What down they were on or whatever, but I know the slate and one they stopped them for a fourth down. I mean, it was, they stopped the third down. So it would have been fourth down, but because of the penalty had extended it to, you know, they gave them the automatic first down. So yeah, I mean, all they did, I put it out on blue sky that this was another game in a long line of not losing, just shooting yourself in the foot, you know, they and what I mean by that is.
00:33:09
Speaker
There's
Game Mismanagement and Officiating Issues
00:33:09
Speaker
losing, where no matter what you do, you just can't beat the other team. And then there's shooting yourself in the foot where you're causing the reasons why.
00:33:21
Speaker
Yeah. You know, the dumb penalties, the mistakes, the... Missing a field goal. And and and to prove and to show your point, like, obviously Green Bay never led in this game, never really got close to leading in this game, but Philly was up 10-0 coming out of the half and got booed off the field by their own fans. And if that doesn't tell you where The feeling, and that's with Green Bay's offense not doing shit in the first half of, you know, going down and missing a field goal, throwing two interceptions.
00:33:59
Speaker
It's the New Year, so no, there shouldn't have been at this point. But yeah, like, and that'll just dovetail into the next, like we said, we kind of brought it up at the beginning of the show, but The Packers just couldn't get out of their way again. You, you look at it fumbling the opening kickoff. now I'm going to, I'm going to put a disclaimer on this. I didn't get to see that. I was still tired. So I went and took a nap for a half an hour and I set my alarm thing. And all right, I'm going to get up while my alarm lit off, but I didn't get up. So I didn't get up until after but the, that I mean,
00:34:35
Speaker
It wasn't that long. There was only like a minute or two gone from the first quarter by the time I got up. So the only thing I missed was the fumble. So I have no, I have to take your word on it because I have no clue what happened with that. So it's another in a line of like, it's more reactionary because he fumbled it, but it's another in a line of Nixon, why are you returning this? Like just, I know you, I know you were only a yard deep, but When has this kick return unit blocked well this year? Part of the reason that fumble happens is because Fitzpatrick absolutely whiffs on his block. And that game today. Oh, he was terrible. Then you the very next, you know, after Philly scores the touchdown, the very next kick return, Fitzpatrick is out of position again, gets called for a blatant hold. You have your first good drive and you miss a field goal.
00:35:32
Speaker
two interceptions love you, you know, he has wicks. It's a tough throw. But it's not a good throw by love. That ball needs to be a yard outside and about three yards deeper. I don't know if, you know, I do think if it's Watson, you know, Watson's burning sleigh. So that throw is out there more. And so I don't know if he's calibrating it in a little bit. You know, later in the game, he throws a perfect back shoulder throw to Wix as he's getting smoked in the pocket kind of thing. So it's there like and the only thing I can think of is instead of trying to break it open,
00:36:10
Speaker
Maybe you should have done what the old, uh, sorry. Um, the old, uh, Jordan or Jordy Nelson, Aaron Rogers rope, a dope, where you go long for as far as you can, and then you stop on the dime and let the, uh, the DB run by you and you, you run a comeback. And that's the only thing I, I.
00:36:37
Speaker
I'm hoping he was trying for because there's no way that that ball was thrown to be over the top. I mean, yeah, it just there's, I, whichever it was, it was, yeah, whichever it was, it was too inside and it was too short. So just, I don't know what the wind was. I don't know if it got knocked down a little bit, but it was one of those words it like, damn, like they got you there. And then the, the second interception,
00:37:05
Speaker
it's one I don't know who to blame for that. I said that on Blue Sky. I have no idea because so now let let me break it down for an idiot. And then you can do the technical side of it. So what I saw on TV when it happened was it looked like there was a miscommunication with three different people. And I don't know who to put full blame on. I don't know to if they put it on.
00:37:35
Speaker
Tucker, and I don't know if you put it on love because the way it looked, Tucker was coming across, but he was supposed to stop. So I don't know if Jordan thought he was going to continue going and through that ball, or if Tucker thought that there was somebody else behind him that was open, that the ball was going for. And that's why he stopped because Tucker just all of a sudden stops. And then he watches the ball go by it.
00:38:04
Speaker
So I'm not 100% sure on who to put the blame on for that, that interception. So it's partly, so i I don't even know how to break down, percentages on this. First off, it's a nice play by Zach bond. it It is like there, you have to give some credit to bond for making a nice play in coverage. What feeds into it is he's a bad, suck it. What feeds into it is.
00:38:34
Speaker
Love believes he's getting some kind of man or near man look off the snap. And so he's like, OK, I've got the dig coming. I've got you've got Melton running off on the left side. I forget who's on the right slot that's running. I think the one that was crossing behind Tucker was Heath.
00:38:56
Speaker
It is Heath. So he no, he's definitely throwing the dig to Heath. He's got two guys going vertical to try to take the top off. But so what allows Bond to be there and Jordan doesn't think he's there is because he thinks either man or some kind of man match
Future Outlook and Player Development
00:39:13
Speaker
coverage is he knows he has Tucker on that shallow like in cut cross route. What happens is his craft slips coming off the line of scrimmage. And because he slips,
00:39:26
Speaker
bond doesn't really honor the route very much he's kind of like, oh, like, he's not going to do much, I can come up and make that tackle whereas if craft comes off the ball clean.
00:39:38
Speaker
one Bond has to cover that a little better. And two, I think Jordan would see Bond a little better if k Craft's route completes because he's thinking he's gone mad match. And you know, you can say like, oh, like he's got to see it. He can't just blind faith it. But that dig route has to be hit when you hit the top of your drop and he throws it on time. And that's the problem is that because k Craft's not where he's supposed to be and Bond doesn't have to honor his route, Bond just follows Jordan's eyes right into the ball. So it's really unfortunate. Right. But if you watch it again, you'll see what I'm kind of talking about because... No, no, no. And I know what you're talking about. Tucker could have made a play on the ball, but he just all of a sudden... And I know he slipped. Trust me, I know he slipped. I watched that part of it too. But Tucker could at least got a hand on it or tipped it or something, but it's like he stopped
00:40:35
Speaker
and just watch the ball go by. And I'm wondering if he thought that it was going to whoever was behind him, which I i know was Heath because it was yeah on TV, but he I don't think he knew at that moment. And i think I don't think he's supposed to cross the field necessarily. I think he's supposed to run a crisp hitch route that if he runs it right and with the right timing, you're hoping that Bond gets sucked up onto the route. But because he slips and the timing's off, Bond's like, if he comes back to that route, it's going to be, I'll have more than enough time to come up and make the tackle after I get depth and stuff. So I don't know how much to put on love that, you know, to like see the throw better and stuff like that. And I'm not blaming Tucker because at the end of the day,
00:41:27
Speaker
It's not full-on man coverage, so, you know, Bon's not like just only looking at him. So maybe if he runs a cleaner route, it makes a difference. But, you know, like I said, like we talked about, this team has been inches,
00:41:46
Speaker
milliseconds, just margin of error off. this whole season and against the bad the evenly matched or bad teams, they've been the better, to you know, they've overall played better, so it's been mitigated in the wash kind of thing. But against the best teams, any sort of mistakes that they've made have just been magnified every single time and they've got to nail to the wall. That's really what Love's interceptions are for this game is,
00:42:16
Speaker
The throw to Wix could, should have been a little better and it's either incomplete or maybe Wix makes a catch. The throw to, the interception to Heath, as some people are saying, take the check down to Tucker, maybe none of the other routes are open because they're all clear out routes. So you're either throwing it to Heath or you're throwing it to Tucker for, you know, four yards on second and seven or whatever it is in the two minute drill.
00:42:44
Speaker
And then the third interception, it's a whatever. It's a YOLO ball. it's you know The game's over at that point, unless you score right now. like i You need to score yesterday at that point. so the only thing I got to say on that one is, and I didn't watch the replay back on it, because at that point, I was just fucking done with everything.
00:43:03
Speaker
but a lot of people are saying that should have been past interference because he ripped the defender ripped, uh, uh, melted to the ground. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I don't know. I didn't rewatch it. I know it looked a little bit fishy, but I didn't really get into it too well.
00:43:21
Speaker
Yeah so what happens on that one and we'll just curl till this into the officiating after this point but so I tweeted it that is the play though this is going back 14 years but the 2010 team that when they went week three and they lost in Chicago Nick Collins looks like he has a game-saving interception, but Morgan Burnett is called for DPI for running into the receiver who's trying to come back to an under thrown ball. This is that same play. And I know some Eagle fans are trying to say like, look at the clip. He's looking back at the ball. You can't flat out fucking tackle the guy whether you're looking for the ball or not. And by the time Bon is looking back for the ball, Melton has already made the effort to come back and he already clotheslined him and he's only looking back because he's like, oh no, what's happening? Like in what makes it doubly worse is
00:44:15
Speaker
Melton is tackled before the ball gets to Quinnyon Mitchell and and you can see it on Melton's face where he's like the fuck just happened and you can see because he's like right in the middle of the broadcast camera and you can see him looking at the official like you're seriously not gonna do anything about that and This is one of those Is sports betting too much in the game? What's the spread before the game? Five and a half. And what of a touchdown made the game a five-point game? And, like, I know Green Bay's minuscule chances of coming back, but like I said, I don't have too many issues with that last interception. The chances you get the onside kick after that are pretty minuscule and all that kind of stuff, so... No, but it... I think that just goes back to the point you were making earlier about the reffing that it just it was so inconsistent that that's just another one that you can yeah show and say there's something going on here. Yeah and so the one that and so I think it was Zach Cruz he tweeted there was a whole lot of bleh in the middle of the Packers you know they didn't they definitely didn't deserve to win this game but this game started and ended with bad fishy whatever label you want to put it refereeing
00:45:32
Speaker
You have the next info, it's a clear fumble, but...
00:45:37
Speaker
Nixon recovers the ball twice as before the pile starts. He has possession of it, it gets punched out, and he regains possession again on his back with the ball up. And what was really infuriating is, so Pereira goes, he has it once. Oh, he lost it, but he got it again. And he goes, and it kind of gets lost in the wash if you rewatch the game, but there's a point where Pereira goes, well, they don't have this angle. And he's talking about they're watching the spider cam angle, which first off, what the fuck? Like, like, how can how can this multi billion dollar industry
00:46:22
Speaker
have replay that doesn't have every camera angle that's available to the consumer. Like, I'm sorry, that's absolute bullshit. And two, there's other side angles that show that Nixon recovered the ball. And and I saw some people who are neither Packers nor Eagles fans, but I do agree that at the end of it, unless it's very clearly like,
00:46:53
Speaker
The thing is over and someone like clearly comes over and grabs the ball when the thing is all on pile. Whoever comes out of the pile with the fucking ball should get the ball because like, and so Pereira is like, this should get overturned. He clearly has the ball and he's like shocked. Like you, you were asleep too. Pereira is flabbergasted that the ball stays with Philadelphia after that. And this is to the point where I hate that in,
00:47:22
Speaker
the fucking 21st century we're still living with. Oh, that's a tough place to make a call like that. I was like, this era of sports betting, this era of 4K cameras,
00:47:39
Speaker
like and thatwi of tennis can decide if a ball hit a chalk line by that much using their technology there should be no issue with the game of football right and that is one of those instances where if you're gonna do this kind of you're gonna like say that they don't have all the camera angles this that whatever get rid of the fucking play stands it's either confirmed or it's overturned like because I hate that
00:48:13
Speaker
you give refs that much leeway to be, to not have any sort of conviction or re repercussions from their decisions and to kind of wash it out with play stances called on the field. And it's like, no, like there's too much money riding on every game. There's too much viewership on every game. You cannot have that kind of play go to like a, oh, like whether it's,
00:48:44
Speaker
ah ah Yeah, there's just so much wishy-wash, and like I said, if at any bit there's the, oh, like, who's gonna make that call in Philadelphia? I'm sorry, you need to get in a lewd line of work. Like, you can't be a referee if you're so afraid of what are the fans gonna do to me when I... like First off, the NFL should be busing you like out of the area, like that should be part of your, your, your agreement package and stuff. Like there should be security protection and all that kind of crap. But if you don't have the conviction to make a call that is the correct call, you need a new line of work. Like that's bullshit. And then the final penalty, like,
00:49:27
Speaker
the the final no call, the fact that they let Melton get tackled in the end zone, no flag, that's bullshit. And then, I know the Eagles got called for one holding penalty, but there was a lot of like, alright, like...
00:49:44
Speaker
There's a lot of guys with arms hanging out on the Packers that are trying to do stuff in the backfield. And, you know, like I said, Glover got called for a phantom hold and it's like, all right, like I know this Eagles O-line is supposed to be good, but what the fuck are we really doing here, guys? Come on now. Yeah. And for sure. And that's what we've been saying all season that it's not just with the Packers, you know, it's every game has issues with the refs and
00:50:16
Speaker
I was kind of watching the, Oh, what was the game before? It was, bills and, uh, Broncos. Yeah. And there was a play where the guy got, you could see it clear as day on replay that the guy got the first down and it would have been first down instead of third and short.
00:50:44
Speaker
And they, uh, went into replay and the place Stan stood his call. It's like, no, it's plain as day first down. The, I think it was Jean Staratore and the commentators and everybody else for saying his arm wasn't, you know, his arm is the end forearm is indicator of down and it's over the mark, but they still called him down and it's like,
00:51:13
Speaker
That's shit. Yeah. And like I said, that's where I think they need to get rid of the whole stands or you know, like, no, like.
00:51:26
Speaker
If you're going to make these kind of calls that are going to fundamentally change the flow of a game, your name is going to be put next to, I'm confirming this call. And I do think it, there's no real way to hold referees more accountable, but do not give them the easy out of just saying like, Oh, I don't know what to do. I'm going to leave it. Stands is called kind of thing. Like you confirm it or you overturn it. And.
00:51:52
Speaker
aye I think that even... less Or let New York start doing more. So if you make the wrong call, they can... you know they can buzz and say no you were wrong this is how it's going to be yeah so and that's the thing is like everyone's like oh they'll slow down the game no the new york thing is pretty quick like it's way quicker because you've got guys who are you've got basically guys who are paid scott hansen's to just check rechecked work kind of thing and stuff and like i said there's gonna have to be a change with how much sports betting is coming into football because
00:52:30
Speaker
there's so much money getting thrown around in these games and people are going to start getting pissed the fuck off if these kind of calls keep going certain ways and stuff like that. What do you already do with the yeah with just fantasy football? That's why me personally and I know this is going to piss a lot of people off. You can do away with fantasy football and sports betting for all I care because I don't like either one of them and it just ruined like you're saying it ruins the game. So you know, get rid of it and you don't have that concern. Yeah. The only good thing fantasy football has done is it's raised the salary cap because there's more viewership. But other than that, it's given us PFF. It's given us so many fake know-it-alls who are like, whoa, he did good for my fantasy. You know, at the root of it, when you really press some of these people, it's like, well, how do you know they're good? Oh, well, he did good for my fantasy team 20 or two years ago. was
00:53:26
Speaker
the uh the keyboard warriors that go after such and such player because they didn't do what they needed them to do for this game or whatever yes so yeah i i could do away with all of it yeah same and i've never liked the whole like my whole thing with fantasy is i never could get on board with the whole i want my team to win but i want this guy to do well like
00:53:55
Speaker
i want my team to win with. And there there's no circumstantial sta situations like fuck those guys. They're the enemy and we want to win stuff. So no, like the last several times I actually did fantasy. I had the weirdest looking team because it was like, you know, let's say the roster was 12 players. I had 10 Packers and the other two were like teams we weren't going to play that year.
Fan Reactions and Team Potential
00:54:22
Speaker
So like,
00:54:25
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and I, I don't get the whole drafting part of it because I'm going to draft the best player that I can think of, not who I think is going to, you know, do this or do that. You know, I don't care if you draft a quarterback in the first round, if that's the best player available, you know, draft him. I don't care if you draft a wide receiver in the first round, but you know, there's so many of these people that have it broke down to, Oh, well you can't take a quarterback and tell such and such time in the draft. And,
00:54:55
Speaker
You can't take it. It's like, fuck that shit. You know, I tried it years ago and I just I couldn't get into it. Yeah. So it is what it is. What's what's another moldy thing that stuck out to you today? We've talked about Jordan. We've talked about raps. We've talked about mistakes. What else?
00:55:21
Speaker
The fans afterwards, I know there were several people on like blue sky and that that we're calling it the most embarrassing loss. And it's like, no, this wasn't 20, 20 water. Well, there's been a lot of them.
00:55:37
Speaker
But, but I know, but like, and this isn't even the worst one in Philly. No, no. Yeah. Like you're, you're a five. in So you're a one touchdown underdog on the road. Like, and you never led like, sure. You left 10 points on the field or you left seven points on the field because mcmanus McManus kicks a ball wide. It's nice not to have to say glowing things about that, not very good person anymore. He leaves a kick wide. unfortunate you know heat you know I saw some people getting mad at Love on the one throw to Heath in the end zone, but and it's not really Heath's fault either, but he slips coming out of his he slips running the stem of his route, and then he slips coming out of the break.
00:56:22
Speaker
The throws where it's supposed to be, if he doesn't slip one of those times, that's probably a diving touchdown. like We've seen Heath be really good with stretching out for catches like that. That's another microcosm for the seed, so close yet so far. So you leave seven points on the field between those two plays. The opening kickoff that probably shouldn't have happened. know But for me, an embarrassing loss, like I said, that's 2021.
00:56:50
Speaker
A game that San Fran should have had no reason to be in at all and you blow that game at home when you're the number one seed. That's embarrassing. There's a lot of them and this isn't even the most one in Philadelphia.
00:57:03
Speaker
You have the 2014 NFC championship game. You have the multiple games against San Francisco, you know, the Colin Kaepernick running for a thousand yards in one game. The Roheem Most are running for a thousand yards in one game. the, the New York Giants losses, the, you know, those are embarrassing losses.
00:57:26
Speaker
this wasn't an embarrassing loss. Yeah. And it's such a weird place because we talk about it all year where like, depending on how your team does, you reassess and you readjust your, your expectations for a season. And honestly, like Once Jair was ruled out, once Watson blows his knee out, I didn't expect us to win the Super Bowl. You don't lose that kind of top tier talent. as As talented as the team still is, you don't lose that kind of field tilting or field canceling skill level and remain a top flight contender player. You need everything to go right. And to say you need everything to go right, you're not
00:58:10
Speaker
on that elite level of contending team. like And so for people to say like, oh, and that's, we can get into the semantics of whether you think the Super Bowl window is open versus whether it's they're getting to the window. So the reason I'll say it's open is you're talented enough that everything goes the right way. I say this at the beginning of the window because if everything had cracked the right way, Green Bay had a shot. And then you have some people that are like, the window's closed.
00:58:41
Speaker
I'm sorry. And then there's other adding to those people are the ones that are like, good luck dealing with Jordan Love for two years kind of thing. And there's a lot of people who are trying to lean in and play both sides of the fence of, I'd never liked him as a draft pick. And oh, like, look, he's so good. I always told you he could have been really good, but I didn't know if he would fix some.
00:59:10
Speaker
Uh, one of them is named with the discount thrift store. Um, his first name rhymes or his first name goes along with a four letter discount thrift store blue, blue theme character on friends. Okay. I think I know what, when you're talking, call them out. Ross. uglylu um I'll names out there, but like, what are they going to do? Nothing.
00:59:36
Speaker
For this season, for people to put so much weight on this season, it's laughable, honestly, to me, because your season gets off the rails because Love, you you worry he blows his knee out in the opening game of the season. And it clearly has far-ranging repercussions on how the rest of the season plays out. I do think Jacob's being signed would have led you to lean more on the run game. You have more legitimacy to your run game.
01:00:04
Speaker
but Because love is compromised for half the season, your brain game becomes your fastball and love almost becomes somewhere between a knuckleball and a curveball based on how his knee is feeling the rest of the season. And for anyone to really state that
01:00:25
Speaker
The like overall season Love had is what he's going to be in the future. I'm sorry, but unless he goes and fucks up his knee in the first game of every season, I just don't see it. Will he be the same mistake?
01:00:40
Speaker
the same mistake a verse or allergic player that Rogers was no I don't think you know Rogers and Brady are like so far at the extreme of that for different reasons love was never gonna play that way but they just never got the passing game in a rhythm. And I think that's the bigger issue that they've got to figure out this offseason. But circling back to what you started with, people who are poo-pooing that the Packers window is over, they scrawn-dered their best chance. Like I said, it it comes down to it being absolutely laughable and comic to be at that point because
01:01:26
Speaker
the re And they draw these weird conclusions as to they're the youngest team in the league, but now you're going to have to start paying guys and blah and it's like, no, they're the youngest team in the league because they had all the dead money they had from getting rid of the old quarterback.
01:01:41
Speaker
And then they had to cut his best friend because his knee was fucked up. And now you're coming out of that and your hope that this is the key offseason because for the first time, really since 20, really since you signed Julius Peppers, you have flexibility in your cap, like true flexibility to go and make another Dave and.
01:02:04
Speaker
The people that are like, like what is it? It's 62 million and then they got a ton of money. Yeah. And granted, they've got to extend Zach Tom who can't have bad games against the good teams, which was weird because he hasn't been that kind of guy before in his career. He's usually been a guy who raises like like I said, that's another one where it's like there's so many things that are so weird about this season. The penalties, they've never been a high penalty. I don't want to say that, but they haven't been a high penalty team under the the la floor like they were this year.
01:02:32
Speaker
They weren't last year when they were also the youngest team in the NFL. Tom having bad games against Detroit, this playoff game. That was weird. Jenkins getting hurt. You just have so many things where... Jenkins having bad games. Yeah. Like, there was just so many times where they were up against the eight ball and... Yeah, like I said, people are just drawing so many weird conclusions that, to me,
01:03:02
Speaker
It's a matter of, it's not out of anything that makes any sort of sense. It's all narrative fitting. You're just doing it to feed whatever you want, whether it's for clicks, whether it's to be, aha, I'm right, whatever.
01:03:19
Speaker
It's gonna be a long way to go. Shavink was going into it with someone who was like, they should trade love and start Willis. And Shavink and I were like, did you fucking watch the Bears game? Willis turned the ball over because he couldn't see a guy blitzing from his throwing arm side like, let's be real here. and Those people are all going to come out of the Woodworks. Like I said, the Rogers apologists are starting to come out of the Woodworks. We'll get it. I'm sure it's going to all come out over the next month and stuff, but. Well, I'm going to throw this out there for you. Yeah. And you've probably seen the tweets and the skits and everything else saying it, too. How old was Brett Favre when he won the Super Bowl? Twenty seven. How old was Jordan Aaron Rodgers when he won the Super Bowl? Twenty seven.
01:04:10
Speaker
How old is Jordan Love going to be next, this coming season? 27 or 26 or 27. I forget. 27 in November. Yeah. There you go. So no, their window is not over. you're Like I said, you can argue the semantics of if it's, if they're in the window or if they're still jumping to the window at this point, but it's not closed. Like, yeah. ah ah And really it never closed with Rogers until.
01:04:40
Speaker
21. It closed when that he lost that playoff game. Like that was, that's why I say that was the most embarrassing one because everything was at their fingertips and you fucking blew it. And then Devontae Lee's. Yeah. If you want an embarrassing one, I have one that's really sticking in my head and that's the year that Ladarius Gunther was chasing Julio Jones all around the field.
01:05:08
Speaker
And that's, that's back to what I said about Gudakunz, where, you know, that's something Ted Thompson struggled with somewhat too, is getting the depth that he needed at certain positions.
01:05:22
Speaker
And the one thing that I've seen so many people doing the like, oh, Gudukun's won't spend, he spent every season that he's had money. He has spent money in the off season, even seasons where he hasn't. So, so 2018, 2019, 2023, or 2024, he spent, he had money, he spent money. 2018, it didn't all work out, but hey, he tried to bring in Jimmy
01:05:49
Speaker
tried to bring in a couple other periphery pieces, but they didn't have that much cap space that season. But he did try to spend, tried to tried to get Alan Robinson that season too. Did it work out? 2019 brings in the you know the fantastic floor free agent class.
01:06:08
Speaker
you're an expensive team 2020 2021 2022 you can't do anything 2023 you're in cap hell and then this offseason he goes inside Xavier McKinney and josh jacobs now you're coming out of cap hell If he doesn't spend this offseason, it's going to be because the positions they need help at, they kind of suck in this free agency class in terms of what they're looking for, because that's the problem. And like I said, we'll get into this as we prep for the draft and stuff. But the biggest problem with for for Goot now is he's got to add veterans, but.
01:06:42
Speaker
He needs guys that are going to raise the ceiling of this team. And I don't know if those guys are really in this cornerback and wide receiver class as it stands right now. So we'll go into those. Everybody's putting their eggs in the Davante coming back basket. And as as much as I love Davante and I think he's a, he would be a solid pickup. I don't think he's the type of number one that this team needs.
01:07:13
Speaker
We'll have that discussion when we get there. I do to a point, but I also do agree with you that it can't be your only move. So it's sort of a loaded response to that one. But I put Davante ahead of a certain player I see people throwing out there in T. Higgins, who I think is just, if you're not old enough to know the name Alvin Harper,
01:07:38
Speaker
That's what happens when you pay wide receiver twos or threes to be your wide receiver one. So, but like I said, I don't have any, like all the people are like the windows closed, but okay, if Jordan Love is hurt every year and he's, like I said, if he was healthy the whole season and he had the decision-making problems, that would be one thing to be concerned with.
01:08:05
Speaker
The fact that he's hurt half the season and you can tell that he never really got right because they never got back to the under center game after he even after the bye. It was, oh, look at all the stuff they do with the whirling Dervish, you know, the backfield spinorama play and stuff like that. But none of it is the under center hard play action stuff that we saw last year that really got them going.
01:08:30
Speaker
And so I tweeted this that Lefleur and I do think it's going to go back to more under center. And I do think that plays to Jacob's strengths a little bit better too. But they have to reset their identity as a passing offense. And to that effect, the window isn't affected at all. If anything, they're still learning. This was an important year because they know they're not good enough.
01:08:57
Speaker
as constructed, and they've got to continue to add pieces. Yes, I would love for my team to win every year, but it's just not feasible, especially not in a sport with single-game elimination playoffs and stuff like that. Yes, Gudakunz has work to do. He's got a hit in the draft. He's got a hit in free agency. But the track record in free agency, especially, is he's done a lot better than a lot have expected him to do.
01:09:25
Speaker
And that goes what I was saying earlier about the decisions with depth has no bearings on how well he's done as general. yeah yeahs It's stuff that he needs to work on. And again, you can't make, you can't guess at when an injury is going to happen. Just you've got to have, that was one of the big spots that if any, everybody remembers, we were talking about early on in the season.
01:09:48
Speaker
was the lack of depth at certain positions. And what's really weird, and this again goes into things that were problems this year that have not been problems in other years, is that's something that Gudakans has gotten praised for in previous seasons, that he was always churning the bottom of the roster. You don't find Rizul Douglas without doing that kind of stuff. You don't find Devondri Campbell without signing him late in the preseason. you There was a whole bunch of, you know, he gets rid of Isaac Yadom and stuff late in that one season. You pick up Bo Melton off the the Seattle practice squad or whatever. You know, like you said, they're not necessarily guys that are part of your five plus year plan, but they were all guys who made a key contribution at some point that
01:10:40
Speaker
And I get that in this 53 man roster with the 16 man practice squad, you can't cover every hole, but guard is just one of those where if you look at the active roster and you look at the practice squad, it's an uneven distribution.
01:10:57
Speaker
And wide receiver, no, you can't ever predict that two of your guys are going to go out in the same game. But you're carrying Watson and on who's IR'd, and you've activated six wide receivers in like half of your games over the regular season. And so like why did you leave it half-baked at this point kind of thing? And so like we said, these are more critiques than they are long-term concerns. Because like we said,
01:11:26
Speaker
This is something that Gudakunz has done a darn good job of in the previous five, six years he's been GM. The Packers haven't been a real penalty-prone team the first, you know, six years of LaFleur's or five years of LaFleur's career. Just weird things that haven't been the trademark of the Packers teams were issues that were never properly solved this season. So,
01:11:57
Speaker
We can keep going it on and on, but it is one of those where, unfortunately, the identity of this team was they could win. And I know people are going to say, like, it doesn't matter that they won two more games. It does. Up until week 18, they didn't lose a game they shouldn't have. I know that it took a block field goal against the Bears, and didn't beat the teams that were better than you. But that just shows that
01:12:26
Speaker
They were a decent to good team. They need a little more talent. They need a little more development. That's all part of the process. And it sucks when you're at this point where your season's over, when you at some points had much higher expectations for where this team could go. But we talked about it.
Season Closure and Future Announcements
01:12:45
Speaker
This team always had inherent flaws because Gudakans couldn't fix everything in one-off season.
01:12:51
Speaker
ah ah Unfortunately, those all cascaded to bite this team in the ass when it mattered most. And that's the unfortunate story of the 2024 Packers. Where this becomes paramount is this can't be their identity moving forward. That's the only way that the window is closed. I don't think that's going to be the case for this team. But to go based on allegations, yeah. We said it a couple of weeks ago where They were 11 and six. Normally that's enough to win the NFC North. Yeah. But for some reason this year, the juggernauts have all come out of the NFC North. Yep. And it, it's, it's really weird when there's a good percentage that an NFC North team will be playing in the Superbowl.
01:13:48
Speaker
And had it been any other year, the Packers would have been the NFC North winners. Yep. But it just didn't happen. So yes, like you said, it didn't end up the way that we wanted it. I was, I'll be honest, I was really never a Super Bowl or bus guy for this year. Anyway, oh yeah I know a lot of people out there were, but you know, it just, it's one of those things that,
01:14:18
Speaker
Another good offseason, another year for these younger guys, and you know well we'll see what happens next year. Yeah, like we hear it all the time in sports, teams have to learn how to win. And I do think this is one where if you reverse these two post seasons, everyone's a lot more optimistic about where the team is right now. But because they did win, they did beat the number two team last year and smoke them in their home their home stadium and come within minutes of winning and going to the NFC Championship game last year.
01:14:57
Speaker
this this team is just a resounding disappointment and under like you said for people who had super bowl aspirations for this season i had some of them but like i said they were the if things break right if one of these guys becomes a wide receiver one if love plays at a qb3 or above level all season if this defense catches fire early on None of those things happened. And they weren't all the Packers fault. A lot of injuries, a lot of unfortunate circumstances came to affect that. But once again, ah adjust readjusting expectations. If you still expected the team to be a Super Bowl contender with love's injury, Jair's unfortunate injury, Watson Bloy's knee out last week,
01:15:54
Speaker
the defense taking half the seasons to figure itself out. I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you because like they would have needed every other team to step in a divot walking on the field and all hurt their ankles kind of thing. And like I said, if they played the perfect game, they could have done it, but you would have had to do that four times and this team never played that game all season. So to put that expectation on them,
01:16:24
Speaker
is just it's it's foolhardy like i don't you're i don't know what you're trying to do other than to upset yourself because like i said until they lost the bear's game i don't think there was a game they lost that you could say like they should have won that game they could have won a lot of those games but i don't know if they were necessarily like they definitely should have won these games because there was always some element of Except for week one, but even then you're like, this is Philly. This is a tough team. This is a tough offense with a lot of different pressure points and your new defense and all that kind of stuff. And then the first Vikings game is love healthy. Not really. The first Detroit game, love is hurt again. Also, Jair's not playing. The second Detroit game, guys are missing. And then the Minnesota game, oh, like,
01:17:19
Speaker
There's a bunch of key players missing, but I think we have enough to make it work kind of thing. There was no one of those games where you're like, we're definitely the better team, and they fucking smoked the bunny on it. So long story short, it's always disappointing when your season ends. But to say it was a disappointing season means that you expected them to be the Super Bowl front runner, and they were never going to be that team.
01:17:49
Speaker
Like, they they never were. like yeah the I don't want to say never, but everything thing would have had to break their way. And did they didn't. They didn't from the moment that Edge Cooper hurt his hamstring in the preseason. Like, that couldn't happen. Hopper hurting his whatever in the preseason couldn't happen.
01:18:10
Speaker
all of those, you know, once all of that started, their chance of being like the number one team, those all went up because you needed that every draft pick to play all season. So yeah, they were always kind of behind the eight ball and they just weren't good enough to catch up to it. Right. And I think we're just talking in circles now, so we might as well just move on with it. So because I don't think there's any more that we can talk about it.
01:18:40
Speaker
So you want to do the announcement for the awards or? I suppose I mean, you were doing just fine talking all by yourself right there, but I'm still I'm still screwed up from last week.
01:18:56
Speaker
And I do apologize to everybody. No, no. We are glad that Joe is back. I'm surprised that nothing came out when he said because of how lousy he said he felt. So Joe, I'm glad that you're back. And I know that other than your illness, you had other things that happened to you. I'm just glad that you're here with us. Hopefully all that bad juju is behind you and the rest of 2025 just comes up roses for you.
01:19:23
Speaker
But you know how they talk about how you know some dream some games feel like fever dreams? The Bears game was a literal fever dream for me because I was spiking 102 Tim.
01:19:38
Speaker
And I had the ah ah and I was in my room and I didn't even bother turning on the TV, but I had it going on my phone. And I would literally do one of these things like I would like lift my head up to see what was going on. And then I'd crash right back down because I couldn't, you know, I couldn't. So I think there are like a select few things that I even think I remember from that moment. But I have no I I remember I remember Watson going down.
01:20:08
Speaker
And I just kept thinking, I feel you, buddy. I feel you, buddy, right now. I just, I feel you. And then I remember Malik going on the field and Jordan lining up out wide. And then I remember the final call for the the field goal. Because I was like, oh, fuck it. I'm going to bed.
01:20:35
Speaker
And that's all I remember of the, and I had it going the whole time on my phone. I just, I don't remember any of it, but anyway, that's a long way around all this stuff. But, uh, so we're going to be working out since this was the last Packer game, unless some weird thing happens where the commissioner comes out and says, gotcha. And we replay everything, which I don't think is going to happen, but you never know any anymore.
01:21:07
Speaker
so our next episode will be a live, which will be on Sunday. We're recording on the 13th or the, yeah. So it'll be the 19th unless something changes. Uh, we'll be doing a live show where we'll do our year end.
01:21:34
Speaker
Award show special guest will be Matt ramage and we're gonna do a little bit of a combined thing on between our channels and his channels and as many people as we can get viewing because we're hoping to do some a couple of giveaways and get some a Listener involvement going on. So be sure to be on the lookout on that and After that, Mike and I will have a discussion on how we're going to break down our off season. Cause like you said earlier, we will be doing our, uh, lead up to the draft. So we got to decide on who we want to bring on and what kind of recording schedule we're going to have going forward. Episodes still stood that I still should be coming out every Tuesday, but it's just when we can record them and who we can record them with.
01:22:34
Speaker
And then after that, we'll move back into, we'll have to figure something. So as usual, we will go as the seat of our pants feel.
01:22:50
Speaker
But as we said, unfortunately, the 2024 Packer season has come to a close. the The trajectory overall of this team is still upward. They have questions to answer, but they're not necessarily the same ones going into the year. They did have good, bright spots.
01:23:08
Speaker
this team will be better next season. But we'll get there as we get there through this offseason. Please check out the website, ohanapackers.org. I think Joe and I will both be getting a little more active in this offseason. Carlos has been putting together a lot of material over the past couple of weeks. um He's been pumping out like two or three stories a week. So he told me his new year's resolution was to put out more content for the website. So I don't know. Thank you.
01:23:37
Speaker
yeah I don't know if that means three a week or what, but he said he wants to put out more content for the website. So be on the lookout for it. Check out the merch. I'm sure Joe will have some fun stuff for the off season. Follow the podcast on your social medias at Ohana underscore Packer on Twitter at Ohana Packer's edition on Instagram. but Search us on Facebook.
01:24:04
Speaker
Please follow the podcast on your favorite podcasting app. Give us a like and a subscribe if you're enjoying what you're hearing and positive or negative comments. We want to hear them all to create the content you're looking for.
01:24:16
Speaker
Packers do go quietly into the night overall the season is over but hey it's the off season which means there's lots to talk about for us so keep it checked in here at Ohana Packers edition for Joe and I we thank you for following through with us this season go pack go and aloha