Packers Unscripted: Division duels

Packers Unscripted: Division duels

[Music] Hi everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers.com. I am Mike Spaford joined by the one and only Wes Hodkawitz. We’re coming to you here from our studios at Lambeau Field. Wes, for another double duty episode because we only have one show this week. No, not your fault this time. Only one show this week because of the Thursday game in Detroit on Thanksgiving. So, we will review the Vikings. We will preview the Lions and try to cram it all into one show. 23-6 was the final score at Lambeau Field over Minnesota. A solid effort in all three phases by the Packers. To me, this game came down to three things. Emanuel Wilson’s breakout game, a massive turnover on special teams that altered the course of the football game, and then an absolutely smothering defense by the Packers in the second half. So, I’ll let you take whichever one of those you want to start with. You know what? I want to start with the Emanuel Wilson story, if I may. I I know everybody likes to talk offense. offense sometimes gets a little bit too many eyeballs on it. But this was a very precarious position Green Bay was put into because Josh Jacobs by all intents and purposes probably was healthy enough to play in this game. But you got the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving at Ford Field on that turf 4 days later. Do you really want to rush him back after the bone bruise and then have him play two punishing football games in a matter of four four days? They decide to roll the dice with Emanuel Wilson and also Chris Brooks and use those two in a platoon to sort of navigate this matchup. Boy golly did Emanuel Wilson prove the Green Bay Packers correct. Y his first NFL start ends up becoming the first 100yard rushing performance individually by the Packers this season. He plows into the end zone for two touchdowns and in doing so becomes the first Packers player and only the second one since the merger to have 100 plus rushing yards, two plus touchdowns in their first career start since Sam Kongado in 2005. And I felt like this actually was that type of performance. Uh Emanuel didn’t break like a huge explosive run, but he continually pushed the pile. You know what really impresses me about him? This has nothing to do with him being undrafted free agent. nothing about him being a former division 2 star uh at Fort Valley State. It’s the fact that he has a really explosive burst, but he still maintains the power to really launch himself into linebackers. That’s a unique combination. A lot of running backs don’t have it. And in this particular game, the Packers rode him to victory. With all the mistakes that the Minnesota Vikings were playing, the Packers were able to play it safe and rest a lot of guys, be able to navigate this type of matchup by establishing the run and running the ball continually. Yeah. What I really liked seeing from Wilson in his first NFL start and first really truly extended action we got to see was the combination that he does bring in terms of both his vision and his power. There were some tough runs where he had to make a quick decision with his feet at the line of scrimmage to, you know, to get what was there, even if it was only just three or four yards, but um to get what was there to move the chains to put the offense in a good position. And there were other times where he kept the pads down and he powered through. I mean, that that first touchdown run he had at the goal line was really impressive. the second effort that he showed there. And the reason you’re allowed to have a second effort is because you have the pad level and the balance to absorb the first hit and stay on your feet to allow yourself to uh um to power across the goal line. I really liked what what Wilson did there. Um as far as how this game unfolded, the Vikings just weren’t doing much on offense. The defense got a huge stop in the red zone. Y um Minnesota was running the ball with Jones and Mason um pushing the ball down the field on the ground and it came down to a third and one in the red zone. They got a little tricky with TJ Hawinson coming across taking the direct snap. The Packers get the stuff there. They go for it on fourth and one. They hand it off to Jordan Mason and he gets stuffed as well. So the turnover on downs in the red zone was big. Other than that, all the Vikings were able to do was kick two very long field goals, 52 and 59 yards. So, they were never really threatening the end zone on those other two possessions. But the game goes into halftime with just a 10 to6 lead. Um, Packers were getting the ball coming out at the start of the second half and you’re thinking, okay, you go down and get a score, you go up, you know, a couple of scores and then let’s see what happens. Well, the Packers offense got across the 50 but then had a penalty, stalled out. the Packers have to punt. And then that’s when the game changed because Zayn Anderson made probably what would have to be considered the play of the year on special teams so far for the for the Packers in 2025. Miles Price, the young punt returner and dangerous punt returner for the Vikings, the ball is sailing over his head inside the 10 yard line. So, he gives up on it and says, “Okay, I need to go block somebody um so that the Packers can’t down the ball um close to the goal line.” And in the midst of engaging Zayn Anderson, Daniel Wheelan’s uh backspin end, the Aussie style punt uh comes back and Anderson sees the ball, Price doesn’t. Anderson shoves Price into the ball. The contact makes it live. He falls on it. So the Packers end up getting the touchdown a couple of plays later. That was sort of the start of the second half touchdown. And when this game got to 17 to six, it was it was pretty much curtains at that point. An excellent overview of this and and I want to look at it from two different perspectives if I may. Am I allowed to do that? Sure. The first one is I know there was a lot of conversation earlier this season about the decision to have Romeo Dobs inside the 20. These are the reasons why a lot of times you want to have a veteran player, at least somebody that knows the game situation. I’m not saying anything about price here. I’m saying this strictly in terms of the Packer strategy. Price by staying close to the ball inside the 10 yardd line made himself susceptible to to being pushed into it, which is Zayn was telling us after the game is exactly what he was trying to do as one of the flyers on that play. He saw where the ball was and it was such a corky bounce. I mean, it was just an odd bounce where it just kind of pushed right to the right. Uh it was almost like it went on like a a trajectory like it hit like an invisible wall and just darted towards the sidelines. It was great by Daniel. As he’d been saying, he’s been looking for that type of good bounce all season. Um because at some point there is just a little bit of luck involved there. But the fact is like a lot of times you’ll see Rome when he’s back there, he will evade or look for a block or something like that and then just whatever happens inside the 20 happens, but you’re not leaving yourself open to to a muff punt by running into it. Anderson drives him into the ball and was able to jump right on it. And it was hilarious listening to him talk about it afterwards cuz he he’s like that pile felt like forever as the referees are trying to to get it going. And there’s and he was on top of it right away and was on the bottom of it but the referees couldn’t sort it out and anderson had the ball the whole time and Anderson said I mean there was guys from his team saying Zayn do you got it? Do you got it? There’s guys from um the Vikings that are that are jousting for it or asking price if he had gotten it. And then finally it comes out and here he is at the 5 yd line. Two plays later, boom, boom, Emanuel Wilson plows that thing into the end zone for a score. And really the the game-breaking kind of backbreaking score in this one. What I love about it is there was a time probably about 10 years ago, and I think this is one of the big really nice shifts that Green Bay has made under the Brian Gutens era where they’ve dedicated themselves to developing players who might not necessarily contribute on defense or offense, but our core special teams guy. Zayn Anderson epitomizes that. He was here for now in his third season. Yeah. Uh but has very rarely played on defense unless really in a case of emergency and he’s filled in well there when he has. But the fact is is they have him as a core four guy. And for so long he was kind of a pass personal protector on punt coverage and then really since Cory Balentine left they pushed him outside to be opposite of B uh Bo Melton now and he’s been money. And as Daniel said afterwards they call him White Lightning and he got down there in a hurry. and and listening to Wheelen. Wheelen will never be one to really give himself any credit. Um he talked about having the benefit of having two of the fastest flyers in the National Football League at his disposal, but for him also to have three punts inside the 20 in this game. Um a field position maestro that that’s why Green Bay was able to win this game. They made JJ McCarthy go the long way and he could not do it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this was this was uh a Viking special teams unit as a whole that is one of the best in the league. And Rich Baceia talked about that last Thursday before the game. And when you see Will Rekard makes field goals of 52 and 59 yards, two times on punts, the Packers got pinned inside the 10 yardd line. This is and and Miles Price has had some, you know, dynamic returns this year. This this is a Viking special teams unit that is at the top of the league and because of the turnover, the play by Anderson, the Packers were actually able to win the special teams battle against one of the one of the best units out there. So, so that was huge. And then just the fact that the Packers got the 11-point lead, a multiscore lead at 17 to6. And as I wrote in my rapid reaction editorial after the game, hey, Jeff Hafley called his shot, man. He stood there at the podium on Thursday. He was absorbing all the questions about where’s the pass rush like what’s happening and he said hey look here you know the the Packers as a whole as a entire team have not been able to play the type of game they want to play the Packers had not had a multiscored lead since Pittsburgh and what did we see in Pittsburgh with a multis-score lead Parson slam the door right the Packers finally get another multiscore lead after the turnover and the touchdown and then the pass rush was just unleashed and JJ McCarthy was overmatched. The Vikings offensive line was overmatched. Parsons gets two sacks. Devonte Wyatt gets two sacks. Two of those almost result in safeties. Twice the Vikings are punting uh essentially 11 yardd punt snaps from the one to the back of the end zone when normally a punt snap is 15 yards. They’re punting with short snaps at the back of the end zone twice in the game. and the Packers take advantage of the field position, add a couple of field goals, get it to a three-score game, and as you had said, you know, took the air out of the ball and all that and just got the clock to zero and got to the finish line in this one. But this just shows you what the Packers defense is capable of when they have a multis-score lead to protect and the opponent has to throw the ball because you can’t just try to grind out yards on the ground and, you know, risk spending seven, eight, nine minutes on the clock to get one score when you’re down by a couple of scores. That’s where the Vikings found themselves and they were overmatched. One thing I loved about this matchup uh with what Green Bay did defensively was it it was the Micah Parson show again. He went over 10 sacks on the season with his two sacks uh three quarterback hits, numerous pressures, some of which helped lead to those Devonte Wyatt opportunities for sure. But it came in all shapes, all forms, all sizes. Uh you saw Warren Brinson, the Packers rookie sixround pick, have five pressures in this game and his first career sack, sharing that with Isaiah McDuffy in a really interesting looking front. I don’t know if we still had one what you might have missed. My goodness, man. The way to break that down where you got Devonte Wyatt lined up as a fivetech edge, seven tech, you know, edge, and then you have, you know, all these plethora of defenders uh lined up everywhere. It was just everything was in fluid sync motion. Yeah. And Warren Brinson never stopped moving his feet. He just kept charging through the middle and he ends up driving up uh some of that contact there with JJ McCarthy and and Isaiah McDuffy also on a blitz, you know, was able to finish that play. It just it was so beautiful to watch. And for Green Bay, they were leaking, you know, for rushing yards in the first half. 86 yards between Mason and Jones. Those guys had a combined -3 yards in the second half. The only rushing yards the Vikings had were off of JJ McCarthy scrambles. Now, you could say part of that being, okay, well, the Vikings kind of got away to from what they were doing well, but realistically once they fell into 17 to six, then they were having to sort of get out of their game plan, which I think honestly was, let’s just try to run those two as much as we can, see what kind of opportunities happen with the passing game from there. Right. When JJ McCarthy had to drop back and he got into third in long situations, it did not end well for Minnesota. And what I really liked about the defensive performance, three straight threeand outs after the the turnover, the giveaway, and then it was followed by two interceptions. McDuffy’s first career interception and then Evan Williams putting the icing on the cake. You wrote about it on Saturday. Micah Parsons has been the closer for this defense, and he was again, but my goodness, the setup men, the holds, everything. Yeah. I mean, it was incredible to watch it all come together. Yeah, it was a heck of a catch by McDuffy on his interception. I’ll give him credit for that as well. and Rashawn Garry coming around on the edge and getting a little piece of the ball as McCarthy was throwing that. So that threw off the whole trajectory of the pass and McDuffy was able to make the diving catch. Evan Williams interception later on the bad overthrow. Unfortunately, we find we found out on Monday JJ McCarthy was probably concussed at the time he threw the second interception. If you look at the film, the two plays leading up to the second interception, um he scrambled and took a hit when he went down and then he was also knocked down in the pocket when he threw a pass on the next play. Um those plays did not look good for for JJ McCarthy and is probably where he’s he uh he sustained the head injury and then he he threw the the second interception. But um the Packers Packers defense just completely overwhelmed Minnesota in the second half. And it speaks to when we talk about having the multis-score lead, putting the other team in that position. It speaks to how big the red zone stop was in the first half because um because if the Vikings get if the Vikings even if they decided to just kick the field goal there, I think Kevin O’Connell decided he went for it there on fourth and one because even though he had failed on third and one, he went for it on fourth and one because he decided, well, we’re probably not going to beat the Packers at Lambo Field by kicking field goals, right? Which is a fair play. Um which uh you know, you can understand that. you can understand that decision and the Packers getting the stop there, allowing no points on that drive. Um, that’s what set up being able to then have the bigger lead in in the second half and go from there. We do need to turn the page to the Lions if you’re ready to do that. The game is coming up here very quickly, but before we do that, we’ll pay some bills and hear from our sponsors. SiriusXM NFL Radio delivers hard-hitting analysis and up totheminute NFL news that true football fanatics need 24/7 365. At Cousin Subs, we have something for everyone like our Wisconsin cheese curds, mac and cheese, golden fries, and creamy shakes. All paired with your favorite sub or sub in a bowl. Cousin Subs, 50 plus years of better. Pit Boss Grills, the official grill of Packers tailgating at Lambo or at your house. Take your game day to the next level with a Pit Boss wood pellet grill. Pit Boss Grills available at Menards. Hey Packers fans, we always knew Lambo Field was a wonder, but now it’s official. Learn more about all the wonders of Wisconsin at travel Wisconsin.com/wonders. Thanksgiving Day in Detroit, Wes. We’ve done it multiple times in the past. I haven’t I’ve lost count now of how many times I’ve covered Packers Lions in Detroit on Thanksgiving. This one my third actually. Okay. I think it was 13 two years ago and now this one. Okay. And I had two at home and I believe I covered three before that 0709 and 11. So uh so yeah, this is would be up to seven. Would this be my seventh one then? Wow. Love to ask ESPN stats info. And it will be the third consecutive Thanksgiving game for the Packers, having played at Detroit two years ago and then hosting a Thanksgiving game last year. But here’s where we are, Wes. The Packers are 73 and one, just behind the 8-3 Chicago Bears in the NFC North. The Detroit Lions are right on the Packers heels at 7-4. They are coming off of a wild kind of shootout type overtime win against the New York Giants. The Lions tied the game at the uh right at the end of regulation with a long 58 59 yard field goal by Jake Bates and then Jir Gibbs uh first play from scrimmage in overtime goes 69 yards for a touchdown and that’s what wins it for Detroit. Um the Lions have been, you know, they’ve been up and down this season. There’s no there there’s no two ways about it. This is a team that only lost two games all regular season last year. They’ve lost four and they were on the verge of losing number five on Sunday, but this is kind of their bread and butter, right? They know they play at home on Thanksgiving every year. They know the stakes of the game. The crowd the the crowd is going to be there. This is not one of those road games where uh you’re going to see a lot of Green Bay Packer fans in the stands because uh this is the game the Detroit fans always come out for. Big challenge here for Green Bay. I’ll be honest with you, Mike, I really have had a hard time making sense of the Lions this season. Uh, as much as fans want to talk about Green Bay and sort of the ups and downs and the inconsistency, I think has been the big buzzword, uh, the Lions have kind of been on that similar track. Uh, specifically offensively. You know, there’s been times where Jir Gibbs and this running game look absolutely unstoppable. Uh, there’s been times where I thought, uh, Jared Goff has played like an MVP. Uh last week Alman Ross St. Brown was incredible. Um but then you go back two weeks ago against Philadelphia and it looked like offensively they couldn’t do a single thing right and and Goff completed what was it like 14 of 34 passes something like that. So yeah he was well below 50% in the game. They they’ve been done a little bit of everything. But you know what that is Mike? It makes them dangerous. And they’re super talented. They play well at home. I will be interested to see how they handle back-to-back games on their turf in that field. I mean that is a punishing thing to do. uh regardless of playing at Ford Field, just in general, playing uh twice in four days on a turf field is is not easy. So, we’ll be interested to see how they look, but I mean, they they’re right up there. And if the Green Bay Packers are going to make a claim this season to be a Super Bowl contender, to be one of the NFC’s elite, the these are the type of matchups you have to go through. Um they took care of business against the Vikings, and they did so in a in a handily manner, something that we all talked about. We wanted to see them sort of give it just dominate another team, right? Um not have it down to the final minute, final two minutes of a game, really have this thing in hand. They did that against Minnesota. Well, now you’re going to be facing a team that is looking more complete. Uh but at the same time also had to go through a gritty down to-the-wire game with the Giants just like the Packers did. So, um just very interested to watch this one. It’s going to be really fascinating. Yeah. And you mentioned the the inconsistencies on offense. They’ve gone through the transition. They lose Ben Johnson. Obviously, their offensive coordinator goes to coach the Bears. John Morton takes over as offensive coordinator. A few weeks ago, Dan Campbell takes the play calling from Morton and he’s the one calling the plays. The head coach now on offense. There’s been some ups and downs on the defense though as well because when you look at I I mean the L the Lions defense was really really tough against the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia. A tough place to play. The Lions were not able to win that game, but their defense looked incredibly stout. Then they come back seven days later. They’re playing at home against a two-in Giants team, and they give up 500 plus yards. They’re on the field for 77 plays, which could definitely factor into this one on a short week. The Lions defense had 77 snaps on Sunday. The Packers defense only had 44. So, that’ll be something to watch as Thursday’s game unfolds. But yet at the same time, you go, “Well, but this is a defense that has Aiden Hutchinson and it has, you know, Kirby Joseph and I know Kirby Joseph’s on the injury report right now, but you know, you know, the talent is there. They they got a Lee McNeel back in the middle of that defensive line, which is which is a big piece for them. So, um, I’m just going to throw it out to you right away. Keys to victory here for Green Bay. What do the Packers have to do to come out on top?” Well, they have to stop Gibbs. Uh and and no disrespect, I mean David Montgomery, too, although Gibbs has been more of the home run throughout this season. And I feel like if you go back to that first matchup, what did Green Bay do really well at its at their play, you know, its place? U it dominated the trenches, right? Uh the Packers defensive front imposed their will against the Lions afterwards. Micah Parson’s talking about that match up with Penny Su, how he’s like, “You’re going to be my new rival, right?” just like how Lane Johnson was his rival with the Eagles and he had a really good game against Su. So I I think being able to to contain Gibbs in the home run threat he provides that is the it’s kind of similar to what the thing is with Saquon right with with the Eagles it’s like he can beat you on one or two plays and that could be the game. Yep. Uh Gibbs has that same factor because if you allow him to make this a third and short game that’s when Aman Ross St. Brown becomes really dangerous. Now they don’t have Sam Leapora. to lose uh one of their big, you know, needle movers there at tight end due to the back surgery. Yeah. Both of these teams losing uh big big weapons at tight end who were hu huge parts of their offense with Leaporta on one side, Tucker Craft on the other. Yeah. And and the Lions defense, somebody had asked me about this in inbox and what I thought about them. And the thing is is that yeah, they’ve been inconsistent at times, but statistically they are better than they were last year. Uh the difference is the the bench doesn’t go very deep. uh they they kind of are what they are as far as their starters are concerned and if they’re all out there and they’re all healthy um probably one of the better units in the league. I think Muhammad is a really uh intriguing pass rusher. He’s been a nice compliment uh this season to Hutchinson and I love their linebackers uh with with Derek Barnes and obviously Jack Campbell couple years back Campbell and Gibbs that was two draft picks that kind of raised everybody’s eyebrows and they’ve been sort of the cornerstones for what Detroit’s been building here. So, uh, it’s not going to be an easy matchup, but if Green Bay can manage to win the ground game, especially that would help if Josh Jacobs is back in the fold, uh, that is, I feel, like the most true path to victory in this one. Yeah. The one thing I would say that’s the caveat to the Giants and what they did offensively with the 500 plus yards and all the points that they put up against the Lions, they did run two trick plays for touchdowns. And the Lions clearly just weren’t prepared for Jameus Winston and the Giants to come out with all the the trickeration and whatnot in order and and they were able to score twice. I mean, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a team score twice on trick plays and then lose the game, but the but the Giants managed to and and then their defensive coordinator got fired on Monday. So, so there’s that. I don’t want to make this I I you know me I don’t like to oversimplify things but in this day and age of the you know of the the sound bites and the quippy quotes to me this game comes down to tackle Jir Gibbs and block Aiden Hutchinson those are the two guys who can give you a long day on either side of the ball right and if the Packers can somehow just contain the impact that those two guys are going to have I really like Green Bay’s uh chances in this game. But as you said with Gibbs, you know, he’s Jir Gibbs has become as big a home run hitter as there is at running back in the NFL right now. He’s up there with Barkley. He’s up there with Jonathan Taylor of the Colts, a guy who can take it the distance at any moment. In baseball, you can intentionally walk the home run hitter when you want to and not have to deal with him for, you know, a couple of more innings. It doesn’t work that way with running backs in the NFL. You have to tackle him. You have to contain him. He’s going to get the ball. He’s going to get it a lot. He has really taken over in terms of the touches, the one-two punch with David Montgomery. Montgomery is still doing his thing, but he doesn’t get the ball as often as Gibbs does. Gibbs is a much much bigger part of this offense now. And on the other side, the Packers completely neutralized Hutchinson in week one, but that was his first game back from the long layoff and the really bad injury that he had last season. Hutchinson is is looking a lot more like the Aiden Hutchinson that was on his way to potentially defensive player of the year last year before he got hurt. And the Packers have to uh they have to neutralize him again the best they can. Yeah. One thing I want to add too that I think really bodess well for Green Bay, they they have to have a better performance against the run. Um but but one thing that’s going to be very different uh than this game than it was against Minnesota is you’re going to see more base defense. Uh it’s just the way you have to match up with the Lions, especially on early downs. Uh and by and large the Packers rested when you look at their base. I mean Kobe Wooden his snap counts were down. Nazir Stacos played three snaps. Uh you you look at you know Kingsley and Bari was able to kind of have some time off. They should be relatively fresh in addition to the fact that again we’ll have to see what all means. The Packers estimated that Quay Walker would have been returning in limited capacity if they would have practiced on Monday. Yeah. Um that’s big after he didn’t practice at all last week potentially having him available. And if not, then you’ll go with Isaiah McDuffy. But that you go back to that first game, Mike, it’s the way they played in the defensive front and it’s the way the linebackers attacked. Uh the way that Walker, Cooper, and when he was out there, Isaiah McDuffy got after uh Gibbs and Montgomery. U both of those guys being neutralized. I want to say they kept him under 100 yards despite having somewhere around 30 carries. Um you do that again, you’re going to have a chance. Yeah. And you really like the way the Packers linebackers are playing that whole group of four. I know Walker didn’t play in this last game, but Quay Walker, Edin Cooper, Isaiah McDuffy, Tyron Hopper, when he gets in there, what that entire group is doing uh has been really impressive. The other thing we need to mention on defense, Keshan Nixon exited the Minnesota game uh with a shoulder stinger, did not return to the game, was estimated as a did not participate as far as the injury report, the practice estimation on Monday. Kamal Haden stepped in, got his first defensive action of the season. Young guy who was a sixth round draft pick of the Kansas City Chiefs last year. He didn’t make it in Kansas City. The Packers signed him to the practice squad. Spent all year last year on the practice squad. Maybe got one or two elevations for game day, but then he’s been on the active roster this year. He made the team coming out of training camp, but he hasn’t played. And suddenly he got thrown into action and he very well could have a big role in this game against the Lions. It was good to see what he was able to do and sort of getting his feet wet against the Vikings. This becomes a whole another challenge now playing the Detroit Lions on the road on Thanksgiving in in a much much bigger game. You can see why and it’s such a small sample size, but watching a little bit of his clips and his film from that game against the Vikings. He plays with the physicality that Jeff Hafley likes with his quarterbacks, right? Yeah. Um there’s the one play he was not happy about. It looked like he probably got held on it. I remember watching it as it played out. that side judge was not calling anything in that game. So what does he do on the next FA play? He literally does an illegal hands to the face and pie face as Justin Jefferson during his jam at the line of scrimmage. It goes uncalled too. So I mean there’s an edgginess that he plays with. There’s a confidence and a swagger that he plays with. Uh but certainly this is a much different challenge if he is called upon. Now want to also mention Nate Hobbs was estimated as a limited participant on Monday as well. What will it all mean Basil? I don’t know. But uh the Packers could have him in the cards as well, which would be really good if you don’t have Nixon who was estimated as a DMP because of the next stinger. So, and even just from a depth standpoint to have another option there as well because because next up would be Bo Melton at cornerback and and like Haden, he actually hasn’t played on defense this season if if Hobbs is actually available on Thursday as another option even if maybe Haden would be would take those snaps if Nixon can’t play. Um, but just having another guy as in in the depth equation would certainly be helpful. It was fun talking to Had in the locker room after the game, too, because he mentioned he actually went up to Xavier McKini before the game. Obviously, he doesn’t want Keshan Nixon getting hurt, but he told Xavier, he’s like, “I’m going to get my first NFL tackle today.” He ended up getting four of them, uh, I believe it was. But, uh, just predicted it and it happened. And unfortunately, when Nixon went out, he said, I just, it was almost instinct. He’s like, he saw he was not instantaneously getting up. He runs out on the field and, uh, held his own. And also a tip of the cap to Carrington Valentine who uh has gone from being that next guy up to once again like it just seems like it’s worked out every single year he’s been in the NFL the second half of the season. Yeah, there he is. Number 24 is on the rise. One other game I just I almost said 37. Did you catch that? What’s that? I almost said 37. And I was like he is 24 now, right? And then you finished it for me. He’s number 24. One other game I want to get your thoughts on and then we got to go. Um, so Black Friday, which has become now another NFL tradition, a game the day after Thanksgiving, it’s the Bears at the Eagles. Now, the Philadelphia Eagles, all close games have beaten the Vikings, the Packers, and the Lions. Now, this is their last NFC North opponent. The Eagles get the Bears in Philadelphia. The Bears are eight and three, sitting on top of the NFC North. Um, there’s gonna be a lot of eyeballs on this game, Wes. And, uh, and a lot of people around the NFL knowing that the Bears don’t have that strength of victory in their schedule, right, in terms of the teams they’ve beat. And it’s like, okay, here you are, Chicago. Go out, go out and prove it. And the Eagles are coming off of an absolutely atrocious loss, blowing a 21 to nothing lead in Dallas. They don’t score for the last 40 minutes of the game and they lose 24-21 to the Cowboys on a walk-off field goal by Brandon Aubrey. Um, this is a big one. Bears against the Eagles Black Friday. It’s going to have major implications uh all across the NFC. Um, in terms of the the playoff picture, this is the measuring stick game for Chicago. Uh, I was talking as recently as last Thursday about how they haven’t really had like that big quality victory yet. something that really jumps off the page that tells you they’re not just a team that’s beating who’s in front of them, but someone who can really be trifled with uh in the NFL. Um much like Detroit, they hung in there. They won a gritty, close game at the end. They found a way to kind of claw themselves forward, but now you’re going up against one of the the top teams from not only the NFC, but the National Football League. And on the same token, uh massive matchup now for the Eagles who have kind of a gut checkby after they came up short. So, uh, very interesting chess match that’s going to play out. I I was looking at the schedule for this week. It’s very quizzical to me like and and the Black Friday thing is not going away. We’ve also seen the quality of those games kind of rise up here. Oh, yeah. Uh, over the last year or so, no doubt. But it’s all on these two game like these four games coming up and it seems like then Sunday night, Monday night, I can’t believe none of those games got Are they not allowed to flex in week 13? I don’t know how that I I Yeah, I’m not I’m not sure. Did you look at what the rest of the schedule’s like for No, I I actually didn’t look. I’ve been so focused on just Thursday and Friday with uh with the three top teams in the NFC North are all going to be are all going to have played by the time we’re eating our turkey leftovers on Friday evening. Right. So, while after all the tryptophan has worked its way through your system over the weekend, you’ll get to watch the Denver Broncos take on the Washington Commanders in Sunday Night Football. And then Monday Night Football, um if you have any turkey sandwiches left, you might want to have already have eaten them right before this game so you fall asleep. the New York Giants and the New England Patriots in a battle of two and 10 versus 10-2 teams. Ouch. Um, so all the eggs are in the first two-day baskets of it seems like with the Thursday night uh the Thursday games for Thanksgiving and then obviously the Black Friday game. So yeah, and from the Packers perspective, by the time Friday night rolls around, the Packers could be anywhere from third place in the NFC North all the way to first place in the NFC North. It could fall anywhere in there. So we’ll see what happens by the end of the weekend. When you talk about the entire NFC top to bottom, you could be anywhere in Yeah, a lot of things could be shifting around. We’re getting to that time of year. But we will call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to continue following all of our coverage of the team and we will have all of the coverage of the Thanksgiving Day game from Detroit on Packers.com. For Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. Happy Thanksgiving and we will see you next time.

Mike and Wes review the victory over the Vikings – including RB Emanuel Wilson’s breakout game (:37), the big turnover on special teams (4:59) and the dominant defensive effort (9:26) – as well as preview the Thanksgiving game in Detroit, looking at the Lions on both sides of the ball (17:12). They also give Green Bay’s keys to victory (20:50) and look at Chicago’s big Black Friday matchup (29:21).

Subscribe to the Packers YouTube Channel: https://pckrs.com/YouTube

#GoPackGo #Packers #GreenBayPackers #NFL

Keep up-to-date on all things Packers:

Visit https://www.packers.com/
Follow: https://x.com/packers
Follow: https://www.instagram.com/packers/
Like: https://www.facebook.com/Packers/
Follow: https://www.tiktok.com/@packers
Follow: https://www.threads.net/@packers
Add: https://www.snapchat.com/add/packers