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Mac & Bone Show - Ryan Wood Interview · Mac & Bone Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ryan Wood will be ready as well.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: He is the Packers beat writer for the USA Today Network.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: He joins us here on the Mac and Bone Show
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: to give us a scoop on the Green Bay side
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: of things. He might be hung over from celebrating the Brewers'
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: World Series win last night.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure. Ryan, what's going on, man? How you doing?
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you this. You guys have come to the
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Badger State at a very... Very rare time. 95% of
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: the time, this is a Packers state. I mean, this
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: is football. It's the final weekend of October. It's all
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Packers up here. You drive around the streets of Green
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Bay right now. We're not even talking Milwaukee. Green Bay.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: You see the Halloween lights. They're all blue and yellow.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: And they've been that way for a couple weeks. So, yeah,
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: it's a Brewer state at the moment.
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: Someone on our text line today, Ryan, said maybe... The
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: Panthers catch the Packers crowd a little sleepy and hungover.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: I had to point out, I'm pretty sure the folks
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: of Wisconsin can drink and party on back-to-back nights.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the batteries up here go more than one evening.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: They go maybe more than a week sometimes. Yeah, I
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: don't think there's any concern there. But, you know, to
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: the point you just made, it's kind of what happened
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: last year, isn't it? The Panthers come up here, I
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: don't think much was expected in terms of them walking
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: out of Lambeau Field with a win.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: And what do you know?
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: They did. And so it's going to be hard for
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: the Panthers to sneak up on the Packers this time
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: because it just happened a year ago. That doesn't mean
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: the Packers team can't go out and lay an egg.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: They did that week three. And the last time they
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: hosted a short week game at Lambeau Field against the
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: Atlanta Falcons, they got blown out on their home field.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: That can happen. But if that happens, I don't think
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: it's because the Panthers snuck up on them. They know...
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: They've got to bring their A game.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: That's a good point. That's a very good point. All right, Ryan,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: let's talk about Green Bay. I'm interested to see what
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: you think the offense approach will be. The Panthers are
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: in a situation where, man, they're playing two young corners.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: We don't even know who the one starter is going
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: to be.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: The other is a rookie who's played well, but a
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: rookie in Will Lee with Jackson and Hornout. But also,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: when they're watching the tape in the Packers' offices this week,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: they're seeing a hideous run defense there. Do you think
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: they see it as a week with Jacobs back to
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: finally get a run game going? Do you think they
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: attack the corners? Do they do a little bit of both? Like,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: how do you think they'll play it offensively tonight?
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: I think this is a week, especially with what happened
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: a few days ago for the Panthers run defense, that
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: if I don't see the Packers run the ball tonight,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: I very much begin to doubt whether it's going to
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: happen at any point this season. Now, with that said,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: As much as that was a hideous run defense, this
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: is a hideous Packers offensive line. It is quite possibly,
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: if not likely, the worst offensive line in the NFL.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: So I don't have a degree of confidence for this
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: Packers run game against anybody right now. You look at
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: last week, four days ago, Josh Jacobs comes back against Detroit.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: They've got their running back back. It was 36 yards
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: on 11 carries. That's not great, obviously. So the Lions
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: have a better run defense than the Panthers do. As
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: much as the Lions' back end is bad, their front
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: is quite good. And so can this Packers' run game
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: get on track for really the first time on season?
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: This is a historically bad run game. They're averaging 60
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: yards rushing per game to this point in the season.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: The last team in the NFL to average 60 yards
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: rushing per game through a season was the 1946 Detroit Lions.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: It hasn't been.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Done since the 1940s. And oh, by the way, even
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: with Josh Jacobs back against Detroit, they left Motown with
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: 60 rushing guards against the Lions as a team. It
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: didn't exactly bolster that run game. So if they're playing
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: the Carolina Panthers camp, I don't think anything's going to.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: They didn't even have helmets back then, if I'm not mistaken.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: That's how long ago that was. Or face masks.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: The 1946 Detroit Lions. That's correct. That's hard to do.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: That is crazy.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: We're talking to Ryan Wood here on the Mac and
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: Bone Show. He's on social media, on Twitter, at ByRyanWood.
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: Give him a follow for any Packers insight heading into
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: the game tonight. A lot of injuries on both sides, Ryan.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: Matthew Golden is a guy we've been watching on the
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: Packers side, the wide receiver. How much does his status
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: impact this game tonight?
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: Quite a bit. He's had a breakout second season recently.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: He's the first-round pick last year for a franchise that
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: had gone 22 years without drafting a receiver in the
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: first round. It was the longest streak in the NFL.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: And then Matthew Golden comes onto the scene last year
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: as a rookie, the first-round pick, and he barely plays.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: Some of that's injury. Some of that's just being buried
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: in a crowded receiving room. And the Packers this offseason
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: really rearranged the furniture. They let Romeo Dobbs walk in
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: free agency. They traded Dontavion Wick's to the Philadelphia Eagles,
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: all with the idea, first and foremost, of getting Matthew
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: Golden on the field, getting him targets, and making him
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: a much bigger part of this offense. That has worked very,
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: very well to this point in the season, but it's
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: not all Matthew Golden either. Christian Watson's the alpha. He's
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: wide receiver one. He's good to go. So long as
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Christian Watson's on the field, Jordan Love is going to
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: have a guy that he can really target this Panther
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: secondary with, and The strength of this offense has been
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: the verticality of their passing game. They are very explosive.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: They're a little too explosive player bust, and that's where
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: they've struggled to sustain drives this season. But this is
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: a Packers passing game that can hit a bomb on
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: you at any time, from anywhere, any moment of the game.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: No doubt. No doubt. And that worries us with our
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: corner situation for the Panthers. No doubt.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Ryan, let's go to the other side of the ball
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: defensively for the Packers. No Micah Parsons. So he is
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: yet to yet to be able to play off that injury.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: It seems like Van Ness, though, has been a pretty
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: good pass rusher. What are the what are the what
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: are the strengths and what are the I know they're
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: forcing turnovers and picking off passes. So what are the
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: strengths and weaknesses.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Of that unit?
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: Jonathan Gannon, like a lot of the NFL, has really
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: ripped the pages from Brian Flores' playbook, and he's adopted
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: that eight-men-up blitz pre-snap look at the line of scrimmage
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: where he drops guys, he sends guys. It's hard to
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: know who's coming and going. They've gotten some success with that,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: being able to bolster the pass rush without Micah Parsons,
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: but it hasn't been every week. I mean, just in
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Detroit this past week, Jared Goff picked them apart because
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: Jared Goff had nobody in his face. And every time
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: they did have someone in his face, like Carl Brooks
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: on the last drive or Brenton Cox Jr., they got
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: blocked into Jared Goff. There's been a roughing the passer.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: That's been a big point of conversation for all season, really.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: The Packers have been called for eight roughing the passer penalties.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Jordan Love, who's been hit over 50 times this season,
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: more than any quarterback in the league, has yet to
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: get a roughing the passer penalty. So Packers fans kind
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: of scratching their head about the math on that. But
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: this is a pass rush without Micah Parsons that has
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: shown it can get after the quarterback, and it has
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: shown that it can be blanked. It's hard to know
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: week in and week out what to expect from it.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: Ryan, so much of this league is about what you're
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: coming off of, what's ahead, when do you get a team.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: How big is this game for the Packers' season tonight?
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: Because they're in the NFC North. Also, up next, it's
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: Minnesota-New England, right, coming up after this game?
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: Correct. It is huge. They need this game. This game
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: puts them at 5-3. To your point, they're in the
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: NFC North. Every team in the NFC North is plus 500.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, 5-3 in other divisions is a really good record.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: It might be leading your division. They're last place in
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: the division at 4-3 right now. That's the NFC North
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: in 2026. So just in terms of keeping pace, they
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: need this game. They get the weekend off, obviously, and
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: then it's to New England. And then it's a Vikings
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: defense that, against this offensive line, Good luck. They need
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: to get the games that are winnable. This is a
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: winnable game for the Packers now. It's a winnable game
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: for the Panthers, too, and both of these teams very
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: much in the same boat, where a lot of times
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: in these short-week games, players hate them. Their bodies haven't
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: recovered yet. They're sore. It's painful. These two teams are,
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: I think, going to approach this game different because coming
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: off the losses that both of them had, came off
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: of very different losses, but the type of losses where
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: you want to go back out Monday and play more
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: football because that wasn't it, and it leaves a very
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: bitter taste in your mouth. I think both of these
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: teams have that similarity. They're carrying that into this game.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Last thing I want to ask about is how everybody
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: feels up there about Matt LaFleur as coach. This has
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: not been a terrible start, but it's certainly below the standard,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: and I know People were already questioning his status going
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: into the season. How are fans kind of feeling about LaFleur?
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: And is there really like a hot seat situation with him?
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Like internally, what do you think?
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: Not internally. He just got extended this offseason. Everyone coming
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: out of that Chicago playoff meltdown to your biggest rival. Everyone, media, myself, fans.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: Everyone outside that building looked at that game and thought,
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: you know, it's been seven years. It's probably time. It's
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: probably time at this point to turn the page, to reset.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: Ed Policy, Packers president, said nope. He said this offseason
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: it was shocking to him that there was any thought
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: that someone who's won as many games as Matt LaFleur
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: in this league, and he has won a lot of games,
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: would be on the hot seat. So the Packers, he's
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: not on the hot seat there. The fans, very much
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: depends on the week. They snapped the three-game winning streak
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: in Detroit four days ago. During that three-game winning streak,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: I think that fan approval was rising. It was frankly
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: shocking that this team, without Micah Parsons, with this offensive line,
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: without Josh Jacobs, had started 4-2. I didn't see that.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: And good coaches can get their teams to win games
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: when they don't have all the pieces, when they're not
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: clicking at the highest level, they still go out there
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: and win. Matt LaFleur was doing that. If he loses tonight...
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: Will the fans put him back on the hot seat? Absolutely.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: That's kind of where they're at. What have you done
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: for me lately? And it's very much a week-to-week proposition
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: at this point.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: All right, man. Great stuff.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Great information. It's a huge game for both teams. It's
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: going to be intense tonight. Ryan Wood, thank you so much, man,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: for coming on. Appreciate you.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: Take care, guys.