Transcript

09/15/26 - Hour 1 · The Huddle

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Speaker 1: You are looking live at another edition, the Tuesday edition
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Speaker 1: of The Huddle, Fox Sports Radio, Wisconsin, 920 Milwaukee, 1070 Madison,
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Speaker 1: everywhere on that iHeartRadio app that's so fabulous. Streaming live
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Speaker 1: for you early risers, insomniacs, and sociopaths on Facebook, X,
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Speaker 1: and YouTube. It's Drew Olson, Bill Schmid, and Armin Sarian.
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Speaker 1: We are another day removed from the debacle at U.S.
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Speaker 1: Bank Stadium. And I have more questions today than I
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Speaker 1: did yesterday.
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Speaker 2: Ooh.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, more questions than answers after you hear answers from
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Speaker 3: the head coach are never necessarily the greatest place to
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Speaker 3: be after week one, huh?
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Speaker 1: True, but I think upon further review and watching some
0:39
Speaker 1: of the film, some things confirmed and some new ideas
0:43
Speaker 1: popped into my head, and I'm so glad that I've
0:45
Speaker 1: got Billy Schmidt, the guru, my tag team partner on
0:48
Speaker 1: Packers OT, and the guru of offensive line play. to
0:52
Speaker 1: help me navigate and try to figure out answers to
0:53
Speaker 1: some of my questions. Oh, dear. Oh, dear.
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Speaker 3: Because, listen, as I think we watched a lot of
0:59
Speaker 3: the same stuff, there were a lot of folks that
1:01
Speaker 3: looked like they all were asking a lot of questions
1:03
Speaker 3: to each other.
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Speaker 1: Not fun questions to answer maybe with this group. Yeah. Well, oh,
1:09
Speaker 1: I got a volume down here, Drew. There we go. Oh,
1:12
Speaker 1: by the way, there's our stream. It's proving that our
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Speaker 1: stream is working. It works. We're there, guys. Thanks for
1:16
Speaker 1: hopping in. You can continue to do so. All right.
1:19
Speaker 1: Robust already. Plenty of questions upon further review. And one
1:24
Speaker 1: of the first things I noticed watching, especially in the
1:27
Speaker 1: first half, the Packers offensive line, even when they're in
1:31
Speaker 1: the course of building the lead, was not crisp and well-oiled.
1:34
Speaker 1: It was Jordan Love bailing their asses out by playing
1:37
Speaker 1: rock star ball.
1:40
Speaker 3: Jordan Love was phenomenal on Sunday, and for the majority
1:44
Speaker 3: of the night, the Packers were saved most of the
1:49
Speaker 3: time by what Jordan was doing and, and consistently getting them.
1:54
Speaker 3: And if watching a lot of it back yesterday, drew,
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Speaker 3: I don't know if you saw some of the same
2:00
Speaker 3: stuff felt like Jordan was almost a little jumpy early
2:04
Speaker 3: for like what he was anticipating. He was going to
2:07
Speaker 3: see later on into the game at no point to
2:09
Speaker 3: the Vikings, uh, relent on their pressure.
2:12
Speaker 1: They went all night, all night long. They brought the house.
2:16
Speaker 3: They brought as many walked-up looks as possible and tried
2:20
Speaker 3: to make as many guys confused, and they were pretty
2:23
Speaker 3: good at doing. But early on, it felt like Jordan
2:25
Speaker 3: was getting rid of the ball maybe a little earlier
2:27
Speaker 3: than he needed to be. And then in that second
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Speaker 3: and third quarter, he reached a perfect flow state in
2:32
Speaker 3: the fourth quarter.
2:33
Speaker 1: That flow state.
2:35
Speaker 3: Suddenly stopped and became a free fall as the Packers offense.
2:39
Speaker 3: The Packers in total gave up 22 points in two
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Speaker 3: and a half minutes.
2:42
Speaker 1: I got questions and everybody has questions. And I still,
2:44
Speaker 1: for the life of me, time on task rings hollow.
2:48
Speaker 1: Why didn't you get rotated into that game and get
2:51
Speaker 1: to see? Cause they weren't exactly dominating. The offensive line
2:56
Speaker 1: was not exactly dominating. And I thought to myself, Look
3:00
Speaker 1: at the state of this offensive line in week one.
3:02
Speaker 1: And I know Aaron Banks is kind of the X factor, right?
3:04
Speaker 1: He's better than what they ran out there. He's not
3:07
Speaker 1: as good as what they paid him to be, but
3:09
Speaker 1: he's better than when he would have helped and he
3:11
Speaker 1: will help. Yes. Right. So, but with that in mind,
3:18
Speaker 1: the attrition on the offensive line and makes me think,
3:22
Speaker 1: did we underestimate the Josh Myers, Rashid, Walker and John
3:30
Speaker 1: Runyon's of the world that they just cavalierly let go.
3:32
Speaker 1: Cause we're okay. Now, any one of those guys seems
3:35
Speaker 1: like they would have helped yesterday and they would help
3:38
Speaker 1: Sunday and they'd be better. But at the time they
3:40
Speaker 1: were let go, everybody's like, ah, we're done with them.
3:42
Speaker 1: I've seen enough Rashid back. He played some good football,
3:46
Speaker 1: not maybe last year, but the year before he had
3:49
Speaker 1: some good tape and he was solid. And you thought
3:52
Speaker 1: there was an upgrade. Jordan Morgan had.
3:54
Speaker 3: A rough day. It was rough, but he'll get better.
4:00
Speaker 3: That's a rough environment to start tackles into. I heard
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Speaker 3: the former Packer tackle talking yesterday. Like, if there's ever
4:07
Speaker 3: going to be a place to throw somebody in for
4:09
Speaker 3: their first start on the left side, that's not a
4:12
Speaker 3: great spot for that to be your soft landing.
4:14
Speaker 1: But yes, it was a rough day. Sean Ryan was okay.
4:18
Speaker 1: Probably the best of the bunch, I guess. Even Bako
4:20
Speaker 1: Bawali looked a little... still hurt and compromised, not as
4:24
Speaker 1: good as he has been. And looked at us half
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Speaker 1: a step slow, which that environment will do.
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Speaker 4: Yep.
4:29
Speaker 1: Okay. And then, yeah, the whole thing about Kurt Benkert's
4:32
Speaker 1: thing about getting off and stuff. But then I thought,
4:34
Speaker 1: as I thought deeper, I'm like, okay, the evolution or
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Speaker 1: the devolution of this offensive line, do they miss those guys?
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Speaker 1: Were those core guys, Walker, Myers, Runyon, or did they
4:47
Speaker 1: miss Adam Stanovich at the head of that room?
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Speaker 3: I think the first one might be, or the latter
4:54
Speaker 3: might be the one that is probably bigger.
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Speaker 1: Have they gotten any better, or has the line in
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Speaker 1: any way done anything but degrade since Adam Stenovich stopped
5:01
Speaker 1: being their coach? Now, he went from coordinator. It's not
5:03
Speaker 1: like he's not involved in the process. But when he
5:06
Speaker 1: was in that room, there was like this attitude of
5:09
Speaker 1: next man up, and the next man up was always
5:11
Speaker 1: really good. And they were always like ready and on
5:13
Speaker 1: point and buttoned up. And they didn't look assignment-sure. It
5:18
Speaker 1: almost looked like there were guys... there was confusion.
5:20
Speaker 3: It looked like, and now when you see Chris Brooks
5:23
Speaker 3: talking to three different offensive linemen after the play, that's.
5:25
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. It's like, I noticed stuff like that.
5:28
Speaker 1: And like, especially the tight ends and running backs weren't
5:31
Speaker 1: on the same page as everybody else a lot. And again,
5:34
Speaker 1: the noise and the defense and the seven men and
5:37
Speaker 1: the looks. Okay. But, and so this was an extreme example.
5:41
Speaker 1: We're going to, we're going to need more, but okay.
5:44
Speaker 1: So a lot of people are screaming for Luke buckets
5:46
Speaker 1: and that's like saying, well, fire the hitting coach, right? Well,
5:48
Speaker 1: what's he doing? Like, okay. But they were a really
5:52
Speaker 1: good offensive line when Stenovich was their coach. Yeah, and
5:55
Speaker 1: I guess the part of... This is a random thought
5:57
Speaker 1: I had.
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Speaker 3: No, and Drew, I think there's parts of it that
6:01
Speaker 3: are both a big key. Like Josh Myers, when he
6:04
Speaker 3: walked in free agency, I had anticipated he was going
6:07
Speaker 3: to walk and get a nice sum of money somewhere
6:10
Speaker 3: because I had thought he had played a bunch of
6:12
Speaker 3: football for you, had started a lot of games, and
6:15
Speaker 3: had gotten better throughout his run. Then he goes to
6:18
Speaker 3: the free, hits the free agent market, Waits, waits, waits.
6:23
Speaker 3: And I want to say signed like a one-year, $ 2
6:26
Speaker 3: million deal with the Jets and wasn't even like fully
6:30
Speaker 3: guaranteed a spot as a starter. Then earned the starting spot,
6:34
Speaker 3: won it during camp, which I kind of figured he would,
6:37
Speaker 3: and then played well enough that in the middle of
6:40
Speaker 3: the season, in his one year there, they gave him
6:43
Speaker 3: a shiny extension and locked him up for a couple
6:44
Speaker 3: of years. You mentioned John Runyon a few years ago.
6:47
Speaker 3: He played signs with the giants for three years and
6:49
Speaker 3: $ 30 million. And that sounds like a decent deal. That's
6:56
Speaker 3: kind of the going rate of starting offensive linemen. And,
6:59
Speaker 3: and if there's anything that I think they've been guilty
7:02
Speaker 3: of is feeling the process a little too much that, well,
7:05
Speaker 3: if we can do it with insert four or five
7:07
Speaker 3: and six names here, we'll be able to do it
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Speaker 3: consistently and probably undervaluing just how good of pros and, uh,
7:16
Speaker 3: less than replaceable.
7:17
Speaker 1: Some of those guys were, I haven't even mentioned in
7:19
Speaker 1: this discussion of attrition and guys who have left Elton Jenkins.
7:24
Speaker 1: Did this whole cascade start when they moved him from
7:26
Speaker 1: left guard to center? Should they have just left him
7:28
Speaker 1: alone and let him play left guard? Well, if they
7:31
Speaker 1: would have kept Josh Myers, then they would have been
7:33
Speaker 1: able to, um, Or draft a center and find somebody.
7:39
Speaker 1: Isn't that kind of.
7:40
Speaker 3: Well, if you draft Creed Humphrey, then it's not as
7:42
Speaker 3: much of a conversation. But yeah, if you really want
7:45
Speaker 3: to go through it, and if we're going to go
7:47
Speaker 3: with this guy and that guy was the problem, a
7:49
Speaker 3: lot of the biggest problem as to where you look
7:51
Speaker 3: in and identify the football team is two guys just
7:53
Speaker 3: signed contracts for the richest values at their spots. Christian
7:58
Speaker 3: Gonzalez and Jackson Smith and Jigba. They were taking three
8:02
Speaker 3: and five picks after Lucas Van Ness. In the offensive line,
8:07
Speaker 3: if you're wondering why you're still turning your wheels at
8:11
Speaker 3: the center position, well, it's because you drafted Josh Myers
8:13
Speaker 3: right in front of Creed Humphrey. It's difficult to always do,
8:18
Speaker 3: but at some point, those decisions are coming back and
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Speaker 3: biting you.
8:22
Speaker 1: So the roster construction and the salary, that's all part
8:26
Speaker 1: of the equation of where they are, of why they
8:29
Speaker 1: are where they are. A big part of it, yes.
8:32
Speaker 1: Then I'm watching it, and I'm trying to watch Marshawn
8:34
Speaker 1: Lloyd running behind this line that's struggling and stuff. But
8:37
Speaker 1: then I thought to myself, some of these runs, he's
8:40
Speaker 1: just not Josh Jacobs. And I think I underappreciated how
8:43
Speaker 1: good Josh Jacobs is at taking a two-yard run and
8:46
Speaker 1: turning it into six because he's a dog. And he
8:50
Speaker 1: camouflaged a lot of the offensive line deficiencies, much the
8:54
Speaker 1: way Jordan Love wallpapered. over a lot of problems by
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Speaker 1: making incredible throws and like jump at jump throws and
9:00
Speaker 1: back foot throw, unless like under pressure throws and, you know,
9:04
Speaker 1: unlikely throws that other quarterbacks don't make.
9:07
Speaker 5: Yeah.
9:07
Speaker 3: And I mean, there, there aren't a ton, but there
9:10
Speaker 3: are some holes out there to be able to run through.
9:12
Speaker 3: And I think that's where, as you and I were
9:14
Speaker 3: watching it, you probably got sick and tired of me
9:16
Speaker 3: saying it. You got to try to run it at
9:18
Speaker 3: least a little bit. You got to be able to
9:21
Speaker 3: throw the curve ball and without Jacobs in the backfield,
9:24
Speaker 3: they just didn't have enough confidence. So there was just
9:26
Speaker 3: reluctance there. Cause they were like, all right, I had
9:28
Speaker 3: it to Chris Brooks and Marshawn Lloyd's just new. And
9:30
Speaker 3: like we said, still getting his kind of bearings and, Well,
9:33
Speaker 3: they also didn't run a ton of snaps, you know, right? Like,
9:35
Speaker 3: I mean, in the first half, they had 20 plays.
9:38
Speaker 3: Now they had an 81-yard touchdown changes it up. But
9:43
Speaker 3: when you run on first down and then that always
9:45
Speaker 3: feels like it's too predictable, at some point you're going
9:48
Speaker 3: to have to squeeze it in. But if you go
9:50
Speaker 3: incomplete on first down, second and 10, that's an even
9:52
Speaker 3: tougher play to throw.
9:53
Speaker 1: Now, as I thought about the running back and Josh Jacobs,
9:56
Speaker 1: he has an uncanny ability to take nothing and turn
9:59
Speaker 1: it into three or four yards and just almost through
10:02
Speaker 1: sheer will. Does it a lot. Does it a lot.
10:04
Speaker 1: Through sheer will. And we'll get to it later, but
10:09
Speaker 1: I also think he is one of the dogs. He
10:10
Speaker 1: is one of the guys that One of their captains
10:13
Speaker 1: the last two years had a C on the chess
10:15
Speaker 1: for a reason. Just the way he comports himself, and
10:17
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's the guy, because a lot
10:19
Speaker 1: of times when we're at the games, because of where
10:20
Speaker 1: we sit, we can't see directly down to the sideline,
10:23
Speaker 1: and there's no sideline cam, but he seems like the
10:25
Speaker 1: kind of guy who will challenge teammates and be the,
10:29
Speaker 1: you know. But not only that, just the way he plays,
10:32
Speaker 1: other guys derive confidence and like, okay, I'm with him.
10:36
Speaker 1: A little bit of that, right? The leadership factor. That's
10:39
Speaker 1: why he wears the C. But then I thought, Look
10:42
Speaker 1: over on the other side. Aaron Jones is that guy. Beloved.
10:48
Speaker 1: Makes guys better. Lifts guys up. And still plays at
10:51
Speaker 1: a high level. The criminal stuff aside, what if he
10:57
Speaker 1: had just kept Aaron Jones and kept going? I mean,
11:01
Speaker 1: Jacobs is better. Yeah.
11:03
Speaker 3: But.
11:04
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones was pretty good too. It still looks like
11:07
Speaker 1: he couldn't, you know?
11:08
Speaker 5: Yeah.
11:08
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, Aaron Jones is a Packers Hall of Famer. Yes.
11:12
Speaker 3: Yeah. Aaron Jones wasn't going to tote the rock as
11:14
Speaker 3: much as you gave it to Josh Jacobs over the
11:15
Speaker 3: last couple of years.
11:16
Speaker 1: I don't know that that was. I guess what I
11:19
Speaker 1: come around to is I see the football side, but
11:21
Speaker 1: I also think like the personal side and the locker
11:23
Speaker 1: room side, because then I'm asking myself, who are the dogs?
11:28
Speaker 1: Zaire Franklin will be the way he played and the
11:31
Speaker 1: way he's chirping and the way he's. Oh, even though
11:35
Speaker 1: pro football focus graded him the lowest player on the defense.
11:37
Speaker 1: I can't understand that. I saw that. Cause I watched
11:39
Speaker 1: the tape and I'm like, okay, he's he, he and
11:41
Speaker 1: coop are, that's a pretty good, like whenever they had,
11:43
Speaker 1: I was.
11:43
Speaker 3: Going to say they had two guys that good and
11:45
Speaker 3: they're up. The middle defense drew is going to be
11:47
Speaker 3: legit this year and everything. I was just listening on
11:51
Speaker 3: the way in. Some national guys were chirping, but they
11:53
Speaker 3: gave up 22 point. Well now really they gave up
11:55
Speaker 3: seven with three bad calls and then they gifted two touchdowns.
11:58
Speaker 3: So it was actually one touchdown in the, in the
12:01
Speaker 3: fourth quarter aided by three.
12:05
Speaker 1: Anybody can say questionable. And upon further review, they were
12:08
Speaker 1: even more questionable. So the three third down abominations, which
12:12
Speaker 1: we said, yes, it has happened once in 25 years
12:16
Speaker 1: that a drive had three. We're off the field. No,
12:19
Speaker 1: we're not penalty episodes in a long drive. So, all right.
12:23
Speaker 1: But Zaire Franklin's one of those dogs. But then who
12:26
Speaker 1: are the guys that are going to emerge? Because you
12:28
Speaker 1: got to have those guys. And then I'm thinking... Remember
12:30
Speaker 1: the body language police. And we argued and litigated Aaron
12:33
Speaker 1: Rogers and the unsnapping of the chin strap and him
12:36
Speaker 1: glaring at guys. Jordan love doesn't have that in him.
12:39
Speaker 1: He's a great dude. And he's chill. He's just very
12:42
Speaker 1: poker faced. And he always want what you don't see.
12:46
Speaker 1: Like Brady got after guys like Jordan love. I mean,
12:50
Speaker 1: I would have liked, I didn't see it. Maybe he did,
12:52
Speaker 1: but at a certain point I would love to have
12:54
Speaker 1: him walk by the bench where the offensive line are
12:56
Speaker 1: sitting like, let's go boys. You know, what's going on? Like,
12:59
Speaker 1: So they need that element of this team because the
13:04
Speaker 1: coaches can only do so much. I'm convinced you can say, well,
13:07
Speaker 1: if Laura's to blame for all these meltdowns, well, at
13:08
Speaker 1: a certain point, I'm looking for somebody to tie a
13:12
Speaker 1: knot at the end of the rope and say, let's go.
13:13
Speaker 3: Well, when team, when, when people around sports are always
13:16
Speaker 3: going to say the best teams are the player led teams.
13:18
Speaker 3: And then you ask for players led leadership to emerge.
13:23
Speaker 3: That's not asking too much.
13:24
Speaker 4: Right.
13:24
Speaker 1: Like, I think what you're saying is spot on.
13:27
Speaker 3: And it's something that we've asked and looked at for
13:29
Speaker 3: different teams around the state to be doing. I mean, hell,
13:32
Speaker 3: Luke Fickle had mentioned it in the middle of last year.
13:33
Speaker 3: He's like, it's the first time that really guys have
13:36
Speaker 3: talked in the middle of the game. the players have
13:39
Speaker 3: talked during halftime. I've been waiting for somebody to do
13:41
Speaker 3: so three years in, at some point you need somebody
13:43
Speaker 3: to be able to take the bull by the horns
13:45
Speaker 3: and do that. The Jacobs one is interesting. I haven't
13:48
Speaker 3: thought about that. I'll need more time to chew on
13:50
Speaker 3: Jacobs or Jones for the last two years. If they,
13:52
Speaker 3: if they would be better off in that sense, but
13:54
Speaker 3: for them to, you ask who the dogs are.
13:58
Speaker 1: Okay. One of them just got, one of them just
14:00
Speaker 1: got locked up. Tucker craft shirt.
14:01
Speaker 3: I think he's one of those game one, three catches
14:04
Speaker 3: hard to be that guy in the, in the midst
14:06
Speaker 3: of your first game back.
14:07
Speaker 4: Yeah.
14:07
Speaker 3: The other one is their closer, Micah Parsons, out for
14:10
Speaker 3: the first four to five weeks. So as much as, again,
14:13
Speaker 3: some of this can be rinse and repeat because it's
14:15
Speaker 3: what we've talked about throughout the entire offseason was them
14:18
Speaker 3: having to be able to figure out how to make
14:21
Speaker 3: A while Parsons was out, you are still without your closer.
14:25
Speaker 1: You are still without your number one guy, and maybe
14:27
Speaker 1: that's not Maybe that shouldn't be so surprising that they
14:30
Speaker 1: were unable to close out a game with the guy
14:33
Speaker 1: that they paid two first-round picks to go get. We
14:35
Speaker 1: do underestimate that. It's like when we talk about, to
14:37
Speaker 1: mix metaphors, when we talk about the Brewers and like,
14:39
Speaker 1: oh yeah, Yelich has been out or has been slumping.
14:43
Speaker 1: And it's like, we expect everything to be the same,
14:44
Speaker 1: but it's different when he's producing.
14:46
Speaker 3: Different when that one's producing and not, yeah.
14:48
Speaker 1: So on that vein, though, with those guys, and okay, again,
14:53
Speaker 1: Lucas Van Ness, another guy, and he you would hope
14:56
Speaker 1: he has a high motor and i don't know if
14:58
Speaker 1: he's the dog that's gonna like lead guys say i
15:00
Speaker 1: got this let's go but he looks good he'll contribute
15:05
Speaker 1: he will he ever live up to where he was
15:06
Speaker 1: drafted and to see hawk comma aj yeah hard to
15:10
Speaker 1: say but he's gonna be a solid player and he'll
15:13
Speaker 1: be better when parsons does come back because i think
15:15
Speaker 1: he's going to he's he's going to be one of
15:18
Speaker 1: those guys that's just there every week and you just
15:19
Speaker 1: count on him and he's going to give you a
15:21
Speaker 1: high a high average, a high floor.
15:25
Speaker 2: Yes.
15:25
Speaker 1: A hundred percent. His baseline will be, he's going to make,
15:27
Speaker 1: he's going to make plays every game that you go, Oh,
15:29
Speaker 1: Lucas Van Ness. Okay. He's, he's not going to like
15:32
Speaker 1: disappear anymore. Like he did like kind of in the
15:34
Speaker 1: wash and the first.
15:35
Speaker 3: And that's a, and that's a heck of a place
15:37
Speaker 3: to be for him.
15:38
Speaker 5: Right?
15:38
Speaker 3: Like when, when Parsons is on the other side, he's
15:40
Speaker 3: going to stumble into a couple more plays.
15:42
Speaker 1: That's what I'm thinking. And drew like that about Rashawn Gary,
15:45
Speaker 1: but it didn't come to fruition, but I think Van
15:47
Speaker 1: Ness will be that guy.
15:49
Speaker 5: Yeah.
15:49
Speaker 3: Cause I think Van Ness is on the way up
15:50
Speaker 3: and I think Rishon was probably on the way down. And,
15:53
Speaker 3: and from what you got to see from Van Ness,
15:55
Speaker 3: at least in Minnesota, like TFL is as good of
15:58
Speaker 3: an individual play as you can have. You get one
16:02
Speaker 3: to two of those a game and you're going to
16:03
Speaker 3: be a pretty, pretty solid defense. I, Look at Kenneth
16:07
Speaker 3: Walker last night.
16:08
Speaker 1: They bring him in.
16:08
Speaker 3: He has almost 200 total yards for Kansas City.
16:11
Speaker 1: Two touchdowns.
16:12
Speaker 3: Run the most for a Chiefs running back since Andy
16:16
Speaker 3: Reid has been the head coach. They've been pretty successful
16:18
Speaker 3: with him as the head man. The NFL has gone
16:21
Speaker 3: so left and right on running backs. And when you
16:25
Speaker 3: talk about Josh Jacobs and Aaron Jones. So much of
16:28
Speaker 3: the value in these different positions has been skewed and
16:32
Speaker 3: flipped so much. Whatever Kenneth Walker is making, it's more
16:36
Speaker 3: similar to the Jaden Reed contract than the Christian Watson contract.
16:42
Speaker 3: But you're still going to put the ball in his
16:43
Speaker 3: chest 20 to 25 times a game.
16:46
Speaker 1: They gave Jaden Reed the ball, what, three times?
16:48
Speaker 3: So when you start looking at the value, and I
16:51
Speaker 3: understand it became so in vogue to say, well, you
16:54
Speaker 3: can grab running backs at Costco.
16:57
Speaker 1: Because they're so replaceable.
16:59
Speaker 4: Sure.
17:00
Speaker 3: One's 12 to 55 might all be very replaceable, but
17:05
Speaker 3: when you're talking about the best players at the position,
17:07
Speaker 3: they're still elite guys. And you're going to count on
17:11
Speaker 3: them so much more than other positions that that contract
17:16
Speaker 3: is going to end up turning out very, very well.
17:17
Speaker 3: And when Jacobson Jones went through that, I think the
17:20
Speaker 3: volume of touches was the bigger question. That being said,
17:24
Speaker 3: Jones hadn't been healthy consistently for 17 games throughout until
17:29
Speaker 3: he goes to Minnesota in the first year that he's
17:31
Speaker 3: there and runs for 1,100 yards and plays 17 games.
17:35
Speaker 3: So it's all very unpredictable, but that position is one
17:40
Speaker 3: where when you're paying somebody to do so, you're really
17:44
Speaker 3: counting on them being one of your biggest bell cows.
17:46
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it and it's just obviously, and I
17:49
Speaker 1: will admit this off the top, it's colored by the
17:52
Speaker 1: fact that I had a couple of interactions with Aaron Jones,
17:54
Speaker 1: everything I heard. And you just, the love for that guy.
17:57
Speaker 3: The greatest guys around guys that has ever come through
18:00
Speaker 3: there and is beloved.
18:01
Speaker 1: So that's, that's part of the vibe now existentially. I
18:04
Speaker 1: got one question and I don't know, Billy, we'll have
18:06
Speaker 1: to think at you on this for a while. When
18:08
Speaker 1: I'm looking at Matt Lafleur and I'm looking at what
18:10
Speaker 1: they're trying to do. Matt Lafleur is by all accounts,
18:13
Speaker 1: a play calling wizard there. He's, he's highly respected in
18:16
Speaker 1: the league for the way he designed schemes and stuff
18:20
Speaker 1: is his current scheme. beyond the reach and grasp of
18:26
Speaker 1: his current roster.
18:28
Speaker 5: No.
18:28
Speaker 1: Is he asking guys to do too much? Should it
18:32
Speaker 1: be a little simpler? Should they streamline things in order
18:36
Speaker 1: to accommodate without Aaron Banks and with a guy making
18:43
Speaker 1: his first start? I'm looking at some of the handoffs
18:46
Speaker 1: and some of the stuff, and I know there's a
18:48
Speaker 1: lot of stuff involved in the whole NFL that I
18:50
Speaker 1: don't understand that none of us will ever understand, but
18:53
Speaker 1: Is that an issue or no? Because they've been running
18:56
Speaker 1: it for a while, but is he running? We always
18:59
Speaker 1: talk about people, this coach will adapt to whatever talent
19:02
Speaker 1: he has and change. They say that about Andy Reid.
19:04
Speaker 1: They say that about the good coaches, but then some
19:06
Speaker 1: guys have the things they do, and that's what they do,
19:08
Speaker 1: and damn it, we're going to do it. Is it
19:09
Speaker 1: square peg, round hole in some fashion with these guys?
19:13
Speaker 1: Can they do the things that they want to do
19:16
Speaker 1: with the talent on hand?
19:20
Speaker 3: I guess I think that's probably going to– it's going
19:24
Speaker 3: to bear itself out over more than one week. Like
19:27
Speaker 3: I think that's, that's difficult to, to, I guess this
19:30
Speaker 3: is all colored because it's all back, comes back to
19:32
Speaker 3: the offensive line.
19:32
Speaker 5: Yeah.
19:33
Speaker 3: And I mean, because when, when Jordan love has a clean,
19:35
Speaker 3: because you're watching 25 teams running pretty much the exact
19:38
Speaker 3: same offense, right? So like at some point you're, if
19:42
Speaker 3: you're going to play in the NFL, you're going to
19:43
Speaker 3: have to run something similar to this. And I don't
19:45
Speaker 3: necessarily know that it's, you're asking them to do too much.
19:49
Speaker 3: You're asking them to be, assignment.
19:50
Speaker 1: Sure.
19:51
Speaker 3: And yes, that sounds a lot easier said than done,
19:54
Speaker 3: but like when the avalanche starts rolling downhill, everything starts
19:59
Speaker 3: getting more clouded.
20:01
Speaker 1: And when you are worried, wondering about your.
20:03
Speaker 3: Own situation and then what the guy next to you is,
20:05
Speaker 3: and then not having full confidence around them, that might
20:08
Speaker 3: be a bigger problem.
20:09
Speaker 1: I think when, if, sorry. No, I was just going
20:12
Speaker 1: to say, one of the things I heard LeFleur say
20:13
Speaker 1: yesterday about the offensive line was we've got to find continuity,
20:16
Speaker 1: which is more important than, like, it's always like, get
20:18
Speaker 1: your best five guys out there.
20:19
Speaker 3: Then maybe practice together.
20:22
Speaker 1: I was going to say, I don't know, maybe that
20:24
Speaker 1: would work. Get five guys and settle on them and
20:28
Speaker 1: then let's go. And that's part of what I'm saying.
20:32
Speaker 1: They saw more time on task. It all comes back
20:34
Speaker 1: to the offensive line for me. So that's what I
20:36
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you, some of those questions. But that
20:37
Speaker 1: was another thought I had is like, It's not. So
20:39
Speaker 1: this isn't because when they have time, the offense can
20:42
Speaker 1: look great and it'll probably look a lot different when
20:44
Speaker 1: they're not in the U S bank playing the Vikings.
20:46
Speaker 1: They had 400 plus yards of offense.
20:48
Speaker 3: I know.
20:48
Speaker 1: I mean, they did do some, I know, but it
20:49
Speaker 1: was cute. A couple of long games. It was, that's
20:52
Speaker 1: the reason. That's the biggest problem. They can't control the ball.
20:56
Speaker 3: If you're, if I guess when, when I know, I'm sorry,
21:00
Speaker 3: I don't know if we got to take a break
21:01
Speaker 3: where we're at, but when you are running as many
21:05
Speaker 3: long developing plays as the Packers are to, Your last
21:09
Speaker 3: point and your last question. They could shorten some things up.
21:14
Speaker 3: At some point, I know you want to throw the
21:17
Speaker 3: ball down the field. You want to air it out.
21:20
Speaker 3: You want to utilize the big arm. Armin loves it
21:22
Speaker 3: because he loves telling us that explosive plays help you
21:24
Speaker 3: win games. That does make sense. You get big chunk
21:28
Speaker 3: yards that helps you score points. But at some point,
21:31
Speaker 3: you got to move the football down the field. And
21:34
Speaker 3: they're playing a little bit too much Mel Kiper football.
21:36
Speaker 3: of let's run the football on first and second down,
21:39
Speaker 3: let's throw these big, long, developing pass plays, and at
21:42
Speaker 3: some point you're going to have to shorten things up
21:44
Speaker 3: to get the ball out and get the ball to
21:46
Speaker 3: your playmakers.
21:48
Speaker 1: That would be, if you're asking what you need, that
21:50
Speaker 1: might be it. Well said. That might be it. All right, man,
21:51
Speaker 1: that was meaty. But that's what happens when you rewatch
21:54
Speaker 1: the game and you've got a lot of thoughts.
21:55
Speaker 5: Right.
21:56
Speaker 1: And you wake up because the dog is freaking out.
22:00
Speaker 1: The dog wakes me up during a thunderstorm and I
22:02
Speaker 1: had these thoughts. Man, I didn't even realize it was
22:04
Speaker 1: going to rain last night.
22:05
Speaker 3: Brutal.
22:05
Speaker 1: I thought I left my windows open. We're going to
22:07
Speaker 1: take a quick break. Oh, we got Hunter live from
22:10
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh today as the Brewers hope for an Iron City
22:13
Speaker 1: Champagne celebration in the clubhouse tonight. You're in the huddle.
22:17
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio.
22:20
Speaker 4: I saw some good things and I saw some of
22:22
Speaker 4: the things that we have to clean up and just
22:25
Speaker 4: what's disappointing is we had a few protection busts that
22:30
Speaker 4: absolutely should not and cannot happen and especially we knew
22:34
Speaker 4: that was challenge going in I mean they were going
22:37
Speaker 4: to give you some tough looks and that's the toughest
22:41
Speaker 4: test that you're going to face week one is to
22:43
Speaker 4: play that defense in that environment and like I said
22:48
Speaker 4: I thought it was there was some really good stuff
22:50
Speaker 4: but when your quarterback gets hit 15 times or whatever
22:53
Speaker 4: it is that's that's too many times.
22:57
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur yesterday's post-mortem on the Packers loss to the
23:02
Speaker 1: Vikings Sunday welcome back to the huddle reach us Nicoletlaw.com,
23:06
Speaker 1: talking text line 877-794-1973. Packers against the Jets. Must win
23:12
Speaker 1: game in game two. And then that Ravens game might
23:16
Speaker 1: be tougher than it looked initially. Yeah, man.
23:21
Speaker 3: You get Atlanta coming in on five days rest, and
23:25
Speaker 3: you've got to be able to try to somehow stop
23:27
Speaker 3: Bijan Robinson.
23:28
Speaker 1: That's no easy task.
23:30
Speaker 3: They ended up losing most of their pass rushers, but Listen,
23:33
Speaker 3: the whole schedule looks a lot different when you choke
23:35
Speaker 3: away the game that you did on Sunday.
23:38
Speaker 1: It does. Every game looks like a mountain.
23:40
Speaker 5: And you haven't won in a long, long time. I mean,
23:42
Speaker 5: that's the other thing. I mean, the Packers have to
23:44
Speaker 5: just get a win. They haven't won since December 7th.
23:47
Speaker 1: Exactly.
23:48
Speaker 5: So, you know, you mentioned Parsons earlier and his effect
23:51
Speaker 5: on closing. They have won without him. They're over without him.
23:55
Speaker 1: That whole thing. And it's an intangible is what it is.
24:00
Speaker 1: It's absolutely. How do you, I mean, and you know,
24:04
Speaker 1: how do you stop this? And then how, if you're
24:06
Speaker 1: a player and Billy, you've played and there are times
24:08
Speaker 1: when you're like, Oh, here we go again. It's an athlete.
24:11
Speaker 1: It enters your mind.
24:12
Speaker 3: Well, the here we go again thing is something that
24:14
Speaker 3: is probably the scariest part of it because as much as,
24:18
Speaker 3: I mean, and I understand that we do it because it's,
24:21
Speaker 3: it's the, it's the game and we have to, but
24:25
Speaker 3: you know, you lose the five games to end the
24:27
Speaker 3: season last year. The only thing that that matters to
24:29
Speaker 3: is the ones that are bringing it up, right? Us
24:31
Speaker 3: that are talking about it on the side because we
24:34
Speaker 3: encountered them and all the cool special graphics came out
24:36
Speaker 3: of the folks. Like, if you were born in 1992,
24:37
Speaker 3: this is the longest losing streak you've watched the Packers have.
24:42
Speaker 1: True.
24:42
Speaker 3: So, I mean, like, there has been, there's become accustomed
24:45
Speaker 3: to a certain standard of living, but you can't, last
24:49
Speaker 3: year isn't and doesn't matter to how this team ultimately
24:52
Speaker 3: performs outside of psyche, things like that of, damn, we
24:56
Speaker 3: did this all offseason. We talked about this all offseason,
24:58
Speaker 3: and now all of a sudden they've blitzed us for
25:01
Speaker 3: 14 points in a minute, and it doesn't look like
25:03
Speaker 3: it's getting any better. Hearing Matt talk about it right there,
25:06
Speaker 3: and you could see it a lot more yesterday, the
25:11
Speaker 3: really frustrating part is they know where they're trying to go.
25:15
Speaker 3: They know who potentially is coming. They know who are
25:20
Speaker 3: some of the immediate threats, but the lack of confidence
25:23
Speaker 3: in each other to know who is going to grab
25:26
Speaker 3: who and that everybody is assignment.
25:28
Speaker 1: Sure. That's the, that's the worst part.
25:30
Speaker 3: And like the, the Jacob monk blocking air highlight is
25:33
Speaker 3: one that sadly you see a couple more times. And
25:36
Speaker 3: then for big citrus, Dominique orange to be the guy
25:39
Speaker 3: that ultimately falls on top of Jordan loves stopping that
25:42
Speaker 3: fourth down fourth and one sneak. And that being one
25:46
Speaker 3: of my draft crushes made the tape even harder to
25:49
Speaker 3: view yesterday. Yeah.
25:50
Speaker 1: And you know, I, as it unfolded, And I watch it.
25:53
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, Dallas Turner is going to be a problem.
25:55
Speaker 1: He was good at Alabama. He's really good now. He's
25:58
Speaker 1: kind of blossoming into one of those dudes, right? Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
26:05
Speaker 1: He also had a couple plays where his path to
26:07
Speaker 1: hit Jordan Love, any one of us could have run through.
26:10
Speaker 1: He was untouched, right? So it's like, well, we need
26:13
Speaker 1: a little bit more resistance there.
26:16
Speaker 3: You saw his getoff be the biggest challenge. win by
26:21
Speaker 3: us bank stadium, right? Like that unimpeded running around the
26:25
Speaker 3: offensive line doesn't happen in a lot of places because
26:29
Speaker 3: there's not as many places that are that consistently loud
26:32
Speaker 3: on the outside. And when you got your best offensive
26:35
Speaker 3: lineman coming off of one of the worst injuries you
26:37
Speaker 3: can have, that's why Zach looked as yep. potentially slowed
26:42
Speaker 3: as he did. I thought once he got hands on people,
26:45
Speaker 3: he looked a lot more like the, the same Zach
26:47
Speaker 3: Baco Buele that we've known and loved, but just a
26:50
Speaker 3: step slow, but a step slow in that building. And
26:53
Speaker 3: that was what really felt like it had a Jordan
26:56
Speaker 3: Morgan's head spinning.
26:57
Speaker 1: There are, there are not many, maybe what Seattle and maybe,
27:04
Speaker 1: maybe Philly or something like that. Any environments that are,
27:07
Speaker 1: that cause you to do that? Like, Because a lot
27:09
Speaker 1: of the indoor places aren't as live as they used
27:11
Speaker 1: to be. Like Atlanta in the Georgia Dome used to
27:14
Speaker 1: be a fever pitch. Now at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, it's a
27:17
Speaker 1: lot more of a luxury ride. So they're going to
27:21
Speaker 1: face a couple of them, though.
27:23
Speaker 3: Caesars Superdome is as difficult a place to communicate as possible.
27:27
Speaker 3: They'll play there in December. Arrowhead's notorious. Arrowhead's pretty damn hard.
27:31
Speaker 1: Those are loud, but the loud places are going to
27:33
Speaker 1: have that, so you're going to have silent counts in
27:35
Speaker 1: hostile environments, and they just happen to play in the
27:37
Speaker 1: toughest one right off the gate.
27:38
Speaker 3: And that's where, you know, depending on being able to,
27:42
Speaker 3: are you putting yourself and your guys in the best
27:45
Speaker 3: position to be able to change up some of the
27:47
Speaker 3: silent counts? That's where I think the real lack of
27:50
Speaker 3: playing together reared its head of guys just not being
27:54
Speaker 3: as confident in that part of it. The other thing,
27:56
Speaker 3: and part of my thing with that whole scheme thing,
27:58
Speaker 3: and do they need to, for lack of a better phrase,
28:00
Speaker 3: like dumb it down or pare it back or do
28:02
Speaker 3: something like it even is as basic as.
28:06
Speaker 1: Who do you trust? Like, okay, we need a couple
28:09
Speaker 1: of yards here. Well, we're not going to run behind
28:11
Speaker 1: like Morgan and Jennings right now. We got, so do
28:14
Speaker 1: you come become predictable? Cause you're going to go to
28:16
Speaker 1: the guys that you trust more and that becomes evident
28:19
Speaker 1: and you become predictable and.
28:20
Speaker 3: That, Well, they were too predictable. It was more of
28:23
Speaker 3: just who was in the backfield. Like, I mean, when
28:26
Speaker 3: Lloyd was in the backfield, it was pretty damn clear
28:28
Speaker 3: they were going to run there. And when Brooks was
28:30
Speaker 3: in there, they're probably going to throw. And it felt
28:32
Speaker 3: like a win whenever they handed it off to him.
28:35
Speaker 3: But I do struggle with watching it back. The one
28:38
Speaker 3: that I was waiting for was some kind of a
28:40
Speaker 3: change-up of a screen. Like, I know we were talking
28:43
Speaker 3: about it during the game of trying to slant them
28:45
Speaker 3: to death like different teams do to try to beat
28:47
Speaker 3: the Blitz. But at some point, you wanted to throw
28:51
Speaker 3: a curveball in there to slow down the rushers. But
28:54
Speaker 3: when the avalanche started, I think they actually were trying
28:57
Speaker 3: to set up one of the screens on one of
28:58
Speaker 3: the sacks, but they just ran right through the lack
29:01
Speaker 3: of protection, which is as tough of a spot as
29:04
Speaker 3: you can be in when you can't even get out
29:06
Speaker 3: to your spot in the screen because you're getting run
29:09
Speaker 3: through by somebody.
29:10
Speaker 1: Because everything was getting blown up. All right, Billy, here's
29:11
Speaker 1: a really basic football question. Whether it's the Carroll Pioneers,
29:15
Speaker 1: the Arrowhead Warhawks, the Green Bay Packers, It changes at
29:19
Speaker 1: different levels and protections change. And like one of the
29:22
Speaker 1: things that we're going to slide, that's where it was like. Yeah,
29:26
Speaker 1: you heard JJ talk about that on the air. Yeah, yeah.
29:28
Speaker 1: Offensive line is going to slide one way and then
29:30
Speaker 1: Chris Brooks goes the other way. And like he didn't
29:32
Speaker 1: go the right direction. So there's a lot of that.
29:35
Speaker 1: That can be cleaned up. But I would ask you,
29:37
Speaker 1: like at any level, how many plays are in the playbook?
29:40
Speaker 1: and how many plays are in a playbook for a
29:41
Speaker 1: specific week?
29:45
Speaker 4: Wow.
29:45
Speaker 1: That's a, that's a great question. Cause I'm, that's what
29:48
Speaker 1: I'm wondering is like, let's say you have, what do
29:50
Speaker 1: they have? Like 15 runs maybe.
29:52
Speaker 3: And Yeah, I'd say probably 20, 25 runs and a
29:55
Speaker 3: certain amount of pass.
29:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, some 50, 40, some. I guess I don't necessarily know.
30:02
Speaker 1: That's what I'm wondering. I don't know.
30:04
Speaker 3: Once you get to these, I mean, as much as
30:06
Speaker 3: I appreciate when people compare, you know, the Pios to
30:11
Speaker 3: the Packers, I don't necessarily know the depth of it.
30:15
Speaker 1: And how much, the volume of it.
30:17
Speaker 3: I know you're shrunking some of it down and you're
30:19
Speaker 3: going in with a plan of what you want to run.
30:20
Speaker 1: Based on what the defense is and who you're facing.
30:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I guess 40, 50 plays is probably the
30:27
Speaker 3: best way of putting it, but somewhere in there.
30:29
Speaker 1: But I mean, you might have like 100 in the
30:32
Speaker 1: book and then each week you're pairing it down. So
30:35
Speaker 1: it's like, okay. I'm just wondering, and again, because when
30:38
Speaker 1: you have younger guys. And when you have, I'm just like,
30:41
Speaker 1: that's where I'm getting to is like, but I struggled
30:43
Speaker 1: to drew and I didn't mean to cut you off. Yeah.
30:45
Speaker 1: I don't know that they were doing that much.
30:48
Speaker 3: Like, I don't know that they were great, that they
30:50
Speaker 3: were going super complex and deep, way deep into the
30:55
Speaker 3: bag of tricks and, I mean, they were messing up
30:58
Speaker 3: more of the basic parts of the blocking and tackling assignment. So, like,
31:03
Speaker 3: I don't know that the dummy, you could absolutely do it,
31:08
Speaker 3: and they would know a lot more about it than I,
31:10
Speaker 3: but it appeared that they were making some more simple
31:13
Speaker 3: mistakes than it just being too big for them in
31:15
Speaker 3: that moment.
31:15
Speaker 4: Agreed.
31:16
Speaker 3: I think some of the environment comes in and just,
31:18
Speaker 3: you gotta be better. You have to have better guys
31:20
Speaker 3: doing it.
31:21
Speaker 4: Yeah.
31:21
Speaker 1: That just, that was just something that spun to me.
31:23
Speaker 1: Cause I'm thinking about the big picture with, you know,
31:25
Speaker 1: LeFleur in general and like, is he, are you trying
31:27
Speaker 1: to be too cute? No, I agreed. It was just
31:30
Speaker 1: basic nuts and bolts. Right.
31:32
Speaker 3: Cause I mean, they had a couple of guys in
31:33
Speaker 3: there that have been playing for what, maybe a week
31:35
Speaker 3: and a half.
31:36
Speaker 1: When you talk about Redmond, you had some guys in there.
31:40
Speaker 1: That's true. And so that quick and then, and then
31:42
Speaker 1: that again gets to, okay, are we asking them to do,
31:46
Speaker 1: like beyond there, you know, too much or asking them,
31:50
Speaker 1: you know, I know you got to like, everybody thinks football,
31:52
Speaker 1: but oh, don't just hit the guy in front of you. Well, no,
31:54
Speaker 1: there's a lot more to this. This is a, this
31:56
Speaker 1: choreography is something else. And the timing of plays and
31:59
Speaker 1: the timing of now, do you, will we see more
32:03
Speaker 1: like motion and things? Cause we didn't see that much
32:06
Speaker 1: complexity that we used to see.
32:08
Speaker 5: Yeah.
32:08
Speaker 1: The illusion of complexity. Like I just saw a thing with,
32:10
Speaker 1: you know, how Rogers used to be all the, you know,
32:12
Speaker 1: the Steelers did had like less motion than anybody else. Um,
32:17
Speaker 1: but that kind of stuff is that, is it tougher
32:19
Speaker 1: to run those timing type things in the noisy place
32:22
Speaker 1: on the road? I think that's very much true.
32:24
Speaker 3: I think, I think that was probably tough to get, uh,
32:27
Speaker 3: get a lot of their motions in now that also
32:30
Speaker 3: is a lot easier to do under center when they
32:32
Speaker 3: did a lot more of that earlier on. Uh, but understandably,
32:35
Speaker 3: so probably went away from some of that when they
32:37
Speaker 3: realized that if I'm having my quarterback turn his back
32:40
Speaker 3: to this offensive line, we're going to be on some
32:41
Speaker 3: serious problems. So, again, there's a lot of give and
32:45
Speaker 3: take here. I think you've got to run the ball more,
32:47
Speaker 3: but you're going to have to go under center if
32:48
Speaker 3: you're going to be more successful running the ball. But
32:53
Speaker 3: you're going to have to give at least somewhat of
32:55
Speaker 3: an illusion that you're going to be able to block up.
32:57
Speaker 1: Well, you said you have to force the run that way,
32:59
Speaker 1: and you have to force the run under center because
33:01
Speaker 1: then if you have any chance of a play action
33:03
Speaker 1: or anything working, right?
33:04
Speaker 3: It's going to come off that, yeah, because then– That's,
33:08
Speaker 3: that's just what we saw so much of what they
33:09
Speaker 3: wanted to run. And we're planning on hoping to run
33:12
Speaker 3: during training camp, unless what they were working on most
33:14
Speaker 3: of throughout practices was not what they were hoping to do.
33:17
Speaker 3: And what you saw a lot of what they wanted
33:19
Speaker 3: to do early, there was a lot of under center stuff,
33:23
Speaker 3: but once they went into gun, it was pretty obvious
33:25
Speaker 3: as to what they were doing. And you could see
33:28
Speaker 3: there was foot gas pedal, break that son of a
33:32
Speaker 3: gun by the Vikings.
33:34
Speaker 1: And they just, they just tied that thing to the floor.
33:37
Speaker 1: and dared you to stop him. Another thing, you mentioned
33:40
Speaker 1: the gun, and this is just, I don't know how
33:42
Speaker 1: big it is on the timing of things, but Sean
33:46
Speaker 1: Ryan was not that consistent with the delivery of the
33:49
Speaker 1: snap because he was hurrying to get, because he was
33:53
Speaker 1: under siege, but delivering the ball high, low, all over
33:56
Speaker 1: the place.
33:56
Speaker 3: All over the place, yeah. You even saw one of
33:59
Speaker 3: the best in the business, Creed Humphrey, have a little
34:00
Speaker 3: bit of a problem with that.
34:01
Speaker 1: But yeah, any.
34:02
Speaker 3: Drew, in any six inches where the ball goes that way,
34:07
Speaker 3: is going to throw off a lot of timing.
34:08
Speaker 1: That's going to throw off a lot. That doesn't help,
34:10
Speaker 1: and that's part of the stew of playing in that
34:12
Speaker 1: place where you've got to be faster and it's loud.
34:14
Speaker 1: I'm like, damn. I just noticed... Look at Jordan having
34:20
Speaker 1: to go through all that to catch the damn ball
34:22
Speaker 1: to get the play started. There was a lot of
34:24
Speaker 1: rolling that way. A lot of unnecessary movement, you could say. Yeah, okay. Yeah,
34:30
Speaker 1: and he got a flag for being too demonstrative. To
34:32
Speaker 1: being too demonstrative. Sorry, I'm just trying to catch the
34:35
Speaker 1: freaking snap, Sean. 877-794-1973. Buy or sell propositions coming up.
34:41
Speaker 1: Hunter Baumgart live from Pittsburgh today with the Brewers. He's
34:44
Speaker 1: got a report, too. Getting ready to face the, well,
34:46
Speaker 1: let's spin through that next. The Brewers getting ready to
34:48
Speaker 1: face the Pirates with a chance to clinch. You're in
34:50
Speaker 1: the huddle, Fox Sports Radio, Wisconsin. Drew, Billy, and Armin,
34:56
Speaker 1: the huddle, Fox Sports Radio, Wisconsin. This portion of the
34:58
Speaker 1: program brought to us by Game Day Men's Health. I
35:00
Speaker 1: visited there yesterday, the Brookfield Clinic. Find a clinic near
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35:11
Speaker 1: Our buddy Hunter Baumgart has hit the road. Boots on
35:15
Speaker 1: the ground. Come on, Hunter. We'll find out today if
35:17
Speaker 1: he's one of the only local reporters other than the
35:20
Speaker 1: normal beat hacks. Do you think Hunter's going to have
35:23
Speaker 1: a pro tip? That's a good question. No, he's gluten.
35:26
Speaker 1: Too much gluten. Gluten. Oh, that's true. He's in a
35:29
Speaker 1: bad town for gluten. He can't have a Primanti either.
35:31
Speaker 3: I was going to say, a Primanti sandwich is not
35:32
Speaker 3: going to go well for our boy Hunter.
35:34
Speaker 1: I told him he should walk in there and say,
35:36
Speaker 1: what are your gluten-free options? I have buddies that just
35:39
Speaker 1: pick this trip. They go on one brewer's trip a year,
35:41
Speaker 1: and this is the trip they pick. I'm like, you
35:42
Speaker 1: guys are going to see a clinch. And I told them,
35:44
Speaker 1: go to Primanti Brothers. You've got to make the pilgrimage
35:46
Speaker 1: and get the sandwich with the fries and the coleslaw
35:48
Speaker 1: stacked on top. It just looks unreal.
35:50
Speaker 3: They had so many of them during the NFL draft.
35:54
Speaker 3: And listen, 300 pounds, I get food envy a decent
35:56
Speaker 3: amount of time. I had a lot of food envy
35:58
Speaker 3: looking at that sandwich throughout three days.
36:00
Speaker 1: No doubt. So Hunter is in Pittsburgh. He's going to
36:03
Speaker 1: join us live momentarily, but he did file a report
36:06
Speaker 1: for us as the Brewers get ready to take on
36:08
Speaker 1: the Buccos today in the opener of a three-game series
36:12
Speaker 1: at PNC Park. Take it away, Hunter.
36:15
Speaker 2: Thanks, guys, and hello from a hotel room in Pittsburgh
36:18
Speaker 2: as the Brewers will try to clinch the National League
36:20
Speaker 2: Central here this week. The magic number sits at two.
36:24
Speaker 2: It remained that way because the Cubs beat the Braves
36:27
Speaker 2: 7-3 last night, although Ronald Acuna Jr. did have a
36:30
Speaker 2: chance to tie the game. He was up with the
36:32
Speaker 2: bases loaded. He was the tying run in the top
36:34
Speaker 2: of the ninth, but grounded into a double play, and
36:36
Speaker 2: the Cubs ended up winning. So that means the Braves lose, though,
36:40
Speaker 2: as well. So the Brewers now up 5.5 on the Braves.
36:43
Speaker 2: for a bye in the National League playoffs, which is
36:46
Speaker 2: really good news there. The Dodgers did win, so the
36:48
Speaker 2: birds are two games up on the Dodgers for the
36:51
Speaker 2: one seed in the National League. Brewers in Pittsburgh, as
36:54
Speaker 2: I mentioned tonight, Jacob Mizorowski will take the mound tonight,
36:57
Speaker 2: Logan Henderson tomorrow, and Dustin May on Thursday. I will
37:01
Speaker 2: join you guys at 725 live from Pittsburgh to talk
37:04
Speaker 2: more about the crew as they close in on a clinch.
37:08
Speaker 2: This report brought to you by Import Minded, your trusted
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Speaker 2: choice for exceptional vehicle care on South 27th, just north
37:13
Speaker 2: of 894. Back to you guys.
37:15
Speaker 1: Thank you, Hunter. Hunter pointed out what Jan and Appleton
37:19
Speaker 1: hit us on the talk and text line. If the
37:20
Speaker 1: Cubs have to win, at least it helped the Brewers
37:22
Speaker 1: that they beat the Braves. Yeah, at least do something
37:25
Speaker 1: that way. At least at least now closer. The magic
37:27
Speaker 1: numbers two for the division, 10 for the one seed,
37:31
Speaker 1: seven for the buy.
37:32
Speaker 4: Yeah.
37:32
Speaker 3: And I end up the Braves one for that buy
37:35
Speaker 3: because the L.A. Dodgers have gotten hot at the wrong time.
37:40
Speaker 3: Seven shutout from Derek Scoble yesterday. just allowed four base
37:45
Speaker 3: runners against those Cincinnati Reds. Getting ready for October.
37:47
Speaker 1: Starting to look like himself. Yeah, getting ready for October.
37:50
Speaker 1: Padres also very hot, if anyone's still watching. Padres are scorching,
37:53
Speaker 1: and the Diamondbacks want a walk-off yesterday to kind of
37:55
Speaker 1: stay in the throes of.
37:56
Speaker 5: It, too.
37:57
Speaker 1: Pretty interesting. Diamondbacks got a walk-off from Corbin Carroll, and
38:01
Speaker 1: so they trail the Padres by, like, two and a half.
38:06
Speaker 4: Yeah.
38:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, they didn't get a great start from Armand's guy,
38:09
Speaker 1: Corbin Burns.
38:10
Speaker 3: No, no, no.
38:11
Speaker 1: His eyes were. So they have. Second or third start back, yeah.
38:14
Speaker 1: The Padres are, you know, it's a hill to climb,
38:16
Speaker 1: but they have the, I mean, the Diamondbacks have the
38:18
Speaker 1: Padres in their sights. So the Padres, nobody's relaxing right now, really,
38:22
Speaker 1: because the Cubs and Phillies are obviously going at it
38:25
Speaker 1: to see who's going to be And that's tight.
38:27
Speaker 3: They're tied in the loss column.
38:29
Speaker 1: Now it's only a game and a half out.
38:30
Speaker 3: And Arizona and San Diego, three to close the year.
38:34
Speaker 1: That's what, yeah. So, I mean, that's going to be
38:37
Speaker 1: fun to see if you can have them within a
38:39
Speaker 1: game of each other to see who ultimately prevails with it.
38:41
Speaker 1: And everyone jockeying for position, home games. The Phillies aren't
38:44
Speaker 1: catching the Braves in the division. So the Phillies' mission
38:48
Speaker 1: is to finish ahead of the Cubs. Have those games
38:51
Speaker 1: at home. So the Phillies are actually probably rooting for
38:53
Speaker 1: the Braves, as strange as that may sound. in that series.
38:57
Speaker 1: But yeah, Phillies and Cubs are tied in the loss column,
39:00
Speaker 1: so the Cubs are a half game ahead of the
39:01
Speaker 1: Phillies for the right to play that series at home,
39:04
Speaker 1: and then the Brewers await the winner of that series,
39:06
Speaker 1: if things hold the way they are.
39:07
Speaker 3: The Phillies had a very similar situation like the Cubs did,
39:12
Speaker 3: where they were chasing and looking up at Atlanta throughout
39:15
Speaker 3: the majority of the year, much like the Cubs to
39:17
Speaker 3: the Brewers. They had circled seven games in 10 days
39:20
Speaker 3: and a chance to be able to get themselves right
39:22
Speaker 3: through it.
39:23
Speaker 1: Instead, they went three and four.
39:24
Speaker 3: So much like the Cubs, they did not take advantage
39:28
Speaker 3: of all of the head-to-heads. And now you have to
39:30
Speaker 3: shift your focus to a wildcard race, which is going
39:33
Speaker 3: to be very interesting to see because neither of them
39:36
Speaker 3: are playing probably their best ball. San Diego has been
39:39
Speaker 3: playing their best ball for, what, the last three and
39:41
Speaker 3: a half months?
39:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, they've won eight in a row now. They've been hot.
39:45
Speaker 3: And we saw them in the early portion of August. Uh,
39:49
Speaker 3: and at that point they had been, they were the
39:50
Speaker 3: hottest team in all of baseball. So they've held this
39:53
Speaker 3: now for about two and a half, three months. They've
39:55
Speaker 3: been rolling and the Cubs and Phillies have been sputtering
39:57
Speaker 3: at least lately. The Cubs have been playing at a
39:59
Speaker 3: high level all year, but lately they've been.
40:00
Speaker 1: Sputtering a little bit. They're 500. Yeah.
40:02
Speaker 5: Yeah.
40:03
Speaker 1: They're playing, they're playing like 500.
40:05
Speaker 3: Yeah.
40:05
Speaker 1: The Brewers did kind of start that, but.
40:07
Speaker 5: They still clinch, you know, everyone's got to get their
40:08
Speaker 5: spots in there and then get their positioning.
40:10
Speaker 1: So Phillies are fascinating to me because I think of
40:13
Speaker 1: them as a good team, a formidable team with a
40:15
Speaker 1: good top of the rotation. Good back end, bullpen, and
40:17
Speaker 1: like some guys that you fear in the lineup, their
40:20
Speaker 1: run differential, plus 31. It's not crazy, but it's always
40:24
Speaker 1: one team.
40:24
Speaker 5: And I think you guys would agree, Zach, when you
40:26
Speaker 5: get into a series with them and you put that
40:28
Speaker 5: lineup in rotation together, it's always scary.
40:30
Speaker 1: But man, the Cubs are plus 142. That's a gigantic
40:34
Speaker 1: difference in run difference. And they had so many runs
40:36
Speaker 1: in August. It's wild. Wild, absolutely. And again, Brewers lead
40:40
Speaker 1: the world in run differential, plus 195. Because these names
40:43
Speaker 1: jump off the page. Of course, Brewers won 20-0 the
40:46
Speaker 1: other day. That will skew your run differential.
40:49
Speaker 3: I was going to say, the amount of 17-3 decisions
40:53
Speaker 3: for the Cubs that had Wrigley has definitely helped them
40:56
Speaker 3: in that department.
40:57
Speaker 1: No doubt about it. For sure. All right, we're rolling.
40:59
Speaker 1: We're going to do some buying and selling next. Continue
41:01
Speaker 1: to talk Packers and Brewers. We're glad you're with us.
41:04
Speaker 1: It's The Huddle, Fox Sports Radio, Wisconsin.