Andy Herman of @PackADayPodcast talks Packers v Eagles on Inside Wisconsin Sports w/ Trevor & Josh
Welcome back, Wisconsin inside Wisconsin Sports with Trevor and Josh live from the Wisconsin Sports Radio Network studios powered by the Podawatami Sportsbook. Time to check in with our guy on the Wisconsin Sports Radio Network guest hotline powered by Gruber Law. One call, that’s all. That’s Andy Herman, the Pack a Day podcast. Follow him on Twitter, andyherman NFL. Usually we go, “All right, Andy, we talked to you on Monday, then we’re going to talk on Friday, and then we’re going to talk on Monday again after a Packers game.” But they play Monday. So, what’s new and what do we have? What have we learned this week, my friend? Uh, well, it’s good to talk to you guys. I didn’t get a Brewers memo today. My apologies. So, next time, just just shoot me a M Brewer stuff with you guys. Uh, yeah, not not a ton new. What we learned this week so far, I would say, is just some of the injury stuff, right? Well, we learned they didn’t make any trades at the trade deadline. Uh, we learned that they’re interested in Asante Samuel. And we learned that Dantavian Wixs returned to practice. Some of the guys that got banged up like Aaron Banks are practicing this week, which is good. Uh, and then we learned that LVN, Savon Williams, and of course Nate Hobs, which we knew about already, are not practicing, at least as of yet. So, uh, couple couple takeaways, but, you know, almost had the feeling of like a a very very very mini bye-week with that extra day off in the middle. Only one day of practice so far and, uh, obviously gearing up for a massive massive game with Philadelphia this week. Andy, we played it in the 7:00 hour, but Laflur said in his presser, “Yeah, we’re going to have both kickers kicking uh, today and we’re going to see how McManis feels and blah blah blah blah blah.” What were your thoughts on uh that comment from coach? Well, it certainly opened the door because the day before it certainly made it seem like Brandon McManus was going to remain the kicker and be the guy and then the next day it’s you know he said you know it’s open to competition and they’re both going to kick. I I think it was kind of two different questions. I think the first one is like are you going to continue with McManus on the on the first press conference and his answer was yes like that’s the plan and then the next day it’s like you know what what are you going to are these two competing and he kind of gave his generic of like well there’s always a competition anytime there’s player you know so I think I think their plan seems to still be McManis but I do think that this opens the the door a crack and to some extent when you’re rostering a kicker on your 53 for what the third the second kicker on your roster for you know on the 53 for what three or four weeks Now, I mean, I would hope that there’s some consideration to to what you’re doing. Otherwise, it doesn’t make a whole heck of a lot of sense for him to be on the active roster. So, uh, yeah, I’m sure they both did kick yesterday. He did seem to tip his hand the, you know, the prior day on what Wednesday it was, that Mcmanis is their, I guess, preferred kicker. But if McManis is legitimately struggling with the injury and it’s not healing and he’s not kicking the way that they want, it does open that window. And yeah, I I would hope that that does remain the case, that it is a competition the way things have gone so far. Josh and I had an aha moment this morning and we realized that um Jaylen Herz is our fault. Uh we did not put two and two together that the last time the Packers beat the Eagles was December 6th, 2020. We were thumping them pretty good 20 to3 and Doug Peterson’s like, “Carson, you’re done. Jaylen, you’re in.” And that’s when the fight started for the rest of the NFL. Did you realize that that that was against the Packers back in 2020 that Jaylen Herdz essentially was good enough to become the starter? Yeah, I I didn’t remember if So, did he become the starter the following week right after that? So, that that I did not recognize. I remember his his cameo appearance in that game and him looking good and you know, obviously Carson had had some struggles leading up until that point. So, I remember that game very well and I remember Jaylen Herz again coming in and and doing a very admirable job coming in. I I did not recall at all that it was the very next week that he just took the starting job at that point. So, with that, knowing they have a running quarterback and Saquon Barkley, stopping the run is a fairly important piece to this and it seems to be something they’re concentrating on at 1265. Yet, if you ask Keshan Nixon, hey man, what are you going to do to help stop the run? I don’t know. I’m a quarterback. Okay. What? How are we gonna stop the run? Well, yeah, that there’s there’s a lot to worry about when it comes to Philly, right? So, and there’s a lot of Achilles heels with Green Bay’s defense that don’t play well to this. I would say their run defense has been really good on the season, but in the first half against Pittsburgh, it looked very leaky until Pittsburgh kind of abandoned it in the second half. And part of that was Green Bay scoring points and and whatnot, but uh Pittsburgh still kind of got away from it in the second half sort of inexplicably. I think their injured left guard played a piece in that not being able to go jumbo as much cuz their jumbo player went in at left guard for them. But uh that first half was very leaky against Pittsburgh and then of course this past week against Carolina the run defense was was really bad and that was basically how Carolina won the game and now you know Rico D is very good. You could see it last week but you know Saquon Barkley’s a level up from that and that Philly offensive line is a level up from where Carolina’s offensive line is. So, I mean, the good the semi- good news there is that a lot of that did come with Kobe Wooden out of the game. You know, with him being hurt does seem like he’s going to be able to go. That will certainly help. I think they need to have five defensive tackles active. I said that before last game. They went with four then Kobe gets hurt and you’re down to three and none of them really being a a true sort of nose well other than Stack House who’s an undrafted rookie free agent. None being that kind of nose tackle type. So, I think they need to to change that up a little bit. It was Matt mentioned this as well, but it was uncharacteristic. Some of the stuff, you know, just the edge setting the last couple weeks, which they’ve usually been extremely good at for the last year and a half, was a little bit shaky. And then I thought their inside linebacker play where usually those two have been really great is Cooper and Quay that is at maybe not taking on blocks and shedding, but kind of avoiding those blocks from the 300 pound like offensive linemen and going and making the play. They struggle with that last week. So, that was a a bit of a one-off. We haven’t really seen that so far this year. So, I think there’s things that they can do, but where the other Achilles heel is as well is they really struggle one-on- ones with wide receivers on the outside. And so, if you end up having to commit that extra defender, that extra safety into the box, now it’s AJ Brown and Devonte Smith one-on-one on the outside with Keshan Nixon, Carrington Valentine in this game. And I don’t think that’s where you want to live either. And then as you mentioned, you also have to worry about the running quarterback, which Green Bay’s been better, knock on wood, against so far this year, you know, Jaden Daniels, etc. They’ve not, you know, been successful, but a lot of ways they’ve done that is by committing extra bodies and kind of keeping the quarterback entrapped. And again, you commit extra bodies and receivers are one-on-one on the outside a little bit more. And that’s a scary proposition with AJ Brown and Dvonte Smith. Andy, uh, Matt was also asked a lot about the tush push in, uh, in the presser yesterday. and not just about how to stop it, but also why did you stop using it? I thought that was interesting as well. Do you have any thoughts on not only how the Packers can try to be the team to stop it? Hopefully, it doesn’t play a huge part, but also why they went away from it themselves. I mean, we called it the love shove, I believe, but uh why why that went away. Yeah, I honestly I guess I hadn’t even really thought about it too much. And then uh the other one too is like now it’s obviously gone, but the Tucker Craft QB sneak has not been utilized either. So I’m not sure they they haven’t I don’t think they’ve had a lot of like fourth and inches sort of plays. And Josh Jacobs has been so good in those short yardage situations, especially in the red zone, that it’s it’s almost difficult not to give the ball to Josh Jacobs right now because he’s finding those creases and getting in the end zone almost no matter what. I don’t know if it’s something that Elton’s not uh comfortable with at center. Maybe that has something to do with it. I’m not sure, but um that is an interesting aspect that I hadn’t thought of all that much. Uh and yeah, they they probably are going to need it at some point. As far as Philly goes, listen, as a as a fan of the NFL, I’m I’m a Packers fan first, but as a fan of the NFL, I would be love if Nick Sriani on the received the ball the first play of the game. Just tush push first play. It would it would hearken back to the HackaShack by uh Greg Papovic when he was criticized for doing Hacka Shack and on the very first play of the game uh the the other I think I forget who what team Shaq was on at the time, but they win the tip off and Papovic goes and has two guys just immediately hack Shaq on the very right after the first tip and Shaq looks over at Papovic and Papovic just goes like it was fantastic. So I I I would love the troll by the Eagles and Nick Serriiani and he if there’s any coach that would do it, it might be Nick Serriani. If they got the ball and on the very first play just went tush push because of the Packer stuff, it would be very hilarious. Wow. If that doesn’t happen, I’m going to be so pissed that in my head. There’s no way that happens on first play. No. Maybe first drive. Like I’m sure we’ll see it, but not on first and 10. We got to get to him somehow. That’s got to h Oh, that’d be so good. The NFL would be so pissed and it would be so good if they did that. That’d be amazing. Especially on national TV, Monday Night Football, like right if there’s you you now if you if you do it I mean you need to extend that drive. You can’t go three and out and you you probably like winning the game would need to be the thing too that like we we ran the tushbush on you the first play national TV and then we went and won the game. You also risk the like are the Packers going to get more fired up and ticked off because you do that? Are they going to play harder, etc. Yeah, but it would it would still be the alter. You just listed all the reasons why it won’t happen, which I I totally No, I don’t expect it to happen. It would just be hilarious if it did happen. Oh man. Andy Herman, Andy Herman NFL on Twitter, the Pack a Day podcast 365 every single day. God, I don’t know how I’m going to get that out of my head now. Thanks a lot, Andy. Like, I really want that to you. But is is if let’s just say hypothetically they do that and you guys are right, that would really energize the Packers. Does that make them line up right on offense or does that help them be more consistent on offense? Cuz Jordan was asked about that yesterday in the locker room and he said the attention is in the details. So, how do we get everybody to be on the same page and pay attention to the details on offense? Yeah, that’s that’s coaching. Um they’ve got to figure that out. It was one of the first things that I noted in my film review. I I wrapped it up yesterday, put the episode up, and um as you guys know, watch every player on every play and what really stood out to me, we talk all about the the play call, which again I thought was one of Matt’s worst performances of his career this past week, but uh I you really could see some of the route running and attention to detail that I thought was um just completely lacking on offense. There were some routes that I mean guys, it almost looked like guys were just going through the motion or they were running the route for the very first time. time. I thought Malik Keith really struggled with trying to get any sort of separation. So, it’s, you know, some of this gets, you know, just put generically on play calling. Um, I I thought execution was very bad. And again, that’s not absolving some of the play calls, which were were really bad in this game. In fact, it’s sort of the interesting thing is a lot of people upset with the play calls and the the quick bubble screens and things like that, which some of them the third down one was brutal. But um I actually thought that Matt got a little overaggressive even on tilt a little times and just try to hit some of those plays down the field. Jordan did too. Jordan was a piece of that. But Matt had a couple play calls in there where it’s just like you, you know, they’re playing soft zone coverage. Why are you know like there’d be like a basically like a two-man route and there’s like six defenders that were just clouding the entire it’s like there’s nowhere to go on that type of play. So uh but then on other plays there was just some really poor execution as well. I talked about route running, but just to give a few examples. So um the the Savon Williams fumble is an example of like a what the heck another bubble. It’s not a bubble screen. Well isish. So it’s a run solution. It’s a called run play where if they are stacking the box and you’ve got defenders off your receivers, you throw the quick, you know, run solution to the outside. Basically saying like if Romeo makes his block, we’re going to get more yardage, maybe three, four, five yards on that little bubble than we are going to um on running the ball into a stack box. So, it’s a totally normal NFL play call. And in that situation, Jordan made the right read. It’s good to go to the receiver in that situation. Romeo blows the block and then Seavon runs right into Romeo and then Seavon compounds it by fumbling. Not not great execution on that play. Um there’s a play or very first passing play of the game where Jordan ends up checking it down to Josh Jacobs and J like almost looks like it’s going to be picked and then Jacobs attacks the ball and cuts inside and makes two people miss. Luke Musgrave is coming wide open through the middle of the field and up to the right side. Probably a 40-yard play that’s right there. It looks like Jordan’s looking right at it. I maybe he’s just looking at Tucker and doesn’t see Luke, but it is wide the heck open and Jordan just doesn’t see it. There’s another play where Romeo comes open in the end zone uh for a what I would call NFL open. It’s not tight, but you’re going to have to make a good throw on it. But he’s open in the end zone for a touchdown. And he sees a a kind of a inswinging player coming inside and looks like it’s going to get pressure, but the offensive line actually picks it up well and he abandons the pocket because he thinks that guy is going to get through and does a roll out to the right and has to dirt the ball. If he just stays in the pocket and or if he gets out of the pocket and just resets rather than continuing to roll out, he’s going to hit Romeo for a touchdown and instead it ends up being an incomplete play. So, some of the route running, the decision-making, it it’s not just play calling. There’s plenty of that as well to complain about, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of the execution on some of the plays that were called well was very much lacking as well. Uh, Andy, I know obviously it’s Packad Podcast, not Brew a Day podcast, but you are a huge Brewers fan, and I need to know your opinion as well, as we’ve asked uh throughout the show and earlier for sure in the 6:00 hour. Brandon Woodruff, they’re going to they’re going to offer to pay him $22 million to come back for a year. your thoughts on that? Yeah, I had to do some reading up on this yesterday because I was surprised slash some confused at first, you know. So, yeah, I was it was it definitely took me back, but a couple of things that I think were were smart after I read about it a little bit more. Obviously, this covers you if he signs somewhere else uh that you are going to get a you know, competitive balance uh draft pick, a sandwich pick, whatever you want to call it, um in between either the first and second or what is it, second and third round, um depending on how much he signs for. So, I think protecting yourself there makes sense. Um, and then the other thing that, you know, is is probably smart to remember here, too. If he does accept it and you end up paying him what, 22 million, if I if I remember correctly, um, the 22 million, it doesn’t mean that you can’t trade him. It doesn’t mean that he has to stay on your roster for one year 22 million. And I think probably some team, maybe if it’s not now, even at the trade deadline, potentially would be interested in trading for him, which at that point, you’re eating half the salary. So, what you’re you’re basically taking insurance out on is that you’re going to get nothing in return for Brandon Woodruff if he leaves in free agency and you have nothing to show for it. And I think one of those two things is likely to happen or it it sometimes these things too, I get I could be wrong in baseball. Um so, correct me if I’m wrong on this, but um even if he signs the one-year 22, I don’t think that precludes him from signing a longer term deal as well. So, um that could be more of a negotiating tactic as well. I would be in a way a little bit stunned if he ends up on a one-year 22, which I know was kind of 32 because of the the, you know, the the money they took the buyout already, but um I would be a little bit stunned, but I do think it’s a way to either recoup something if he does end up, you know, not accepting it and leaving in free agency or if they just utilize him to trade to one of the rich teams. That 22 million is just like what what is 22 million? Um whereas to the Brewers, that’s a big deal. So, we’ll see. But that would be my guess. I like that answer. What don’t you know? That’s impressive. I I have one I have one I don’t know. I don’t know why I don’t get to enjoy football in Madison till at least 2027. That’s what I don’t know. I have no There you go. And I I don’t know. Again, I’m not generally the guy that is rah. Let’s let’s fire everyone. Ah, I want this guy to lose his job. Uh I This is a pretty simple one. That feels like a pretty simple one. And I know that there’s a lot of money attached. I know that there’s a lot of money attached to which makes it not simple, but my goodness. Uh, hire Steve from accounting instead like that’s already that’s already on staff. Like, you know, I there’s got to be somebody there that that knows some football that can just take over. That that is a remarkable decision and one that I I know I will be. I’m not a huge college football guy, but I I do enjoy Badger the Badgers when they’re good and I I’m not expecting that for a long while now. So, yeah. They’re not. Andy Herman, the pack of a day podcast and joins us every Monday and Friday here on Inside Wisconsin Sports with Trevor and Josh on the guest hotline powered by Gruber Law. One call, that’s all. All right, Andy, we’re done. But the question is, when are we going to talk to you next? So, we we can chat Monday. However, they play Monday night. And last time you got zero sleep, you showed up on this thing in a football helmet and you didn’t know which way was up. So, can we talk with you on Tuesday next week? Does that work for you? Tuesday uh is potentially great. I I think we can probably make that work. We might need to go a little bit early depending on a couple things, but uh yeah, we can probably make that work. You tell us and we’ll make it work. So, we’ll follow up with you on Tuesday. We’ll dot the eyes and cross the tees on the time, but that way we get your reaction to Monday Night Football. Packers Eagles. We appreciate it, man. Have a great weekend. Thanks, Amy. I’m just I’m also very glad that I didn’t you like right after like joining us next, Luke Fickle here on the It was okay. All right. Sorry about that. Well, you guys have a great weekend. Oh, love it. Thanks, bud.
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