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TNC's applied. Boy, what a difference a couple of weeks make. You go trade for one of the best defenders in the NFL. It energizes your football team. And now you're sitting there at 2-0.
And I'm wondering, should I be taking the cheese on the Green Bay Packers? Because they look like a team about to go on a run. Let's talk about the Packers. Join me now, covers the pack for USA Today. Ryan Wood is with Gresh here on the Infinity Sports Network.
Ryan, good evening. How are you? Doing well. Looking forward to seeing some other teams play this week. And obviously, the Packers on their mini bye.
But my goodness, what we just saw in Green Bay was awfully impressive. Yeah, I was going to say, Ryan, like, ever since Micah Parsons got there. How has that changed things? It's translated on the field, but really off the field as well. It feels like this team has kind of found their emojo, and getting Parsons has added some juice to this club.
Tell me about it. You know, there was a moment I was standing in the locker room last night at Lambeau Field. And Micah Parsons was asked something that I hadn't even registered yet because I'm on deadline. I'm just thinking what I'm going to write. He's asked: it was two weeks ago today.
That you were traded. It's unbelievable. Just how quick things can change in this league. Isn't it in two weeks? The Packers went from a team that Expect to be good.
They expect to be in the playoffs again, made the playoffs last two years. They believe they have a quarterback, they believe that they had a pretty salty defense from last year. But a team that last season was one and five in the division. A team that lost All six games they played against the Eagles, the Lions, and the Vikings. All six.
Two of those by double digits. From that to what we just saw the last Five Days, which is a team that just didn't just beat the Lions and the Commanders. They won by a combined score of 54-31. They won after getting out to 27-6 lead. against the Lions.
They won after getting out to a 27-10 lead against Jaden Daniels. And the commanders And If you subscribe as I still do, that the Lions and Commanders are pretty good. I mean, talk about the two-time reigning NFC North champ and last year's conference runner-up. Those were not even ball games. We took him out immediately.
And this is just the start? Micah Parsons didn't have a training camp. He's got 80 snaps in those two games and is still ramping up. You have to wonder how good this team can eventually be once the pieces are not just in place, but have had some time to gel. Yeah, Ryan, I was uh working in Boston when Jeff Hafley up and left Boston college and went to the Green Bay Packers as defensive coordinator.
And privately he was really citing like, oh, it's just a cesspool. It's getting worse.
So now all the guy has to worry about is the football. What does Micah Parsons allow Jeff Hapley to do defensively? that could really change things for the Packers this season. He's a A talent whose production is only matched by his versatility.
So last night you saw Micah Parsons Line up as left and right end. You saw him as a defensive tackle with his hand to the ground on the interior. You saw him as a linebacker standing up over the A or B gap. He plays four different positions at a very high level. And so, when you have not just Jeff Hafley, the creativity that he had to rely on that last year, the Packers went into last season, think that they were just going to rush forward, drop seven in coverage, and that was going to be their blueprint.
They found out very quickly they could not do that. consistently enough.
So how do they still finish top 10 in league and sacks? Jeff Hafley dialed up a lot of blitzky. I mean, he is a very creative defensive mind with the game. That that is how they got by last year.
Now you put a Micah Parsons in this defense. You have Edrin Cooper in his second year. You've got a Xavier McKinney on the back end. You have elite talent at all levels, a lot of versatile pieces. All three of those guys can do a lot of different things.
on the football fields. You put them together. I think we're just seeing the very surface of what that could mean long term. It's a lot of kind of proverbial queens on the chessboard, a lot of moving parts that could do a lot of different things. And when you have synchronicity with that, it can get awfully scary.
How is Jordan Love different than the past couple of seasons, Ryan? Listen up, football fans. You won't want to miss this. Right now, new BET365 customers bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets, win or lose.
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Call 1-877-718-5543 or visit morethanagame.nc.gov. 21 plus only must be physically located in North Carolina. TNC Supply in F only. From unsolved mysteries to unexplained phenomena. From comedy goal to relationship fails.
Amazon Music's got the most ad-free top podcasts, included with Prime. Download the Amazon Music app today. Healthy. I think you saw that last night early in the game where he flushes right. He notices, I think it was a third down.
He notices a patch of green grass. And he takes off and he knows that commanders corner Trey Amos. Is going to meet him before the sticks. And he just lowers his shoulder and plows right through the defender, right through the, he delivers the boom. And absolutely lays out Trey Amos.
That is a play that Jordan Love could not make at any point last year. He sprains his MCL week one in Brazil against the Eagles, misses the next two games. By week seven. He's still dealing with the knee, and then he pulls his groin.
So that's another couple months of dealing with the soft tissue. He was never healthy last year. He is now. He can not only run. But His first two games against the Lions, his pass rating is 128.
Against the Commanders, it's 113. That's the second time in the past three seasons as a starting quarterback that he's opened with two games with a pass rating of at least 110 to start the season. In 18 seasons in Green Bay. Aaron Rodgers did that twice. Wow.
Three times. Three times. The last time was 2015. Three times in 18 seasons, Aaron Rodgers opened with two games of a passer rating of at least 110. Last time in 2015, he had more MVPs than he had season starts like that.
Jordan Love's done that twice now. In three seasons.
Now he's got to sustain that. But it gives you an idea of not just how high of a level Jordan Love is playing at, he's taking care of the football, he's making plays down the field. but also how rare that is. Ryan, does Aaron Rodgers even matter to Packer fans anymore? I think for Packers fans, it's a lot like.
A relationship from your past that there was a lot of good times, you always appreciate it. But you don't necessarily miss because you moved on. Mm-hmm. You're caught up in the present. While maybe still appreciating the past, I think that's where Packers fans are.
They certainly had a lot of great years with Aaron Rodgers. There will always be disappointment. that there was only one Super Bowl appearance. But he had a lot of MVP seasons, a lot of memories along the way. Uh uh nobody And Packard Nation is hung up on who the quarterback is now for the Steelers.
There's nothing but excitement for what is here in the present day. Um How would you describe fans right now of the Green Bay Packers? This is not. You know, this is not a Johnny come lately kind of fan base, in my opinion. These are people who know if they see a good thing and know if they see a bad thing.
Uh, but where w h how would you describe the feeling among Packer fans right now? It's I think that there is cautious optimism, and that is usually the case. What's different now. is it's probably difficult to be cautious. With that optimism.
This is a fan base that has Been treated really well by the football gods over the decades, right? They have had a lot of great seasons. It's also a fan base that since 2014 has been to the NFC Championship game four times and lost all four.
So there's an understanding of, okay, September's great and appreciate every game. It's not baseball. There's not 162. I mean, this is football and every week is significant. But at the end of the day, it's about January and you hope February.
It's about what happens down the stretch because what might look good in September doesn't necessarily portend to what will be late in the year. With that said, If you're a Packers fan and you just watch that... How are you not thinking, oh my God, this is the best team in the league? It's a generational defense. It's just the beginning.
And, you know, how do you not let your mind go there? Because it'd be one thing if the Packers were 2-0 right now and they started with wins over their next two opponents, Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys, right?
Okay, those are two solid wins, but. Yeah, let's see what happens when the cream of the crop comes.
Well, the cream of the crop in the NFC. Outside of Philadelphia. It's supposed to be the team that lost the Philadelphia NFC Championship game last year, the Washington Commanders, and the team that won the NFC North the last two years, the Detroit Lions. That's the cream of the crop. You just saw that test.
So I think that yeah, it's It the the Packer think about this. They are going to be favored. And a whole lot of games coming up. Yeah. I mean, for them to do what they just did against these two opponents.
And then the schedule ahead. It's going to be weeks on end that they are favored to win every game and how far that goes, we'll see. Yeah, it'll be interesting. Ryan Wood of USA Today covers the Packers. Ryan, thanks for the breakdown.
Really appreciate it. Hopefully, we'll do it again sooner than later. Thank you. Anytime. Take care.
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