Packers vs Eagles in Brazil preview!

all right welcome back to another whis Fanatics Tuesday night we are officially into preview season we have made it it is officially week one of the NFL season it's been a long time coming we spent a lot of time doing a lot of stuff in the off season whether it be draft prep we're reviewing the draft picks um doing all the preseason looking at preseason watch parties we we did a watch party for Packers Broncos that's a thing that happened um but we are back now and now we have a a full regular season week one preview and we are going to preview the Packers and Eagles game in Brazil welcome to another live episode of The wisco Fanatic show where we discuss the Packers box Brewers Badgers football and basketball from an optimistic perspective wisco Fanatics is brought to you by cardboard Legacy Wisconsin's most complete sports card shop Buy sell great and consign all at their location in Oshkosh welcome it is week one for the Green Bay Packers and the NFL season starts in two days that starts with the Chiefs and the Ravens and the Packers first game is the next night the Packers versus the Eagles so that'll be super exciting we have a full crew today uh Bryant isn't uh working on his uh snowmobile today um I was gonna say something really mean but never mind I won't go there Simon's on the need the snowmobile I know I wanted to roast Bryant today but I'll be nice I like Bryant today um Simon is uh is here as well we're going to talk some Packers Eagles preview uh going to be a lot of fun we're going to go over things that we are all covering uh going to be hyper focusing on this year uh for the Packers offense defense special teams uh ins and outs everything uh how's everybody doing I'll start with Simon uh because screw Bryant okay well you were gonna be nice for a second that was a roller coaster no no no I like I don't know what happened I'm good dude things are chilling up here you know ready for football yeah that's that's all you can right yeah that's all there to do waiting I'm doing good had a good weekend four day weekend had lots of you know football drafts feel like I crushed my whis Fanatics one so oh that should be good I don't know if Tyler agrees Tyler do you agree do you think he crushed honestly I will I will say this for and this isn't just to to suck up to the people that that follow our show um very closely but I think our league actually drafted pretty balanced for for how it went yeah on my side I feel like um feel like Simon stole all the running backs so then I had to scramble for some running backs hey twinning um I think I did good at wide receiver uh I I got a double up with uh with love and Reed so I was pretty happy about that but I feel like Simon was just like screw it I'm just going to starve you guys I think you said that to me at one point and I was like all right thank you for that I appreciate it very much exactly what I did dude for first four picks for running back you guys just let him keep dropping I was like all right I guess I'm taking another running back yeah I my first four picks of running backs ended up with kyen Williams Jonathan Taylor James Cook and Joe Mixon so oh my goodness I mean I started off pretty well I I mean my first pick was jir Gibbs and then oh shoot I don't remember who my second pick was already already forgot I got Jaylen Wadd and Cooper Cup in my third and fourth round pick you got puka no I didn't get puka I was super mad at uh at Simon because he he stole uh Jaylen Wadd from me I wanted him to fall back to me in the second round but uh or the third round but I had the second overall pick so I had to take etn etn was the other running back I got oh that's who that's who Simon got too Simon crazy team Conor said he got Rogers he really won Ryan asked how cheeseburger Dylan is doing unfortunately on the injured list so yeah that sucks injured reserve baseball is injured list I'm in baseball mode apparently Roger we don't know so before we jump into this I want to say just two things um firstly the Packers Eagles game we are going to be doing a watch party on patreon for this game um and I don't want to be one of those shows that's just constantly asking people for money but this is one of those things where we are trying to do more content and trying to earn a little bit of money off of it to help us get to a point where we can do this show full-time that's that's really what the patreon is for is to we're just asking for five bucks a month to do two Wisconsin sports watch parties a month and come watch the games with us that's what we're doing on patreon and the more people that have you know subscribed to it the more of those that we can do um and we can expand on that and continue doing more content and being able to monetize it so that we can do the show full-time because that is that is our goal um but we need we need your guys' help so I just want to say that firstly um we do have one coming out on Friday so you can join us for that one on patreon on Friday night other thing this year we are switching last year we did everything on offense first this year we are doing everything on defense first so we're going to go through the defensive things um we have seven topics spread among the four of us on defense uh then Bryant is going to cover special teams I'm going to cover coaching and then we have seven topics on offense that we will recap all of those categories in and then we're going to all collectively talk about Jordan love before we move into the next week's preview it just made a little more sense this year to do defense first then special teams and coaching and then offense and then talk about Jordan love instead of going offense special teams defense and then going back to talk about Jordan love so this year we're doing defense first so Simon start us off you weren't here last week so I'm going to let you go first and talk about what you are watching for on defense on Friday night uh yeah I think uh the biggest thing uh with the addition of Jeff Halley in the off season is uh how his scheme's going to look if you looked at what he did in the preseason it was very vanilla a lot of cover two three one he kind of went all over the place and didn't really show his hand so this will be our first opportunity to really look at what kind of scheme well what he can do with the def half history has lot of like one high safety looks and a lot of one Gap penetration which is way different than what Joe Barry was doing um and just allowing the pass rush pass rushers to really get after uh jayen Herz Al righty Bry what about you what are you watching for on the defense yeah so I'm gonna be watching the linebackers and the tackling really um so this game tackling would be hugely important so anyone that hasn't looked up the stats two years ago do you remember how many yards the Eagles rush for us on at the game that Jordan love came in do you remember what they had 363 yards y Jaylen Herz ran for 157 yards on us that game we cannot we will not win this game with saquon Barkley and Jaylen Herz running for that many yards there's no chance so with that being said uh you know we have to be have some sure up you know sure tackling uh we're going have to it's going to be interesting to see from the linebacking group you know who who they use as a spy uh I not to bleed your guys and stuff but I think it's possible I'll get on a little more later but I do think it's possible that a safety could be kind of using that role somewhat too and then uh really it'll be interesting will it be Quay or you know Cooper hasn't got to practice a lot unfortunately uh he was limited today um which we'll get into later but you know with his speed do they do they put him out there for these kinds of plays you know or just have Quay put on them because you know Quay and Cooper are the ones with the speed that can do that yeah McDuffy will probably be in the middle you know trying to stop the run so I'm kind of interested to see you know if that's the case or if they play safety closer to the box or what they do but 100% the tackling needs they cannot be missing a bunch of tackles and letting these this team run wild because otherwise there's no chance all right Jake what are you watching on the defensive side of the ball so I have a lot uh that's basically all my topics so I have pass rush so last year looked it up the Packers rated ranked sorry not rated ranked 20th in the league uh in pressure rate so that's obviously something that we're going to be itching to see if that UPS uh under the new new regime of Defense here uh they ranked 16th in total sacks 2.6 per per game so we're going to need that to uptick as well along with the pressure uh that'll help everything right you look at the third and fourth down defense that's my next Topic in 2023 they allowed a 41.1% that's 25th in the NFL we're going to need that to get up in those upper half they were very good on fourth down last year 14 of 30 they allowed that's 46.7% you're going to be like wow that's not very good but that was actually eighth in the NFL I looked it up and I didn't believe it myself but I was like oh interesting um one really stupid call by Detroit that we stopped that was a good one so uh then red zone defense uh the Packers were top 10 in that one as well uh 10th overall actually so I'll be looking at red zone defense third and fourth down defense and pass rush so really all the cool things that people look at at the end of the game and be like this is why we lost so I got all cool things on defense so Bryant I just went over to to PFF and I looked it up the Packers missed 165 tackles last year which sounds like a lot and it is a lot um but if you divide it by the 19 games that they played last year it's about 8.68 Miss tackles per game so we're looking at about nine Miss tackles a game if they can get that down even just to like six or seven what's the league average that were you able to happen to see that um I can't see that all at once I'd have to go through them individually I believe yeah yeah look at the tackling grades if I look at the grades the Packers were the 14th graded tackling team so I mean you know we we take PFF grades with a grain of salt but like I said even if they go up just say three points on their grade that would take them from 14th to ninth I just recall that there I I feel like I recall them missing several tackles on Jaylen herds that turned into big runs in that game it two years ago but I'm pretty sure I can recall that happening um so and Quay did play that game he did have 11 tackles when I went back and looked at it or something like that um so you know he I think he'll be hugely important I think the safy will be hugely important and I think you know um Cooper or Eric you know Will Wilson will be pretty important important they're they're tackling great in 2022 was 13th so they've been middle of the pack for the last two years before we before we go too far we keep talking about the Packers new defensive coordinator the Eagles also have a new offensive coordinator in Kell Moore so that will that will be a battle of the new OC Kell Moore and he has experienc in the NFL obviously versus Jeff Halley in his first ever NFL game as a DC so that'll be something interesting to watch unfold as well yeah that's a good one they also have a new defensive coordinator too yep yep who uh historically had pretty good success against to be honest Vic Fango type defenses so yeah but I don't want to get into anyone's uh stew there about that uh that that point is going to reflect in my score predictions so we'll get to that in a little bit uh for me I have just one defensive topic this year I have the defensive line so for this game on Friday night what I'm going to be watching on the defensive line is one to see who the starters are obviously Kenny Clark is gonna be the starter but I'm interested to see if Devonte Wyatt or TJ Slayton is gonna start next to him um and then after that how quickly substitutions come in and how often they rotate and then between guys like Carl Brooks Lucas vaness uh kobby wooden uh probably not ran Gary but even Preston Smith if any of those guys move to the inside and they try to put extra pass rushers on the field um so I'm really going to be seeing what those what the fourman front actually looks like and how many guys are moved around across the defensive line and then just overall to see what the Eagles offensive line Looks like um after the departure of Jason Kelce how much that actually affects them um and obviously it's going to be a onewe sample size when we see it so it could be that the Packers played really well against the Eagles offensive line or it could be that the Eagles offensive line misses Jason Kelce or both things can be true at the same time so it's going to be a onewe sample size so we just have to make sure that we're not going to let's say the Eagles offensive line really struggles in the Packers put up like six sacks we just as excited as we'll be and I promise we will be next Tuesday but we just have to make sure that we uh we we keep it optimistic and realistic yeah so that's Eagles have a really Stellar offensive line so yeah yeah but still losing arguably the best center in the game is gonna do something to you we'll see okay so Bryant has special teams again this year so Bryant what are you watching for on special teams on Friday yeah I think there's a lot to watch really um if you listen to R Basha he he did say that it'll be Jaden Reed and you know Nixon back there for returning kicks which is pretty exciting both of them have a lot of experience it's like okay if you want to kick away from Nixon I guess give it to Jaden Reed who's also very explosive uh we didn't everything we saw in preseason pretty much in every single game was Vanilla I'm really interested in watching Thursday night game to see if we see any because you're thinking about you know Andy Reid and Harbaugh both of them are very Savvy coaches so if they're going to dial something up that's a huge game just like the Packers Eagles is a huge game the the Ravens in CA Kansas City when you talk about the grand scheme of things at the end of the year is a huge game so if they're GNA take something out of their bag and use it they might as well use it now because that's one of the most important games for the season for them and I could make that argument for us dep you know at least early on um so it's gonna be I'm gonna watch that game to see kind of strategies do are they just kicking it out of the end zone the entire time or you seen any kind of end rounds are you seen any kind of trickery um any you know Line Drive kicks to try to really pin him so it's going to be pretty interesting to watch that and then of course um our kicker uh narison it sounds like Matt laflor had at first Matt leor said well you know it's gonna have to be in the back of my mind what we do on Fourth Downs well then it comes out that he's like well he's you know he's earned my trust uh I I shared I didn't see if he kicked today but I know um so far kicking with him he was like 10 for 11 uh hit a 58 yard or a 59 Yer and then he missed or maybe it was 56 and 59 and the only miss was like a 51 yard but then he came back and hit hit a 53 Yer so um this guy you know I was worried about his numbers in college but when you actually delve deep into it 45 and in he was 85% kicker so that's better than what Carlson was so he's a little more 45 in in uh preseason with the Titans he was very good so we'll see how that you know if it's fourth and one fourth and two you know are we going for it more or are we just going to trust our kicker and take the points because you know we'll see what happens send it uh got an early Simon Says For You Justin has a hot take that the Packers get the first kickoff return for a touchdown with a new rule in play that'd be so sick yeah that would be pretty awesome yeah all right let's switch over to the offensive side of the ball now Simon you have some offensive topics what are you watching for from the offense on Friday sure uh a lot of it uh I have the tight ends and the Run game I think a lot of it is going to be how for the tight ends it's going to be how often we use two tight end maybe even three tight end personnel and between Tucker craft and mus grave who's out snapping who because I feel like uh after mus crave went down with his was it a kidney uh Elation yeah kidney Elation that's what it was um last year Tucker craft really kind of came into his own so I'm interested to see how the Snaps are shared between those two because um I mean both of them looked pretty good last towards the end of last year um and same in the Run game uh it sounds like Lloyd had the day off today per the plan to to get him uh back from his hamstring injury earlier in champ uh Camp excuse me so we didn't really get to see a lot of him and with Dylan out it looks like Emanuel Wilson's gonna be our rb3 um so it'll be interesting to see if Lloyd gets many snaps due to his him not playing in the preseason and uh seeing how much maybe Wilson will get a lot of those uh early snaps in like the first couple weeks while they get Lloyd uh go if you have Josh Jacobs and fantasy start this week yeah I don't like Philly front s is I mean aging or like have gone out of like Fletcher Cox isn't there I don't think anymore yeah like or they're just like old yeah but Jaylen Carter and you know Jos white Jordan Davis are pretty good too so and they yeah they they signed Devon white so I don't really care about Devon white to be honest with you I don't think he's he's okay so I mean like we know the Eagles usually have like a decent defense um but Josh Jacobs is going to be involved in the run on the pass yeah so Bryant what are you watching for on the offensive side of the ball this year all right so my topics are going to be wide receiver development which is exciting after last year and then offensive line so going into the wide wide receiver development all the all all five of the wide receivers really the main ones even Malik Keith have all showed that they belong on an NFL roster um even D who more came out and he got cut and he ended up on a roster so we all these wide receivers showed they end up on or they they belong on a roster so can these you know the wide receivers the second year wide receivers take another step um and early in the season right um Daven Wicks really really started to come on strong can you continue that Jaden Reed I you know he he was pretty solid throughout the entire season one of our more healthy wide receivers for the most part um but I think Wix and Reed will end up being huge parts of this offense uh you guys seen my stat projections I think Reed will have the most targets out of the entire offense um you know the Eagles secondary was very suspect last year they gave up the second most passing yards at 252 yards a game and then over 65% completion and 35 touchdowns right um I know they have a difference defense coordinator but a lot of the players are still the same they did draft too highly talented rookies that we both all of us really liked and that would be um Cooper deene and quinan Mitchell so but they are Mitch uh rookies and they can make rookie mistakes so I expect Matt Flor to scheme up some open plays um just need Jordan love to deliver the ball on time and need the wide receivers to catch it um so I I do think that you know throughout the year they'll be a big part of this offense and I think you know this game they have a chance to have a big game um and then for the offensive line I'm pretty I look I'm looking forward I'm pretty excited to see what they do at Red Guard I have a feeling there's going to be a rotation like we've seen last year however I don't know that they're going to do it this game because this is that we just talked about their defensive front Eagles defensive front we might not do it this game because they might just roll with Shawn Ryan and let Josh or dord Morgan continue to get a little healthy and get in there we'll see though um P the Packers offensive line you gonna have their hands full we talked about it they got they lost you know Hassan rck which great trade by them in hindsight and Fletch talkx um they're still but they're still really you know very talented they signed Bryce Huff Bryce Huff is a passord specialist 10 sacks he had 19 total tackles so he's not doing a whole lot so if I'm the Packers I'm probably running at Bryce Huff if he's in the game on running Downs running opportunities um you know but then they also have Jaylen Carter Josh sweat and Jordan Davis who are pretty talented as well and we kind of talked about Devon white I I do think Devon white you know he he's he has up he's been up and down but he did have two and a half sacks you know two interceptions last year but he's just quick and can get to the hole quickly and uh you know stuff the run so but the offensive line I think will have their hands full but this will be a good test for him for sure uh Jake what do you have left on offense yeah third and fourth down offense so uh uh in Badger talk I talk about the offense and defensive line so I am the I am the line gu over there and then for the Packers I'm third and fourth down on both sides of the ball so uh I found some interesting things when I was looking this up uh first of all when I looked it up the Packers ended up third uh in all of football oh no I apologize they they were not third they were third over the last three weeks of the season so when they really got things going they were completing over 60% of their third Downs so they were up in third and shorts what what do you think happened during that time they started running the ball Aaron Jones was going crazy they were getting a third manageable a lot so when I looked it up I wanted to see how many first downs they got running the ball they got 29.2% of their first downs were running the ball that was 20th in the NFL this is why I'm so high on Josh Jacobs because he is going to get them in position to pick up third Downs third and twos third and ones and he could get that by himself or the Packers can roll out play action get me and Tyler a little bit excited while watching a football game and they can bomb it deep to the tight end to Christian Watson to Dos I mean they could throw it to anybody deep really but getting yourself in the third and manageable is going to be a really big thing uh they were Fifth and all football and receiving touchdowns by the way at 56.4% so I think I want that number to go down I want the rush first downs to go up and that will help the third down percentage help the touchdown percentage which will help the defense so let's just run the ball a little bit better boys that's what Josh Jacobs is here to do so hopefully that's what happens I think that shows how gross good Jordan love was last year too when when when the uh Run game was going well yeah and and he only threw one interception over the last nine weeks and really it was the last what I'll this is off the top of my head I'll say the last six weeks where Aaron Jones was really just not a human being for six straight weeks where he was just on another planet yeah and you saw how good this offense was for for a month and a half and it was like whoa this is what it looks like when we run our offense and we run the ball and we play misdirection and wow that's that's insane yeah uh so on the offensive side of the ball this year I have two topics I'm uh sticking with passing game distribution something I covered last season something that I was really excited to keep track of last year and something that I kept very good track of was that Jordan love targeted seven pass catchers or more in every single game there was not a single game where Jordan love targeted fewer than seven players seven that's a that's an absurd number to do that through a 17-week season and two playoff games I wonder if any other team crazy number yeah I don't know question Simon I'm about to look it up I don't know if that I feel like you'd have to dig into each game I don't know if someone's actually tracking that stat it'd be interesting bro they're checking how many boogers people pick man they gotta be tracking that okay so for that on the passing game distribution I am going to be looking to keep seeing the ball spread around and then from there um I'll be interested to see what the snap counts look like to see if if between the top four because those are the guys that that we're all talking about um between Watson dobs uh Reed and and Wicks how the playing time is spread among among those four if it's like a 25 25 25 25 of snaps for all of them and they you know they add up that way if they're rotating them in that often or if there's you know Watson and dos or the starters and they're playing 60% of the snaps and then Reed and Wicks are playing you know 40% of the snaps something like that so I'm going to be very interested to see what the snap counts look like for the four the four main wide receivers as far as the passing game distribution is concerned and then right away let's see if we can get Josh jacobs's first career receiving touchdown uh he's like in his sixth year in the league so see if we can get that that monkey off of his back I'm sure he would enjoy that um and Justin said that's why we don't need a wide receiver one and that is absolutely true it only makes things harder foring defenses to try to keep up with these things is that they don't have one guy if they can just go oh we'll stop him the Packers have multiple guys so I'm really looking forward to seeing um what that snap count and the passing game distribution looks like the other thing that I have on the offensive side of the ball is the red zone offense so the Packers last year were 17th in Red Zone touchdown percentage at 53.4 two% so my goal for 2024 for the Packers is going to be in the top 10 which would require them to be at 59.62 per or higher so I'm looking for about a 7% increase in Red Zone touchdown efficiency so that's what I'll be watching for for the Packers in their red zone offense uh starting on Friday I do know their goal to go conversion rate was disgustingly High though I think they're highest in the NFL or something like that it was so I know I looked this up at points last year that they were like number one from the 10 and in and they were like number 20 from the 10 to the 20 yard line and like it balanced out that made them like middle of the pack I thought it was like 90 something percent something like crazy yeah inside the 10 they were like almost automatic but from the 10 to 20 they struggled I I know I talked about it last year I remember that okay so let's go to we're going to talk about Jordan love which is obviously part of the offense but he's going to our transition Point again like he was last year so Simon what are you going to be looking for from Jordan love starting on Friday uh I think the biggest thing when we roll into the season are you talking about specifically this game uh this this game and this season so okay uh I'll start with the season I think more most people want to see if he can consistently be the guy because there was a lot of obviously inconsistency in like the first half of the Season where oh some games he played pretty well and other games were was like what the what is going on um so I'm looking for a lot more consistency in his game um which I think he's gonna do I I honestly have him probably in the MVP conversation this year um and for this game I really like Jordan Love's chances versus the secondary I think they're really young and with a lot of our guys well all our guys from offense coming back I it's just another year of development together and I feel like Jordan lovees is absolutely is gonna kill him this game I think I could see him I'm not gonna roll into what I think he's gonna do yet but I just I I think he's gonna have an extremely good game all right Bryan what are you uh what are you watching for from from Jordan love yeah I just want to see if he I don't know that he'll pick up exactly where he left off because that was last nine eight nine games were insane like that pace he was that's like MVP Plus Pace um you know best quarterback in the NFL pace you'd argue if he did that for a game but I expect him come out and be more are a lot closer to that level than he was at the beginning last year obviously because of the experience I expect him to be getting this team into the right position to succeed these you know these players aren't young anymore or he has a year in the system pretty much with everyone on that team except for offensive line and that's if Jordan Morgan rolls in um otherwise it's it's complete you know players that he's played a year with um so I expect them to kind of or aside from Josh Jacobs excuse me but I kind of expect them to get going right away um so that's kind of what I'm looking for I'm he he's a good enough quarterback he's shown that we essentially unless our defense completely falls off the face of the Earth or something for a game we should be in the position again where it was kind of like when we had Aaron we were in the position to win pretty much 95% of ball games we were in um so I'm really expecting to see that and I'm expecting to see the consistency you know just a higher you know the completion percentage around 6667 you know like that like not too many of these really bad three and outs that we've seen for stretches of time uh during the regular season early in the season and stuff like that I expect us to be you know uh I expect him to lead us to being a top 10 offense because I think that we have all the potential in the world to be that yeah uh Jake what are you watching for from Jordan love so when you when you watch Jordan love if you go back and you're a psychopath and you watch all the games in in the first half of the year and you put yourself through that pain twice and then you watch him the second half of the year it really felt like you were watching two different quarterbacks and the thing that flipped for me was the confidence and the Swagger that he was carrying himself with the first couple weeks it felt like you know Romeo dobs obviously when he caught that touchdown against uh the Saints and he was putting up the hard hands and and it felt like people were trying to pump him up to let him know that yeah we're we're following you you're the leader we're following you you be the leader and then there was a moment in time during last year where the the flip just switched on for him and then he really was that guy and he was walking with swagger and he was putting his shoulder down and he was meaning to run your ass over so I hope that he just continues that and he ticks it up just just a notch because the Packers they believe in him and they backed the Brinks trucks up they paid him they believe in him and him getting that payday should be all the confidence in the world that he needs to know that he is the man in Green Bay in title town as we go for number five I'm so sick of talking about going for number five let's go get this [ __ ] I'm ready to go Jordan's gonna lead us I feel about I feel good about it man so he's the leader he's got to lead with swagger that's what this team responds to so let's go get it I like it um Simon and Bryant between the two of you guys talking about it what I'm hearing from you guys is you want to see that he is more the player that we saw in the second half than the player that we saw in the first half and I think that's something that a lot of Packer fans have you know whether it be doubt or not wanting to have hopes up or you know not thinking that he's worth the contract that he was given just see that he is closer to the guy he was in the second half than he was the guy in the first half yeah and you know if if he does struggle a little bit people are going you know be riding him and saying a bunch of St s you oh I can't believe they include him as MVP blah blah blah blah we do have a tougher schedule we have like the fifth toughest schedule or whatever it was on paper in the League this year so it's gonna be tough we're we're this is a huge game starting right off so that's where I'm hoping you know he just kind of picks up where he not necessarily exactly where he left off but hey that would be great but I expect us to be in this football game for sure and I expect him to be leading us and not making like he shouldn't be making rookie mistakes anymore he the one thing he definitely needs to approve on is I feel like there was a few times that that you know uh especially like San Francisco when when he threw that interception that ball didn't need to be thrown because it was like first down I think he did it against he was either Denver Raiders he threw an interception like a first second down try to get down the field like those kind of things those are plays I want to see him now throw away and okay we still have second third and fourth down to to live and try to get this game or whatever so those are where I'm kind of looking for a little bit of improvement a little bit of Step Up in his mentality and his Awareness on the game um so pack actually have the 22nd highest schedule apparently it's um tougher last year than it is this year it's probably adjusted or something because I know we were on some list for the fifth highest um I'm just I just I just literally just Googled it and just clicked the second thing that PO up yeah um Justin said Jordan love humble Swagger hey honestly if he's playing well feel it y um as far as Jordan love is concerned and for any concerns than anybody has I take more confidence in the fact that his his better half of the season was the second half of the Season that to me implies that there was something in the middle of the Season like Jake said with a switch being flipped that there was something figured out whether it be confidence or just experience whatever it may be that was figured out around that week nine1 area and then all it was like oh [ __ ] he looks dominant in most of these games um and then just really good in the other ones uh if it had been the other way around and he was really really good in the first half of the season and then struggled the second half of the Season then I would understand a little bit more of the doubt and concern but with it being that he was good in week one then kind of questionable for about four or five weeks and then dominant like MVP level for the second half of the season I feel pretty confident that it wasn't you know a situation where he played really well he had tape people figured him out and then he played poorly with it being the other way around I I think uh I think I have a lot of confidence in Jordan love yeah I'm speciically gonna be looking for sorry yeah you make a good point about the tape too sorry real quick is that they do have more games on now too so it's gonna be interesting to see what they throw at him and how he responds yeah um and we we saw him succeed against good teams obviously he was playing well in the playoffs as well um you know say what you will about the 49ers game but he had them in position to win that game so obviously we saw with the Cowboys game that was just fantastic um everybody loves that I'd love to see it again Aaron Jones killed him too annual tradition yeah um for me specifically I'm gonna be looking for for Jordan love to make good decisions obviously but what I really want to hone in on for Jordan love this season for me specifically to watch I want to see how he moves things around pre snap um we saw some instances where he was doing really good jobs of moving guys around um using some motions even doing some of the quick stuff that Aaron roders and Devonte Adams used to do where they would just move them across the formation see that there's one zone coverage corner on a side with two wide receivers and just quickly throw the ball to Devonte with a lead blocker yeah so if he if he can take advantage of some of those things that he sees pre- snap that's going to be something that I watch to see how often Jordan love does things like that um and Al how much trust that Matt laflor puts in him to do things like that okay so we're going to roll into our our preview segments here so Simon give me your matchup to watch for Packers Eagles on Friday night yeah it's uh definitely our secondary versus the Eagles wide receiver core uh they have a really good one two three um Jan doson played about 40% of the slot uh snaps in the slot last year with Washington so I'm kind of expecting maybe him and Devonte Smith to kind of interchange there but that top three's got to be one of the best in the league uh if not the best um I make sure you could make some arguments so I I think it'll be interesting to see how Eric Stokes handles uh being that uh outside cornerback too and how uh kesan Nixon maybe picks it up a little bit in the slot or whoever interchanges in that like Nickelback slot role um Jason said that he thinks that Jordan love is going to win the MVP or he believes that Jordan love is gonna win the MVP I think he has a good shot it's in the r possibility um absolutely just believe it can happen we believe it can happen um I don't think that we're necessarily like all in like it's going to happen we don't usually deal like in super absolutes like that um but it's it's within the realm of possibility of things that can happen yep okay Bryant what is your match up to watch on Friday night so my match up to watch is actually Devonte Wyatt and Kenny Clark versus Makai beckon so the Eagles have very good offensive alive but the red guard position is of question beckon came from the you know came from the Jets as a struggling tackle and didn't play all that well there and he's now he's making the change uh to guard beckon is huge he's a big dude but Casey and Wyatt one of what one of the things they do amazingly is the they get off on the ball there's a couple times where like was Wyatt like off sides there no he's just that fast off the ball so I think it's going to allow Green Bay to get some uh quick interior pressure and get up the middle so I'm kind of I'm interested to see Al maai Beck and works out a guard you know so and I think that Kenny Clark and Devonte Wy is are gonna give him everything he can handle this game uh Justin said he hopes that Quay Walker shows out this year but also keep his emotions in check I think he was fine with that last year yeah put our defense over the top Jake has actually brought this up a couple times that this could be kind of a make or break here for Quay Walker um and Reggie said Lucas fanas 10 plus sacks this year would love to see it if that's something that happens the Packers defense is gonna go crazy dude it means we're we're gonna be killing people and they're gonna have to pass that's what that means yeah and that just means that less attention can be paid to rashan Gary which is only gonna mean bad things for our opponents yep that's true okay Jake what's your match up to watch yeah so I didn't look up the numbers like Bryant did so thanks for uh thanks for the context on my matchup here but I have the linebackers versus uh the Run game as I put it but it really is uh Herz and Barkley uh Barkley one of the biggest signings of the off season and Herz ran all over us last game I didn't remember the numbers but I just remember feeling like Jesus Christ is this hell ever gonna end for me uh is every team gonna in the NFL gonna run for records against my defense for the rest of Eternity um I remember being very sad and depressed after that game but you know you get over it so hopefully in this new defense the linebackers play much better and they they stop the run because that's going to be one of the keys to this defense this year so I went super vanilla and I picked the Packers wide receivers against the Eagles secondary it was kind of touched on a little bit already but looking at it the Eagles did lose James Bradberry uh he's not one of their starters but he is one of their depth defensive backs um so they do still have uh CJ Gardner Johnson and um Reed blank and ship as their two starting safeties but their essentially their third safety James Bradberry who Christian Watson was so fast that he made him look slow um that's their their third safety is out and then they Bryant brought up their two young Corners they rookie cornerbacks um being quinan Mitchell and Cooper Dee so seeing how second year and third year wide receivers can take advantage of rookie cornerbacks with Jordan love who we like we've all just discussed we can be an MVP candidate how the Packers can take advantage of the eagle secondary um Christopher hello welcome uh Justin said gotta stop the tush push and Jason said Gary is going to have 18 sacks this year so we're just getting all the sacks tush push is gonna be different without Kelce that's the real thing that's going to be different without Kelce yeah yeah yeah don't forget the thing is that they're their center now played guard next to Kelsey for a few years so he's got that experience a little bit of stuff so I don't know that you know I'm sure he's he learn behind him calling out schemes and blocking and all that kind of stuff we'll see though I mean Jason Kelsey was you know he's a Hall of Fame Center so when you lose someone like that there is there is a step down and when you're playing casy and Wyatt and TJ Slayton who's showing the ability to get off the ball really fast too you're playing those front three are so quick off the ball that I have a feeling there'll be a couple plays at least couple plays this game that they just beat them off the snap and Jaylen herdz have to be getting the rid of the ball real quick so I'd be really interested to see if they put like um Kenny Clark and Devonte Wyatt just in the a gaps on top of the center and just make him go like this like [ __ ] what do I do like I go for remember I said this uh two weeks ago or or last week uh LVN is has experience at defensive tackle so I would not be shocked in the 43 defense if we see a a lineup with LVN in between Gary and Clark and that is going to be a problem for offensive line I will keep an eye on that to see if that happens um Justin said Dee was the lowest grade at his position in the preseason he was yeah that'll be interesting to see he's a very talented player I don't I expect that okay um Wes said hoping Greg Joseph is the one I hope he's not the one I hope Braden Aron is the one Greg Joseph was C uh Jason said the Packers need to stop the running game and I think they beat the Eagles I mean Tay's oldest time we're looking for the Packers to stop the run sad day going to X factors no doubt about it I'm ready to be heard again right uh X Factor sorry I'm still looking up that thing uh xfactor I got qu Walker versus saquon and Herz um I mean Jake already pretty much spilled the beans on that one so I'm not gonna overhype it you're good uh Brian who's your xfactor yeah mine's Xavier mcken uh we have a safety that's a stud on this offense our defense now I think his coverage ability he was the highest graded safety coverage safety in the NFL last year um his coverage according to PFF uh coverage ability and experience against the Eagles wide receivers in particular I think will be key in stopping the Eagles from beating us down the field and may allow us to play more people close to line of scrimmage to medicate Jaylen herz's uh scrambling and that's where I kind of think where he's going to play key at Z you know Xavier might be closer to the line on some of those plays he kind sounds like he gets to make that decision but I could see Halle been like hey Xavier I need you in the back help these quarterbacks out so we can play Someone Like Javon Bullard or Evan Williams up closer line of scrims are GNA help spy you know or help on sequan and Jaylen Herz so I think his ability back in the back back field is gonna you know help a lot uh Jake who's your exactor his name is Josh Jacobs uh he is replacing an alltime Mount Rushmore Packers Fan Favorite Hall of Famer um everybody loves Aaron Jones nobody nobody dislikes Aaron Jones you can't like dislike Aaron Jones because he's Cowboy fans probably don't like him but yeah I mean but as a person he's like the best dude like he's a great guy off the field he's a great player um and you I went over it before how offense you know transformed when he was you know on another level how much better it made everybody and I think the Packers look at Josh Jacobs and think that he's going to be that too we need him to be 2022 version of Josh Jacobs where he's running people over catching the ball and uh hopefully scoring touchdowns through the air as well yeah Jason said his X Factor is also Josh Jacobs uh my ex factor for this game on Friday night I went with an eagle I went with Jaylen Herz if if the Packers can contain him in the Run game and obviously the passing game I don't think he's an overly ented passer I think his a lot of his ability to see Su successful in the passing game stems off of teams worrying about his ability to run so if the Packers can contain him in the running game I think they can make him kind of one-dimensional as a passer and I think that is the the most beneficial route for the Packers to go is to force him to be uh a passer and not a runner now with that I think that's where you put the Eagles obviously they have talented wide receivers so they still have to be covered but I just think that Jaylen Herz is more easily exploited as a passer than a runner um Justin said we get to hate Aaron Jones twice a year now hey I'll I'll cheer for him the other 15 weeks just not against us I just hope he gets you know I don't know the runs those weeks and not the good kind the gamees I don't want him hurt or nothing I just don't want to play him against us so all right so Bryant what are some injury designations that we should be watching for on Friday night yeah so there's not too many crazy ones but there's a couple interesting ones the Lloyd the hamstring Simon mentioned that he it was planned so he did not practice today we'll have to see what he does in the walkthr Emanuel Wilson his hip was out with or limited with a hip Romeo dos limited with a hand Eden excuse me Cooper limited with a hip and then Carrington Valentine was limited with his hamstring um the couple that are kind of little concerning there are the running backs right so whatever reason Emanuel Wilson and and or uh you know Lloyd cannot go They're gonna have to call someone up from the practice squad and that puts us pretty thin at running back um and then you know the hamstring with Carrington that's never good but then uh Matt laflor did say like well someone mentioned like well one of the reporters asked well it's for a wide receiver hand must not be very good he's like well yeah they kind of you know we teach hands you know to catch with your hands here or at least we're encouraging and he kind of make gave a snarky comment but we'll see how he does I mean he's limited so hopefully I don't know what the the only you know explanation was hands so if it's if it's too bad then he might not be able to play and that that would be not great to not have DOS um but I think he'll play um and then the Eagles didn't really have anything missing you know obviously lost James Bradberry but everyone else is limited um our our veterans rest so we really need to watch out what what happens with the walkthr on Thursday because they're flying tomorrow and they'll have a walk through on Thursday uh and go from there all righty uh Jake what does the weather look like in Brazil on Friday night yeah so it's pretty weird when I looked it up it was like 90 90 87 90 90 high humidity and I was like yeah that's pretty much what I expected when I look up uh Brazil but then you look at night because this game's happening at night time people and it just looks like a beautiful Midwestern night uh 60 close to 60 degrees low around 60 overcast wins east Southeast at 5 to 10 miles per hour with 92% humidity so I mean that's that does sound like a Midwest night that's not bad dude that sounds like a nice comfortable night for the Packers to uh beat the [ __ ] out of the Eagles so I'm in all right so as we always do if you're new watching this year we always do two score predictions we do one from the head one from the heart the head score prediction is the more analytical one and then the heart is more the optimistic if everything goes right score prediction so Simon give me your score prediction from the [Music] head all right uh while you guys were talking for the most time uh for the most part I was looking up that the thing so there was four teams in the League last year that had targeted seven or more players every week so so obviously the Packers are one right yeah the Packers are one and then the chiefs were one the chief P for one name name the other two all what is the most surprising AFC or NFC I'm one's in the NFC one is in the AFC surprising in the NFC Buccaneers no the the surprise is in the AFC the Buccaneers is one of them not the Raiders the Ravens the Bucks wasn't one Steelers no it was the Patriots oh wow and one Seattle that makes sense yeah damn a joke but never mind so I the the way I did it is I sorted by game and PFF and then I went to week one and just looked through every game and soon as I saw six I just went to the next team yeah it the fastest way I could think to do it um anyways no one listening probably cares that I did that but I did hey being in the in the group with four other teams that that shows that that that's pretty you know and one of them's you know chap the Chiefs who are very explosive so run the ball around all right uh this might be looking at our schedule this might be like one of the hardest games to predict with going into week one a lot of unknowns on both teams uh man I just I couldn't come up with who would win but I have a score I think it's gonna be super close I think it's this might be kind of a copout too it's gonna be 23 to 24 I think it's gonna be a dog fight who wins this wello the copout is not picking a team you coward you gotam I couldn't pick one I pick it come on pick the team I I think the Packers have an edge I think two new coordinators being brought in is in week one it just screams like I I don't know what to expect out of the Eagles I think they have a lot of Firepower on their offense I think they have some really deep question marks on their defense okay uh Bryant what do you think from the head I have the Packers winning 23 to 20 all right Jak what do you think from the head all right I have 2724 Green Bay with narvis hitting a game winner As Time expires that' be sick [ __ ] call it baby call it hey dude guy no way bro I have it written on the page dud hey I like it I like it well you guys are best friends though yeah you have to be you have to um Jason said 3521 that's the prediction I love that my score prediction from the head I have just same margin Victory as a lot of you guys but uh Wes is super excited same margin of Victory I just have a little bit higher scoring I have Packers 30 Eagles 27 I think both of these teams have pretty good offenses and question mark defenses yep that's fair um so let's go score predictions from the heart the more optimistic everything goes right prediction um Simon what is your prediction from the heart one yeah I did the Packers win 30 3021 I like it Bryant from the heart 3121 Packers 3121 I like it Jake from the heart okay I have 34 24 Green Bay oh I have 33 24 Green Bay D um Justin said from the head 2421 Packers from the heart 3413 man I would love 3413 that would be fun that would be sick and then Jason no Jason said 3521 from the head and 3510 from the heart man I would love your guys predictions to happen dude 35 to 10 would be disgusting you understand on Friday oh if it's going that way I might join the watch party at halftime it's it's one of those things where like as we preface when we started at the beginning of the show we're like it's week one like we can't you know make the whole season long predictions based on the first week of the season but if Tigers win 35 to 10 it's gonna be really hard to not do that okay last segment we have uh we we do this every week it's Simon says we essentially come up with one bold prediction on each side of the ball and we Fe them to Simon and Simon gives us a thumbs up or a thumbs down on if he thinks they can happen so uh Bryant probably has more than two uh because he likes to be like that so Bryant I'm just gonna go to you first and you can give us your first Simon says all right well you guys kept talking about it but we we predicted he'll finally get one so my bold prediction was that Josh Jacobs finally gets his first career NFL receiving touchdown let's go my buddy at work Craig were talking about he's like well he watched stat prediction show he's like that'd be a good one get it out of the way right away and I was like yep that's a good old prediction right there knock it out right away dig it I think it's gonna happen sooner rather than later y yeah especially if if there's less Health in the back field yeah uh Jake what is your offensive Simon Says mine also deals with Josh Jacobs but he has 75 more yards than Barkley at the end of the game total yards 75 more total yards at the end of the game interesting man that's I don't know about that one that's just that's a lot it is a lot games worth dude that would mean that we possess the ball a lot more than them which would mean if it's 35 to 10 that's what happened that's if it's 35 to 10 everything that's happening in the comments is happening too because Justin Jason said Josh Jacobs gets two receiving touchdowns and Justin said Jaden Reed throws a touchdown so maybe throw it to yes if Jad re throws a touch on the Josh Jacobs dude I might go streaking outside I'm serious Jason Jason and priz camera so hey that one guy said he was gonna eat dog [ __ ] if FSU lost and we can't find him anymore so oh he he deleted his Twitter account I know he deleted everything talking to his F being the most overrated team coming into the college you see I was thankfully that it didn't happen but I remember I said something would happen that I would run around with my shirt off outside in the middle of January and I'm glad that didn't have it just come up to Alaska before you do it yeah I'll get right on that it was only there it was only negative 50 out cool cool cool sounds great uh anyway for the Packers on the offens Simon Says prediction this week I have Watson for two touchdowns I would love that I I I want Watson to ball out so bad yeah I just want him to stay healthy and have an incredible year uh yeah I'm I'm down I think that could happen I will say his dad will become insufferable on Twi oh no I would I would follow like I would turn on I I absolutely love his dad on Twitter he just bodies people but like man he would become a problem he would be my favorite person on Twitter if that happened that' be awesome um Jason said if Josh Jacobs gets two receiving touchdowns let me come on your show we'll talk we'll talk we can figure something out um so let's go to defense Brian give a give your defense if Simon says okay I kind of foreshadowed this a little bit with talking about Devonte Wyatt and Kenny Clark I put the Packers get five sacks including two from Devonte Wyatt I like Devonte Wyatt a lot this year I think he's gonna Feast I'm down oh if they get five sacks D would whole holy hell you give me a thumbs up or thumbs down to that Simon oh yeah sorry I I'm down opening affirmative it's okay I forgive you all right Jake give me your defensive one all right so we all know Barkley likes to give the ball up we all know Jaylen Herz had a bad year last year giving the ball up three turnovers for the Packers defense can I just lump mine in before you give a thumbs up or thumbs down on this one because I also have a turnover one I have I have an interception and a forest fumble oh yeah for both of those I I think I I would it'd be so awesome if they just Philly just went in and just sucked oh my God if there's a fan base that deserves it it's definitely Philly dude one of one of the work with all year oh God it's gonna be insufferable one of the pl's I work with is from Philly so he's a dieh harded Eagles fan I would talk so much trash does he just talk talk all day and say nothing he does he talks a lot yeah yeah and then once if we end up beating him they won't want to talk all a right man no man I would be I would bring him a bag of dog [ __ ] and be like here you go bro this was Jaylen Herz on Friday night oh no it was horse poop wasn't it yeah it horse it was horse it was horse poo the guy thate is poop dude poop is poop whatever yeah yeah I'll find a horse whatever someone's got one around here yeah moose moose close enough same difference bear whatever okay all right Simon did you have any that you wanted to throw out at all or no I think uh my bold prediction is Packers win by three touchdowns oh my oh so one of those 3110s that somebody threw 3510 whatever yeah yeah 351 30 yeah no field goals all touchdowns okay Brian did you say you had a bonus one yet I I did and someone also kind of talked about it I put the Packers win the game on a 50 plus yard field goal from the new kicker hell yeah dude if he makes like a 55 Yard to win oh man people are gonna see a different if that happens he's instantly on like Jeff Janice level like oh yeah abider love that the swing of the leg love that all right so thank you everybody for joining us I just want to give another reminder if you are interested you can find wsco fanatics on patreon we are doing a watch party for Friday night's game um it's five bucks a month you get two Wisconsin sports games per month that Jake and I and potentially Simon Bryant and Mike who who joins us for Badgers um Justin said he's parlaying all these bold predictions about all that you know you get five grand if they all hit to give us half your cut find us find us on patreon we will be doing a watch party for this it's five bucks a month two Wisconsin sports games we we get all dressed up and we make it look like we're in the studio uh for a for a 30 minute pregame show and then we watch the whole game so you can watch the games with us and see you know kind of what we're watching for and how we how we are during the games um so that's that's patreon and it's just one of those things where it's it's going to the more people we get to subscribe to the patreon it's going to help us get to a point where we can do this show for our careers for our full-time jobs and that's that's what we're trying to do so um join us over on patreon on Friday night other than that Jake and I will be back tomorrow with Mike we will be discussing uh the last week of Brewers games as well as the Badgers Friday night uh season opener for Badgers football and we'll be previewing their game against South Dakota so that'll be tomorrow at 4 uh so join us for that other than that we will see you guys next Tuesday thanks for jumping in thanks for all the comments and go pack go go go go let's go baby