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Packers Week in Review: Three Straight Wins, a Defense That Takes the Ball Away, and a Short Week Ahead

Cory Trimm••News

Remember when this team was 1-2 and the penalty counts were the headline? Three straight wins later, Green Bay is 4-2. The injury list is still ugly, and the next ten days are about as demanding as the schedule gets. Let’s get into it.

23-13 over the Cowboys

The Packers beat Dallas on Sunday Night Football at Lambeau, and they did it with defense.

Green Bay led 17-0 at halftime. Per the Packers’ recap, Dallas’s offense was held to its lowest scoring output of the season, and it didn’t have much to show for most of the night: the Cowboys managed just seven points through the first 59-plus minutes, finished 5-of-13 on third down, and were stopped on a pair of fourth downs in scoring territory. A late Dallas touchdown made the final look closer than the game was, and the Packers ran out the clock after an onside kick went out of bounds.

Dak Prescott was intercepted twice. Safety Evan Williams had one, and rookie cornerback Brandon Cisse had the other — the first interception of his career. Matthew Golden caught a touchdown from Jordan Love that effectively settled the lead.

It wasn’t a clean night on the other side of the ball. Coverage described the offense as uneven and the running game as a continuing struggle, with Love doing most of the work at the line of scrimmage. But a defense that is generating turnovers and getting stops in the red zone covers a lot of sins, and ESPN’s Week 6 roundup noted that no team has more first-half takeaways this season than Green Bay.

Three in a row, after a 1-2 start. Not bad for a team that has lost this many starters.

The Injury Sweep

We’ve missed things in this section before, so this week it’s explicit — here’s everything we found, not just the headline.

Javon Hargrave is on injured reserve. The torn Achilles we reported last week is now official; the Packers placed him on IR over the weekend. Jonathan Ford (calf) went on IR at the same time, and Warren Brinson was already there. Per the reporting, the defensive tackle room is now Devonte Wyatt, Karl Brooks, rookie Chris McClellan and first-year player Anthony Campbell. That’s thin for a team that wants to stop the run.

Tucker Kraft had a scare. He was hit low in the second quarter, went to the medical tent, and came back — finishing with five catches for 37 yards. Reports conflict on which knee was involved, and given his ACL history that detail matters. We couldn’t find an official status from the team, so treat this as “watch it,” not “he’s fine.”

Skyy Moore (ankle) and Benjamin St-Juste (hamstring) were both ruled out against Dallas after leaving the Bears game. MarShawn Lloyd also left briefly on Sunday and returned.

For the running tally: Jayden Reed, Zach Bako-Bewele, Edgerrin Cooper and Javon Hargrave are all done for the season, and Josh Jacobs and Micah Parsons remain unavailable.

Parsons: Still Waiting, and the Date Keeps Moving

Last week’s reporting had Parsons back “at some point this month.” This week it has slipped again.

The Packers still haven’t opened his 21-day practice window. LaFleur’s phrasing: “That hasn’t happened yet, but I think we’re getting closer.” Tom Pelissero reports the soonest Parsons has a realistic chance is Nov. 8 at New England, and Adam Schefter has said he’s not expected back before early November. One outlet thinks the Thanksgiving Eve game against the Rams is the likelier debut. He is not expected to be activated before Sunday’s Lions game.

There have been no reported setbacks. As we said before: treat any date as a guess.

Next Up: At Detroit, Then Right Back to Lambeau

Sunday, Oct. 25 — 3:25 p.m. CT / 5:25 p.m. Brasília time, at the Detroit Lions (Ford Field), on FOX.

Detroit is 3-2, coming off a bye and a 45-21 win over Arizona, and the Lions are favored by three. Safety Brian Branch is expected back. It’s a road game in the division against a rested opponent, with Hargrave out and the interior of the defensive line stretched.

Then, four days later: Thursday, Oct. 29 — 7:15 p.m. CT / 9:15 p.m. Brasília time, vs. the Carolina Panthers at Lambeau, on Prime Video. Per Packers.com, it’ll be the first time in team history the Packers have played two Thursday home games in the same season.

Two games in five days, one of them on the road in the division. The depth on this roster is about to get tested hard.

Go Pack Go. 💛💚

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