EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur stuck to his standard answer regarding player injuries when asked about running back Josh Jacobs leaving Sunday’s game early in the second quarter with a knee injury and not returning.
Plug it into the Matt LaFleur Translator, though, and Jacobs’ injury doesn’t sound like a long-term issue.
“Any time a player doesn’t finish a game, you’re always concerned about the welfare of them,” LaFleur said, which echoes answers he’s provided in the past about similar situations.
The head coach’s tone after injuries to tight end Tucker Kraft and center Elgton Jenkins was far more grim. Kraft is out for the season with a torn ACL suffered two weeks ago and LaFleur said it’s highly unlikely Jenkins returns this season because of the reported broken fibula he suffered last Monday. Jacobs’ knee injury doesn’t appear to be that serious.
He was seen walking on the sideline with a trainer after suffering it and later walked to the locker room. Jacobs ran seven times and even tied the team high with 40 rushing yards in Green Bay’s 27-20 win over the New York Giants that elevated the Packers to 6-3-1.
“Josh is good,” backup running back Emanuel Wilson said. “I’ll talk to him later on when we’re on the plane and (see) how he’s feeling, but I know he’s good.”
Here is more that we learned from a game against one of the league’s worst teams that was tighter than the Packers would’ve liked.
Love hurts
Jordan Love isn’t one to shy away from a hit and it cost him, albeit briefly, late in the first quarter. The Packers quarterback lowered his left shoulder into linebacker Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles on a 3-yard scramble on first-and-20 and missed seven offensive plays while being examined in the blue medical tent and locker room.
“It’s tough,” Love said when asked about his shoulder discomfort. “Went in, got evaluated and figured I was good enough to come back, so came back in. But yeah, it was definitely not fun. It’s just a small injury, so we’ll reevaluate it when we get back, look at it, see what’s going on, but yeah, it’s not fun.”
With Love out, backup quarterback Malik Willis did exactly what he did last season when Love missed 2 1/2 games and filled in admirably. This time, Willis completed both passes he threw for 6 yards and a touchdown to wide receiver Christian Watson and also ran for 16 yards on third-and-8 earlier in the drive.
“I can’t say enough great things about Malik Willis,” LaFleur said. “He’s a great competitor. He’s so calm … when your starting quarterback is out and then you have your backup in there and you call a zone read, you’re a little bit concerned about that in that moment just because you can’t have anything happen to him. But he made a lot of plays in the game and, obviously, we don’t win that game without him.”
Love was nails on Sunday, even on incompletions. His final stat line read only 13-of-24 for 174 yards and two touchdowns, but that includes at least five drops: wide receiver Romeo Doubs (three), wideout Dontayvion Wicks and tight end Luke Musgrave. Love also dropped a deep ball in a bucket for Watson on third-and-2 that he probably should have caught, but cornerback Nic Jones was credited with a pass breakup on the play.
“It was so gritty and tough,” LaFleur said of Love’s performance. “He was under duress, it felt like, quite a bit, and I thought he did a really nice job of giving guys opportunities to make plays. Certainly had a lot of drops today that we were able to obviously overcome … for his ability to come back and play the way he did, I was really proud of him.”
Contested catches
For as bad as the Packers’ drops were on offense, both Watson and rookie wideout Savion Williams made crucial contested catches.
Watson wrestled his first touchdown away from cornerback Deonte Banks after Willis threw across his body on third-and-goal from the 1 to the back middle of the end zone.
“Honestly, that was like backyard football,” Watson said. “I wasn’t really supposed to be in that spot, but I just saw a couple guys fly out. I went to dive down and get back to the corner. The corner is playing outside leverage, so I didn’t really have any space to go. I didn’t want to muddy up the window out there, so I kinda just stopped and Malik found me.”
His second was an even better catch, when he ran a slot fade to the back-right corner of the end zone on second-and-7 before Moss-ing cornerback Korie Black for the eventual game-winning 17-yard score with four minutes remaining.
“It was a play that we had probably called four times that game just to try to get the right look for it,” Watson said. “We weren’t getting man on it the whole game. That was the first time we got man on it, so we got to the can (audible), the man beater, just went on a slot fade and Jordan just gave me a chance.”
Watson hasn’t always been the most sure-handed receiver, but he was rock-solid catching the football last season when drops plagued the team and was so again on Sunday when others had butterfingers. LaFleur called both of Watson’s touchdown catches “amazing” in his fourth game back from a torn ACL and said he’s seen “a ton” of improvement in Watson’s hands over the years.
Williams, the third-round rookie, only had nine catches through the first nine games and only one on Sunday. However, that one might’ve been the biggest of the game, when he fought off cornerback Cor’Dale Flott on a third-and-10 scramble drill for a 33-yard catch down the left side with about six minutes remaining and the Packers facing a punt trailing by one.
“We ran pretty much stop routes,” Love said. “I was in the pocket, had time, didn’t like obviously the initial read and just went off scramble drill. Told him to go deep and he did a good job kind of wheeling up and just threw him up a 50-50 ball and he went up and made a big-time catch for us. It’s just a really phenomenal play by him.”
WHAT A PLAY BY THE ROOKIE
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/pOm1FRlvWO
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) November 16, 2025
Williams has been battling an ankle injury and even stepped off the bus with a walking boot on his left foot on Sunday. LaFleur said Williams has worn the boot pretty much every day.
“When I watch him throughout the course of practice, I’m like, ‘Sure, this guy can play?’ But he is as tough as they come,” LaFleur said. “I woke up this morning and went down to breakfast and I saw him in the walking boot and I was like, it’s not every day you see your starting returner in a walking boot and expect him to go play in a game … he’s safe from a medical standpoint, but it’s just a pain-tolerance issue and I would say he’s got a pretty high tolerance.”
It’s about time
The Packers knew Giants quarterback Jameis Winston would give them a chance to intercept him. He actually gave them a complete handful of chances, but the Packers botched each one until the last.
Cornerback Carrington Valentine probably should’ve had two interceptions in the first half. Nickel Javon Bullard probably would’ve had a pick-six, but teammate Isaiah McDuffie inadvertently truck-sticked him to break up the pass. Cornerback Keisean Nixon likely would’ve picked off a Winston deep ball down the middle, but it glanced off safety Xavier McKinney’s finger and once again fell incomplete.
“We definitely had (opportunities) and we did not capitalize on them,” McKinney said.
That’s why McKinney called the interception his safety running mate finally secured late in the fourth quarter a “relief.” Evan Williams didn’t have competition securing his second pick of the year, which essentially sealed the game because wideout Jalin Hyatt stopped running his route near the far left side of the end zone.
“They ran that concept a little earlier in the game,” Williams said. “Just two primary receivers stacked. They ran a flat seven (flat route and corner route). I was in a half, and Jameis, once he got the ball, he looked immediately towards my way and I’m thinking I’m hot. I’m probably the first read and I saw one break out. (My) legs made the play before I really did. I broke on the seven before it happened and put myself in a good spot to end it.”
Xavier McKinney: “We had opps and did not capitalize on ‘em.”
Said Evan Williams’ late INT was a “relief.” pic.twitter.com/dQEigxL2lG
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) November 16, 2025
Kicker questions
Starting kicker Brandon McManus didn’t play Sunday after being downgraded on Saturday to doubtful with the same right quad injury he’s been nursing for the last month and a half.
“I think it was one of those deals where he kicked two days in a row and I think that’s a little bit abnormal, and it was just a byproduct of playing on Monday night,” LaFleur said. “Wanted to kick him twice this week and came in with some quad tightness, so I think it’s more day-to-day than anything.”
In two fill-in games earlier this season, Lucas Havrisik went 10-for-10 overall and 4-of-4 on field goals, including a franchise-record-long 61-yarder in Week 6. On a windy Sunday in New Jersey, however, Havrisik missed two of his three PATs. LaFleur said he thought the wind impacted those misses, but that Havrisik and the kicking operation (laces were pointed directly at Havrisik on his second miss) have to find a way despite adverse conditions.
McManus wasn’t the only Saturday status update, as third-year wide receiver Malik Heath was ruled out Saturday because of a coach’s decision.
“I’m just going to keep that between our team,” LaFleur said. “It’s just one of those decisions, but I will say this about Malik. I think he’s definitely a valued member of our team. He’s put in a lot of good work for us and I look forward to seeing him tomorrow.”
