9 min read
Major Takeaways
- Christian Watson broke a rib on a 53 yard catch in the second quarter and was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital for a CT scan.
- The scan found no internal bleeding, and Watson returned in the third quarter to finish with a career best eight catches for 113 yards.
- Jordan Love threw for 288 yards and three touchdowns as Green Bay improved to 5 and 3 with its fourth win in five games.
- Green Bay sacked Bryce Young six times and pressured him on 48.9 percent of his dropbacks in the 27 to 19 win.
- Carolina fired defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero and assistant Jonathan Cooley on Friday morning, less than 12 hours after the loss.
Christian Watson left Lambeau Field in an ambulance on Thursday night. He came back in the same ambulance about an hour later.
By the final whistle, he had helped the Green Bay Packers close out a 27 to 19 win over the Carolina Panthers. The victory opened Week 8 and moved Green Bay to 5 and 3.
The loss dropped Carolina to 3 and 4. Less than 12 hours later, it also cost two Panthers coaches their jobs.
1. Christian Watson and the Ambulance Ride Nobody Will Forget
The scare started late in the second quarter. Watson hauled in a 53 yard pass through double coverage for his sixth catch of the night.
Two Carolina defenders landed on him at the end of the play. Watson came down hard, possibly on the ball, and could not catch his breath.
He walked off under his own power. On the sideline, he was spitting up blood, and team doctors ordered a CT scan.
Watson left the stadium by ambulance while the game rolled on. At the hospital, he followed along on a phone belonging to one of the doctors.
The scan brought the news he wanted. He had broken a rib, but there was no internal bleeding and no sign of anything more serious.
“Everything looked good, just got a rib, that is all,” Watson said. “No internal bleeding or anything like that, so I was able to get back out there.”
He returned in the third quarter wearing a molded pad around his ribs, and the Lambeau Field crowd roared.
“I was getting dap ups like I was getting resurrected or something,” Watson said. “It was crazy. Guys were definitely shocked.”
“I used to watch WWE as a kid,” Watson said. “I felt like I was watching WWE Smackdown vs. Raw or something, seeing the cameras on me when I was coming out of the ambulance.”
Safety Xavier McKinney said the return said plenty about his teammate. “It shows resiliency, it shows toughness, and it just shows the love that he has for this team,” McKinney said.
2. Watson Had Already Taken Over the Game
The wild part is that Watson had done most of his damage before the injury. He had six catches for 100 yards in the first half alone.
His 53 yard catch was the biggest play of the night. It keyed a nine play, 90 yard drive that ended with a 1 yard touchdown run by Josh Jacobs.
Watson finished with a team high 113 yards on eight catches. The eight catches set a career best for the 27 year old receiver.
His final catch may have mattered most. He brought in a 7 yard pass on third and 2 with 2:33 left, forcing Carolina to use its final timeout.
His season numbers keep climbing. Watson has 42 catches for 708 yards through eight games, and both totals are already career highs.
He also joined rare company in team history. He is the first Green Bay player since Jordy Nelson in 2013 to reach 40 catches, 700 yards, six touchdowns and 16.5 yards per catch through eight games.
For a player whose career has been interrupted again and again by injuries, including a torn ACL, the night carried extra weight.
“This means everything to me, to be out there on the football field,” Watson said. “Any chance I get to go out there on the football field, I am going to be out there.”
3. Jordan Love Stayed Calm and Got the Ball Out Fast
Jordan Love gave Green Bay a steady hand all night. He completed 30 of 41 passes for 288 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
His touchdown passes covered 12 yards to Tucker Kraft, 24 yards to Matthew Golden and 4 yards to Josh Jacobs. Jacobs added the 1 yard scoring run for two touchdowns of his own.
Green Bay struck first after a wild opening. Coleman Owen fumbled the opening kickoff, Ryan Fitzgerald turned it into a 39 yard field goal, and Kraft answered with the 12 yard score.
Love beat pressure with speed of thought. He completed 23 of 25 passes thrown in under 2.5 seconds, the most quick completions by any quarterback in a game this season.
Golden finished with seven catches for 79 yards and the 24 yard score. That touchdown came off a Green Bay interception and sent the Packers into halftime ahead 20 to 10.
Green Bay converted 9 of 16 third downs. The Packers also scored touchdowns on all three of their trips inside the Carolina 20.
The run game remains the worry. Green Bay managed only 66 rushing yards, and Jacobs turned 21 carries into just 39 yards.
That came against a Carolina run defense that entered the week ranked last in the league. It is the one part of this Green Bay offense still searching for answers.
Green Bay turned the ball over three times, on the fumbled kickoff, a Watson fumble and a Love interception. Carolina turned those three gifts into just three points.
4. Six Sacks Made Life Miserable for Bryce Young
On the other sideline, Bryce Young spent the night under siege. Green Bay sacked him six times, a season high for the Packers, and hit him nine times in all.
Six different Packers recorded one sack each. Ty’Ron Hopper, Devonte Wyatt, Lukas Van Ness, Dani Dennis Sutton, Brenton Cox Jr. and Barryn Sorrell all got home.
Young was pressured on 48.9 percent of his dropbacks. While pressured, he completed only seven passes for 41 yards.
He finished 23 of 41 for 209 yards with one touchdown and one interception, and only two completions on throws of more than 10 yards downfield.
His touchdown pass gave Carolina late life. Jalen Coker turned a fourth down throw into a 26 yard score that cut the lead to 27 to 19, but the two point try failed.
Carolina outgained Green Bay 109 to 32 in the fourth quarter. One late drive died on a fourth down incompletion near midfield, and the final snap ended in a sack by Dennis Sutton.
Hubbard did his part in defeat. He ran 22 times for 81 yards and a touchdown, and he caught seven passes for 38 more yards.
Young played behind a patched up line missing right tackle Taylor Moton and left guard Damien Lewis.
After the game, Young refused to blame the left knee that has bothered him since Week 3. “I am fine,” he said. “Everyone is dealing with something at this point in the year. It is football. Nothing like that is an excuse.”
Hopper had a statement night of his own for Green Bay. Filling in again for Zaire Franklin, he posted eight tackles, a sack, an interception and three passes defensed.
His second quarter interception set up the Golden touchdown. He became the first Green Bay defender since Charles Woodson in 2009 to post three passes defensed, a sack and an interception in one game.
5. By Friday Morning, Carolina Had Fired Its Defensive Coordinator
The fallout arrived fast. On Friday morning, head coach Dave Canales parted ways with defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero and defensive passing game coordinator Jonathan Cooley.
Evero had run the Carolina defense since 2023, when he was hired under former head coach Frank Reich. He is the first coordinator in the league to be fired this season.
The recent numbers explain the move. Carolina allowed 43 points to Tampa Bay on Sunday and 27 more at Green Bay on Thursday, a total of 70 points across two losses in five days.
The season had opened with 59 points allowed against Chicago, and the slide never stopped for a team that won its division a year ago.
Injuries piled up on the same side of the ball. Cornerback Will Lee III was carted off with a hamstring injury on the Watson catch play and never returned.
Carolina was already missing starting corners Mike Jackson and Jaycee Horn. A thin secondary then had to chase Watson and Golden while Love got the ball out in a blink.
Defensive line coach Todd Wash takes over as interim defensive coordinator and will call the defense. Outside linebackers coach AC Carter adds the defensive line, and secondary coach Renaldo Hill stays with the defensive backs.
Wash brings a real resume to the job. He ran the Jacksonville defense from 2016 to 2020, including a unit that ranked second in the league in 2017 on a run to the AFC title game.
6. What This Night Means for Both Teams
For Black football fans, this Thursday night carried layers worth naming. Two young Black quarterbacks, Love and Young, stood at the center of a national prime time game.
One left with a signature win built on poise and quick decisions. The other left with six sacks absorbed, a sore knee and a simple promise that he is fine.
Between them, Watson authored the image that will live longest. A second round pick out of North Dakota State in 2022, he rode back from a hospital and finished the game he started.
Toughness like that gets celebrated in barbershops and group chats across Black America, and it should. The honest question about the cost players pay to provide it deserves room too.
Green Bay now gets extra rest before playing at New England on November 8. Those days matter for a rib that Watson played on for most of a half.
Carolina gets extra days as well, with Denver coming to Charlotte next. The Panthers still sit atop the NFC South at 3 and 4, but Atlanta can pass them with a win at Tampa Bay this week.
Keep up with every big football story in our Football and Sports coverage, including the blockbuster Jeffery Simmons trade that shook up the deadline race this week.
