Late in the lead-up to the Green Bay Packers' Week 7 matchup with the Arizona Cardinals, the Packers had an interesting addition to their injury report.
They added running back Josh Jacobs on Friday with a calf injury, along with an illness. Jacobs said he was vomiting before and during the Cincinnati Bengals game, but the calf injury was new information.
When the Packers added him to the injury report, reporters said it was going to be a “true game-time decision.” Fortunately, he proved to the coaching staff and trainers that he was good to go; without him, the Packers likely don’t win this game.
The truth is that Green Bay’s ability to win any football game they play without him would be a whole lot harder. Jacobs is still the engine that makes this offense go, and he proved that again this Sunday.
Jacobs’ stats from Sunday won't jump off the page at you: 13 carries for 55 yards and one catch for three yards. He managed to find the end zone twice, helping the Packers tie the game.
Meanwhile, the offense just couldn’t get anything going when Emanuel Wilson was in the game. Even though Jacobs started, you could tell the coaching staff wanted to keep him on a pitch count.
After the game, we found out that the Packers had informed Jacobs they would limit him to around 20 snaps against Arizona. Wilson played a season-high 34% of the team's offensive snaps but didn’t have much to show for it. He finished with six carries for 17 yards and one reception for minus-two yards. It was tough sledding from the first whistle.
Most of those snaps and touches came in the first half. Still, once the Packers were staring at a deficit in the second half, they wisely turned back to Jacobs to carry the load the rest of the way.
After the first half with Wilson as the primary ball carrier, Green Bay’s offense struggled to put up points, netting only six. Wilson is a capable backup, someone who can come in and spell Jacobs for a series or two per game. Still, he’s proven with this performance that he isn’t a starting RB and is in no way, shape, or form capable of putting the team on his back like No. 8.
If it wasn’t for Jacob pushing Green Bay’s staff to let him play, there’s a good chance that he wouldn’t have. The Packers’ historically conservative training staff could have easily given him the week off. If you listen to Jacobs, they would have if he didn’t agitate to get out on the field.
“This organization, they do a really good job of protecting the players,” Jacobs said after the game. “They didn’t really want me to play today. It was one of them things where I kind of had to convince them.”
Since signing with the Packers as a free agent two offseasons ago as the team's replacement for the injury-prone Aaron Jones, Jacobs continues each week to prove his worth to this offense.
He has made every start since signing, totaling 23 regular-season games. He ran for 1,743 yards, with more than half of that coming after first contact. In those 23 games, he has 23 touchdowns. He’s a scoring machine. It’s no wonder why the Packers would call anyone else’s number when they get close to the goal line.
Think back through every one of those 23 games the Packers have won. Can you remember a victory where Jacobs didn’t play a significant role? I can’t.
Green Bay’s offense isn’t hurting for players the team can lean on when someone needs to make a play. While Tucker Kraft or Romeo Doubs might be the beneficiary of a game-tying or game-winning touchdown, time and again, it’s Jacobs' tough running that helps put them in that position. Jacobs turns two-yard losses into eight-yard gains.
On Sunday against Arizona, Jacobs took a handoff on a drive to set up what would be the game-winning touchdown. He broke a tackle from a penetrating Dalvin Tomlinson and turned that into an eight-yard gain down to the one-yard line. What’s LaFluer going to call at that point? If you ask Jordan Love, there is only one correct answer. Give it to Josh Jacobs.
Jacobs’ teammates love and appreciate him just as much as the fans. LaFleur presented him with a game ball in the locker room.
“Man, I know we’re going to be able to hand him the ball and he’s going to find a way to get in there,” Love said after the game. “But I think that’s kind of the M.O. of our offense. We find ways to get down there, we’re going to hand him the ball and see what he can do. He’s a dawg. He loves the game and finds ways to make big-time plays”.
Jacobs has 414 yards and eight touchdowns in six games. His relentlessness and effectiveness in the red zone specifically are what make him this offense's most important player outside of Jordan Love.
Whether he is playing through a severe illness like he did against the Bengals the previous Sunday and putting up 150 total yards or toughing out a calf injury, Jacobs is the key to this offense. Hopefully, he comes out of Sunday’s gutty performance no worse for wear, because if the Packers want to come out on top of a wide-open NFC, Jacobs is going to be the biggest reason they do it.
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