Complementary football leads to career night for Jacobs

GREEN BAY – After securing a 38-10 win over the San Francisco 49ers (5-6), Green Bay Packers  (8-3) Running Back Josh Jacobs said that his success was due largely to the team’s execution of complimentary football. 

Jacobs had a career night rushing for 106 yards and 3 touchdowns. 

The defense forced several turnovers in the game with Xavier McKinney’s interception, Lukas Van Ness’s strip sack forcing a fumble and Keisean Nixon forcing a fumble. 

The Packers went 5 for 5 in the redzone, and Jacobs said the offense would not have been as productive without such an aggressive defense. 

“It felt great. I came in here with the mindset that I want to make plays and I want to set the tone and have them play off it,” said Jacobs. 

“At the end of the day, we don’t care how we get a win or who we go against. We get a win and it’s a divisional game, we’ll definitely take it.”

Jacobs said that his mindset going into this game was to show up for his team and get his job done so that others could follow. 

“I just tried to go in there and put my stamp on the game, and I was able to go in there and do that today. It just feels good when you clinch a win like that,” said Jacobs. 

According to Jacobs, everyone on the team stepped up to fill their role on the field this week and to improve their shortcomings from weeks prior. 

“I think we went in with a great scheme. I think its been a big point of emphasis in this building of trying to find an area to be better in and to grow in. It’s been good to work hard all week, and it’s paying off,” said Jacobs.

However, Jacobs said that the success of the offense would not have been possible without the defense showing up. 

“The o-line — I give them all the credit. I tell them all the time, ‘You make my job easy,’ said Jacobs. “We lean on each other, so they get all the credit for this game today.”

Though the game was not perfect, Jacobs said that he was proud of his team for their ability to go out and get the job done with few penalties. 

“It felt good to be able to play a complete game as a team. The defense was getting turnovers and getting points out of it. A lot of times we hurt ourselves in certain situations. It felt good to get everyone locked in. It’s something we are proud of that we definitely need to keep doing,” said Jacobs. 

Center Josh Meyers said that he was proud to be a part of the win and to feed off of Jacob’s energy all night. 

“I thought we did a nice job handling their movement and I thought we communicated really well today, across the board. We were communicating with the tight ends, running backs and everybody. I just thought it was a good effort,” said Meyers. 

Even though they improved to an 8-3 record, the Packers remain at 3rd in the NFC-North Division behind the Minnesota Vikings (9-2) and the Detroit Lions (10-1). 

“I think that the first thing is keeping pace with the rest of the division. It gives us a little energy on a short week coming off a win, so that’s always good,” said Meyers. 

Meyers also said that he enjoyed blocking for Jacobs against the Niners and is looking forward to working with him throughout the season. 

“Grity. Super fun to block for. I’m sure, fun to watch. He just runs the ball so hard. He’s a pro. He’s been a pleasure to work with and a pleasure to block for.”

Safety Xavier McKinney concurred with Jacobs’ and Meyer’s assessment of the team’s execution of complementary football. 

“It felt good. It was a good win. I thought we played well in all phases. There are some things to clean up but it was a good win,” said McKinney. 

“That’s what I came here to do. I was brought in to make big time plays when we really need it, so credit to everybody doing there job and me being able to go out there and make a play.”

McKinney said that his interception was a product of him fulfilling his role for the team and being mindful of how the Niners seemed to be playing. 

“They were dropping a lot of passes, so I kind of played for the tip. I saw what was in front of me and I kind of figured that one was going straight through their hands because that seemed to be the theme through the whole game. I just played for the tip and luckily it bounced right to me and I was able to make the play,” said McKinney. 

In  addition, McKinney said that he was proud of how his team played on both sides of the ball to set each other up for success. 

“It was good and it works out in our favor every time. When we do that it really shows. When we execute at all levels and everybody is doing their job and our playmakers are making plays, we’re a hard team to beat. We’ve got to continue to keep trying to do that,” said McKinney.