GLENDALE, Ariz. — Coach Matt LaFleur had just finished the opening statement of his news conference after the Green Bay Packers hung on for a 27-23 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday when a team spokesperson announced that Micah Parsons would do his interview in the locker room rather than at the podium as previously planned.
More than one reporter, with apologies to LaFleur, walked out.
“He had a career night,” LaFleur said. “I don’t blame you.”
Not only did Parsons put together the first three-sack game of his career — and had a fourth taken away because he was penalized for a hip-drop tackle — but he also finished the game in dominating fashion. Two of his sacks came in the fourth quarter, one that forced the Cardinals to settle for a field goal and another that wrecked the Cardinals’ final drive, which came up empty.
No one was surprised by Parsons’ big game; that’s what the Packers paid him $188 million to do. But even Parsons was shocked that the Cardinals tried to block him one-on-one more often than anyone expected.
“They kind of said we’re just going to go best on best, and I feel like when we get those looks, we’ve got to take advantage of them,” Parsons said.
Not all of it was against Cardinals left tackle Paris Johnson Jr., a first-round pick in 2023, but Parsons relished the opportunity.
“I think it was me and Paris, and I was like, ‘Oh they want to see if they’ve got a guy,'” Parsons said.
“Look across the league, usually guys like me don’t get those type of looks. That’s a rarity. And there’s levels to this. If I get those type of looks, I can do those same results as those other guys.”
In all, the Packers sacked Jacoby Brissett six times and recorded 12 quarterback hits. Parsons had five of those hits.
“He’s a premium player,” Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon said. “[He] played that way.”
“Six [sacks] is too much,” Gannon added. “Now a couple of those drives got a little pass heavy, and the more you drop back, that’s what’s going to happen. Nobody wants to drop back in the National Football League, especially when you’re playing premium rushers. So we had some tools for those guys, but they got good rushers. Give them credit.”
For a defense that had been criticized in recent weeks for not being able to finish games, Parsons & Co. made sure that wasn’t an issue again. Of his six pressures, four came in the fourth quarter, giving him an NFL-best 15 pressures in the fourth quarter or overtime this season. Only Buffalo’s Joey Bosa (14) and Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson (10) have also reached double digits.
“When you have a guy that, he’s a difference-maker,” Packers linebacker Isaiah McDuffie said. “And you saw it tonight.”
McDuffie was in on perhaps the next most important defensive play of the game. Leading 23-20 with less than six minutes to play, Gannon called a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-1 from his own 48-yard line. McDuffie was credited with the tackle, but it was a full-on effort from the entire defense at a critical time.
After LaFleur made a fourth-down call of his own on the next series — pulling the field goal team off the field and allowing Jordan Love to hit Tucker Kraft on fourth-and-2 to set up the go-ahead touchdown — the Packers left Arizona with a 4-1-1 record heading into Sunday night’s showdown with their former quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, in Pittsburgh.
“It tells everybody on our schedule, the teams that we face, you’re going to get a four-quarter battle from the Packers,” said defensive end Rashan Gary, whose strip sack in the third quarter gave the Packers their first forced and recovered fumble of the season. “It might not be a perfect game, but we’re going to play balls to the wall and let the chips lay where they lay.”
ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss contributed to this report.
First Appeared on
Source link
