Packers top Cowboys, rack up 3rd victory in a row

Hello there and thanks for staying up late and turning over to us this late. It is a Sunday night following a Packers 23 to 13 win over the Cowboys. They just wrapped up moments ago at Lambeau Field. Let's go out there live. Tim Van Voren, you've been there all day for this one. And boy, with all the laundry on the field tonight, this game lasted well into the 10 o'clock hour. But Tim, the Packers do come away with the 23 to 13 win over the Cowboys. What are your impressions of this game and with what the Packers did to win their third in a row. Kind of a rough watch, right? Pun intended, roughing all over the place here tonight, Brandon. The Packers get the job done, should have had more points, certainly. They got a few breaks on their side. They were the better team than the Dallas Cowboys, and they won. It was not pretty, not just because of the penalties. But, you know, coming into the weekend, it seemed like, Brandon, it seemed like such a slow start for the Packers this season, right? But they are the fifth seed in the NFC coming into the weekend. and they didn't hurt their cause at all tonight. So you knock down the Dallas Cowboys by 10 points, and they are definitely stabilizing a little bit, even if there aren't a whole lot of style points out there. Yeah, and when you talk about style points, the one thing that they kept doing was putting themselves in third and long situations. Yet in the first half, they were 9 of 10 in converting third downs. It was a pretty impressive situation for them because they just kept moving the sticks. It seemed no matter how far they had to go on that down, that's something we have not seen a lot from this team in recent games yeah good point because Matt Lafleur has talked incessantly about the struggles on third down and has pointed to the down and distance being the biggest factor for that so when you had the long that needs to convert tonight you would have thought oh that's going to be more of the same but to Jordan Love's credit the Packers got those balls down the field and were able to keep the ball in possession which that allowed them to build it up. You know, the Cowboys don't do well possessing the football, so the Packers wanted to keep the ball as long as they could, and they were able to with some of those longer conversions. And they had long scoring drives, but they weren't always the most fruitful scoring drives, Brandon. No, no, they weren't. That was part of the problem. You mentioned some issues, and some of those issues were dropping passes. I mean, I don't know how many receivers we saw just drop the ball that was right in their hands. Great throws by Jordan Love, and his receivers just couldn't do it. I would say they had a couple that should have been touchdowns instead turned into field goals. So this should have been a much bigger margin of victory, wouldn't you think? Yeah, I would agree. Matthew Golden had two that I think you would say complete drops that would have been touchdowns. Christian Watson in the end zone would have been a touchdown. Pierre Strong had a big drop. You know, it kind of spread around. It wasn't like one guy was the culprit in this one. But the Packers definitely had drops, Brandon, and they were costly in this game. Would have been more costly in a different situation. The Cowboys really didn't have anything going in the entire first half. They played a little bit better in the second half. But they can't, both of these teams struggle to do anything on the ground, right? So it's just going to be a passing attack versus a passing attack. That's what the night turned out to be. All right, Tim Van Boren live at Lambeau Field. Let's go inside where we're hearing from Jordan Love, who has just approached the podium. Considering everything you guys have gone through, how does 4-2 feel? Man, yeah, it feels good. Definitely feels good to get rolling with some wins. That's what we talk about as a team. You know, the mindset is take it one week at a time. We've got to stack wins, obviously. You know, a little adversity early on in the season with a couple losses, but it's all about how you respond, and I think we're responding well right now. So it definitely feels good, but we've got to keep building upon it, keep stacking, keep taking it one week at a time. How encouraging is it for an offense to see their defense performing the way it has in the last couple weeks? Man, it's amazing. I think they're playing at a very high level right now. I think that's a very good offense we were going against on the other side today, and I think holding them to 13 points and really shutting them out through most of the game was great. They're getting a lot of turnovers right now, which is what you need. So I think they're playing at a high level, and I'd love to see it. We just got to keep it up. Jordan, how frustrating would it be to put the ball on just on the money and just continue to make drops from your receivers? Is that something that you try to just block out and just move on to the next thing, or does it eat you up a little bit? No, it's tough. You know, it's football. I want to see us make every play. I want to make every throw. I want these guys to make every catch, and that's the expectation. You know, stuff happens. Drops happen. Obviously, I want those guys to make those plays, and we're capable of making those plays. But for me, it's got to be the next play mindset. You've got to move on. You've got to try and fight back and continue to make good plays. But, yeah, I mean, it sucks. And it's something we've got to continue to get better at. Jordan, did you feel guys were kind of picking each other up after mistakes, though? I mean, it seemed like, you know, something bad would happen, but then it seemed like it would kind of make something good happen. Yeah, I mean, that's what we talk about. Like, stuff happens in a game. Like I just mentioned, we want to make every play. And if we don't, guys got to respond. Guys got to go out there and find a way to make that next play. So it's always all about that next play. And I think guys, to your point, did a good job of that tonight. You know, I think guys responded after, you know, maybe they had a couple drops and they started making more plays. So it's just one of those things where you just got to keep going, you know. I had an interception early on, so it's one of those things where you got to keep responding, keep trying to fight back, and just can't let the negative keep, you know, building up and become more and more negative. So you got to find a way to overcome that stuff. Were you expecting more blitzing tonight given, you know, Pat had come in? Did you think they were going to come after you a little bit more? And did that first drive, the fact that you actually got it, scored a touchdown on it kind of show them that, you know, that wasn't going to bother you? No, coming into this week, that's not really something I saw throughout watching film. That was a, you know, a big factor of what they want to do. But, you know, it's always one of those things where, Teams can change. They can change their scheme and have a certain game plan coming into the week. But, no, that's not something that I really expected. They do some stuff. But, yeah, I think they did a good job of mixing up some of their schemes, and that might be with Patton coming in, things like that. But, no, I think they did some stuff that we've seen on film and a couple things that were unexpected. But I didn't expect a big kind of blitz-heavy day from them. How important was that first drive for you guys just to establish yourselves on cut two? Very important. We always talk about it. You've got to start fast from the get-go. And, you know, I don't even know how many plays it was, but, you know, to put together a long drive like that, it's huge. You know, you've got to be able to do that and then obviously come away with a touchdown at the end of that. So, I think guys made some big-time plays on that. We had a couple huge third-down conversions. So, you know, that's what it needs to be. And that's kind of the standard for us where we've got to keep building. And, you know, you put a drive together like that, you've got to be able to follow that up with another one. Why were you guys so good on the third down today, Jordan? It's been kind of a trouble spot, but you guys were really good on the third down. I'll look at the tape and see kind of where everything went with the execution, but I think guys just made plays. You know, I think we had a good plan coming into it, you know, and we're able to execute. But third downs, it just comes down to being able to hold up in protection and guys make contested catches. If they want to play man or if they want to play some of these coverages, me be able to recognize and just find those playmakers and get them the ball, but I think we had a couple where passes caught behind the line of scrimmage and guys were able to make a play to be able to pick up that first down, so guys just made plays. Jordan, what can you say about Matthew Golden? Just obviously probably a couple he'd like to have back, but he seemed to kind of stick with it and still make a few big plays for you guys. What can you say about the game that he had? I mean, he's resilient. He shows that for sure. Yeah, would he like to have a couple plays back? For sure. But, you know, I think there was a time where he came back to me and said just, you know, I'm going to keep, just keep trusting me. Like, just keep coming to me. And that's what you love. You know, you love to see that confidence, that resiliency. And that's what I tell these guys all the time. Like, don't hang your head ever after, you know, a bad play. Just expect the ball to keep coming your way and make that next play. And that's Jordan Love live at Lambeau Field talking after the Packers. 23-13 win over the Cowboys. and having his receivers back. Even though Matthew Golden had a couple of key drops, he was still very positive about him. And why not? He had a very nice night overall despite those drops. Well, we're just getting started here on the Fox 6 Sports Blitz when we come back. More from Tim VanVoorn and more reaction from Lambeau Field. Stay with us. And we're still rolling on here on the Fox 6 Sports Blitz following the Packers' 23-13 win over the Cowboys. Tim VanVoorn at Lambeau Field tonight. And Tim, you know, we talked about some of the offense defensively. There are some standout players and some standout plays. Early on, Evan Williams comes up with an interception on the Cowboys' third series that really, to me, kind of flipped the game. What did you think of his interception deep in the red zone? Huge play. I agree with you. The Cowboys are about to punch it in. Touchdown. Maybe field goal. And Williams gets the ball going back the other way. Great individual play on that ball. He's playing at a Pro Bowl level so far this season. He's been active on the ball. Had the fumble recovery interception type of guy, but also one of the leaders in tackles in the NFL. He's made a lot of plays so far in the first stretch of the season, certainly a big one here tonight. Let's listen. He's also good with the media, so let's listen in to Evan Williams in the locker room. Playing fast, playing confident. Yeah, really just trusting the guys around us and, you know, trusting them to do their job. Up front is eating. We stop in the run pretty well in that first half, which is, you know, opening some things up on the back end, you know, allowing us to get some opportunities to eat. So, yeah, it's really just all of us working together, like having to trust in, you know, the front seven, just like they trust us in the back end to, you know, make plays when the ball's in the air. We trust them to handle the run game. And, you know, when you've got 11 guys, you know, trusting each other, working together, it's a good sight. What did you see on the interception? What did you see on the interception? I was like, which one? Um, uh, on the interception. Yeah, I was, um, I started around the line of scrimmage. I mean, first of all, great call by, by JG kind of put me in a great position to, you know, go get that one. But yeah, I was showing up, uh, around the line of scrimmage pretty early. And, uh, yeah, I got, I think I saw Dak, uh, you know, point at me, which, you know, typically is a tell that, you know, that either the back is coming to me or they're going to slide, which is a good thing. Cause you know, I'm, I knew that I was dropping in coverage, um, on that play. And so kind of Once I got that, I was able to bounce out and, yeah, saw C.D. at three. You know, he's normally a hot, you know, a hot route type of guy that, you know, Dak is looking for, especially in that high red. So got out and really instincts kind of took over. Like after the ball was snapped, I kind of floated to a good position where, you know, just kind of putting myself between the man and the ball, and the ball showed up and I kind of blacked out, tried to get jiggy, tried to, you know, score a six real quick. but there's some big guys trying to hunt me down, but I was able to celebrate with the guys after. Evan Williams having a little fun there, referencing J.G., Brandon. If you're around these Packer defensive players in the locker room or during the week at practice, that sort of thing, you hear J.G. referenced a lot. Of course, that's Jonathan Gannon, the new defensive coordinator this year, an established defensive coordinator in the league, a former head coach, and it seems like he's putting his stamp on this unit. You can feel it. You can feel a different intensity with this group. And what he was also having fun with, he was getting jiggy with it, trying to score what would have been probably about a 94-yard touchdown return on that interception. Obviously, guys got in his way, as he mentioned. But he also was able to put pressure on Dak Prescott tonight. He wasn't just hanging back with receivers. He was moved around a lot, and he was in different positions to affect the Cowboys' offense. How much of a variation is that from what we've seen in the past with him? Well, I think one thing that, let's go to Gannon on this. One thing that Gannon's reputation in the NFL is he identifies his key players and then sets them up for success. He's been a defensive coordinator, he's been a defensive assistant in many teams around the league, and that's kind of the idea that he's used, particularly his success with the Eagles, for instance. Evan Williams would be one of those players who can change the field for the Packers' defense, and certainly so far through the first six games this season, he's been put in position and he's delivered upon that. So I think you have to credit Evan Williams for sure, but maybe some of the usage as well from Jonathan Gannon. Yeah, it's very noticeable. The other noticeable thing from the safeties has been the play of Javon Bullard. Let's hear from him in the locker room. Yeah, man, I mean, JG's been dialing it up. We've got a huge amount of confidence in him, and he has a huge amount of confidence in us, and I think it shows in the plays that he calls and the trust that he has in us to go out there and make those plays. Are those interceptions just contagious for you guys? Yeah, I mean, they come in bunches, man. They come in bunches. It's all about the ball, man. It's all about the ball. We've got to find ways to get the ball in the air. You know what I'm saying? We've got to get them off of players, punch outs and things like that, forced fumbles, sacks, whatever we've got to do to get the ball. Anytime we can get that ball back in Tim's hands, we know we've got a better chance of winning the game. What did you like just about the pressures he dialed up just to get out the back? Because, I mean, Dak was calling for the rest of the entire game. Yeah, that was the whole game plan, really just to rattle, you know, because we know if you give him time with the weapons that he has, he can pick you apart. and that was our whole game plan to get out the four and make them uncomfortable, and I think we did that. Were the DBs greedy? Yeah, man, we're greedy today. We're greedy today, man. Anytime we step on that grass, it's always a chance to showcase your talents to the world and just show the work that you've been putting in. I think we've got the hardest working DBs in the league, and we come to practice every day, and I think it's starting to show. Javon Buller talking about the defensive backs, and they all played very well in this 23-13 win. We're taking another break. More reaction when we come back. Now, all day we've been asking you to answer our sports poll, and here is what you've come up with. What is your favorite memory of the Brewers' NLCS sweep of the Dodgers? And your answer, easily, William Contreras' home run and celebration. Oh, it was pretty epic. And now the Brewers sit and wait for an American League champion to come to Milwaukee for the World Series, which starts on Friday right here on Fox 6. Let's go back out to Lambeau Field. Tim Van Voren out there, and Tim, when you look at this team, nothing was perfect. One of the things that really stood out to me were the penalties, and they all seem to be happening at crucial times. We know that's kind of been the pattern for these teams in recent years, and again tonight, it kind of allowed Dallas to hang around, and even if they were ticky-tack calls, they were critical calls. Where is the discipline with this team? Yeah, the penalties crept back up as the game went along, and the Packers kind of ground down less effective as the game went along. There is a correlation. Last week against the Bears, they cut that penalty number way down. It was easily their best game of the year. It was the smoothest performance. So, yes, the discipline question is still there. Specifically, let's go to the Denard Sutton taunting penalty, which took away a stop, gave the Cowboys a conversion. I specifically watched the coaches come over, the players come over and talk to Denard Sutton, trying to calm him down. after his mistake late in the third quarter. And then during the quarter break, defensive coach, one of the coaches over there, DeMarcus Covington, came right over to Denard Sutton. And then Matt LaFleur came over and got right in his face, in fact, to the point where Covington and some players were kind of trying to keep LaFleur away. So there's no question that Denard Sutton heard about it. Will he respond differently? Will other guys catch on? I don't know. But this was once again an Achilles-type problem for the Packers. Yeah, and the other thing that really was interesting to me were the roughing the passer calls. You talked about this at the top of the show. They didn't seem to really get to Dak in many ways that I felt looked like they were really roughing the passer. But tonight they called it tight. Did anything have to do with the pregame scuffle that started? That's at least what the broadcast seemed to insinuate. Yeah, possibly. Obviously, this is a marquee game. It's a spotlight game. Everybody's watching it. Maybe the NFL did tell everybody, you know, hey, let's see what we can do to cool this thing. I don't really know on that, obviously, Brandon, but it was ticky-tack. I mean, that is football out there. That flag was flying an inordinate amount for what looked to be just kind of regular contact. I didn't see anything malicious or violent tonight. Yeah, very, very good call. I feel the same way. We're going to take one more break here. When we come back, our Packers Passport is coming up. And for the Packers Passport, we do this for you every night. Here he is, Hunter Lubke out there, the fullback for the Cowboys. He's from Spencer, Wisconsin, which is near Wausau. Not many people from Spencer, Wisconsin that are notables. The other biggest one, Ted Fritch, Packers fullback. What are you going to do? Do they just have fullbacks coming out of Spencer? How about it? Hunter Lubke, tonight's Packers Passport. All right, you see something in the game you want to talk about, you want to hit me on, question, opinion, whatever it might be, As seen by TBV, hit the QR code on your screen. Get the other ways to get to us here, various platforms. And we'll take your questions tomorrow on Fox 6 Live. Now, Brandon. Yeah, I always look forward to that. It's very interesting to see what people want to know about what they saw. I mean, we talk about it every Sunday night here. I do want to know, how is Brandon Cisse doing? Do we know with the injury he did leave and seemed to have something wrong, maybe a sting or something? Does he seem to be okay? I don't have the official word out here, Brandon, but Brandon Cisse does go out with what's considered to be a stinger, and that's what they announced for us in the press box. He was moving around when he came out of that blue tent. Obviously, he's a key player for this defense. Played very well tonight against some good wide receivers. Yeah, he had an interception in this win, and hopefully for him and the Packers, he will be okay moving forward as they now get ready for the Detroit Lions next Sunday, a game you can see here on Fox 6. Well, Lily Zhao is still getting the reaction. We'll have all of that for you tomorrow here on Fox 6 News. For Tim Van Voren, I'm Brandon Cruz. Thanks so much for staying up late with us.