FIRST TAKE | Go Packers Go!! – Stephen A. is FIRED UP after Jordan Love & Micah Parsons sweep Lions

FIRST TAKE | Go Packers Go!! – Stephen A. is FIRED UP after Jordan Love & Micah Parsons sweep Lions

Welcome back to First Take. Jordan Love went into the Motor City and carved up the Lions in the Packers 31-24 win on Thanksgiving. The Green Bay quarterback threw a season high four touchdowns and did not turn the ball over and the Packers defense got clutch plays from Micah Parsons who logged two sacks in the fourth quarter to keep the Lions at bay. Look, we dug ourselves a little bit of a hole. That’s that’s the bottom line. We We are in a little bit of a hole. Um, but that’s just what it is. That’s uh there’s nothing more than that. So, all we got to do is worry about cleaning up this and then getting to the next game and finding a way to win the the next one in front of us. The Packers have now won three straight games and have a 69% chance to win the NFC North. According to ESPN analytics, the Bears, who currently occupy the top spot in the division, will face the Eagles in Philadelphia today before playing the Packers next Sunday in Lambeau Field. Cam, coming to you first here. Are you more encouraged by the Packers performance yesterday or discouraged by what you saw from the Lions? Extremely discouraged by what I seen by the Lions. And I think Dan Campbell is a person that has to start to look in the mirror with realizing what type of team that he has. I love everything about his his mentality, philosophy, going forward on fourth down and things like that, but a lot of times this year those fourth down decisions have led to opportunistic drives for other teams. you may not have the team that you thought you did and especially when you have a guy like Aman Ro Saint bring to the injury. I don’t know how serious it is, but it was it was great to see Jameson Williams step up in in in a way that he did. But also those type of laws and and in and performances as an offense is something that you have to start to take into consideration to really see how do we need to attack and find ways to win moving forward. And they haven’t been as successful as they once were with being aggressive. I’m much more encouraged by the Green Bay Packers because the last two weeks Matt Laflur has said, “Oh, you think I’m coaching for my job? I’ll be more aggressive going for it on fourth down, putting the football into Jordan Love’s hands.” And what we’ve seen from Jordan Love is not only can he protect it, but he can be explosive, he can create plays. And when you think about the fourth down conversions, Dantavian Wixs, Romeo Dobs, and obviously obviously Dantavian Wixs to seal the deal, that was all Matt Laflur and his belief in his quarterback. And that was his quarterback executing. And then defensively, the way that Jeff Hafley has manipulated offensive pressures or manipulated offensive blocking schemes by moving Michael Parsons around the defensive backfield, whether it’s at the linebacker position, whether it’s at the defensive end, the rush end. All of those things lead me to think that this is something that could be consistent along with Emanuel Wilson and Josh Jacobs being big in the run game. Well, here’s what I think. I I totally agree with RC on this one. Yes, I’m I’m I’m discouraged by Detroit. That is true. Amar St. Brown going down with the ankle injury certainly doesn’t help matters for them. No doubt about that. They could be in danger of missing the playoffs. They lose to Dallas this weekend. I mean, my goodness. I mean, the Detroit Lions could be on their way out of the playoff picture if we’re really being real and honest about it. But when it comes to the Green Bay Packers, there’s a lot to like about what you’re seeing. Number one, the offensive line won the battle in the trenches. The defensive line took over late in the game. Okay. Michael Parsons had two and a half sacks. All right, Matt Laflur has been more aggressive. Jordan Love was three for three on fourth downs. Okay, and we also have to remember all of this is happening with his number one target, Craft, being out for the season. So, we can’t forget that part, right? Yet, Green Bay is still finding ways to do it. And most importantly, they’re making statements defensively. And that’s really what it’s all about. When you acquired Micah Parsons, that’s really what that’s really the message that you wanted to send. Let’s also give Mike a parson because we’ve been talking so much about the Dallas Cowboys and raving about what life has been for them without him. Let’s remember that with him, the the Green Bay Packers defense has been no joke at all. Okay, number one. And number two, he’s been terrorizing the oppositions. Only Reggie White had doubledigit sacks every year, his first five years in the National Football League. Micah Parsons is the second one to do that stuff. We got to understand who the hell this dude is and what he brings to the table. and RC and Cam. Let me tell you what else I’m getting excited about. I don’t know if this is possible in terms of the seedings or whatever, but it’s sort of looking like it could end up being a collision course with the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys meeting in the playoffs. I mean, could you imagine what that is going to be like? Could you imagine what the viewership for that game is going to be like? what the noise leading into that game RC camp is going to be like if that were to happen. I understand that it might not because you got the AFC NFC South and and Dallas will probably play somebody like that as a wild card. But what if it don’t happen like that? What if somehow someway it’s the Cowboys up against the Green Bay Packers at some point? Lord have mercy. Now that would be special and that’s what I’m starting to get a feel for as we’re talking about this. Yeah, they’ve played a lot in the postseason and we know that the Packers have the edge there, 5-4 in postseason meetings. Um, Cam, I want to bring you in on a conversation that we had yesterday when we were talking about who we trusted more in this game, whether it was going to be Jordan Love, whether it was going to be Jared Goff. And I think we saw the best performance of the season from Jordan Love last night. No turnover worthy plays, big throw after big throw. How do you come away today feeling about Jordan Love? Man, Jordan Love literally had a performance that he needed to have versus a division foe. But Jordan Love, if this is the Jordan Love we can hang our hat on and say we’re going to get each and every week, then the Green Bay Packers would be the Super Bowl favorites. But unfortunately, it’s not. Jordan Love is capable of being this person that we saw, but we haven’t seen that as consistent as we wanted to to see it. I’ve been thoroughly pleased with the receiving core for the Green Bay Packers because they don’t have the AJ Browns and the Devonte Smiths and you got, you know, CD Lamb and George Pickkins and Jamar Chase and T. Higgins. These guys have literally took turns making plays. Of course, you got Craft out for the year. Don’t worry, no panic. And for a team to go for it on fourth down with no obvious, you got Romeo Dobs as their number one guy, but Romeo Dobs is not making that play on fourth down. It’s something that you start to say like, yo, these guys, the moment’s not too big. But the only thing that I would challenge Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers is just be consistent. If this is what we’re going to see each and every week, I love it. And if it’s not, then it’s it’s it’s almost unwatchable sometimes. So that’s what I’ll say. Excuse me, Steve. Aren’t you supposed to be producing this show? Where is like all the vignettes of when I was right? Like if Courtney going to ask that question instead of her having to tee it up for Cam that we talked about this, it should be, “Oh, Ryan Clark said yesterday that Yes, Stephen A. I I I I you’re you’re right. I did have that authority.” So, it’s not an accident that you didn’t see. Hey, that boy was hot. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, I even tweeted. I was like, “Hey, remember yesterday I was talking about my clothes.” Producers, you may you you you make you may show the video. You may show the video. It’s 11 o’clock, so you may show it. I couldn’t deal with it for the first hour, but in the second hour, we can give RC some love. You caught me. You know, you caught me. It was on purpose. I I left it out. I left it out. We’re going to run those highlights. I promise. But but the the thing is this though, right? I feel like we moved the goalpost for Jordan Love. Uh coming into this season, it was how will he play in important moments? Will he protect the football? He’s protected the football the entire year. He’s used his legs the entire year. This is a guy with only three interceptions go coming into this week of this season and he throws for four touchdowns with no interceptions yesterday. But we still can’t come in here and say, “Oh, Matt Laflur put it on his right shoulder and he was able to carry this team against the Detroit Lions.” the same Detroit Lions who on a Monday night football game shut down Baker Mayfield. And so to me, this is Jordan Love saying, “I’m stepping into the conversation of the quarterbacks you can count on and win because in the NFC, we’re going to give everybody in our control room time to cut those highlights for you. So, we’re going to leave this one here. I

FIRST TAKE | Go Packers Go!! – Stephen A. Smith is FIRED UP after Jordan Love & Micah Parsons sweep Lions