GREEN BAY — Xavier McKinney stared directly into the camera lens, furrowed his brow, and spoke.
Slowly. Forcefully. Confidently.
“The picks are going to come. Just, believe me when I tell you. The. Picks. Will. Come,” the Green Bay Packers All-Pro safety said after practice Wednesday. “It’s just not all the way there right now. But they will come, and when they do, I’m going to come back to the camera like, ‘I told you.’
“It’s going to happen. Sometimes, you’ve got be patient. And once they do come, we’ve just got to make them.”
McKinney was addressing the subject of interceptions because he’d been party to one of the defense’s more frustrating performances last Sunday in a 27-20 road victory over the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium, and because the Packers’ opponent on Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings, have a first-year starting quarterback who’s throwing INTs at a higher rate than any NFL quarterback under center at the moment.
By unofficial count, the Packers had five chances for interceptions against Giants No. 3 quarterback Jameis Winston last Sunday, and they came away with only one of them: Evan Williams’ fourth-quarter end-zone pick that helped seal the victory. The other four slipped through their fingers.
Two of the Giants three touchdowns came after a Packers defender dropped a potential interception. The missed opportunities also allowed the Giants to run 69 plays, the second-most run by a Packers opponent this season.
“I mean, coulda, woulda, shoulda. You had five opportunities to come away with interceptions, and we had one,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur lamented.
“You guys saw the game. Those were in our hands. The expectation is, we’re going to make those plays.”
“Ultimately, when it’s all said and done, I think we got to generate some of those takeaways. And unfortunately, you look at just a week ago, we had multiple opportunities, and we just didn’t finish the play. So I would say that the emphasis is on finishing the play.
“That would definitely give us a big, big boost and just more opportunities as a team to go to go score.”
Entering the NFL’s Week 12 games, the Packers have just eight total takeaways — four interceptions and four fumble recoveries. Only the Giants (six), Washington Commanders (six) and New York Jets (one) have forced fewer turnovers.
The Packers’ four interceptions — two by Williams, two by McKinney — are tied with the Giants for fifth-fewest in the league. Only the Vikings (three), the Miami Dolphins (three), the San Francisco 49ers (three) and the Jets (zero) have fewer.
The good news for the Packers (6-3-1) heading into Sunday’s matchup with the Vikings (4-6) at Lambeau Field is that first-year starter J.J. McCarthy is throwing interceptions at an alarming rate.
Not only has McCarthy, the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft who missed all of his rookie season with a knee injury, thrown eight interceptions — including at least one in each of his five starts this season — but his 5.7% interception rate is the worst in the NFL among current starters.
In fact, only Cincinnati Bengals backup Jake Browning (6.5%) was throwing interceptions at a higher rate after taking over for an injured Joe Burrow. Browning’s struggles prompted the Bengals to bench him and trade for veteran Joe Flacco on Oct. 7 in hopes of saving their season.
“I think in some ways, you definitely are like, ‘OK, there’s going to be a lot of [opportunities].’ But I also think that they have really good playmakers where they can kind of make the game a little bit easier for him,” McKinney said of McCarthy.
“From a back-end perspective, we’ve got to make sure that we’re on our job [and] doing what we’re supposed to do.”
Both McKinney and No. 1 cornerback Keisean Nixon pointed out that Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell is one of the NFL’s top offensive play-callers and said they expected O’Connell to do what he can to reduce the number of situations where McCarthy could be prone to a mistake.
Having lost both games to the Vikings last season and watched veteran quarterback Sam Darnold carve up their defense — Darnold completed 74.7% of his passes for 652 yards with six touchdowns and two interceptions (119.0 passer rating) — the Packers know they cannot take McCarthy lightly.
“I don’t think he’s considered a rookie, right? Second year but [basically] a rookie, you know?” Nixon said. “He’s just young. [It’s] hard for guys to come in and just excel right away. But he’s definitely a good player. He’s got the arm talent. He has a hell of a coach. That always helps. Scheme up a lot of guys.”
McKinney said he didn’t impose any punishments on his fellow defensive backs for their drops — Nixon blamed McKinney for tipping the one he couldn’t hold onto — but emphasized how such missed opportunities can be costly.
“The punishment’s going to be when you go to the contract table. I mean, that’s really what it is,” McKinney said. “If you don’t catch the picks, if you don’t capitalize on the opportunities, when it’s time to sit down and it’s, ‘OK, let’s talk numbers,’ that’s when that comes into effect.
“So I don’t think you really need to have a punishment outside of that, because that is the biggest punishment that you can have.”
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