Week 13 Cheeseboard!
A full Thanksgiving table after a thrashing of the Dolphins
The Packers ended Thanksgiving sinking their teeth into a great Thanksgiving dinner made by LeRoy Butler after their thrashing of the Miami Dolphins 30-17. With the dominance comes a lot of candidates to receive a creamy, sharp slice of cheese. Let’s get into it.
Week 13 Candidates
Jordan Love: 21-for-28, 274 passing yards, 2 TDs, 129.2 passer rating (season-high) and 77.7 PFF grade
Josh Jacobs: 19 carries, 43 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD // 4 catches on 4 targets, 74 receiving yards (117 total yards) and 86.4 PFF grade
Tucker Kraft: 6 catches on 7 targets, 78 receiving yards, 0 TDs and 89.7 PFF grade
Jayden Reed: 1 carry, 23 rushing yards // 3 catches on 6 targets, 24 receiving yards, 2 receiving TDs and a 72.1 PFF grade
Quay Walker: 10 tackles (6 solo), 2 TFL, 1 sack and a 68.5 PFF grade
Kenny Clark: 1 tackle (solo), 1 TFL, 1 sack and a QB hit and a 70.7 PFF grade
Isaiah McDuffie: 10 tackles (7 solo), 1 TFL, 1 forced fumble,1 pass breakup and a 59.2 PFF grade
Lukas Van Ness: 2 tackles (2 solo), 2 TFL, 1 sack
Week 13 Cheeses
🧀 Jordan Love 🧀
This offseason, a bunch of big-name quarterbacks got paid including Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff, Trevor Lawrence, Tua Tagovailoa, Kirk Cousins, Jordan Love and Dak Prescott. So far, only Goff and Love have proven those contracts to be valuable and Love is the only one to project as a top-5 QB over the length of the contract. Thanksgiving’s performance was his best of the season and he’s starting to look like the QB fans anticipated him being now that he is finally health and he’s able to use his legs to make all of the special plays we’ve come to love from him.
Also, watching Jordan Love get his turkey leg after Greg Olsen did nasty, horrible things to the turkey last year made me low key emotional. Good for QB1 man.
Also, also, shoutout Toyotathon.
🧀 Tucker Kraft 🧀
Tucker Kraft continues his dominance as one of the top tight ends in the NFL with a nice performance on Thursday. Six catches for 78 yards led the team in both categories and he continues to be a force in the run game as well. Nothing flashy, just a great game from Kraft who is now third in the league amongst tight ends for yards after the catch at 344, only one yard behind Miami’s Jonnu Smith.
🧀 Quay Walker 🧀
Last week I wrote that if Quay continued to play like he did against the San Francisco 49ers to look out because the breakout would finally be happening for him in his third year. Well, his performance against the Dolphins on Thanksgiving is indicative of that breakout. This week, he tied for the team leader in tackles with 10 including, had four pressures, two tackles for a loss and a sack. This defense looks so much different with him playing his best ball ever. Against the 9ers, the defense had an outstanding performance and held Christian McCaffrey and Jordan Mason to 39 yards on 14 carries. Again against the Dolphins, they hold the fast and dynamic duo of Devon Achane and Raheem Mostert 33 yards on 12 carries. All of that starts with the linebackers — and Quay specifically — filling the holes the backs run through.
On Thanksgiving, PFF registered Quay with two “STOPs” and a solid 82.3 rush defense grade. His emergence as a top tier linebacker in Jeff Hafley’s defense is huge for this team. His next test will be his hardest as he and the defense hope to stop David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs.
🧀 Lukas Van Ness 🧀
Whether through coincidence or understanding, Lukas Van Ness is finally coming on and showcasing himself in Jeff Hafley’s defense — particularly since Preston Smith’s departure to Pittsburgh. Jacob Morley has this interesting tidbit on the Packers pass rush win rate since the trade deadline at the end of October.
Context helps Lukas Van Ness when we (purposeful hand up by me in that we) remember that LVN has to learn Joe Berry’s defense last year as a rookie and then had to learn Jeff Hafley’s entirely different defense this offseason. Now that he is getting consistent, rotational playing time off the edge, he is getting better and better. Here’s to hoping this trajectory continues for him and he becomes a stud opposite of Rashan Gary.
Cheeseboard through Week 13
Josh Jacobs 🧀 x4
Xavier McKinney 🧀 x4
Tucker Kraft 🧀 x3
Jayden Reed 🧀 x3
Edgerrin Cooper 🧀 x2
Rashan Gary 🧀 x2
Jordan Love 🧀 x2
Zach Tom 🧀 x2
Quay Walker 🧀 x2
Eric Wilson 🧀 x2
Daniel Whelan 🧀 x2
Jaire Alexander 🧀
Karl Brooks 🧀
Romeo Doubs 🧀
Kingsley Enagbare 🧀
Brian Gutekunst 🧀
Elgton Jenkins 🧀
Matt LaFleur 🧀
Lukas Van Ness 🧀
Christian Watson 🧀
Evan Williams 🧀
Malik Willis 🧀
De’Vonte Wyatt 🧀