The Green Bay Packers got back in the win column with a 27-19 victory over the Carolina Panthers in Week 8, and Josh Jacobs had plenty to say after his second game back following the first six weeks of the season on the NFL’s exempt list stemming from an offseason incident with a former partner.
Jacobs handled a much bigger role in the home win and made it count in the passing game and around the goal line. He ran for 39 yards on 21 carries, added 13 receiving yards on six catches, and scored two touchdowns.
One of those scores stirred up a storm online. After Jacobs punched in a one-yard touchdown to put Green Bay back in front midway through the second quarter, his celebration drew backlash because it appeared to be a reference to his arrest last May. Jacobs pushed back on that interpretation after the game and said the moment had a different meaning.
“They didn’t even get the whole celebration,” Jacobs told ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. “But anyways, me and Savion came up with the celebration, if they would have seen the whole celebration.
Basically, last week, we said the first celebration: when I score, I was gonna thank God; that’s what I did last week. The second was going to be ‘Break Every Chain.’
It’s a gospel song. That was gonna be the next celebration.
It’s a correlation. The media is gonna run with it.
They’re gonna make it something that it wasn’t. But it is what it is.”
Beyond the celebration, Jacobs also addressed the Packers’ ground game, which still hasn’t found its rhythm. Green Bay finished with just 66 rushing yards against Carolina, and Jacobs became the first player since 2023 to carry at least 20 times without topping 40 rushing yards.
Still, he sounded confident the breakthrough is coming.
“I mean, it’s a lot of hope. I see the way that these guys work, the attention (to detail). We will have meetings without no coaches - the offensive line, the running backs - we go over what we see and what they’re thinking… I think it’s only a matter of time before it (gets) cleaned up,” Jacobs said.
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