The Packers walked out of Week 6 with a 23-13 win over the Cowboys, and Zaire Franklin made sure nobody mistook that for a finished product. Green Bay is 4-2 heading into Week 7 in Detroit, but the message coming out of the locker room was all about sharpening the edges, not celebrating the total.
That lines up with Matt LaFleur’s blunt postgame tone. He wants the details cleaned up, and Jordan Love did his part in that regard. Franklin’s defense, though, also showed signs of a group that is starting to click.
Franklin told Matt Schneidman of The Athletic after the game, “I think it's just a credit to who we can be…Obviously we've got a lot of things we can clean up but I feel like we are a defense on the rise, every week we continue to get better and better…We got some stuff to clean up but I think the ceiling is extremely high.”
The numbers backed up the idea of a defense still climbing. Keisean Nixon led Green Bay with eight tackles, Franklin added three, and Lukas Van Ness finished with a sack. Rookie Brandon Cisse chipped in with an interception after a CeeDee Lamb slip.
Green Bay looks loaded at every level, with pieces up front, at linebacker, and in the secondary. That unit is about to get a major test against one of the league’s best offenses in the Detroit Lions, and Week 7 now looms as a big measuring stick for Franklin and a Packers team with NFC North title hopes growing right along with its defense.
In Other News...
Packers Fans Have Every Reason To Be Fed Up With This Rule
Week 6 gave Packers fans another reason to grumble about the NFLs roughing-the-passer standard, and it came on a play that looked like it should have swung momentum the other way. On a Dallas drop back, Green Bay got what appeared to be a key turnover, only for the sequence to be undone by a roughing-the-passer flag that immediately reignited the familiar argument over how the league applies the rule.
The frustration was especially sharp because it was not an isolated moment. A similar call also surfaced in the Chiefs game the same week, and both penalties erased interceptions in plays that had the feel of game-changing snaps. Green Bay still won, but the broader issue lingered afterward, since fans were left wondering why the league keeps turning potentially decisive defensive plays into discussion points instead of takeaways. [Read more 🡒]
Dak Prescott Took A Scary Hit And Green Bay Capitalized
Dak Prescott absorbed a heavy shot to the ribs at Lambeau Field, the kind of hit that briefly quiets a stadium and leaves everyone watching to see how a quarterback responds. Packers linebacker Zaire Franklin delivered the blow, and Prescott was slow to get up before staying in the game, a sign of how physical the afternoon had become in Green Bay.
Prescott later said he was winded, and the Cowboys kept him on the field as the game moved on. He did not go for x-rays after the hit, and the next snap brought an interception, with Prescott appearing affected the rest of the way as Green Bay kept pressing its advantage. [Read more 🡒]
Packers Fans Immediately Feared The Worst After Tucker Kraft Went Down
A tense first half in Dallas delivered the kind of moment Packers fans dread, when Tucker Kraft went down after taking a hit to the knee and had to make his way to the bench while limping. The injury came as Green Bay tried to keep its offense moving, and the sight of one of Jordan Loves trusted targets walking off with a leg issue immediately shifted attention away from the scoreboard.
For now, the only thing clear is that the Packers are waiting for more information once the game reaches halftime, with the severity of Krafts injury still not known. Amid that uncertainty, Love did have reason to single out Matthew Golden, whose play on offense stood out in a first half that could have used a little more calm and a lot less concern. [Read more 🡒]