TAMPA – On an exhausting afternoon in which the Packers lost one of their biggest playmakers, Evan Williams and the defense put it on their shoulders to step up in Edgerrin Cooper's absence.
With Green Bay needing a stop, Williams capped perhaps his finest NFL game with two big plays in the final two minutes to help the Packers leave Raymond James Stadium with a critical 17-14 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
First, the third-year safety chased down Tampa quarterback Jalon Daniels for a 6-yard sack off a safety blitz on second down.
Two plays later, defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon sent Williams again to force a fourth-and-11 prayer from Daniels that harmlessly fell incomplete.
Three kneel downs later, the Packers left Raymond James Stadium with a massive win.
"When you got play calls that your number is called, you can't shy away from that moment," Williams said. "I was excited definitely hearing that call. He called it three straight times. Again, to be able to get your number called in the biggest moments means everything. You've just got to capitalize."
Through the first 2½ quarters, Williams and Cooper were two of the best players on the entire field. Williams opened the game with a first-quarter interception of Daniels and Cooper snagged another shortly before halftime.
Green Bay generated all 10 of its first-half points off those takeaways.
Cooper already was up to a team-high nine tackles, with a sack and the INT, when he suffered a non-contact injury with 8 minutes, 43 seconds to go in the third quarter.
Safety Xavier McKinney scored a third-down sack of Daniels from the opposite side, and it wasn't until a few seconds after the play was over that the defense realized what happened to Cooper.
Cooper was carted to the locker room and immediately ruled out with an Achilles injury. Head Coach Matt LaFleur told reporters afterwards that it doesn't look good and suspects it'll end the third-year linebacker's season.
"I'm celebrating 'X' and then obviously you hear a whistle blowing and I look back and I see Coop," linebacker Zaire Franklin said. "You could kind of see the severity of the injury, so we kind of know what that means. Obviously he's a tough person, he's been through a lot in his life, he's going to persevere."
Isaiah McDuffie replaced Cooper at linebacker but really it was on the entire defense to overcome his absence. The Buccaneers generated a touchdown-scoring drive on their next possession before Green Bay's defense closed things out.
A botched snap led to Tampa Bay punting on fourth-and-24 from its own 1 on its next possession. Despite the Packers turning the ball over twice in the fourth quarter, the defense again did not blink while clinging to a 17-14 lead.
On first down, Gannon sent McDuffie on an A-gap blitz that forced an incompletion (and nearly resulted in a sack). Williams then made his first NFL sack count on second down, dropping Daniels for a 6-yard loss.
"Shoutout to (Gannon) just because he always preaches players, not plays, in the biggest situations," Williams said. "For him to call my number in that type of situation, it means a lot to me. To understand the coach has that type of trust in you in the big situations, when you have to make a play, that you're the number he calls, that means everything."
Williams kept charging at Daniels and nearly sacked him a second time on fourth-and-11 before Daniels lobbed up a pass that Keisean Nixon nearly picked off.
McKinney and center Sean Rhyan said they spoke to Cooper after the game and reported he was in good spirits. It's another obstacle the Packers must overcome after already losing receiver Jayden Reed and tackle Zach Bako-Bewele for the season.
"You can't let that affect the way you play," Williams said. "It's just about doing your job and trusting the man next to you, even though that's not going to be Coop. I've got trust in all the guys in this locker room. We put in a lot of time in training camp to get to this point right here. Regardless who it is, we're going to ride with him all the way."
A cleaner day up front: With Aaron Banks and Jacob Monk inactive due to injury and Kevin Zeitler still getting up to speed, Green Bay deployed veteran Laken Tomlinson at left guard while Travis Glover made his first NFL start at right guard.
The result was the Packers' best performance up front this season. Quarterback Jordan Love wasn't sacked and hit just two times while Green Bay rushed for 86 yards against the NFL's second-ranked run defense through the first three games.
"When we came here today, we just were focused on playing ball," center Sean Rhyan said. "I wasn't worried about, 'Oh, it's his first start, he got here on Monday.' I wasn't worried about that. That's the left guard, that's the right guard and we're (expletive) going that way."
Tomlinson, who officially signed with the Packers on Monday, had just three practices to get up to speed on the playbook but credited Rhyan's communication for easing his transition.
"I just thought communication across the board was great," Tomlinson said. "Sean did an amazing job keeping everybody in line, especially me. Obviously, I wasn't here the first three weeks but everybody kind of leaned into getting me sped up with the offense and everything."
It wasn't perfect. The Packers had quite a few procedural penalties and turned the ball over twice, but Sunday felt like a step in the right direction. Green Bay's two longest offensive plays came on the ground – a 27-yard Chris Brooks run in the first quarter and Kaleb Johnson's 31-yard gain in the third.
Prior to Sunday, the Packers' longest run this season was 14 yards.
"Everything we talked about last week, we did this week, and we had a better result," Rhyan said. "Good on the guys up front, good on the receivers out wide, good on '10,' good on the defense. Everyone turned it around from last week."
McDuffie loses a contact: The Packers were temporarily down to their third option at linebacker after McDuffie had a contact lens knocked out at the end of the third quarter.
Third-year linebacker Ty'Ron Hopper stepped in during the series before McDuffie returned on the next drive and finished the game.
"Finger to the eye. Knocked my contact out," said McDuffie, who finished with four tackles. "So, it was a little crazy on the sideline at that point."
