GREEN BAY, Wis. — On a night when they authored the first shutout of the NFL season and clinched a playoff berth for the second straight year, about the only problem the Green Bay Packers encountered was a knee injury to wide receiver Christian Watson.
The injury occurred at the end of a 14-yard gain on an end around in the second quarter of Monday Night’s 34-0 win over the New Orleans Saints at Lambeau Field. Two New Orleans defensive backs — Alontae Taylor and Kool-Aid McKinstry — landed on Watson’s left knee as he went out of bounds at the Saints’ 6-yard line.
“There’s some concern there, certainly,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said after Monday’s game. “We’re going to get some more testing done tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll have an answer for you tomorrow.”
Watson returned to play seven more snaps, including four in the third quarter, before he left the game for good. He remained on the Packers’ sideline for the rest of the game.
“It definitely hurt right away, but it felt like it was good enough to go back in, so I went back in and it was feeling all right,” Watson said. “But it was just kind of lingering a little bit and I just couldn’t play the type of football I wanted to play, so I just had to shut it down.”
Watson did not have a catch but he finished with two rushes for 23 yards. Other than Watson’s injury, it was a monumental night for the Packers.
It was their first shutout since the 2021 season and they clinched a playoff spot with two games left in the regular season. Although the Packers (11-4) can’t win the NFC North, they can still get the top wild-card seed. They close with two division games — at Minnesota (13-2) on Sunday and home against the Bears (4-11) in Week 18.
There has never been a season in league history without a shutout and this was the latest into a season for the first shutout, according to ESPN Research.
“The defense played ball,” said Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon, who had a strip sack in the second quarter. “A shutout in the NFL is the hardest thing to do, and to do it on prime time is even harder, and to clinch a playoff berth doing that is a helluva deal.”
It marks Jordan Love’s second playoff berth in as many seasons as the Packers’ starting quarterback. It is the fifth time in six seasons that LaFleur’s team qualified for the playoffs.
For veteran free agent additions Xavier McKinney and Josh Jacobs, who played in only one playoff game apiece before they signed with the Packers this past offseason, this is what they came to Green Bay to do.
“It’s kind of hard to put into words, man,” said Jacobs, who rushed for 69 yards and a touchdown before getting most of the second half off with the Packers comfortably ahead. “It’s the main reason why I came here.”
Said McKinney: “I was telling [Nixon] … before I had to scratch and claw to into the playoffs …”
To which Nixon interrupted and said: “Welcome to Green Bay.”
The Saints, 5-10 and starting Spencer Rattler at quarterback in place of the injured Derek Carr, were shut out for only the second time since 2002, but Saints interim coach Darren Rizzi did not believe it was due to a lack of effort.
“The day I took over we were on a seven-game losing streak,” Rizzi said. “It would’ve been easier, easy for a lot of players and veteran guys especially, to kind of check out and I’ve never ever felt that. I didn’t feel that today. I thought, to be honest with you, I thought we had a great prep week, we had a great walk-through last night. I felt like we were locked in. We didn’t perform. Sometimes in this league, it’s going to happen.
“We didn’t have a very good performance. I never felt like our guys are looking down the road and not giving effort because of our playoff status. I never felt like that one time during this time I’ve taken over. I didn’t feel like that tonight. I feel like we got outcoached and outexecuted. That’s the way it is.”
ESPN’s Katherine Terrell contributed to this report.
