Emanuel Wilson's crucial touchdown, Micah Parsons' game-changing sacks, Jordan Love's gritty leadership, and Christian Watson's clutch catches led the Packers to a hard-fought road victory over the New York Giants.
A win is a win in the NFL, and you take it every time. The Green Bay Packers needed to get a win to stop the bleeding from a two-game losing skid, and that's exactly what they got against the New York Giants.
Ideally, a Super Bowl team would match up with a two-win team that just fired its head coach and blow them out of the water. That wasn't what happened in Week 11, and in fact, the Giants gave the Packers all they could handle.
Still, it's much better to be on the winning end of a 27-20 game than on the losing side of it, especailly with the stretch of games that the Packers have coming up over the next few weeks.
It wasn't always pretty. There were things that you'd wish looked differently, but it was a road win in the NFL against a team that was certain to have a "dead cat bounce", and you can't discount that.
A few things certainly went wrong for the Pack, and those are worth discussing at a later time, but for now, let's take a look at the four stars of the game from this one.
Star #4: Emanuel Wilson did a great job in relief of Josh Jacobs
The Packers clearly wanted to get Josh Jacobs going early in this one. The problem? He went out early in the second quarter with a knee injury and didn't return.
The good news for the Pack is that third-year undrafted running back Emanuel Wilson stepped up in a big way. He rushed 11 times for 40 yards and a touchdown. He also caught the two-point conversion pass that put the Packers up seven instead of five and gave them some wiggle room at the end of the game.
He averaged just 3.6 yards per carry, but he helped keep the chains moving and was a big part of the offense.
Star #3: Micah Parsons got back into the sack column
Before the game, we tabbed Micah Parsons as one of the keys to the game for the Packers. It was clear that the Giants were going to let backup quarterback Jameis Winston air it out with reckless abandon, and that was exactly what he did.
Parsons got an extremely important half sack alongside Isaiah McDuffie on a 4th-and-3 from the Green Bay 10 that swung a ton of momentum Green Bay's way on a turnover on downs. He then ended the game with Winston trying to attempt a Hail Mary with a sack-fumble.
That's what you want from your nearly $50 million a year pass-rusher. Make big plays in big moments.
Star #2: Jordan Love had a gritty performance for the Packers
The completion percentage doesn't look great, but that's because the Packers' wide receivers dropped at least five good passes in this one. Everything else about this game was excellent for Love, especially when you consider the fact that he had to go into the locker room for a time in the first half after a huge hit on his left shoulder.
At the end of the day, Love completed 13-of-24 passes for 174 yards and two touchdowns.
Love was tough, resilient, and he was the leader the Packers needed in Week 11.
Star #1: Christian Watson has become WR1 for the Packers
The Packers officially have their WR1 for this season, and when Love needs to "have it", you can bet it's going to be Christian Watson that he's looking for downfield.
In a game in which there were several huge drops (and Watson did have one of them), the 6-foot-4, 208 pounder from North Dakota State was as consistent as you could ask for.
He finished with four catches on five targets for 46 yards and two touchdowns. His average of 11.5 yards per catch was much lower than what we've grown used to for Watson, but his ability to come up clutch in the end zone was the difference in this game for the Pack.
