GREEN BAY, Wis. — Finding the football had not been a problem for cornerback Keisean Nixon this season. Catching it was a different story.
Only two players in the NFL had more pass breakups entering Week 14 than Nixon. Fourteen times this season he has swatted a pass away or poked one out of a pass-catcher’s hands.
His interception total, however, was nil. In fact, no Green Bay Packers cornerback had an interception this season. The only picks belonged to safeties Evan Williams (three) and Xavier McKinney (two) plus one by linebacker Isaiah McDuffie.
Nixon picked quite the time to get on the board.
He sealed Sunday’s 28-21 win over the Chicago Bears with a leaping interception in the end zone, picking off a Caleb Williams pass on fourth-and-1 from the Packers’ 14. The win put the Packers (9-3-1) into first place in the NFC North, ahead of the Bears (9-4) with four weeks left in the regular season and a rematch in less than two weeks.
KEISEAN CALLED GAME#ProBowlVote + Keisean Nixon
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“Man, I’ve been trying to get my hand on the ball all year,” Nixon said. “I wanted that bad. I wanted it so bad. So I’m thankful for it, for sure.”
So was Williams.
“I’ll say he was saving my butt on this play,” said Williams, who said intended receiver Cole Kmet was his responsibility.
“Was praying that somebody was behind me to make the play on the corner, and sure enough, like, Jesus himself, [No.] 25 comes out the blue and makes a play, I was just like thank you, thank you so much.”
It had not been the best of games for Nixon to that point. He was penalized twice on a second-quarter drive that led to a Bears field goal — once was for illegal hands to the face, the other for unnecessary roughness because he retaliated after it appeared Bears receiver Luther Burden III had his hands around Nixon’s neck.
LaFleur pulled Nixon from the game following that penalty and benched him for two plays.
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“We had a quick conversation and [told him], ‘You’ve got to be smart, you’ve got to keep your poise,'” LaFleur said. “I get it. Football is an emotional game, especially when you talk about Packers-Bears. There’s just a heightened sense of emotion, but you’ve got to keep your poise at the end of the day and you can’t do anything that hurts the team.
“However, I will say that I was proud of how he responded and, certainly, I know he had a couple PBUs, and then to have that interception at the end of the game was, obviously, a critical moment.”
Nixon entered this season with something of a target on his back. After last season, he professed his desire to be a No. 1 cornerback. Whether he’s lived up to that is debatable. He has been called for pass interference four times, which is tied for third-most among all NFL corners.
But he couldn’t care less about what anyone else thinks of his season.
“I don’t care,” Nixon said. “I do this s— for me. F— everybody else. Excuse my language, but I am who I say I am and I always tell myself that. And I come on the field and play like that, but that’s just a play, I’ve gotta keep making them.”
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Consider defensive end Micah Parsons impressed, although he couldn’t help taking a playful shot at the 5-foot-10 Nixon.
“[He’s got] a little short-man syndrome,” Parsons said of the 5-foot-10 Nixon. “Little scrappy motherf—er. Like he’s so scrappy. He’s not to be played with, bro. He’s small in size, but he’s like a pit bull. He’s scrappy on the outside. He knows when to turn it on. He always finds a way and he’s incredibly smart. I don’t think people give him his credit.
“For his size and how he plays and how he’s been able to step up in the screen game and the pass game and the pass deflections, to me, it doesn’t go unnoticed. I think people give him a lot of s—, but he’s having a hell of a year and he’s having a better year than some of the highest-paid guys, so I think people should give him more grace than what’s been given to him.”
Nixon has never finished with more than one interception in any of his six NFL seasons, but no one would be surprised if he changes that in the next month.
“For me, I’m happy to see it … happy to see him be successful and get what he’s been looking for all these weeks,” McKinney said. “So now he got one. Now he just gotta keep it rolling.”
