Can Thanksgiving production be the tipping point for Packers' Christian Watson?

GREEN BAY — Just before kickoff, Matt LaFleur went looking for Christian Watson.

The Green Bay Packers head coach had hemmed and hawed about his plan for the first play from scrimmage of Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day matchup with the Detroit Lions, having texted quarterback Jordan Love that morning with second thoughts. When Love replied that he wanted to keep the aggressive plan in place, LaFleur stuck with it.

Now, the call was on — a down-the-field shot from Love to Watson, the team’s deep-threat wideout whose big plays had been too few and far between early in the season. And LaFleur wanted to make sure that Watson was ready for it.

“I told Christian right before the game, I said, ‘Hey, there’s a good chance this play’s going to go to you. Just go up and attack the football,’” LaFleur recounted following the Packers’ 29-22 victory over the Lions at Ford Field. “And he did exactly that.”

He sure did. Not only did Watson come down with the slightly underthrown, contested ball for a tone-setting 53-yard gain, it was the beginning of one of the 2022 second-round draft pick’s most productive days as a pro.

Watson caught Love’s next pass, too — an 8-yarder on first-and-10 from the Detroit 22-yard line — and three plays later, Love was throwing a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Reed through a microscopic window for a 7-0 lead less than 3 minutes into the game.

Watson went on to finish the day with five receptions for 94 yards and a touchdown on seven targets — his fourth-best single-game yardage total and tied for the second-most receptions he’s had in one game.

“He had a big-time game,” LaFleur continued. “That was good to see for him. I know he hasn’t been flawless up to this point, but I thought he came up big and made a lot of critical catches.”

Could this be the start of something big for the 6-foor-4, 208-pound Watson? With six games left to play in the regular season, Watson, who missed the first three games of the year with a hamstring injury, has caught 21 passes for 351 yards and three touchdowns.

But as the Packers have won three of their last four games to move to one game under .500 (5-6) and one game out of the seventh and final playoff spot in the NFC, Watson has shown signs of getting his feet underneath him again, catching 10 passes for 175 yards and two TDs on 20 targets.

While the four-game stretch isn’t anything close to the four-game explosion Watson had around this time last year as a rookie — when he had 15 catches for 313 yards and an eye-popping seven TDs on 27 targets — it’s the kind of turn-the-corner moment that would be vital to the Packers’ offense if he can sustain it and be even more effective moving forward.

“Obviously, we know it’s not going to be perfect, but the progress is there. We continue to put that work in every week and build that chemistry,” said Love, who over that same four-game stretch has completed 90 of 138 passes (65.2%) for 1,107 yards with eight TDs and two INTs (103.1 rating).

“Obviously, Christian’s got our trust. He’s just going out there and making plays right now. It was a big-time performance by him.”

After Watson's four-game breakthrough last season, defenses keyed on him and he couldn’t keep up his breakneck big-play pace in the four games that followed (14 catches for 154 yards and one TD on 26 targets).

But he did close his rookie year with a big game against the Lions in the team’s season-ending loss (five catches for 104 yards, including a 45-yarder), and Watson knows he must parlay his recent production into more consistency.

“For sure, there’s definitely just a rhythm to this game, especially playing receiver,” Watson said. “I feel like when you’re able to be out there and play free once you get into that rhythm, it just allows you to go out there and play fast and not really be thinking about anything.

“I feel like when things aren’t going well, you’re over-thinking things. ‘How to do I make this next play? How do I work this guy?’ When you get in that flow and that rhythm, you’re just out there being you and playing fast. So, it definitely helps when you get in that flow.”

Watson’s day wasn’t perfect; on Reed’s touchdown, he ran the wrong route and was in close proximity to Reed, forcing Love to thread the tiniest of needles to get the ball through traffic to Reed.

“Like we said, it’s not going to be perfect,” Love said with a smile. “But when you just go out there and make these plays come to life, execute and then come up with a big play, it’s huge.”

For Watson, it’s one step at a time. Earlier this month, he acknowledged that he wasn’t doing enough to help get the offense going , and when he was targeted seven times in Pittsburgh but only had two catches to show for it — and was the intended receiver on both of Love’s interceptions — he grew even more frustrated.

Against the Steelers, Watson caught two passes on the opening possession, then never caught another one. Against the Lions, he parlayed his fast start into a complete game, catching a critical 16-yard touchdown late in the third quarter after the Lions had pulled to within nine points.

Now, it’s up to him to make sure this is just the beginning.

“I’m not really letting that letting the thought that I didn’t catch those ones earlier in the season really linger in my mind,” Watson said. “My focus is on the next play, the play we’re on – not stuff that happened in the past.

“This game as a whole, I definitely felt like was a weight lifted off the team’s shoulders just in terms of our ability to continue to fight and continue to grow and continue to get better .I was telling my fiancée before the game, ‘We need this.’ So just to be able to come out with the ‘W’ was enough for me just in terms of my confidence in this team.

“But obviously, to play a big role in it definitely means a lot to me.”

Photos: View the Packers' win over the Lions on Thanksgiving Day

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