With Green Bay Packers Cornerback Keisean Nixon, The Good Outweighs The Bad

Rich Bisaccia, Green Bay’s special teams coordinator and a huge Keisean Nixon supporter, once said this about the Packers’ cornerback.

“You want to get him to where he can make the right decision for all of us involved,” Bisaccia said of Nixon.

Bisaccia was talking about Nixon’s skills as a return man. Really, though, he could have been speaking for every part of Nixon’s game.

Nixon is feisty, scrappy and borders on hot-tempered.

Most of the time, that’s a positive. Others, it can be a detriment.

Sunday provided a little of both, but eventually the good outweighed the bad.

Nixon intercepted Chicago quarterback Caleb Williams in the endzone with just 22 seconds left, allowing Green Bay to hold off a second-half Bears’ rally and post a thrilling 28-21 win.

Green Bay improved to 9-3-1, moved into first place in the NFC North and took over the No. 2 seed in the conference. The Packers also defeated the Bears for the 12th time in 13 meetings and are 52-16 against Chicago since 2019.

Chicago (9-4) fell from the NFC’s No. 1 seed to the No. 7 seed with the loss.

“That’s what you want,” Nixon said. You want the best players to make the big plays when the back is against the wall and you’ve got to win.

“It’s fourth-and-1, there’s no bigger play than that. So it’s a hell of a win for us, for sure.”

Chicago had a fourth-and-1 on Green Bay’s 14 with 27 seconds left. The Bears, who ran the ball at will in the second half, bypassed that route and called a play action pass.

Williams faked a handoff to running back D’Andre Swift, then rolled left. It appeared Swift was option No. 1, and safety Evan Williams left his man — tight end Cole Kmet — to chase Swift in the left flat.

Nixon was assigned wideout D.J. Moore, but when he saw Kmet running free to the left corner of the endzone, he raced across the field towards Kmet. Williams tried lobbing the ball to Kmet, but the 5-foot-10, 200-pound Nixon soared and beat the 6-foot-6, 258-pound tight end to the ball.

“Those moments, that’s when you need your best players to go out there and make a big-time play to be able to end it,” Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love said. “Ball in the air, not knowing what’s going on, and then seeing Keisean go up in the air and get it, it was awesome. To be able to end it on an interception and be able to get that turnover was huge.”

Nixon’s game-ending interception capped an eventful night for the seven-year veteran.

On a Chicago drive that ended in a field goal late in the second quarter, Nixon was hit with a pair of penalties.

The first was a hands to the face that gave Chicago a first down on Green Bay’s 48. The second was a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty that gave the Bears a first down at the Packers’ 18.

When asked what he thought of the penalties, Nixon said: “(Expletive) ‘em. I’ll be all right. And I’ll take that pick any day.”

Nixon was pulled for two plays after the penalties and Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur had words with his veteran cornerback.

“I’m not going to get into what I said to him,” LaFleur said. “He knows what I said to him. We had a quick conversation and you’ve got to be smart. You’ve got to keep your poise.”

For the most part, Nixon has done just that in a season where he called himself “CB1” and has played close to that level.

Nixon entered Sunday with 16 passes broken up, which ranked second in the NFL. He allowed a respectable 38 receptions through 12 games, which ranked 16^th out of 109 cornerbacks according to Pro Football Focus. And his overall grade of 67.6 by PFF ranked 35^th.

On Sunday, Nixon was part of a secondary that held Williams to 186 passing yards and kept Moore — Chicago’s $27.5 million receiver — to one catch for minus-4 yards.

Then, of course, he ended things with the Packers’ biggest defensive play of the year.

“Man, I’ve been trying to get my hand on the ball all year,” Nixon said of his first interception. “I thought I was going to get … yeah, I wanted that bad. I wanted it so bad. So I’m thankful for it, for sure.”

The Packers are certainly thankful for Nixon, who went undrafted in 2019, then signed with Green Bay in March, 2022 as primarily a special teams player. Instead, Nixon has blossomed into the Packers’ top cornerback and made an unforgettable play Sunday to finish off the Bears.

“Little scrappy (expletive),” is how Green Bay standout defensive end Micah Parsons described Nixon. “Like he’s so scrappy. He’s not to be played with, bro.

“He’s small in size, but he’s like a pitbull. 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.

“I think people give him a lot of (expletive), but he’s having a hell of a year and he’s having a better year than some of the highest-paid guys.”

Sunday was the latest example of that.