Chris Lempesis is back in the basement Packer room, beer in hand, soul visibly bruised, and honesty fully weaponized. Welcome to LempsTalkinPack #240: “Altitude Sickness” — the episode where the Packers didn’t just lose 34–26 in Denver… they got mugged in broad daylight, watched the getaway car circle back, and then got hit again just to make sure the lesson stuck.
Because for a hot second? It looked like Green Bay was about to announce themselves at Mile High.
Up 23–14 early in the third after Josh Jacobs ripped off a gorgeous 40-yard TD run, the defense forces a three-and-out, and you’re sitting there thinking: Okay. This is it. Fifth straight win. Statement game. Super Bowl contender vibes. Rare team to be feared in a sea of parity. You let yourself believe.
And then — like a cheap loner car in The Mask — everything fell apart.
Christian Watson goes down.
Micah Parsons goes down with the dreaded non-contact knee injury (aka the sports fan version of hearing a floorboard creak in a horror movie).
Zach Tom gets dinged up. Evan Williams gets dinged up. Quay Walker gets dinged up. Concussion here, knee there — the injury list starts growing like it’s being printed in real time.
And the worst part? The moment Parsons left, you could feel the team’s heartbeat drop. They’re not robots. They know what he is. A true game-changer. The foundation of the defense. The second most important player on the team behind Jordan Love. And when LaFleur says, “It doesn’t look good, I’ll leave it at that,” you don’t need a doctor — you need a stiff drink and a prayer.
Lemps breaks down what the Parsons injury likely means (spoiler: it’s dark), why it slashes the ceiling for the defense, and why Green Bay’s whole “complimentary football” Super Bowl plan may have died right there on the Mile High turf.
Then there’s Watson — a field-tilter, the one guy who keeps everything from getting cramped and ugly. With him out, the offense went from 23 points with him to a whole lot of “good luck, Jordan” without him. No Watson, no Tucker Kraft? Defenses are going to start blitzing Love like they’ve got nothing to lose… because they kind of won’t.
And yes — Lemps also does what Lemps does:
- * The gut-punch emotional whiplash from “we’re for real” to “sports are stupid and I hate everything”
- * The NFC North standings reality check (and the part where you find out who passed the Packers… and you say words you can’t repeat at Christmas)
- * Why Saturday night in Chicago is going to tell us exactly what this team has left
- * A small sampling of your postgame questions/comments from Twitter, Blue Sky, and wherever else people go to scream into the void
- * And shameless promotion corner, because if Lemps can do a show after that game, you can at least consider buying a damn shirt
So crack a beer (or two), prepare to feel something in your chest that isn’t joy, and join Lemps as he tries to make sense of the kind of afternoon that has zero silver lining and maximum emotional violence.
Because sometimes the Packers don’t just lose.
Sometimes they leave you with Altitude Sickness.
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You can follow Chris on twitter at LempsMKE (@ItsJustChrisNow)
LempsTalkinPack is a part of the Packers Talk family of podcasts, serving up five distinct podcasts to satisfy the most fervent of Packer fans. Variety is the spice of life, so subscribe to Packers Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow Packers Talk on Twitter and Facebook.
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You can follow Chris on twitter at LempsMKE (@ItsJustChrisNow)
LempsTalkinPack is a part of the Packers Talk family of podcasts, serving up five distinct podcasts to satisfy the most fervent of Packer fans. Variety is the spice of life, so subscribe to Packers Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow Packers Talk on Twitter and Facebook.
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The post Altitude Sickness | LempsTalkinPack #240 first appeared on PackersTalk.com Blog Posts and Podcasts.