Cheese Curds, 8/10: Tempers flare, Jordan Love earns praise in Cincinnati

Of course the Green Bay Packers are going to praise Jordan Love in his first training camp as the team’s presumptive starter. It would be ridiculous for them to do anything else but pump up their teammate publicly as he prepares for his first season at the helm of the offense. But when a player stepping into that role for the first time earns praise from players on other teams following joint practices, there’s a little more weight that comes along with the praise from inside the building.

That’s what happened on Wednesday after the Packers took the practice field with the Cincinnati Bengals ahead of the teams’ preseason matchup on Friday evening. Several members of the Bengals’ defense praised Love for his performance in practice, with at least one, linebacker Germaine Pratt, going so far as to say he believes Love is “going to be a great player.”

While Love was impressing, however, the Packers saw one of their other great players leave the field following a pair of donnybrooks with the Bengals’ defense. Elgton Jenkins, a player who is normally known for keeping his cool, got into multiple scrums on Wednesday, leading to the Packers pulling him out of practice after the second such incident.

All in all, it appeared to be a good day for the Packers, who will host multiple joint practices with the New England Patriots next week. The team escaped without any injuries or significant problems, and that’s probably the most important part.

Let’s look back at Wednesday’s practice before we look ahead to Friday’s game.

Bengals defense impressed with Jordan Love's confidence, timing | Packersnews.com
Love made one notable mistake, though veteran cornerback Mike Hilton made a very alert play to pick him off. But despite that play, Love made a bunch of good throws, drawing some praise from veterans across the Cincinnati defense.

Packers QB Jordan Love excited to play a few series in preseason opener | Packers Wire
Love is also planning to get some game action on Friday evening, reps that he feels are important to get to help him get back to full game speed.

Packers OL Elgton Jenkins escorted off after brawls with Bengals - ESPN
There were a pair of fights in Wednesday's practice, however, with Jenkins right in the middle of both of them. After the second, which included the Packers guard taking a swing at Bengals defensive tackle DJ Reader, he got to take the rest of the day off.

Grateful for lessons, Sean Rhyan ready to fly in Year 2 | Packers.com
Rhyan's rookie season was a complete loss, with him being active for just one game and getting a suspension for PEDs. This season, however, he has completely reshaped his body composition and is performing well so far as the second-team left guard behind Jenkins.

Italian man crushed to death under falling cheese wheels - BBC News
Aw, he stole my favorite cause of death!