The Green Bay Packers were back at work Wednesday, their win over Dallas behind them and an extremely important home game with San Francisco ahead.
As they prepare for this vital contest, they finally seem to be swinging the good health pendulum their way.
An injury update now, courtesy of the fine folks at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (which can be found here and here). Of course, I’ll add some thoughts in there too:
Cullen Jenkins and Desmond Bishop each have ankle injuries, but it’s likely both were held out for precautionary reasons. No cause for worry there.
Brady Poppinga was the other player held out. He has a quad injury. Even when he gets healthy, though, he’ll likely be relegated to the bench. This is almost surely his last season in Green Bay.
Three more players – Charles Woodson (hip), Clay Matthews (jaw) and Brad Jones (concussion) – were limited, although all three are expected to be ready to go Sunday.
Keeping with things coming in threes, Aaron Kampman (concussion) and Mark Tauscher and Jermichael Finley (both with knee injuries) all returned to practice. Great news there on all fronts, particularly with Finley. Jordy Nelson’s return last week definitely brought an extra dimension to the offense. Finley’s return will be just as big, if not bigger.
This is all great news indeed. If this team is to get on a real run – kicked off by the win over the Cowboys – it will need to be fully stacked. And it sure seems like the Packers are getting to that point.
Battle for the RT spot?
With Tauscher fully back, it sounds like he and T.J. Lang rotated at the right tackle position on Wednesday.
It’s unknown who will get the start Sunday, but there’s a chance the two could rotate in-and-out for the entire game.
Tauscher looked pretty sharp against Tampa Bay before injuring himself. Lang had a rough start early in the Dallas game, but seemed to improve as the contest wore on.
I would much rather see the team pick one player and stick with him, unless he’s really awful. But with head coach Mike McCarthy (still) unsettled on which five guys to go with, I expect to see the two sharing time Sunday.
Starting to worry about Mason
It happened again on Sunday. Mason Crosby missed another long field goal attempt.
Crosby is just 1-for-5 on field goals over 50 yards this season. He’s been more-than-solid on field goals from under that length – 14-for-15, to be exact – but the fact that he’s not having more success on the long ones is starting to trouble me.
I fully understand that 50+ yarders are hard to hit. But you have to remember that those were, allegedly, his specialty coming out of college (Colorado). And with an offense that has more than its share of struggles upon reaching opposing territory, a kicker who can hit the long shots is a must.
Crosby hasn’t been able to – oh yeah, he’s also struggled with booming kickoffs – and you have to wonder if this team won’t start to look elsewhere in the offseason.
-Chris Lempesis
