By Tom Silverstein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel –
GREEN BAY, Wis. — If this were 2010, Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy probably would have been delivering far worse news about star linebacker Clay Matthews than he did Monday.
In a season wrought with injury, McCarthy was at least able to say that a hamstring injury Matthews suffered against Arizona Sunday would only sideline him “a couple of weeks.”
Whether that’s two or three or four, McCarthy wouldn’t say.
“The early diagnosis, it may be a couple weeks, but we won’t know until we get further into this,” McCarthy said Monday. “I know Clay doesn’t feel as bad as it was in the past. Obviously, we’ll know more when I’m standing here next week.”
Matthews has had problems with his left hamstring dating to his rookie season. He needed 19 days to recover from a pull suffered in training camp in ‘09 and 24 days to recover from a pull in training camp in ‘10.
Of the two games he has missed during his four years in the NFL, one was due to a hamstring pull he suffered against Washington in Week 5.
The Packers have a bye this week, which will allow Matthews to go through two weeks of rehab heading into an NFC North contest at Detroit Nov. 18. It’s conceivable he can play in the game without practicing as receiver Jordy Nelson (hamstring) did against the Cardinals.
His is not the only injury of concern.
Right tackle Bryan Bulaga suffered a hip injury that is bad enough that he will visit a specialist this week to gauge exactly what is wrong. In addition, first-round pick Nick Perry is seeking a second opinion on his injured left knee, McCarthy said, a sign that he is not happy with the way it has been progressing after three weeks of inactivity.
The news McCarthy was happy to deliver is that Nelson’s ankle sprain is not bad and he should be ready to play after the bye.
“Hopefully, we can get healthy in the next two weeks,” McCarthy said. “We won’t be totally healthy. That’s the reality of it, but we have to get ready for these division games. To me, this is a whole different season. Division games are different.”
The Packers play four of their next five against division opponents and three of the next five — Detroit, New York Giants and Chicago — are NFC road games. The challenge McCarthy is facing with so many starters missing games is similar to what he faced during the Super Bowl XLV championship season.
That year six starters landed on injured reserve, and quarterback Aaron Rodgers, receiver Donald Driver, end Ryan Pickett, end Cullen Jenkins and Matthews all missed games. All totaled, Packers starters missed 86 games and all injured players missed 180 games.
This year, the number of starters missing at least one game will reach 12 if Matthews and Bulaga sit out the Detroit game, but the number of games missed this year is a third (64) of what it was in 2010. What’s more, the Packers know Greg Jennings, Charles Woodson, Cedric Benson and Sam Shields will return this season.
The Matthews injury is tricky because the Packers have to decide whether they can return their sack leader to the field while he’s less than 100 percent. At this point in the season, no one in the NFL is 100 percent, so it just comes down to figuring out how much stress Matthews’ leg can handle.
The way defensive coordinator Dom Capers looks at it, he can’t afford Matthews the luxury of taking an extra week just to make sure everything is healed. He also can’t afford to lose Matthews for all of December or beyond should he reinjure it.
“I think with all of these guys you have to be smart and look at the big picture,” Capers said Monday. “But once we get back that big picture turns into a small picture of what’s right in front of you. You don’t want to stub your toe. We know the challenge we have.
“Detroit’s got an awful good offense. They move the ball on everybody.”
Matthews had done a pretty good job of managing his hamstring following the long layoffs in each of his first two years and had not missed a practice in training camp or the regular season due to injury this year.
McCarthy said he didn’t think this injury had anything to do with the muscle being stressed or giving way because of prior pulls. He said the torque Matthews put on his body trying to sack Arizona quarterback John Skelton in the third quarter made injury unavoidable.
“If you look at the play, it was a little bit of an awkward pull when he had the quarterback,” McCarthy said. “And then even to the other extreme, Bryan Bulaga’s injury is a very awkward situation where he trips and goes down and does a great job getting his balance — probably would have been better falling to the ground.
“I think it’s just Clay’s situation was something that led to the position his body was in (more) than just being a repeat in the sense of the same injury.”
For Capers, if Matthews can’t play against Detroit, it would be like McCarthy not having Rodgers. Matthews, who ranks second in the NFL with nine sacks, not only makes big plays for the defense, he also sets them up for others as was the case with a pair of sacks Sunday.
Capers said he would give rookie Dezman Moses and recently activated Frank Zombo a chance to fight it out for playing time. Perry would be ideal to rotate with one of the others because he’s built bigger and can do a good job against the run, but he won’t be available.
“The nice thing is we are getting Zombo back, so that gives us another guy that gets into the mix of things,” Capers said. “We were very pleased with the way Erik Walden played yesterday. He had an outstanding game, made some big plays for us.
“Moses played probably the most plays that he’s played. That’s the one good thing about getting these young guys all the repetitions that we have.”
In the case of Bulaga, T.J. Lang switched over from left guard and played solidly, according to offensive coordinator Tom Clements. Evan Dietrich-Smith came off the bench and played Lang’s normal left guard position.
Lang had a few blips, but given the middle-of-the-game switch, the coaches were delighted with his performance.
“For not getting a whole lot of practice at this position, I thought he did very well,” Clements said. “Obviously he’s a smart guy and he knew the assignments, but he did some very good things at tackle and that’s a credit to him.”
Chances are Lang will be back there against the Lions. It has just been one of those seasons.
