Reporters could only watch team stretch Wednesday.
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The Packers are gonna walk before they run to the west coast and try to spring another playoff upset. Head Coach Matt LaFleur got the the team back inside the Don Hutson Center for the first time since Green Bay embarrassed the second seeded Dallas Cowboys out of the post-season on their own turf last Sunday. It was a short, almost walk through practice to present the game plan for the NFC’s number one seed, San Francisco’s 49ers who will welcome the Pack off their bye week at Levi’s Stadium Saturday night at 7:15 PM CST.
LaFleur’s confident the young team has banked enough full speed reps over the course of the season to lighten up Wednesday for mental absorption and less physical stress before spinning a few full speed reps at Thursday’s practice and then flying out west on Friday.
Three players were held out of the walkthrough, Kingsley Enegbare who’s season ended with a torn ACL in Dallas, A.J. Dillon still fighting through a neck injury and Jaire Alexander who got his tender ankle whacked again last weekend.
LaFleur said Alexander is progressing and they want to be extra careful with him. He knows the get it right drill after the freak ankle roll last Wednesday but he did his prescribed rehab to get it well enough in four days to play against the Cowboys, he’s being given the full six days this week.
13 players were listed as limited and nearly all are expected to play, Kenny Clark, Rashan Gary, Elgton Jenkins, Aaron Jones, Isaiah McDuffie, Keisean Nixon, Jonathan Owens, Jayden Reed, Darnell Savage, Preston Smith and Christian Watson.
Quay Walker was a full participant.
Post-practice, Jordan Love held court in the locker as usual on Wednesday. He opened by explaining his good Samaritan act in last Friday’s snowstorm, trying to help a young lady stuck in a snowbank. He tried to push the car out and when the woman recognized him, she said I’ll call a friend, don’t want you to hurt yourself before the big game. Love said he was unsuccessful in the rescue. Bill Huber of SI.com then quipped, “it may have been the only thing you were unsuccessful at last weekend.” It drew a big laugh and a “Good one” reply from Love.
On the serious side, he knows another daunting challenge awaits against a veteran 49er defense but the team’s confidence is extremely high, the offensive line has really come in both protection and run blocking and his selfless wide receiver corps doesn’t care who gets the targets or makes the plays.
Coordinators also took to the media auditorium after practice and Special Teams Coordinator Rich Bisaccia is getting tired of answering questions about missed kicks from rookie Anders Carlson. He bounced an extra point off the upright in Dallas, not a giant deal in a 16 point rout but it did prevent the Packers from breaking the franchise single game playoff scoring record. The 48 points matched the NFC Divisional Round romp over Atlanta back in 2010. However, Carlson has now missed an extra point or field goal attempt in 9 of the last 11 games. While he hasn’t missed consecutive kicks in a game, the rookie is just 40 of 46 on PAT’s over the 18 games, the most misses in the league. Granted the rule change pushing the snap back to the 15 didn’t take place until 2015, Carlson’s predecessor, Mason Crosby, was 733 of 753 over the course of his career. 20 misses, over 16 years. Chris Jacke was 301 out of 306 in the automatic distance says and Ryan Longwell missed only 4 of his 380 career attempts. Bisaccia said he still has complete confidence in Carlson as he does with the punter, the protection units, the cover guys and returners, otherwise they wouldn’t be playing. LaFleur was asked if he’s considered signing a veteran leg and he answered, “we’re going to see this through.”
Defensive Coordinator Joe Barry is pleased with how his unit finished the last couple of regular season games and the spirit they played with in the first half of the Wild Card game. He feels badly for Enegbare and his season ending injury and is anxious to see how number one pick Lukas Van Ness fares with increased reps. Barry said the 49ers are elite at every ballhandling position with quarterback Brock Purdy, running back Christian McCaffrey, receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel and tight end George Kittle. His unit is in for another extreme challenge.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich spent time detailing Love’s progression to the point where he’s now making checks at the line of scrimmage with confidence. Not quite to the extreme of Aaron Rodgers in the past couple of years where Stenavich said even coaches weren’t sure of what plays were actually called. They weren’t about to argue with the results more often than not because of Rodgers’ experience but Love is also being very careful to run what LaFleur wants run. It’s been valuable because of the collective young corps around him. It’s allowed the offense to get in rhythm and better yet, create plays off play looks during the course of a game’s progression and the execution hasn’t dropped off. If things have gone off schedule, Love has grasped what he needs to do and where he needs to go with the ball to have a chance at making it a successful play. More often than not of late, it has been.
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