Notebook: Bulaga out for season with knee injury.
GREEN BAY - The Green Bay Packers began Monday’s game against the Detroit Lions with their starting offensive line intact for just the second time all season. And now, after a serious injury for right tackle Bryan Bulaga, it will not happen again in 2017.
Bulaga dropped out of the game in the fourth quarter and will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury, according to coach Mike McCarthy. Bulaga limped heavily on his way to the bench and was later carted to the locker room after a brief evaluation on the sideline. The Packers ruled him out almost immediately, and a report from NFL Network said Bulaga tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
“I have bad news on Bryan Bulaga,” McCarthy said Tuesday. “It’s very unfortunate. He will be lost for the season with his knee injury. He’s had a stretch of bad luck this year. It started with the ankle injury there in training camp. I feel bad for him. I thought he had clearly come off his best season last year. Tough news today.”
The injury to Bulaga continues an unfortunate rash of problems for a player the Packers rewarded with a five-year, $33.75 million contract in the spring of 2015. Bulaga tore the ACL in his left knee during a training-camp practice in 2013, costing him the entire season, and underwent another surgery on the left knee after tearing cartilage in 2015, missing three more games.
Bulaga already had been sidelined three games in 2017 with the ankle injury before reportedly tearing his ACL against the Lions. He also suffered a concussion earlier this season that did not cost him any playing time.
Without Bulaga, the Packers turned once again to Justin McCray to finish Monday’s game. McCray, who played in the Arena Football League before signing with the Packers during the off-season, received lofty praise from McCarthy last week as a player in the heart of MVP consideration if the team issued an award for the first half of the year. McCray has been asked to fill both guard positions and both tackle spots during the regular season, and in training camp the coaches worked him at center, too.
As tackles Jason Spriggs (hamstring) and Kyle Murphy (ankle) were placed on injured reserve, it opened the door for McCray to inherit the utility role crucial for every offensive line. The coaches have tailored McCray’s reps in practice to reflect his wide range of responsibilities.
“They definitely make sure I get enough reps everywhere,” McCray said after the loss to Detroit. “Sometimes I stay after with (offensive line coach James) Campen to do some extra things, but I definitely feel comfortable wherever I get in at.
“(I) just go in there and work on the things we’ve been working on all week. Make sure that we don’t have a drop off when I get in there.”
But as the clock reached zeroes Monday, with the Packers handily beaten, McCray himself was no longer healthy. He was seen limping off the field under his own power with a member of the medical staff at his side, and the Packers announced it as an ankle injury.
McCray was in the facility Tuesday for treatment, according to McCarthy, and they will monitor his progress during the week.
“I’ll be fine,” McCray said after the game. “Everything is good.”
Moving forward, Campen and McCarthy have two realistic options to replace Bulaga at right tackle. In addition to McCray, who has started multiple games, the Packers could turn to Spriggs, a former second-round pick. The Packers have used one of their two designated-to-return spots on Spriggs, who injured his hamstring in Week 1, and he will be eligible to play next week against the Baltimore Ravens.
The drop-off will be steep regardless of whom the Packers choose to fill Bulaga’s shoes.
Safety Morgan Burnett also will be unavailable for Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears, according to McCarthy. Burnett dropped out Monday with a groin injury in the third quarter and did not return.
“I don’t have a timeline for you,” McCarthy said of Burnett’s status, “but he will not be available this week against Chicago.”
Steppping up: Three straight losses at the season’s midway point could feel like a little déjà vu for the Packers.
It was roughly one year ago the Packers hit the skids, losing four straight in November to watch their record slink to 4-6. The Packers haven’t hit those depths yet, but after Monday night’s loss, a team that was 4-1 after five games has retreated to 4-4.
The difference this year is obvious: There is no Aaron Rodgers to help the Packers run the table to a NFC North title. That, McCarthy said Tuesday, doesn’t mean his Packers can’t.
“We all need to be better,” McCarthy said. “We had an injury to Aaron Rodgers, and nobody has stepped up. You know? No group has stepped up yet. We’ve had two games that have been very similar in nature — New Orleans and Detroit. We’ve acknowledged, we’ve planned, to change our course of how we’re playing as far as tilting the identity in a sense, and we need to get more production out of this new path. And it hasn’t happened yet.”
It’s premature to know whether the Packers will figure it out. No matter how bleak things look there’s still time to salvage their season. But they’ll have to play dramatically better.
They might benefit from playing a softer upcoming schedule. Of their next five opponents, only the Pittsburgh Steelers have a winning record. The Packers’ other four opponents — the Bears, Ravens, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Cleveland Browns — have a combined record of 9-16.
Three of those teams — the Bears, Bucs and Browns — reside in last place of their respective divisions.
If there is any hope of repeating what the Packers did last season, their turnaround had better start this week. The Packers beat the Bears by three touchdowns in late September. Even though the Packers had Rodgers in that game, the Bears remain one of the worst teams in the NFC.
McCarthy said it’s a game his team can win, even without its two-time MVP quarterback.
Tough blow: Two days earlier, Packers defensive tackle Mike Daniels had begged his teammates to hit back. “Deliver some blows,” he called it. Enough of teams within the Packers’ division being initiators.
His comments were a flashing sign to officials: Watch out for chippy play. It took three snaps for Daniels to be caught.
The Packers seemingly had held the Lions to an initial three-and-out, with quarterback Matthew Stafford’s pass to receiver Golden Tate on third and 14 falling incomplete.
Daniels provided new life. The veteran head-butted Lions center Travis Swanson, receiving a 15-yard penalty that could draw a fine later this week.
The Lions scored six plays later, taking a 7-0 lead they never surrendered.
“I should be used to it by now,” Daniels said. “They’re not going to make any holding calls, even if they’re blatant, and it was a really stupid-ass penalty. I’m an emotional guy. I’m going to play hard. I’m going to give it everything I have, and the second guy always gets caught. So that’s why you have to initiate it, instead of retaliating. So I just have to do a much better job by not retaliating because guys are going to do things, the refs aren’t going to call it, and that’s just how it is.
“I don’t know if they feel sorry for the offensive linemen or what, but they’re not going to make those calls for them. So you can’t get upset about that. It’s completely out of our control. You’ve just got to come back and beat them on the next play.”