House hopes to face Vikings
GREEN BAY - Another week, another cornerback down with an injury for the Green Bay Packers.
First Quinten Rollins (Achilles), then Kevin King (shoulder) and now Davon House (shoulder/back), who was ruled out Friday for the Packers’ game Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.
House suffered a transverse process fracture when he took a knee in the back Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. He did not practice this week and told reporters Friday that “it doesn’t feel good.”
However, House said the medical staff has told him the injury is not long-term. His goal is to return next weekend against the Minnesota Vikings.
“Doctor says it’s really a day-to-day type thing,” House said, “so I’m thinking Minnesota.”
A transverse process is “a bony protrusion from the back of a vertebrae bone in the spine,” according to the Virtual Sports Injury Clinic. There are two transverse processes attached to each vertebra, with one on either side.
Without House, the Packers will turn to Damarious
Randall and Josh Hawkins as their top two cornerbacks. Randall, who has played terrific football of late, is likely to shadow wide receiver Devin Funchess, the top target for Panthers quarterback Cam Newton.
With so few corners, defensive coordinator Dom Capers is likely to continue his recent trend of using two safeties in the slot positions for nickel and dime defense. Veteran Morgan Burnett could draw the assignment of tight end Greg Olsen, who caught seven passes for 66 yards and a touchdown against the Packers in 2015, while Jermaine Whitehead would play as the second slot corner in the dime.
“We’re going to have to make plays on the ball,” Capers said. “This is one of those games where we’ve got to find some way to go out and get the ball taken away, whether it’s swarming and punching at the ball or tipped balls for interceptions. That’s got to be a priority for us, and that’s something our guys have done a pretty good job of.”
The mystery man for the Packers is cornerback Demetri Goodson, who is questionable with a hamstring injury. Goodson has not played since tearing his ACL against Washington in November 2016, but under ideal conditions the coaching staff may trust him more than Hawkins, who plays with boom-or-bust volatility. Asking Goodson to play significant snaps at corner during his first game in more than a year is likely too steep a task, which puts extra pressure on Hawkins to perform.
“The kid plays hard,” cornerbacks coach Joe Whitt Jr. said a week ago. “He’s competitive. I wish he would have intercepted those two balls he had (against Tampa Bay), but he didn’t. We need to make those types of plays to win games.”
Outside linebacker Nick Perry (shoulder/foot), inside linebacker Jake Ryan (knee) and right tackle Jason
Spriggs (hip) are questionable. Coach Mike McCarthy said Spriggs’ injury is minor.
“Not a concern for Jason,” McCarthy said. “Just following the procedure of if someone has to come out of practice for a few reps.”
For the Panthers, starting right guard Trai Turner (concussion) and starting linebacker Shaq Thompson
(foot) have been ruled out. Funchess (shoulder) and center Tyler Larsen (foot) are questionable.
Busting loose: The day after the Packers beat the Browns in overtime, McCarthy praised his wide receivers for playing through contact to generate extra yards. He said the perimeter group broke 17 tackles.
“That’s a huge day,” he said. “I thought our guys did a great job in that area.”
The uptick in broken tackles is credited to a goal set by the wide receivers after the injury to quarterback Aaron Rodgers. It was their personal challenge to gain more yards after contact to assist backup Brett Hundley.
None of the broken tackles was bigger than two by
Davante Adams on the game-winning play. He pulled away from an arm tackle 2 yards beyond the line of scrimmage and spun away from another defender to race into the end zone for a touchdown.
“When Brett stepped in there, we took it upon ourselves in our room to make sure that we do something a little bit better,” wide receivers coach Luke Getsy said. “So each and every week it’s been an emphasis.”
Near miss: A mental mistake by Hundley turned the ball over on downs at the Browns 12-yard line midway through the third quarter. What was supposed to be a toss to the left devolved into a 2-yard loss when Hundley turned the wrong way and was swallowed behind the line of scrimmage.
But it was nearly perfect, according to running backs coach Ben Sirmans. The Browns bit so hard on a pull by left guard Lane Taylor that running back Aaron Jones had just one player between him and the end zone.
“It was him one-on-one with the safety,” Sirmans said. “It was blocked perfectly. It would have been a oneon-one with him and the safety, where my money would have been on him, so it could have easily been a touchdown.”
Old coach: Before he earned his first job in the NFL, Capers spent a dozen years as a college coach. He never spent more than three years in the same place, and his résumé included stops at Hawaii, San Jose State, California, Tennessee and Ohio State, among others.
During that time, Capers came across a defensive player named Ron Rivera, now the head coach of the Panthers, and another two-way player named Richard
Rodgers, assistant defensive backs coach.
“I recruited Ron Rivera out of high school,” Capers said. “I’m dating myself here. There’s two guys on the Carolina staff that I recruited out of high school: Ron Rivera and (Packers tight end) Richard Rodgers’ dad.
“I’ll tell you, Ron was such an impressive guy coming out of high school. He went to Seaside High School in Monterey. Everybody had great, great things to stay about him. He grew up on Fort Ord. His dad was a military guy. Very impressive home visit going in with his family. The discipline that he grew up with, and I think he’s just a real high-character guy and he’s done a tremendous job.”