The Green Bay Packers are facing adversity, having lost two straight games and dealing with injuries to key players. Ahead of this weekend’s matchup against the New York Giants, head coach Matt LaFleur spoke about the significant injuries on his team and the opponents’ injury situation.
The Packers coach expressed optimism about Lukas Van Ness when asked about the defensive player practicing recently after a month away from it. LaFleur indicated he’d done so “in a very limited fashion,” but the team would see how he was feeling and take it from there.
“Certainly, he’d like to have more practices under his belt. If he feels like he can go, then we’ll put him out there,” LaFleur said during Friday’s press conference about Van Ness’s availability for the game.
He also had a strong message when asked about whether or not the news of specific Giants injuries made him “feel a little less angst” about Sunday’s matchup. Recent Giants injuries included the team losing rookie running back Cam Skattebo for the season several games ago, and quarterback Jaxson Dart, temporarily, to a concussion in their game against the Chicago Bears.
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“No, not at all,” LaFleur said, continuing, “I think it’s more as you guys have seen, I mean, we have to take care of our own problems, our own business. It’s less about the opponent. It’s more about what we have to do to show improvement.”
“That’s always the mindset. Hopefully, we’ve had a few good days of practice, a few good days of work, and now it’s up to us to go out there and perform,” he told reporters.
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LaFleur told the media that it is the coaching staff’s message each week to the team, about improving and their responsibility to “go out and perform.”
He praised their young stars, Bo Melton and Kamal Hadden, for stepping up and showing growth this season. According to LaFleur, he felt these players were ready to step in if the team called upon them.
As of this writing, the Packers have an extensive list of names on their injury report. Among them, wide receivers Matthew Golden, Savion Williams, and Christian Watson had limited practices on Thursday.
The same goes for defensive stars Micah Parsons, Lukas Van Ness, and Kingsley Enagbare, while cornerback Nate Hobbs was a “did not practice” on Thursday.
Green Bay will need to make its best effort with whoever is on the field against the Giants. After dropping back-to-back games to the Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles, the Packers are desperately in need of a win to turn things around before they could get worse with division matchups looming.
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