Injuries are a part of professional football, and no coach is ever willing to blame or point to injuries for defeats. It’s a “next man up” league, and teams are expected to replace even the most valuable players with capable backups.
But in big games, when the best is required to win, even one or two injuries can torpedo everything.
On Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Green Bay Packers felt this pain intensely, and it likely cost them a chance to win the game and advance in the NFC playoffs.
Four plays in, veteran left guard Elgton Jenkins took a wicked hit to his right shoulder, suffered a stinger, exited the game and never returned. Travis Glover and Kadeem Telfort were completely overwhelmed as backups and the offensive line — a strength for most of 2024 — crumbled. Glover and Telfort committed four penalties and were major liabilities in pass protection.
But an injury suffered in the season finale might have cost the Packers offense just as dearly.
Matt LaFleur’s team missed Christian Watson in a bad way on Sunday.
The passing game desperately missed his speed and his ability to pressure defenses to expand coverage to cover the vertical threat. The Eagles sat in shell coverage for most of the game and the Packers still had issues attacking the intermediate parts of the field.
While his presence was missed, the real disaster was the lack of plays made by those behind him on the depth chart.
Turning even one of the negative plays highlighted below into a positive play could have made a big difference.
On the first play of the second quarter, Dontayvion Wicks ran a go route against veteran corner Darius Slay. Wicks got a good release and had a step. But he didn’t effectively stack Slay vertically and wasn’t fast enough to run away, and Love’s slightly inside throw was intercepted when Slay made a tremendous recovery move and catch on the ball. Imagine, for a second, if it had been Watson running the route. He’s either running away from Slay or drawing a penalty. There’s a chance for six points. Instead, Slay made the play and created a turnover.
Another turnover occurred later in the second quarter when backup Malik Heath ran the wrong route depth and Love was intercepted by Zack Baun. LaFleur said the in-breaking route needed to be run at 20 yards. Instead, Heath ran it at 15, and the geometry of the passing window changed. Love’s throw had to be inside of where it was supposed to go, instead of deeper and layered over the coverage into the window, and Baun made the easy interception. Does Watson — the far more experienced receiver — run the route correctly if he’s in the game? Another big play was possible.
A rough day at the office for Heath was just beginning.
In the third quarter, Heath stumbled coming out of his break on a quick out inside the 10-yard line. The Packers had the perfect route and play call to attack the coverage, but Heath’s stumble messed up the timing of the throw and Love’s pass sailed just wide of the receiver’s hands. Again, does Watson run this route better? Without the stumble, it had a chance to be an easy pitch-and-catch touchdown. Instead, the ball fell harmlessly incomplete, and the Packers eventually settled for a short field goal to get on the board two plays later. Four points lost.
One final costly mistake came late in the fourth quarter. Down 19-10 with five minutes to go, the Packers had to have a fourth down conversion. Heath ran another short route under the coverage and was open, but he leapt for Love’s pass and didn’t get two feet down in bounds on the way down — creating a turnover on downs and essentially ending the game. A lack of awareness on what should have been a relatively simple sideline catch ended up in an incomplete pass in a critical spot. Does Watson get two feet in?
Overall, Love was 2-for-10 for 39 yards when targeting Wicks and Heath on Sunday, including an 0-for-4 finish targeting Heath.
In a big game where the margins are so thin, the missed plays hurt so much more. And while there’s no guarantee Watson would have made all (or even any) of the plays missed by Wicks and Heath on Sunday, the probability of success would have been much higher.
The Packers trailed by six points to start the fourth quarter. Even 1-2 more plays made by the passing game could have made a major difference.
Turns out, LaFleur’s team didn’t need to play a perfect game to beat the Eagles. Despite all the mistakes through the first three quarters, the Packers trailed only 16-10 after one play in the fourth quarter and had two more possessions — both on offense and defense — to make up the six-point deficit.
The injuries on offense ended up being the crippling factor. The offensive line couldn’t handle the Eagles front without Jenkins, and the passing game badly missed Watson in a few big spots.
