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Packers: Grant's injury presents dilemma
By JASON WILDE
608-252-6176
jwilde@madison.com
GREEN BAY -- Mike McCarthy and Joe Philbin find themselves in a catch-22 with No. 25.
Both the Green Bay Packers coach and his offensive coordinator enter Sunday night's showdown with the Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field knowing they must continue to limit featured halfback Ryan Grant's snaps for at least another game as he slowly nurses his hamstring back to health.
http://www.madison.com/post/forum/index.php?c=5
At the same time, McCarthy and Philbin also want to get as much as possible out of Grant in the reduced time they have him, even with the confidence they have in backups Brandon Jackson and Kregg Lumpkin.
And therein lies the conundrum: How do you maximize Grant's touches without being blatantly obvious he's going to get the ball when he's in the game?
"That's a good question," McCarthy said after practice Friday. "That's something that we have to continue to watch. (But) we're conscious of that. I'm not as concerned about it as we move into this game."
The good news is Grant "looked good" in practice Friday, McCarthy said, adding, "I thought he had more bounce in his step. I thought he looked better this week than last week."
Still, after missing the first week of camp while contract negotiations lagged, then missing all but one snap of the preseason games after the hamstring tightness struck, Grant won't get his normal workload against the Cowboys.
"It's a balancing act," Philbin said. "You don't want to be 100 percent on anything you do in football because everybody tunes into it. We just have to strive to find the right balance and the right mix in terms of how much work he's capable of without a) wearing him out and without b) sending a telegram to the defense that we're running."
Western Union delivered last week against Detroit.
By unofficial count, Grant played 21 snaps against the Lions. On 15 of them, he got the ball. He ended up finishing with 20 yards on those 15 carries.
Of his attempts, four lost yardage (minus-8 total), four gained just one yard, and his other positive runs were worth 2, 4, 3, 3, 5, 5 and 2 yards. The feeling after the game, and again on Monday after the coaches had reviewed the film, was while Grant might be limited by his hamstring, his reduced productivity was because of a lack of open running lanes.
In limited action against Minnesota in the regular-season opener, Grant had 92 yards on 12 carries, including 57- and 19-yard runs. He only had two negative-yardage runs and two carries for no gain against the Vikings.
"I'll say this: He's not himself. But, he's improving week-in and week-out, or day-in and day-out. I think he's getting better," running backs coach Edgar Bennett said. "But this last game, (there) wasn't quite the opportunities from the previous week."
Grant wasn't in the locker room during the post-practice media availability period Friday, but he said after Thursday's practice he expects this to be the final week where he'll sit out the first two practices and work exclusively on Friday.
He also said in looking at the tape, he didn't think he missed too many openings against the Lions.
Asked if he felt the injury held him back, Grant replied, "Not really. I don't think so. (It was) just (a matter of) not having a good opportunity to get going on a lot of different runs. (There were) maybe two reads I might have missed that I looked at. But when I watch film, I'm real hard on myself. Of course I feel like I should have broke this, I should have broke that."
Philbin hopes Grant has opportunities to break runs -- like the 62-yard touchdown he had at Dallas last year -- and being unpredictable on offense would help.
"You want him to be productive, you want his hands on the ball. But (opposing defenses) look at the tape, too. They see 25's in the game, they know 97 percent (of the time he gets the ball)," Philbin said. "You've got to have a balance. They watch the film. If his jersey's in there and you (always run), there's coing to be a couple extra guys up there to make things a little tougher. You've got to try to blend it in there as best you can. Because they're not stupid on the other side of the ball."
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/sports/packers//305638
By JASON WILDE
608-252-6176
jwilde@madison.com
GREEN BAY -- Mike McCarthy and Joe Philbin find themselves in a catch-22 with No. 25.
Both the Green Bay Packers coach and his offensive coordinator enter Sunday night's showdown with the Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field knowing they must continue to limit featured halfback Ryan Grant's snaps for at least another game as he slowly nurses his hamstring back to health.
http://www.madison.com/post/forum/index.php?c=5
At the same time, McCarthy and Philbin also want to get as much as possible out of Grant in the reduced time they have him, even with the confidence they have in backups Brandon Jackson and Kregg Lumpkin.
And therein lies the conundrum: How do you maximize Grant's touches without being blatantly obvious he's going to get the ball when he's in the game?
"That's a good question," McCarthy said after practice Friday. "That's something that we have to continue to watch. (But) we're conscious of that. I'm not as concerned about it as we move into this game."
The good news is Grant "looked good" in practice Friday, McCarthy said, adding, "I thought he had more bounce in his step. I thought he looked better this week than last week."
Still, after missing the first week of camp while contract negotiations lagged, then missing all but one snap of the preseason games after the hamstring tightness struck, Grant won't get his normal workload against the Cowboys.
"It's a balancing act," Philbin said. "You don't want to be 100 percent on anything you do in football because everybody tunes into it. We just have to strive to find the right balance and the right mix in terms of how much work he's capable of without a) wearing him out and without b) sending a telegram to the defense that we're running."
Western Union delivered last week against Detroit.
By unofficial count, Grant played 21 snaps against the Lions. On 15 of them, he got the ball. He ended up finishing with 20 yards on those 15 carries.
Of his attempts, four lost yardage (minus-8 total), four gained just one yard, and his other positive runs were worth 2, 4, 3, 3, 5, 5 and 2 yards. The feeling after the game, and again on Monday after the coaches had reviewed the film, was while Grant might be limited by his hamstring, his reduced productivity was because of a lack of open running lanes.
In limited action against Minnesota in the regular-season opener, Grant had 92 yards on 12 carries, including 57- and 19-yard runs. He only had two negative-yardage runs and two carries for no gain against the Vikings.
"I'll say this: He's not himself. But, he's improving week-in and week-out, or day-in and day-out. I think he's getting better," running backs coach Edgar Bennett said. "But this last game, (there) wasn't quite the opportunities from the previous week."
Grant wasn't in the locker room during the post-practice media availability period Friday, but he said after Thursday's practice he expects this to be the final week where he'll sit out the first two practices and work exclusively on Friday.
He also said in looking at the tape, he didn't think he missed too many openings against the Lions.
Asked if he felt the injury held him back, Grant replied, "Not really. I don't think so. (It was) just (a matter of) not having a good opportunity to get going on a lot of different runs. (There were) maybe two reads I might have missed that I looked at. But when I watch film, I'm real hard on myself. Of course I feel like I should have broke this, I should have broke that."
Philbin hopes Grant has opportunities to break runs -- like the 62-yard touchdown he had at Dallas last year -- and being unpredictable on offense would help.
"You want him to be productive, you want his hands on the ball. But (opposing defenses) look at the tape, too. They see 25's in the game, they know 97 percent (of the time he gets the ball)," Philbin said. "You've got to have a balance. They watch the film. If his jersey's in there and you (always run), there's coing to be a couple extra guys up there to make things a little tougher. You've got to try to blend it in there as best you can. Because they're not stupid on the other side of the ball."
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/sports/packers//305638
