Shredded cheddar in the desert: Why the Green Bay Packers lost to the Arizona Cardinals
By Kenn Korb
Nov 15, 2015; Green Bay, WI, USA; A Green Bay Packers fan holds up a sign in support of Jordy Nelson during the game against the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field. Detroit won 18-16. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Injuries
Yea yea yea…I know.
“Everybody has injuries!” Yes, they do.
“You’re just making lame cop-out excuses for your favorite team’s issues!” I’m not, but if thinking that works for you go ahead.
“It doesn’t matter who is out there, they are professionals and should play like it!” Agreed, but always more difficult that us non-players believe.
The fact of the matter is, no matter what way you cut it, the injuries to this team are paramount to why they lost here.
As a whole, the team really is towards the lower end of injuries compared to other teams. The injuries they have just happen to seem to hit most and hardest in two specific areas: the wide receivers and offensive line.
Consider this: With David Bakhtiari out with injury, Green Bay was already down their usual left tackle. But they went on to have to give all 8 of their other active linemen snaps on the afternoon due to injuries. Besides having to start without their left tackle, the Packers also lost their right tackle, center, and right guard for portions of this game. As shown earlier, those backups put up horrendous games in their stead.
Here’s another: going by Football Outsiders’ AGL*, Green Bay lost a combined 0.0 games of starts and production from both their wide receiving corps and tight ends in 2014. They didn’t even reach the regular season to surpass that — and with the worst possible player to do so.
Jordy Nelson is a top-10 (even top-5 to some) wideout, so losing him hits harder than this type of statistic could evaluate. Another site called Man Games Lost does a similar type of stat, but attempts to calculate the value of each players as compared to others. In terms of their calculations, Nelson has been the 5th-largest value loss of any player — and the top for any receiver. Beyond Nelson, the Packers have also lost games at wide receiver from Ty Montgomery and Davante Adams to injury (9 so far and 3, respectively). At tight end, they just got Andrew Quarless back after him being out since Week 3.
That is a monstrous difference in terms of injury luck.
Teams do have 53-man rosters for this very reason, but the people who are backups are also backups for a reason: usually, they aren’t as good as the starters.
No excuses for the performance though; the guys needed to step up in place of and around those injured and didn’t, that is undeniable.
But to pretend the injuries are just an excuse and not legitimate reasoning is not only asinine but likely also hypocritical (seeing as many who tend to call bs on the outside looking in will just as quickly flip-flop to scapegoating injury for their woes should the tables turn).
Injuries will never be the whole problem, but they do tend to be a significant part of things.
*Adjusted Games Lost; games missed by the expected starters of the particular season in question.