GREEN BAY, Wis. -- With the Dallas Cowboys and rookie running back sensation Ezekiel Elliott next on the schedule, the Green Bay Packers probably need their No. 1 rusher Eddie Lacy more than ever.
Especially the way Lacy ran in Sunday night’s 23-16 win over the New York Giants.
The problem is Lacy couldn’t finish the game. He left late in the third quarter after Giants linebacker Keenan Robinson landed on his left ankle at the end of a 2-yard run. It left Lacy with 81 yards on 11 carries, a whopping 7.4-yard average.
Who knows how much more damage Lacy might have done over the final quarter? But the way he was running, his second consecutive 100-yard game seemed like a forgone conclusion.
Now, his status for the showdown with Elliott is up in the air.
“I’m alright,” Lacy said as he sat on a table in the Packers' locker room late Sunday night. “I can walk on it, which is good. We’ll see how it is going into next week.”
Lacy’s replacement, James Starks, continued his early-season struggles. He managed just 33 yards on 12 carries, and 10 yards came on his first carry following Lacy’s injury. On 24 carries this season, Starks has a total of just 42 yards. Fullback Aaron Ripkowski was more productive against the Giants with a pile-moving 13-yard run and 17 yards total on two carries.
Lacy, who rushed for 103 yards on 17 carries in the Week 3 win over the Lions before the bye, barreled his way to an impressive 31-yard gain in the second quarter. He got all of it on his own. He was hit one yard behind the line of scrimmage and broke multiple tackles. He followed that with a 6-yard run that brought chants of “Eddie, Eddie” from the Lambeau Field crowd.
“He had some pretty incredible second- and third-effort runs,” Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “I mean, guys just kind of bounce off of him, it seems like. The crowd enjoys it -- a little too much sometimes when we’re on offense, they start chanting his name, but we love the energy that he brings our offense.
"We feel great about James Starks. I missed him a couple times on screens that could have been bigger plays, but he ran the ball pretty well, maybe should have kept that last one inside, but we have a lot of faith in James if Eddie’s down. That’s why you’ve got to have two backs in this league.”