GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Thursday games are never easy, but how about one four days after the warmest game in Lambeau Field history and with a team whose entire inactive list was made up of injured players?
That’s what the Green Bay Packers face this week.
With the Chicago Bears on the schedule for Thursday night in Green Bay, the Packers have the unenviable task of playing on a short week under the aforementioned circumstances.
“You’ve got to deal with it,” Packers receiver Jordy Nelson said. “We’ll take care of our bodies. We’ll get back in here right away [on Monday] and start the recovery process, but it’s never a good time to have a Thursday game. It’s a quick turnaround. Some of us are used to it. Just got to take care of the body. Luckily the young guys who aren’t used to it are young, and they can handle probably three games a week.”
Hydration will be a buzzword around locker room this week after the Packers played in 89-degree weather in Sunday’s win over the Bengals, and they had to go to overtime to do it. But so did the Bears, who needed the extra session to beat the Steelers in Chicago, where the kickoff temperature was 85 degrees at Soldier Field.
“It’s a factor,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “It will be a factor how we move forward. I mean, it’s something we’ve been talking about since probably Monday, Tuesday of last week because we practiced in the 80-plus degree weather all week. So it will be part of how we train leading into the game.”
It’s supposed to cool off later in the week. The forecast temperature for Thursday is a high of 69 and a low of 47.
McCarthy brought the players in on Monday, but the team did not practice. Tuesday will be the only significant time spent on the practice field and given the injury situation -- six starters were on the inactive list for Sunday -- the work may be more mental than physical.
The Packers played without four defensive starters: defensive tackle Mike Daniels (hip), outside linebacker Nick Perry (hand), cornerback Davon House (quad) and inside linebacker Jake Ryan (hamstring, concussion). Backup safety Kentrell Brice (groin) also was inactive. So were two offensive starters: receiver Randall Cobb (chest) and left tackle David Bakhtiari (hamstring). Right tackle Bryan Bulaga, who missed the first two games because of a right ankle injury, dropped out with the same ailment on Sunday and did not return.
“It means we needed to heal up,” McCarthy said. “Drink a lot of water. Get a lot of sleep, so, it’s football. It’s the NFL. Everybody’s doing it. We have a couple more [injuries] than others, but this is the path that’s been put in front of us.”