It was pretty easy to predict that the Packers were going to try to beat the Colts this weekend without wide receiver Greg Jennings after Jennings aggravated his groin injury against the Saints, but we thought we’d have to wait until Friday for them to make the news official.
It seems that calling replacement referees who played a hand in a call that sent his team to a loss isn’t the only way that Packers coach Mike McCarthy shows that he’s thoughtful, however. McCarthy announced Thursday that Jennings is out of the lineup, which means that the Colts, fantasy football owners, gamblers and others can now plan accordingly.
There wasn’t really any sense to waiting to make the call on Jennings. The fact that McCarthy went public early this week with word that the team was thinking about shutting Jennings down for a week in order for his groin to fully heal was a pretty massive hint about his status for Sunday. Now the team can set its sights on building a game plan that doesn’t include Jennings while Jennings can focus only on getting ready for what should be a pretty entertaining matchup with the Texans in Week Six.
James Jones, Randall Cobb and Donald Driver will fill in alongside Jordy Nelson with Jennings out of the lineup, a group that could prove to be too much for a suspect Colts secondary to stop this Sunday.