NFL: Stories abound from Green Bay’s dramatic comeback

GREEN BAY, Wis. - The Green Bay Packers had to weather more than scorching temperatures in their Sunday afternoon road matchup with the Miami Dolphins.
They played the final 18 minutes of a taxing -- and, ultimately, exhilarating -- game without their top two cornerbacks. Sam Shields and Tramon Williams went out with injuries in a space of two plays late in the third quarter of Green Bay’s 27-24 comeback victory.
Shields dropped to the turf, apparently in an effort to get the officials to call time out, after he broke Green Bay’s defensive huddle hobbling as he started to move toward his position before the first play of a Dolphins series. Shields was diagnosed in the bench area with an injury to his left knee.
Forty seconds later, Williams joined Shields on the sideline after sustaining a left ankle injury.
Coach Mike McCarthy didn’t have an update on either player when he held his day-after-game news conference late Monday afternoon.
“I really don’t have information as far as a timeline,” McCarthy said. “Really, till we see what they can do on Wednesday will probably be a better indicator.”
However, the news for both cornerbacks as well as inside linebacker Jamari Lattimore, who went out with a neck injury in the first half, wasn’t all bleak.
McCarthy relayed a conversation Monday between general manager Ted Thompson and team doctor Pat McKenzie that indicated the injuries for all three players aren’t considered long term.
“But how fast (the recovery is all three) is still to be determined,” McCarthy said.
More on the injuries won’t be known until the players reconvene for meetings and practice Wednesday, ahead of Green Bay’s game against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday at Lambeau Field.
The Packers relied on their depth at cornerback to make do without Shields and Williams. They plugged in Casey Hayward and Davon House, who were alternating as the team’s nickel back this season, to man the perimeter spots. Veteran Jarrett Bush assumed the nickel role and was picked on a few times by quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who led the Dolphins to three consecutive touchdowns in the second half as Miami grabbed a 24-17 lead.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers rallied the Packers with 10 unanswered points in the closing minutes.
Green Bay had to go with former starting linebacker Brad Jones in place of the injured Lattimore for most of the game. Jones had another disappointing effort.
The elation of pulling out the victory on Rodgers’ 4-yard touchdown pass to tight end Andrew Quarless with three seconds left may have provided a jolt for the return trip to Green Bay.
Regardless of the outcome, however, McCarthy said Monday his players persevered amid the oppressive conditions of temperatures in the upper 80s, high humidity and glaring sunshine at Sun Life Stadium. It was the hottest game for Green Bay since it lost 38-28 at Tampa Bay on Nov. 8, 2009, when temperatures also were in the 80s.
McCarthy credited the team’s enhanced training regimen that goes back to the start of the preseason for being able to cope with Sunday’s conditions. The Packers hired Adam Korzun as their first director of performance nutrition in late July.
Green Bay posted its first win in four games played in Florida since Rodgers became the starting quarterback at the outset of the 2008 season.
“We did some things a little differently this time, and definitely the results are there,” McCarthy said. “I thought our players handled it very well. Just the conscientious effort of hydration, even on the plane (ride after the game). I don’t think I’ve seen that many guys go to the bathroom that much on a plane flight in my time. So, it was a pretty active flight.”
During the game, the Packers took the unusual measure of shading players with support staff holding up big white awnings over them on the benches.
McCarthy suggested Monday he would be careful to not extend players on the field when practice resumes Wednesday.
“You have to be smart about it,” he said.
Notes: DE Datone Jones didn’t play Sunday at Miami because of a sprained right ankle. Josh Boyd, who had missed the previous game with a knee injury, helped man the spot opposite DE Mike Daniels. ... WR Jarrett Boykin missed a third consecutive game due to a groin injury. Rookie Davante Adams has supplanted Boykin as Green Bay’s No. 3 receiver. Adams contributed season highs of six catches and 77 receiving yards in eight targets in the win.