
GREEN BAY – T.J. Lang is good to go. His Green Bay Packers coaches just don’t want the Chicago Bears to know where he’s going to be going – left guard or right tackle.
The Packers veteran offensive lineman practiced for the second straight day on Thursday – albeit in a non-padded practice – and expects to play against the Bears Sunday at Soldier Field.
Here’s the full, official injury report for each team from Thursday:
Lang said he was pleased with his progress in practice the past two days and fully expects to start.
“I feel good. Obviously last week, sitting out Wednesday and Thursday, I didn’t have anything to judge how it’d feel. Yesterday and today, even though we weren’t in pads, I was still moving around a lot, putting weight on it, playing around, running around,” Lang said. “I feel pretty comfortable. I think by Sunday I’ll be feeling really good.”
Lang suggested on Wednesday that he took most of his snaps at guard and not right tackle, but his coaches were doing their best to keep their plans under wraps.
“T.J. looked fine, definitely getting better. Don’t ask me any questions about the lineup,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy replied when asked about Lang’s practice. “I’m not going to get into that. That’s what the week’s for, we’ll talk about that tomorrow. Everybody’s getting healthy.”
Offensive line coach James Campen said it’s a balancing act of trying to get Lang ready to play while also continuing to let his ankle heal.
“The first thing you have to do is remind him that a player can’t compromise his fundamentals. You’ve got to bend, you’ve got to – in his case with the ankle – you’ve got to step and be able to put it in the ground,” Campen said. “You can’t gingerly try to do it. You’ve got to either do it or don’t. that’s how you get confidence in something. Then, you make sure look-wise you get what you need and take some plays off that you might’ve already done 100 reps at.”
Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune’s Brad Biggs reported that Cutler, who left last week’s loss to Minnesota with a stiff neck after a hit, is playing with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his knee. Biggs cited a source who said the injury isn’t as bad as the MCL sprain that knocked Cutler out of the 2010 NFC Championship Game, leading to considerable criticism. Cutler said in a conference call with Wisconsin reporters Wednesday that he will play.
“I’ll be ready by Sunday,” Cutler said.
Return to: Jason Wilde Blog
Extra Innings
Homer and Thunder
| Final | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | |||
| 5 | |||
| 0:00 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | |||
There are no games scheduled for today.
| 8:10 PM ET | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 4:10 PM ET | |||
|---|---|---|---|