After the Green Bay Packers notched a much-needed division win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday, head coach Matt LaFleur seemed distracted in his postgame interview on local radio.
“It’s bittersweet for me right now because I just heard the news on Javon Hargrave,” he said. “It’s not good.”
Hargrave, the standout veteran defensive tackle, went down with less than 2 minutes to go and the Packers up 24. He will reportedly miss the rest of the season with a torn Achilles tendon.
During Fox’s broadcast, color analyst Greg Olsen illustrated the risks on both sides of navigating a blowout in the NFL. But he appeared to place most of the blame on Bears head coach Ben Johnson, who repeatedly called timeouts to extend the game and keep his team motivated despite the lopsided score.
“These are the kinds of games where [if] you’re the team winning, you’re just saying, ‘Get this thing over with,'” Olsen said. “You’re Ben Johnson, you’re extending the game, you’re always trying to speak to your team through your decisions of saying, ‘We’re gonna fight til the end.’ But at what cost?”
Fox’s Greg Olsen reacts to Javon Hargave’s late injury in Green Bay:
“You’re Ben Johnson, you’re extending the game, you’re always try to speak to your team through your decisions of saying, ‘We’re gonna fight til the end.’ But at what cost?”
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Olsen also addressed Packers faithful who might argue LaFleur should not have had Hargrave on the field.
“You never like to see anybody ever get hurt, but certainly in a 24-point game. And I think fans are going to think, ‘It’s a blowout, take everyone out,'” he explained. “Well, this isn’t college football. I don’t have 110 guys on the sideline in uniform.”
Olsen explained that most NFL teams have about one full set of defensive backups active on any particular game day. However, some are used on special teams or rotate with the starters. There are not enough substitutes to replace the entire lineup.
Of course, Olsen was not placing blame anywhere in particular for the freak injury. Hargrave was in a routine pass-rush situation when he seemingly tore the tendon. In football, any additional full-speed play brings significant risk of injury.
And as the meticulous Olsen noted, even late in a blowout, head coaches have a lot to juggle when deploying personnel and managing the clock.
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