Thursday night’s Arizona Cardinals–Green Bay Packers game should be a battle between two of the NFC’s top Super Bowl contenders, but injuries threaten to take some of the shine out of the game. The Packers’ injury issues, as well as recent bout with a COVID-19 outbreak amid the wide receiver corps, are well documented. Now, Cardinals star J.J. Watt is out for tomorrow’s game.
Watt played in last week’s game, a win over his former team the Houston Texans. He played a season-low 54-percent of the club’s defensive snaps, however, registering one tackle (for a loss), and one hit on the opposing quarterback.
He’s been dealing with a shoulder issue, which will now cost him Thursday’s game. It will be his first missed game of the season.
According to reports, the Packers will be without superstar wide receiver Davante Adams, who is on the COVID-19 Reserve list and did not make the trip. Allen Lazard, another key pass catcher for the Packers, is also out due to COVID.
Final injury report ahead of #TNF with the Cardinals. JJ Watt is OUT. Kevin King and Preston Smith listed as Questionable #Packers pic.twitter.com/hdQIHKLwy5
— MK Burgess (@MK_Burgess) October 27, 2021
The rash of injuries and absences is pretty disappointing for fans who were excited for an awesome mid-week game. It could still be a fun one between Aaron Rodgers and Kyler Murray, but neither team is close to being fully healthy.
Well that was unexpected. Unfortunately we aren’t going to get the best of the Cardinals or the Packers in this game which is a shame. Still should be a great game. https://t.co/OR9Mn4rkrF
— Andy Herman (@AndyHermanNFL) October 27, 2021
So many great players will be unavailable tomorrow night. https://t.co/9D4TaojTCH
— Zach Kruse (@zachkruse2) October 27, 2021
With one hand we get Chandler Jones back…and the other takes away JJ Watt. Sigh. https://t.co/vUSZOlY6zf pic.twitter.com/mLgXA0r18S
— 🎃 British BOO!dGang (7-0) 🎃 (@BritishBirdgang) October 27, 2021
Why can’t #AzCardinals vs #Packers be Sunday night? No JJ Watt for Thursday
— Mark McClune (@MarkMcClune) October 27, 2021
A bummer for JJ Watt fans, a sigh of relief for Packers fans — I am both.
Watt will now have missed 2/4 of the meetings between the team he’s playing for and the team he grew up cheering for — but thus far, the Packers have never lost to Watt’s team, with or without him playing. https://t.co/maB3lHwG25
— 𝐽𝐸𝑁 𝑀𝐴𝐶𝐾 🧀 (@BigMack_4) October 27, 2021
The Cardinals defense has impressed this year, but Watt hasn’t put up crazy numbers. He hs 16 combined tackles and one sack on the year, forcing a fumble and hitting the quarterback 10 times, though he does have a team-high 28 QB pressures, and grades out extremely well in other advanced metrics.
As a team, Arizona has 19 sacks on the season. Markus Golden leads the way with six, followed by Chandler Jones (five in five games), and Jordan Hicks (three).
Green Bay’s offensive line has held up very well this year, even without star left tackle David Bakhtiari to start the season. They have one less thing to worry about with Watt out on Thursday, though the Cardinals are undefeated for a reason. Per DVOA, the Cardinals defense is No. 2 in the NFL right now.
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