One piece of good news from Sunday's loss is it appears the Packers don't have any significant injury concerns heading into this week's game at Minnesota.
Safety Nick Collins, who missed the second half of Sunday's game with a back bruise, is fine and should be able to play this week. Collins injured his lower back and had some tests done because of a concern about kidney damage, but everything checked out OK.
"I think he'll be ready to go this week," Head Coach Mike McCarthy said during his Monday news conference. "There was some concern at halftime, which is why we had to test him."
Elsewhere on the injury front, wide receiver Greg Jennings re-aggravated his ankle injury, and McCarthy said he would probably miss some practice time again this week to help with the healing process.
McCarthy said when Jennings was tackled from behind in the second quarter on Sunday, his ankle got turned the same way he injured it originally. He did see limited action the rest of the game and will be questionable on this week's injury report.
Cornerback Charles Woodson (knee) and running back Ahman Green (knee) also might miss some practice time this week to give their bodies more time to heal, but McCarthy did not indicate either player was in jeopardy of missing this week's game.
Veteran does the job
The Packers' running game didn't appear to miss a beat without fullback Brandon Miree and with veteran William Henderson taking his place.
Ahman Green averaged 5.3 yards on his 23 carries while Noah Herron, in the No. 2 spot in place of Vernand Morency, averaged 5.0 on his five rushes. Several times the backs made good reads off of stout lead blocks by Henderson, who appears to be fully healthy after beginning the season recovering from minor knee surgery.
"I thought William played a solid game," McCarthy said. "We did a couple things schematically, changed it up, he handled it very well, and I thought he had a very solid performance."
McCarthy said both Miree (elbow) and Morency (back) would remain doubtful on the injury report this week. Both are improving but are likely to miss at least one more game.
Sack streak
With his sack Sunday to increase his season total to 9 1/2, defensive end Aaron Kampman now has a streak of five consecutive games with at least a half-sack. That's the longest by a Packers player since Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila had a five-game stretch that covered two seasons, Dec. 24, 2000 to Oct. 7, 2001.
The last player with a streak of at least five games during a single season was Reggie White, Nov. 5 to Dec. 3, 1995 (five games).
Kampman is now just two games from the franchise's longest sack streak. Tony Bennett recorded at least a half-sack in seven straight games from Oct. 25 to Dec. 6, 1992.
One more catch?
With one pass reception for 8 yards on Sunday, Green now needs just 7 more yards receiving to move into first place on the franchise's all-time list for receiving yards by an offensive back. Gerry Ellis had 2,514 receiving yards, and Green now has 2,508.
Staying at noon
The home game against the New England Patriots on Nov. 19, which had the potential of being moved to prime time on NBC, will remain a noon kickoff. The Broncos-Chargers game that day has been slotted for the evening.
