GREEN BAY – Not all the information is in on Packers wide receiver Christian Watson's ankle injury, but Head Coach Matt LaFleur said Monday that Watson would be out at least a week.
"Or so," LaFleur added.
Watson was injured on a pass over the middle late in the first quarter that was intercepted by the Vikings. He got to the sideline on his own and was then carted to the locker room.
LaFleur did not have an update on defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt's ankle injury from late in Sunday's loss to Minnesota.
He did say that QB Jordan Love, who returned from a two-week absence due to a knee injury, was "sore, but he's doing well."
The positive sign with Love is he played better as the game wore on after some rust early appeared to contribute to his accuracy not being as sharp as usual.
"The more he played the better he got," LaFleur said of Love, who completed 32-of-54 passes for 389 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions. "That was pretty evident throughout the course of the game, and the more comfortable he started to look.
"Hopefully he got enough reps in that he's kind of played his way through that."
LaFleur is more concerned with what he termed the repeated mistakes the Packers have been making on both sides of the ball through a 2-2 first month of the regular season, with a road trip to Los Angeles on deck to face the 1-3 Rams at SoFi Stadium.
They haven't curbed their penalty issues, getting flagged eight more times Sunday to bring their total to 34 penalties, not including declined or offsetting fouls. Penalties aren't the only miscues, though. Basic execution errors show up on the game film as well.
"Whether it's false starts, whether it's guys jumping offsides, whether it's maybe a busted protection … those things will drive you nuts and ultimately cost you games," LaFleur said. "When you look at it, we've had two tight games that we've lost."
The defense also had its second rough game, the two struggles sandwiched around two strong defensive efforts in Green Bay's two victories.
Against the Vikings, one lacking area was the Packers' pass rush, which sacked Minnesota QB Sam Darnold just twice in more than 30 drop-backs. Both of the sacks came on blitzes, as the four-man rush wasn't effective enough.
LaFleur credited the Vikings for their pass protection, deploying chips on the edges and help from the running backs. Minnesota's offensive line also picked up the Packers' various stunts up front seamlessly throughout most of the game.
"It wasn't up to our standard, no doubt about it," LaFleur said of the four-man rush. He added there continue to be times when the front sacrifices some aggressiveness with the rush in order to not open up scrambling lanes. Darnold did escape on a third-and-1 Sunday when the edge rushers got too far upfield, and that's what the defense has tried to avoid.
"When you do that, there's some pass rush that suffers," LaFleur said. "It's a balance of what we've got to do. When there's times to unleash those guys and work those edges, we've got to go do that, and there's other times where we've got to be extremely coordinated with the four rushing as one."
