GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Mike McCarthy and his defensive coaches have never been afraid to bench players who don’t perform up to standards.
But it was still somewhat of a shock that the Green Bay Packers pulled cornerback Damarious Randall, their 2015 first-round pick, from Sunday’s game in Chicago. Just a week earlier, Randall was one of their defensive stars with two interceptions in the win against Seattle.
Who knows what that will mean for Randall on Saturday against the Vikings?
"I think Damarious will be fine," Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers said this week. "Hey, there's no defensive back in this league that doesn't have a tough day now or then. We saw that defensively, just wasn't Damarious. But we're sitting there, we've had four straight series of takeaways and all of a sudden, we can't get any pressure on the quarterback and we can't get tight coverage, they get the momentum going."
Randall said after the game that he did not know why he was benched against the Bears, but it came after he allowed a touchdown pass to Alshon Jeffery during a stretch of 17 unanswered Chicago points. The Packers went the rest of the way with Quinten Rollins and LaDarius Gunter as their cornerbacks and used safety Micah Hyde as the third cornerback in the nickel package. Hyde broke up the Bears' final third-down pass, forcing them to settle for a tying field goal instead of a go-ahead touchdown.
McCarthy suggested this week that Randall might not have been as assignment-sound as he should have been.
"When we sit down and watch the tape with him, there’s things that he’ll learn from," McCarthy said. "So, there’s times where you want coverage, there’s a reason why you have alignments and assignments on everything on offense, defense and special teams, and we need to be more detailed."
Randall isn’t the first Packers’ defensive back to get benched during a game and surely won’t be the last. In 2014, the Packers pulled their No. 1 cornerback, Sam Shields, in a game against the Falcons during which Julio Jones caught 11 passes for 259 yards. Shields had just come back from a concussion he suffered the previous week and was yanked late in the game for performance, not injury, issues.
Randall also has battled injuries. He missed six games this season because of a groin injury that required surgery.
In the season opener, the Packers pulled cornerback Quinten Rollins when he struggled against the Jaguars.
"The guys who are giving winning performances will go out there and play," Packers cornerbacks coach Joe Whitt said. "I’ve said that since I’ve been here, and it doesn’t matter if I have to pull a guy out or insert a guy like Micah, and he made a game-winning play. We’re all here to win the game.
"Had the same questions first game against Jacksonville. Had them with Q. There’s no hard feelings. Everyone in that locker room is here for one reason, to win that football game. Then the next week, we’ll go and we’ll do whatever we have to do to win that game."
Randall, who is on the injury report this week with a shoulder injury that limited his practice reps, said he’s not sure what to expect this week.
"Just whatever the coaches want to do," Randall said. "I have tremendous confidence in myself. I’m going to correct those mistakes and whatever coaches decide, that’s what they’ll decide."