It’s amazing to us that everyone seems to have swept this under the rug. That is, why the Green Bay Packers didn’t have linebacker Clay Matthews on the field for several key plays down the stretch of their loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
It has been pointed out to me by numerous people, that Matthews was on the sideline for Seattle’s final drive of regulation and at least part of the one prior to that. The only mention of this came immediately after the game, when this question was asked of coach Mike McCarthy.
Why wasn’t Clay in the game at that time and how was he able to come back for the overtime? Did he get hurt?
“Not that I’m aware of,” McCarthy said.
That’s not real clear, other than to say Matthews wasn’t injured. So if he wasn’t injured, then either someone on the coaching staff decided to replace Matthews or Matthews decided he didn’t want to be out there.
In either case, that’s a questionable move that no one is questioning. Obviously, the Seahawks were able to take advantage of the situation, scoring on both of the possessions in question. If you’re the coaching staff, we’d think you’d want your best linebacker on the field.
Unless, of course, Matthews pulled himself, which we would call inexcusable.
Despite that elephant in the room, no one has bothered to ask Matthews about it — not when given access to him after the game or when the Packers cleaned out their lockers on Monday.
Similarly, no one has bothered to follow up with McCarthy.
At some point soon we should find out if any of the local media hacks are even worth the tiniest shit. McCarthy’s season-ending news conference, which was supposed to be held on Wednesday, is being rescheduled.
Certainly someone must be curious enough to ask McCarthy the question until they get an acceptable answer.
It’s almost as if the Packers are hiding something — either protecting their coaches or protecting Matthews from scorn.
Not to worry though. You can bet your ass we’ve still got one heaping helping of scorn left for someone when we get to the bottom of this.