GREEN BAY — Matt LaFleur said what he had to say. Whether or not he believed it, only the Green Bay Packers head coach can say.

But he certainly didn’t sound particularly convincing to the people he was saying it to.

With his team heading into its bye week in the aftermath of a 40-40 tie with the Dallas Cowboys that left them with a 2-1-1 record through four games, LaFleur had been asked last week during his Q&A session with reporters why he was using two rookie wide receivers — first-round pick Matthew Golden and third-round pick Savion Williams — as the team’s primary returners.

“Because we feel like they give us the best chance of being successful,” LaFleur replied.

Those who don’t work for the organization might’ve suggested that there are plenty of others who would give the Packers an even better chance of being successful — including Mecole Hardman, who was released from the team’s practice squad on Sept. 23, having never seen action, not even as a game-day practice squad call-up, as special-teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia was searching for returning options.

With wide receiver/punt returner Jayden Reed on injured reserve following surgeries to repair a broken right collarbone and a fracture in his left foot, and with cornerback/kickoff returner Keisean Nixon playing too vital a role on defense to be a full-time return man, the Packers turned to Golden to return punts and Williams to return kickoffs — despite both players have little or no experience as returners.

The results have been … sub-optimal.

Heading into the Dallas game, Williams, whose only college return experience had been as a freshman kickoff returner at TCU, had returned six kickoffs for a 24.5-yard average while Golden, who had never returned punts in high school or college, had four returns for a combined 17 yards and had made a couple of fielding mistakes.

Things got worse against the Cowboys. Golden again failed to fair catch a ball he should have, and then he misjudged another ball and spun directly into a bone-crunching, devastating hit. Williams was even worse, letting three kickoffs bounce in the landing zone before fielding them in the end zone — meaning the touchbacks he took only brough the ball out to the Packers’ 20-yard line instead of the 35-yard line.

“We’ve got to field [and return] those,” LaFleur said, acknowledging the obvious. “We have got to make every attempt to try to catch those in the air because that’s a drastic when you’re talking most of these returns are going out to at least the 28-yard line. You’re talking about a difference of 8 yards at a bare minimum.

“Yeah, we’ve got to field those. We’ve got to be better in those situations.”

By game’s end, LaFleur and Bisaccia had replaced Golden with Romeo Doubs and had Bo Melton take the lead on returning kickoffs instead of deferring to Williams, as he had earlier in the game.

And yet, it seems likely that the rookies will be back in their roles when the Packers face the Cincinnati Bengals next Sunday at Lambeau Field.

“You’ve got to get experience one way or the other,” LaFleur explained. “They do a great job in practice. Yeah, I get it — a game’s a little bit different than practice, especially when you’re catching kicks because in practice nobody’s going to blow you up. And then in the game, we all saw what happened to Golden. He got thumped pretty good.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in both those guys and belief that they’re going to continue to get better and better.”

The alternatives are limited. Doubs, who suffered two concussions last season and wears a Guardian cap of his own accord as extra protection, probably isn’t the ideal replacement given the danger of returning punts. And given Nixon’s importance on defense, one can understand the coaches’ reluctance to use him in either role.

Melton had a pair of 30-yard returns when he took over for Williams in Dallas, so perhaps he’ll have more opportunities to be the primary kickoff returner.

But that doesn’t change the Packers’ obvious belief that if they can get to the other side of Williams’ and Golden’s growing pains, they’ll have two dangerous returners for the stretch run.

“I’d like to think that’s how we’re approaching it,” Bisaccia said before the Cowboys game. “Certainly, those two players are young players, [but] they’re extremely talented players, they’re diligent in what we’re asking them to do.

“They’re put in tough situations right now. One’s the kick returner replacing a guy (Nixon, a two-time first-team All-Pro) that’s been pretty good on kickoff return for us. The other one’s a punt returner really because we lost J-Reed for a little while.

“We’re going to try to put those guys in the best position where they can help us and we’re going to go through some stuff with them. Hopefully it will get less and less as the season goes on.”

Of course, with the field-goal protection unit having had a potential game-winning field goal blocked in the Packers’ Sept. 21 loss at Cleveland and an extra point blocked (and returned for a defensive two-point conversion) against the Cowboys, the special-teams units have issues beyond having inexperienced return men.

“You’ve got a blocked field goal then you’ve got a blocked PAT. Certainly, those were huge plays,” LaFleur acknowledged. “It’s never one play why you win or lose. [But] obviously, those were pretty big plays in the game. But we’ve shuffled some personnel around [in protection].

“I thought it was really encouraging to see [kicker Brandon McManus] hit a 53-yarder to send it into overtime and then to come back and hit a game-tying field goal in overtime. I think if we can just clean up those catastrophic errors —which, you know, that’s a big ‘if’ — we’ll be in a lot better spot.”

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