GREEN BAY — Zach Tom’s emotions got the best of him on Sunday, and the Green Bay Packers right tackle admitted as much on Wednesday.
It was clear that he should never have tried to play in what ended up being a 13-10 loss to the previously winless Cleveland Browns, and lasting only one play put his team and his fellow offensive linemen in a bind.
“I was just … I mean … a little emotional,” Tom haltingly confessed, aware that the FOX Sports cameras had caught him on the Packers sideline with his face buried in a towel on the bench. “I felt like I was letting the team down. I was pissed, obviously, but probably a mixture of anger and feeling like you let the team down.”
And although Tom wasn’t flat-out saying he would not play in this Sunday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium, he did not practice at all on Wednesday and it appears he and the medical staff are prepared to have him rest his injured oblique muscle heading into the team’s Week 5 bye.
That would give Tom two full weeks of healing before the team’s Week 6 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
“It’ll be day to day,” head coach Matt LaFleur said. “And we’ll see where he’s at.”
Last week, Tom did minimal individual drill work on Wednesday and Thursday, then did a few 11-on-11 team period reps during Friday’s practice. But those snaps aren’t in full pads and don’t come close to replicating in-game work.
When it was suggested to Tom that he should have had the Packers’ star pass rusher, Micah Parsons knock him around a bit in practice to see if he was ready to play, Tom replied, “I’m sure he’d love to do that, but it’s hard, because it’s practice, and you don’t want to go too hard and somebody gets hurt. So you just don’t know until you know.”
So while Tom thought he was ready to face the Browns defensive line and All-Pro pass rusher Myles Garrett, he wasn’t.
“I felt like I could go and my body just told me, ‘No,’” Tom said. “Obviously, it’s hard to replicate a full-speed pass rush. Obviously, I wish it wouldn’t have happened on the first play, but it is what it is. I’ve got to get my body right.”
Asked how it felt on that first play, Tom replied with a chuckle, “That [expletive] hurt. I really don’t remember, but I just know that [expletive] hurt.
“I really don’t know if there’s anything different we could have done. It just, one of those things that just kind of happened. Obviously in hindsight, I shouldn’t have played. But it is what it is.”
Tom wasn’t the only player who didn’t practice, as starting left guard Aaron Banks (groin) also didn’t practice after leaving the Browns game with an injury, too. Safety Javon Bullard (concussion) also sat out while in the protocol.
Eight more players were listed as limited participants, including Anthony Belton (ankle), who would be an option to start in Tom’s place; tight end John FitzPatrick (groin); running back Josh Jacobs (ankle); tight end Tucker Kraft (knee/elbow); and Parsons (back), who was back on the injury report after being off the report last week.
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