The San Francisco 49ers were down quarterback Brock Purdy, edge rusher Nick Bosa, left tackle Trent Williams, and several other players at Lambeau Field. But nobody will feel sorry for them, and the Green Bay Packers certainly didn’t. After a solid 38-10 win, quarterback Jordan Love shared a smart perspective about beating a depleted opponent.
“It’s the NFL. They’ve got other good players. We’ve had injuries, guys are banged up,” Love said after the game. “You gotta find a way to win, no matter who’s out there. It’s tough for them, but we will take the win.”
For the Packers, it doesn’t matter who is on the other side. Sure, when you beat great teams with great players, it’s easier to project Strong results moving forward. But the NFL is a week-to-week league, so the Packers got the win and a significant chance to make life harder for the 49ers, who are now 5-6.
“They knocked us out the last time we played,” Love recalled. “So we knew it was gonna be a four-quarter fight, and them not having guys out there is tough for them. It feels good to be able to go out there and have a win like this. We’re gonna move past it now, but definitely it feels good.”
Even though the absences were a big reasons for why the game went like it did with a comfortable score for the Packers, head coach Matt LaFleur highlighted how many other good players the 49ers still had on the field — on offense, for example, they had Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Deebo Samuel.
“That’s a really good football team. They were down a lot of pieces. That’s the reality of this league,” LaFleur pointed out. “For us, you have to take advantage of those opportunities when you do it. I hate it for them, they’ve had a lot of adversity, but at the same time, I’m really only concerned about our group and our ability to go out there and do what we needed to do, which was to win games.”
Injuries or not, the Packers got the win and are much closer to the playoffs. Putting the 49ers farther away from it doesn’t hurt either.