Pick-six rundown of the Green Bay Packers’ 15th training camp practice

The ball was on the ground, the result of a botched quarterback-center exchange, as Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” played through the team’s stereo system on Sunday.

The Green Bay Packers’ 15th practice of training camp, indeed, had gone off the rails.

After missing Thursday’s preseason game at Baltimore, quarterback Aaron Rodgers missed Sunday’s practice, as well, with back tightness. The offense struggled without Rodgers against the Ravens and wasn’t any better on Ray Nitschke Field. It’s not just the results that weren’t good enough. It was the pre-snap penalties, mental miscues and dropped passes that irked coach Matt LaFleur. The practice got off to a bad start when rookie running back Dexter Williams blew an assignment on a play the entire offense knew was going to be called. It got only marginally better from there, at least from the offense’s perspective.

“It was pretty sloppy overall,” LaFleur said. “If you miss somebody, the standards don’t change. Everybody else has to pick up their play, especially the quarterback position, because it takes everyone. It takes all 11.”

Will Rodgers be one of those 11 at practices on Monday and Tuesday? Or in Winnipeg against the Oakland Raiders on Thursday?

LaFleur would like Rodgers to play but seemed to sense that might not happen.

“I think that he’s gotten a lot of great work in,” LaFleur said. “You’d like to get him some game action, but, again, he’s a veteran guy who’s played a lot of football. I mean, 14 years in the league, there’s not much that he hasn’t seen. So it’s not overly concerning to me.”

OFFENSE

Tight end Jimmy Graham made one of the best plays at practice. During an early red-zone drill, quarterback DeShone Kizer threw a slant to Graham that was broken up by cornerback Tony Brown. Graham stuck with the play, though, and caught the deflection for a touchdown.

Shortly thereafter, Kizer threw another pass to Graham that was broken up – this time by rookie safety Darnell Savage. Graham didn’t catch this one, though. He suffered an injured finger and ran straight into the Hutson Center with a member of the training staff. Graham did not return to practice, and LaFleur did not have an update after practice.

DEFENSE

The defense’s dominance of the day was exemplified by its performance during the first no-huddle period of camp. The Kizer-led No. 1 offense didn’t have a winning play in seven trips to the line of scrimmage. In order: sack by defensive tackle Kenny Clark, false start by right tackle Bryan Bulaga, a big stick by linebacker Blake Martinez to limit a completion to running back Tra Carson to a minimal gain, Caron being leveled by outside linebacker Preston Smith, another tackle by Martinez on a run by running back Keith Ford, a pass breakup by cornerback Jaire Alexander and an interception by Tramon Williams.

Williams, the oldest defensive back in the league, had his best day of camp. On the interception, Preston Smith pressured Kizer on a bootleg and forced an errant throw to receiver Darrius Shepherd that Williams easily intercepted. A handful of plays later, Williams pulled away a completion to tight end Pharoah McKever that led to interception by Brown.

After a night of dismal tackling in Baltimore, the Packers drilled it extensively during an individual period. During team periods, guys like Carson felt the wrath from defenders who no doubt had grown tired of hearing about their shoddy tackling.

“I thought the defense was much more physical. I think it surprised a couple of the guys on offense where they actually got knocked off their feet,” LaFleur said.

SPECIAL TEAMS

In eight full-field punts, JK Scott averaged 50.8 yards per punt with 4.20 seconds of hang time. In two attempts to pin the opponent inside the 10, he forced a fair catch at the 10 and gunner Will Redmond fielded the ball at the 5. It was a decent day but not as good as Thursday’s game, when his six punts each had hang times of greater than 5 seconds.

In the field-goal drill, Mason Crosby and Sam Ficken each went 4-for-4 from 22, 28, 33 and 40 yards. If those kicks seemed short to you, they did to LaFleur, too.

“I think it was a little windy out there today, (but) that happens in Lambeau quite a bit, too,” LaFleur said. “That’s something I’m going to talk with Shawn (Mennenga, the special teams coordinator) about.”

In four practices since Crosby returned from a calf injury that sidelined him through Family Night, Crosby is 16-of-17 - including 12-of-12 the last three appearances - and Ficken is 15-of-17.

INJURY REPORT

Running back Jamaal Williams, who had been out since July 27 with a hamstring injury, was back on the practice field. Williams took part in individual drills and did a lot of conditioning work. By his count, he ran 18 cross-field sprints.

“This is how I keep conditioned but it’s more of a mental thing for me,” he said. “Because I’m not playing, I need to get my runs in another way. It’s me trying to be the best I can, make sure that when I come back, I’m conditioned and ready to go and they don’t have to worry about me. It’s more about me making sure that my body is ready to go.”

Out: QB Aaron Rodgers (back), CB Kevin King (hamstring), S Josh Jones (illness), CB Ka’Dar Hollman (stinger), S Ibraheim Campbell (knee; PUP), LB Oren Burks (chest), FB Danny Vitale (calf), CB Kabion Ento (hamstring), OLB Greg Roberts (core muscle; PUP), LT David Bakhtiari (personal), TE Jace Sternberger (concussion), OLB Reggie Gilbert (knee).

New: TE Jimmy Graham (finger).

Returned: WR Trevor Davis (stinger), RB Jamaal Williams (hamstring), FB Malcolm Johnson (groin), DL Fadol Brown (calf).

SCHEDULE

Monday’s practice will be the last open to fans during training camp. It will begin at 1:30 p.m. The team will practice again on Tuesday before departing for Winnipeg on Wednesday for Thursday’s preseason game.