Packers notes: Tramon Williams admits frustration over decision to punt

GREEN BAY – Frustration is mounting within the Green Bay Packers locker room over the close losses the team keeps suffering on the road, but veteran cornerback Tramon Williams said there’s nothing wrong with that.

Williams said he was extremely frustrated with the Packers’ 27-24 loss at Seattle, which is why he said after the game that he would have liked coach Mike McCarthy to have gone for it on fourth-and-2 with 4:20 remaining.

McCarthy punted and the Seahawks were able to run out the clock.

“There’s going to be times guys come in here and show frustration,” Williams said in the locker room Monday. “But showing frustration may mean just coming in here and talking to your teammate. It’s a family. We’re all going through the same thing.

“We have to use each other to get through that. I got one game a year that I’m really frustrated. One game. I think it was the Seattle game.”

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Williams said he did not feel the need to speak to McCarthy about his comments after the game. He said it’s obvious he cares about winning and was only expressing some of that frustration from the Seattle loss.

The most important thing, he said, was that everyone was focused on the same thing: winning.

“Everyone should care about winning and losing because ultimately that’s what it’s about,” Williams said. “We just have to stick in this thing together. I’d never turn my back on anybody — player, coach, anybody.”

Williams wasn’t on the ’16 team that won its final six to finish 10-6, win the NFC North and then make it all the way to the NFC Championship game. But he was on the ’14 team that won seven of its last eight and also made it all the way to the NFC title game.

There are enough examples of the Packers pulling playoff spots out of their hat under McCarthy that Williams is not giving up on that possibility, even though it probably means winning out, starting with Sunday’s game at Minnesota.

“I’m optimistic guys can get this done,” he said. “That’s just the competitor talking, which should be, but I think we can get it done.”

Start to finish

Slow starts have not been the Packers’ problem of late. Finishing has been.

The Packers were up 10-0 on the Los Angeles Rams and lost, 29-27. They were tied with New England 10-10 in the second quarter, and 17-17 at the start of the fourth and lost, 31-17. They were up 14-3 against Seattle and lost, 27-24.

In L.A. and Seattle, the Packers couldn't sustain the momentum they created in the first quarter.

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“Some teams, some games, particularly some environments that you play in, the potential for momentum swings seems to maybe be higher,” McCarthy said. “Those are all things you prepare for.

“I know one of the last things I talked about before Thursday night’s game was the shifts in momentum and the ability to use it as an energy source.”

In their only two games against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium, the Packers have faded at the end. They led 7-0 in 2016 and lost, 17-14. They lost quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the first quarter last season and scored just twice in a 23-10 loss.