Damarious Randall inactive vs. Giants

GREEN BAY - The Green Bay Packers will be without their top two cornerbacks against one of the best receiving corps in the NFL.

Second-year pro Damarious Randall (groin) will join fellow starter Sam Shields (concussion) on the inactive list when the Packers take on the New York Giants Sunday night at Lambeau Field.

Randall's absence is a big surprise. He had two weeks off since playing against Detroit and was able to practice Wednesday and Thursday and was listed as a limited participant on Friday even though the Packers did not practice. The team did not report whether he missed practice on Saturday and did not change the questionable designation put on him Friday.

Questionable means a player has anywhere from 99.9% to 50.1% of playing. There no longer is a probable designation that would have indicated whether he was between 25% and 50% likely to play.

With their two starting cornerbacks out, the Packers will try to cover the Giants' dynamic receiving trio of Odell Beckham Jr., Victor Cruz and Sterling Shepard with some combination of Quinten Rollins, LaDarius Gunter, Micah Hyde and rookie Josh Hawkins.

It wouldn't be surprising to see the Giants play a lot of spread formations to try to get Hyde and Hawkins in open-field coverage situations. How the Packers match up with those receivers should be interesting.

The rest of the defense is intact following five starters missing the Detroit game two weeks ago.

OLBs Clay Matthews and Datone Jones, NT Letroy Guion  and S Morgan Burnett are all active.

Officially, Richard Rodgers will start for Jared Cook (ankle), Rollins will start for Randall and Gunter will start for Shields. It's likely that Hyde will play in the slot in the nickel and Hawkins will play outside in the dime with Rollins playing inside with Hyde.

Here are the Packers' inactives:

• QB Joe Callahan
• CB Damarious Randall
• CB Sam Shields
• T Kyle Murphy
• TE Jared Cook
• DT Brian Price
• DT Christian Ringo

The Giants will be without four starters: T Marshall Newhouse (calf), TE Larry Donnell (concussion), S Nat Berhe (concussion) and RB Rashad Jennings (thumb).

However, cornerbacks Eli Apple (hamstring) and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (groin) are active.

Here are the Giants' inactives:

• QB Josh Johnson
• RB Rashad Jennings
• S Darian Thompson
• S Nat Berhe
• T Marshall Newhouse
• TE Larry Donnell
• DT Robert Thomas

Bobby Hart will start for Newhouse, Will Tye will start for Donnell, Orleans Darkwa will start for Jennings and Andrew Adams will start for Berhe.