Detroit Lions quarterback Scott Mitchell broke a bone in his right hand in Sunday's loss to Green Bay and will be out indefinitely.
The left-handed quarterback, a free agent who signed a three-year, $11.1 million contract before this season, was hit hard by defensive end Reggie White in the second quarter but stayed in for one more play.He was knocked down again, this time by defensive end Sean Jones, as he threw an incompletion on third down. He left the field and was taken for X-rays.
"He's got a cast on his right hand. Broken bones like that take some time to heal," Detroit coach Wayne Fontes said. "We'll have to wait and see."
The Packers won 38-30 after holding off a fourth-quarter surge led by Mitchell's replacement, Dave Krieg, another free-agent who signed this year.
Mitchell, who threw three interceptions last week against the New York Giants, was 5-of-15 for 63 yards with two interceptions before being injured Sunday. The Lions trailed 10-0 when he left the game.
Krieg dropped his first snap and Green Bay linebacker George Koonce recovered at the Detroit 20, setting up Edgar Bennett's 17-yard TD on a screen from Brett Favre for a 17-0 lead.
It was one of five Detroit turnovers.
But Krieg finished with 23 completions in 33 attempts for 275 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
He guided Detroit on a pair of fourth-quarter scoring drives, both of them capped by two-point conversion passes, to pull the Lions within 38-30.
He drove the Lions to the Green Bay 15 with less than a minute left, but Jones sacked him for a 5-yard loss on third down and his fourth-down pass to Aubrey Matthews in the end zone was knocked down by cornerback Doug Evans with 42 seconds left.
"Sure, we came back, but we wouldn't have had to come from so far back if we hadn't made all those turnovers," Krieg said.
Jones said knocking Mitchell out was the worst thing that could have happened for the Packers.
"I said earlier in the week that we don't want to get this guy (Krieg) into the game and let him get into a rhythm," Jones said.