EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jayden Reed and right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele were carted off the field with injuries on consecutive plays on the opening drive of the game against the New York Jets on Sunday.
The Packers announced Reed has a neck injury, while Bewele hurt a knee. Both were ruled out for the rest of the game.
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Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jayden Reed (11) is tended to on the field during an NFL football game against the New York Jets in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Green Bay Packers guard Zach Bako-Bewele (50) is tended to on the field during an NFL football game against the New York Jets in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Green Bay Packers guard Zach Bako-Bewele (50) is taken off the field following an injury during an NFL football game against the New York Jets in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jayden Reed (11) is taken off the field following an injury during an NFL football game againt the New York Jets in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jayden Reed (11) is taken off the field following an injury during an NFL football game againt the New York Jets in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
On the Packers' second offensive play, Reed caught a short pass from Jordan Love and was hit hard by Demario Davis, whose left shoulder pad appeared to hit the receiver flush in the helmet, after a 4-yard gain. The Packers wide receiver went down quickly and was face down on the turf and writhing in pain.
Packers trainers and medical personnel immediately rushed onto the field to check on Reed, who was turned over onto his back. After a few minutes, Reed was strapped on a back board and loaded onto the cart as the entire Packers sideline surrounded him — many of them on a knee and praying. Several Jets defensive players, including Davis, also remained near Reed.
After a delay of several minutes, play resumed and Love threw an incompletion on third down. Bako-Bewele, who was blocking Jets rookie pass rusher David Bailey, was down and punching the turf.
The medical staff came out again — along with the entire Packers sideline — and Bako-Bewele was helped onto a cart. He was sitting up, slapped hands with teammates wishing him well and waved as he was driven inside the stadium.
Anthony Belton replaced Bako-Bewele at right tackle.
Packers guard Aaron Banks (toe) and defensive tackle Anthony Campbell (ankle) were questionable to return after being hurt in the first half. Banks missed the season opener with a knee injury.
Jets linebackers Marcelino McCrary-Ball (ankle) and Kiko Mauigoa (quadriceps) and defensive lineman David Onyemata (groin) were all ruled out after halftime.
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Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jayden Reed (11) is tended to on the field during an NFL football game against the New York Jets in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Green Bay Packers guard Zach Bako-Bewele (50) is tended to on the field during an NFL football game against the New York Jets in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Green Bay Packers guard Zach Bako-Bewele (50) is taken off the field following an injury during an NFL football game against the New York Jets in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jayden Reed (11) is taken off the field following an injury during an NFL football game againt the New York Jets in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jayden Reed (11) is taken off the field following an injury during an NFL football game againt the New York Jets in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suffered a bruising electoral setback in two state elections on Sunday, including a historic defeat for his party, but vowed to press ahead with potentially painful reforms to Europe’s biggest economy.
Projections by public broadcaster ARD on Sunday night indicated that Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, came in with just 5% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania — the lowest result since World War II for the party in any state. The anti-migration, Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party made significant gains Sunday. The projections were based on exit polls and partial counting for ARD television.
Merz acknowledged his party's result as a “disaster,” but struck a defiant note, rejecting any retreat from his government’s reform agenda. He argued that Germany’s economic and political problems made difficult and potentially unpopular reforms more urgent, not less so, and pledged to press ahead.
“What needs to be done now requires backbone, steadfastness, and patience,” Merz said in a statement shortly after the exit polls were announced on public television. “I will demonstrate these qualities as chairman of the CDU and, above all, as chancellor of our country.”
In Berlin, projections showed the CDU was to come in second with 19.1%, behind the Left party at 25.3%, according to ARD.
Merz’s authority was already damaged by CDU's stinging defeat to AfD in the Sept. 6 election in the small eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. That result shocked many Germans who had believed their country had developed an immunity to nationalism and assertions of racial superiority after confronting the horrors of its Nazi past through education and laws to outlaw persecution.
On Sunday, AfD also made big gains in both states. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, it garnered 37.9% of the vote, and in Berlin it achieved 16.2%, according to ARD. But it was nowhere close to being able to form a regional government.
AfD’s national co-leader, Tino Chrupalla, told ZDF television that “the chancellor’s statement today really was more than feeble — he announced that he’d carry on as before, instead of finally drawing the consequences and resigning.”
However, in an apparent reference to the far-right party, Merz said that his government’s reforms would be “the antidote to the poison of authoritarianism, which is penetrating ever deeper into our society as the fascination with authoritarianism grows.”
The government’s reforms include cuts to income tax for low- and middle-income families, an overhaul of the creaking pension system and a reduction of Germany's stifling bureaucracy.
Merz, 70, became Germany’s leader 16 months ago with promises to turn around an economy that has barely grown in years. But he has failed to lift a sullen national mood and become deeply unpopular.
The strong showing of AfD in the Saxony-Anhalt election, where it has the best chance yet of forming the country’s first far-right regional government since World War II, had further weakened the chancellor's standing on the national level as well.
In the past two weeks, there had been calls, even from within his own party, for him to be replaced as chancellor, although no top-level allies have called publicly for his departure, and many warned against “personnel debates.”
Philipp Amthor, a prominent CDU figure from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania who now manages relations between the federal and state governments at the chancellery, said Sunday night that one problem in the campaign had been “the difficult personnel discussions” of recent weeks — an apparent reference to the speculation about Merz.
“It is good and right for these personnel discussions not to be continued now,” he said.
From right, Franziska Brantner, Federal Chair of Alliance 90/The Greens; Claudia Müller (Alliance 90/The Greens), the Greens' lead candidate in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and a member of the Bundestag; and Ole Krueger (Alliance 90/The Greens), state chair of Alliance 90/The Greens in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, react to the projections for the state election at their party's election party at the tisch coworking space, in Schwerin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Ulrich Perrey/dpa via AP)
Amira Mohamed Ali, right, reactss to the first projections at the BSW election party in Schwerin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Philip Dulian/dpa via AP)
Supporters and members of the Left Party react to the projected results of the House of Representatives election at an election party in Berlin, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Sebastian Gollnow/dpa via AP)
Alice Weidel (AfD), the party's federal chairwoman, reacts to the projections for the State Parliament election at the AfD election party in Berlin, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Fabian Sommer/dpa via AP)
Russian citizen line up to cast their vote for Russian parliament elections at the Russian embassy in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Voters sit at a voting booth in Schwerin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, as the vote for the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state election, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Philip Dulian/dpa via AP)
A man casts his vote at a polling station during the Berlin state election in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Social Democratic Party Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the party's top candidate for the upcoming state election Manuela Schwesig poses in front of an election campaign poster reading "The Woman Against Blue", in Schwerin, Germany, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. ( Jens Buettner/dpa via AP)
Leif-Erik Holm, the AfD's candidate for state premier in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, speaks at the campaign's closing rally in Neubrandenburg, Germany, on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (Philip Dulian/dpa via AP)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrives for the Cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
