HOW MUCH WORSE CAN IT GET?

Lions Hold Off Pack for First W at Lambeau Since 1991

It’s official now. After opening the season at a shiny 6- 0 the Green Bay Packers have lost their last 3 games and their once potent offense as well. The Packers offense has been MIA for almost a month now and after lowly Detroit, they of a stellar 1 – 7 record, the same Lions that haven’t won in Lambeau since before Brett Favre started playing there regularly, a team ranked dead last in rushing dropped an ugly, embarrassing and difficult to watch 18 – 16 loss on the Packers the burning question in the NFL is what’s wrong with the Packers offense? What’s wrong with Aaron Rodgers? Should Mike McCarthy take back the play calling?

It was only 4 short weeks ago the Packers were ranked right near the top of the mythical Power Rankings with New England being their only barometer. At this point the Packers have performed so poorly that they have surrendered the lead in the NFC North to Minnesota and having lost in their own division the Packers are in serious jeopardy to even make the playoffs.

The loss to Detroit is one that will take some time to fathom. The Vegas bookies took a shellacking

in this one; the Packers kicked off at 10 ½ point favorites. But once again the Packers offense sputtered stalled and misfired to another ugly L. Rodgers has been untypically errant with his passes and he and his receivers are nowhere near in sync. They are not only not on the same page they are in completely separate books.

The loss of Jordy Nelson is being felt more with every passing week. One of the biggest problems is defenses think they have finally figured the Packers out. Without Nelson the Packers lack a legitimate deep threat. Rookie Ty Montgomery was flashing some signs of home ruin capability but he, too, is injured. If every receiver in the Packers lineup yesterday had his biggest gain taken away (with the range being 18 yards/ Adams to a long of 32 yards/ Jared Abbrederis) the results are butt-ugly. Without 1 lone long reception/ receiver the Packers would have averaged 2 yards per pass. And that is with the reigning MVP throwing the ball. It has become obvious that Randall Cobb cannot effectively fill the #1 WR role and the supporting cast has not done much to improve their stock.

There is a very strong sentiment that Green Bay should change its city nickname from “Titletown” to “Drop City”. The Packers’ drops have become the ugliest blemish on the face of what was considered one of the very best offenses in the league. Rodgers targeted Davante Adams time and again and Adams had more drops and misses than catches, including a drop of an attempted 2 point conversion that would have knotted the game up and a potential touchdown. For those interested in history here is an ugly truth. Adams was targeted 21 times for a total net gain of 79 yards on 10 catches, the worst targets-to-yards ratio since the stat began being recorded when Lombardi was still coaching. Adams dropped at least 2 potential TD’s and Rodgers was also missing Adams and not by an insignificant margin. James Jones has become the Invisible Man after opening the season tied for the NFL lead in TD catches. His only 2 targets yesterday yielded 0 catches. Jared Abbrederis had more catches than Jones yesterday as well as more yardage than Randall Cobb.

Another key factor is the loss of Eddie Lacy who did not dress for the game with a groin injury. Mike

McCarthy named James Starks his #1 back mid-week but Starks is not a #1 back. He is a great compliment and a great running mate for a bull like Lacy when Lacy is playing to his level of ability. Reminiscent of the Pack’s ill-fated unbeaten post Super Bowl season run in ’11 the Lions took a page from the New York Giants playbook, crowded the line and – dared – Rodgers to throw the ball. The hapless, woeful, dead from the neck up Detroit Lions were daring Rodgers to throw… and winning the battle.

Rodgers has been nowhere near his MVP self. As the losses mount so too does the pressure to win, and winning is expected in Drop City… make that Green Bay. Rodgers has underthrown, overthrown and flat out missed far too many times in the putrid stretch. It is inexplicable. McCarthy is struggling for answers. Rodgers has been unable to shake his funk. It has been akin to the dreaded Steve Blass/ Mackey Sasser disease in baseball. Blass and Sasser both left the game long before old age set in when they could no longer make a simple throw. Blass pitched the Pittsburgh Pirates into the World Series then could not find the strike zone. Sasser, a catcher with the New York Mets, couldn’t even throw the ball back to the pitcher. While comical it ultimately drove both men out of baseball and almost out of their minds.

Opposing teams have been playing a formula as well in this losing streak. With Lacy grounded opposing defenses are now blitzing Rodgers like mad and crowding his receivers in man coverage. Simply put none of the Packer pass catchers have been able to break free of the tight coverage. Even Rodgers’ throw to Richard Rodgers for a TD had to be thrown off target due to the tight coverage. Defenses do not respect the run right now thus creating the pressure vs. Rodgers matchup that has worked well against Green Bay.

Green Bay had been riding high on a wave of the unbeaten this season. 2 weeks ago it was the first time in the NFL in league history that an unbeaten team had to face not one but two undefeated teams back-to-back this late in the season. Peyton Manning was superb against Green Bay but literally stunk the joint out against Kansas City. Manning’s last hurrah may have come at the Packers’ expense as he did a complete reversal yesterday against the Chiefs by throwing 4 awful, underthrown interceptions before being yanked for his poor play.

The loss has multiple implications beyond the obvious. Green Bay is now a game behind the surging

Minnesota Vikings and now the Pack has a loss in their division. Not only is the NFC North crown in jeopardy if the Packers cannot right the ship soon the playoffs won’t be far behind. And now as a cold slap of reality this upstart Vikings team is next on the schedule.

The performance by both the Packers and the Lions was almost unwatchable. There are high school and Pee Wee teams that executed better than the teams on the field. It was expected Detroit would not play well but the Packers somehow managed to do the impossible and play worse than the worst team in the NFL. Some noted areas that are killing the Packers offensively are the staggering number of 3-and-out series they are racking up and the tremendous differential in time of possession.

Do not look to blame the defense for yesterday’s loss. The defense did play well enough to win. As Aaron Rodgers said after the game “All we needed was 19 points. If you can’t get 19 points at home…” With his eyes downcast and shrugging his shoulders no more words were needed. As poorly as the Packers played they somehow had a more than legitimate shot to pull one out.

After Rodgers led a furious late drive that ended when he found seldom used TE Justin Perillo in the end zone the subsequent 2 point attempt was denied when Davante Adams had the ball slapped out of his hands by a CB no one outside of his parents knew prior to the play.

Crezdon Butler has played less in Detroit than a GM plant but Rodgers underthrown ball will make a legend out of Butler as he stripped Adams of the potential game tying score. In an ironic twist it was a successfully executed onside kick that the reliable Calvin Johnson muffed and was snapped up alertly by Damarious Randall that gave the Pack and Rodgers one last shot at a miracle with less than a minute to play. With little time left Rodgers worked the clock like Aaron Rodgers usually works the clock and manages the field. On a daring last second play Rodgers managed to hit Adams to move the ball closer for Mason Crosby from a 58 yard attempt to a more makeable 52 yard attempt as time ran down.

When things go wrong they go wrong across the board. At first it appeared Crosby’s kick was tipped

 

at the line. Nope. Replay showed no one touched it. Maybe it was his plant foot slipping in the chewed up sod. Nope again. Was it a bad snap? A bad hold? A bad breeze? Nope, nope and nope. The ball’s errant path made it look like a duck that was shot in the wild from a blind as it wobbled, turned and fell laughably short of the mark. Crosby was at a loss to explain what happened afterwards. He manned up and took responsibility with the understatement of the year that has underscored the Packers’ fortunes of the last month by saying “I just didn’t hit the ball well at all.”

The defense played far better in defeat than they had as a group in the past 3 weeks. Ha Ha Clinton- Dix had a diving interception of Matthew Stafford to kill a drive. For the most part Calvin Johnson was kept in check. The defense gave a far better effort than the offense. For the day the defense kept the Lions under 300 yards for the day and only 46 on the ground. The special teams took a giant step backwards as Ameer Abdullah’s 104 near coast to coast return to open the 3^rd quarter set the ball up for a 1 yard TD the Lions would not relinquish. Lions K Matt Prater did his part to help Green Bay with 2 extra point misses but the Pack could not capitalize making Prater the most relieved man in Wisconsin.

It’s going to take more than soul searching and finding the right words to say after this loss. It comes down to execution. Rodgers and his receivers have not been in sync and it is obvious. Eddie Lacy, the Eddie Lacy that can pound out tough yards needs to get healthy quickly. With Lacy out of the lineup teams are taking the chances against the Packers. With Minnesota next the prospect of a 4 game losing streak is sending chills down everyone’s spine.

The Packers have a week to try to correct their multitude of woes. For the fans that took to booing the Pack’s paltry offense yesterday they will need to exercise restraint during this struggle to find themselves. Right now there is not a single element of the offense or a player who is above reproach. Right now there is no bigger game than the one against the Vikings for first place next week. It can be a must win game because without a W there is little hope of Green Bay wining the NFC North outright.

That is not a very good sign when one of those players just won the MVP last year.