Their once powerful
offense looks nothing like it did in 2011. Their defense is starting
to look entirely too much like last year's group. And their
otherwise solid special teams is asking why its previously reliable,
strong-legged kicker Mason Crosby missed a pair of 50-yard field
goals - including a potential tying 51-yarder with 3 seconds left in
the game - after being virtually automatic before Sunday.
It all adds up
to a 2-3 record, putting the Packers below .500 at this point in the
season for the third time in coach Mike McCarthy's seven-year
tenure. When it happened in McCarthy's first season of 2006, the
team needed a four-game winning streak to end the year at 8-8. When
it happened in 2008 in Aaron Rodgers' first season as the team's
starting quarterback, the Packers were 5-5 before a five-game losing
streak led to a 6-10 finish.
On top of it
all, the Packers' next game is against the Houston Texans, who took
a perfect 4-0 record into their Monday night game at the New York
Jets. The Packers play at Houston next Sunday night, the second of
three consecutive games away from Lambeau Field.
"We're a
focused football team; we're just not playing to the level that we
want to play at right now," said McCarthy, whose team reeled
off 19 consecutive victories - six straight en route to the Super
Bowl XLV title and 13 in a row to open last season - but has now
lost 5 of its last nine dating back to last season. "That's
what we have to stay focused on. We have to stay focused on our
habits, our discipline, our preparation, the process leading up to
Sunday night."
Compounding
problems: Injuries to Pro Bowl wide receiver Greg Jennings, who
missed Sunday's loss with a lingering groin injury; workhorse
running back Cedric Benson, who left Sunday's game with a sprained
foot; tight end Jermichael Finley, who injured his shoulder against
the Colts; and defensive tackle B.J. Raji, who sprained his ankle in
Indianapolis.
McCarthy ruled
Benson out for this week's game while saying that Raji and Finley
"have a chance" to play against the Texans.
But injuries
are only part of the problem. On offense, Rodgers isn't playing up
to the 45-touchdown, six-interception, 122.5-passer rating standard
he set last season when he was MVP.
He has
completed 130 of 189 passes (68.8 percent) for 1,307 yards with 10
touchdowns and four interceptions (a 2.1 percent interception rate)
with 21 sacks for a passer rating of 97.0.
Last season,
the Packers scored 560 points, the second-most in NFL history and an
average of 35 points per game. Through five games, the Packers have
scored only 112 points this season, an average of 22.5 per game -
with two of their touchdowns coming on special-teams plays.
"It's
never the same from year to year," McCarthy said. "We
didn't have rhythm coming out of training camp, we haven't
established it consistently through five games. That's where we
are."
Asked about
the team's offensive struggles in Sunday's loss, Rodgers replied,
""We just didn't make any plays. (The Colts) got a little
more pressure in the second half. We turned the ball over and got
them into a two-score game and then they kind of got back mentally
into the game. And then we couldn't put any points on the board to
put them away."
On defense,
the unit that gave up the most yards in the NFL last season and set
an NFL record for most passing yards allowed continues to give up
huge swaths of yardage. One week after giving up 474 yards to the
New Orleans Saints, the defense gave up 464 yards to rookie
quarterback Andrew Luck and the Colts on Sunday.
The difference
on defense is that the NFL's most proficient turnover-producing team
is no longer taking the ball away. Rookie cornerback Casey Hayward's
interception on a Luck pass intended for Reggie Wayne was just the
fifth takeaway on the season for the Packers, who entered the
weekend with the most takeaways (114) of any team in the league
since defensive coordinator Dom Capers took over in 2009.
Last season,
the Packers led the NFL with 31 interceptions and tied for the
league lead with 38 total takeaways; this year, there have been
entirely too many turnovers that didn't happen because of officials'
calls, dropped interceptions or penalties that nullified takeaways.
"It's a
big difference because as we all know turnovers have such a deciding
factor on the games," Capers said Monday. "When you're
getting them, you're stealing two or three opportunities and you're
talking about a game where there were 15 possessions (by the Colts
offense). If you can get three or four takeaways and you get that
down to 12 or 11 possessions, it makes a big difference."
Last season,
Crosby was an impressive 24 of 28 and made the second game-winning
kick of his NFL career on Dec. 4, connecting from 31 yards out as
time expired to give the Packers a 38-35 victory over the eventual
Super Bowl-champion New York Giants. His first-game winner had been
a 42-yarder against Philadelphia in his NFL debut on Sept. 9, 2007.
In between
those two kicks, Crosby had missed three potential winning kicks: A
52-yarder with 26 seconds left at Minnesota on Nov. 9, 2008; a
blocked 38-yarder with 25 seconds left at Chicago on Dec. 22, 2008;
and a 53-yarder with 7 seconds left in regulation in a tie game at
Washington on Oct. 10, 2010.
Then came
Sunday, when with 8 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Crosby
hooked a 51-yard attempt that would have forced overtime.
"I would
say this: I would expect him to step up and make that kick,"
special teams coordinator Shawn Slocum said. "He needs to help
our team in that situation, (given) where that game was at, at that
time. Obviously to go to overtime, he needs to make that kick."
But despite
all their issues, McCarthy described his team as "confident,
disappointed" while acknowledging the "contradiction
there."
"We've
got to win the next one. We've put ourselves in a hole,"
veteran safety/cornerback Charles Woodson said. "The only thing
you can hang your hat on is that it's still early in the season and
you've got a long way to go."
