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LANDOVER, Md. — Three straight losses — all after they have been the favorites — and with maybe their most harmful opponent subsequent up on the schedule seemingly has the Inexperienced Bay Packers’ season slipping away.
Or perhaps Sunday’s 23-21 loss to the Washington Commanders, which featured extra of the Packers’ season-long struggles on offense and dropped them to 3-4, was the worst of it.
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers believes it may very well be the latter even when he wasn’t capable of present a lot concrete proof to help it.
Regardless of the motive, the struggling four-time NFL MVP insisted this season seems like it may be saved.
“You are goddamn proper it does,” Rodgers mentioned when requested if it feels believable for the Packers to get well and go on a run. “I am not nervous about this squad. The truth is, this is likely to be the perfect factor for us. This week, no person’s going to offer us an opportunity, going to Buffalo on ‘Sunday Evening Soccer,’ with an opportunity to get uncovered. Shoot, this is likely to be the perfect factor for us.”
If this seems like a well-recognized spot, it is as a result of in 2016 the Packers misplaced a sport right here at FedEx Area to drop to 4-6. It was just some days later when Rodgers supplied his now well-known “run the desk” assertion that finally got here to fruition. The Packers received their last six regular-season video games and two extra within the postseason to succeed in the NFC Championship Sport.
“I do not suppose anyone thought we might be on this spot that we’re in proper now,” mentioned Matt LaFleur, who’s dealing with his first three-game dropping streak in 4 seasons teaching the Packers. “We’ll discover out what we’re fabricated from by way of simply how we assault Monday, how we assault Tuesday, Wednesday and on daily basis in apply. I do consider that we have got the correct of men that can proceed to battle.”
If solely their struggles have been one-sided.
The protection was speculated to be the power of this Packers group; as a substitute, Inexperienced Bay has misplaced consecutive video games to groups quarterbacked by Daniel Jones, Zach Wilson and Taylor Heinicke. They lastly received a giant play — simply their second takeaway of the season — with linebacker De’Vondre Campbell’s pick-6 that gave the Packers a 14-3 second-quarter lead. However even their greatest cornerback, Jaire Alexander, struggled in opposition to Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin (5 catches for 73 yards and a landing).
It wasn’t near sufficient for a group that:
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*Is averaging simply 18.3 factors per sport, which might be the Packers’ worst since 2006.
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*Went 0-for-6 on third downs Sunday, the primary time the Packers went a complete sport with no conversion since 1999, when Brett Favre was quarterback and Rodgers was 15 years previous.
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Cannot discover a solution to get the ball down the sphere, with Rodgers averaging solely 3.2 air yards on his completions Sunday after getting into the day with the second-lowest common within the NFL (4.3 yards) on such throws.
It is an offense that continues to be unsettled within the post-Davante Adams period. The Packers performed Sunday with out Randall Cobb (ankle) and Christian Watson (hamstring) however received again Sammy Watkins after a four-game absence. Watkins managed simply 2 catches for 36 yards and did not come near catching as much as one of many few deep balls Rodgers threw.
Inexperienced Bay had deliberate an offensive line shakeup however could not use it in full as a result of left sort out David Bakhtiari’s knee acted up and rendered him inactive. And outdoors of Allen Lazard (7 catches for 55 yards earlier than a shoulder damage knocked him out) and Aaron Jones (76 whole yards and a pair of touchdowns), the Packers received little manufacturing.
“I believe exterior of these two guys, there’s too many psychological errors,” Rodgers mentioned. “I talked about simplification final week. I do not actually know the place to go in the case of that. There must be one thing inside that has the accountability for efficiency the place we’re simply having approach too many element errors. It is simply not profitable soccer.”
After which there’s Rodgers, who mentioned he got here into the sport with the concept that he would attempt to make extra performs exterior the pocket however by no means was capable of.
“I believe I’d want to try this a little bit bit extra,” Rodgers mentioned. “I type of had a mindset to perhaps look to try this a little bit bit extra. Did not do it sufficient immediately.”
When requested if Rodgers must play higher to show issues round, LaFleur mentioned: “I believe it takes everyone. It takes everyone round him. You have to have the safety in entrance of you to have the ability to maintain up. You have to have the fellows making performs, too. I really feel like we had a ton of drops. We had a variety of penalties that put us again behind the sticks.”
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