Without Actual Victories, Packers Cling to Moral Victories
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers have hit rock bottom.
Not their performance, per se, against the Buffalo Bills. The Packers lost 27-17 on Sunday night. Against perhaps the best team in the NFL. On the road. With the Bills coming off their bye. Aaron Jones ran roughshod over the best run defense in the NFL, providing a real building block as the Packers stagger into the second half of the season.
This was the Packers’ fourth consecutive loss. Unlike the first three games, the running game – the commitment to it and the effectiveness of it – provided a silver lining.
Nonetheless, here's why this is rock bottom.
All through training camp and into the season, the Packers have talked about “the standard.” The standard has been winning. Playoffs. Excellence.
The new standard is none of those things. Really, did anyone truly believe the Packers were going to beat the Bills? The Packers lost by 10 points. They covered the spread. They sort of made a game of it after falling behind 24-7. So, by that lowered bar, Sunday night wasn’t a total disaster.
But that’s where this season has gone. Two months ago, it was whether the Packers could beat the Bills in a potential Super Bowl preview. Now, it’s whether the Packers can avoid being totally embarrassed on national television.
While that lowering of the bar is more about outside perception, I do go back the loss to the Jets two weeks ago. The Packers trailed 24-10 when the Jets took over at their 37 with 9:12 to play. New York ran the ball on 12 consecutive plays, burned about 6 1/2 minutes from the clock and kicked the clinching field goal.
As part of that drive, Green Bay stopped a series of plays run inside the 5-yard line. Afterward, defensive coordinator Joe Barry texted every member of the defense to tell them how proud he was of their effort. I get it. The Packers could have folded like a cheap greeting card. They didn’t. So, there should be some pride in that. But it was as if Barry had seized on a moral victory. Never mind that the Jets’ final three possessions were four plays for 74 yards and a touchdown, five plays for 66 yards and a touchdown and 13 plays for 60 yards and the clinching field goal.
The Packers lost by 17 points to the Jets, but, hey, at least it wasn’t 21!
Last week, the Packers lost at the woeful Commanders. Immediately afterward, coach Matt LaFleur pointed to a third-and-goal stop at the 2 that limited the Commanders to a field goal that made it 23-14.
“I don’t see anybody quitting out there,” he said. “Even when it looks bleak, our guys are still [battling]. You could see it on the last play of the game, they’re still trying to find a way to get the ball in the end zone. I felt it on defense, as well.”
Sure, but on that drive, the Commanders converted a third-and-8 with a 26-yard completion and gained an additional 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct to make it a two-score game.
After Sunday night’s loss, LaFleur and Aaron Rodgers said they liked the week of prep and the physicality of the running game. Those are real, tangible things. But it doesn’t change the reality that the Packers are not equipped to beat a really good football team like the Bills. Just because they lost by 10 instead of 30, which seemed plausible when it was a three-score game at halftime, doesn’t change that fact.
Again, maybe that’s outside perspective. But the players are only human. How can they not close their eyes and ponder how a season that started with such promise has gone so far off the rails? The Packers used to be about winning and pursuing championships. Now, it’s about moral victories, silver linings and building blocks.
“Nobody feels sorry for us,” Rodgers said. “We’ve got to find a way to get one win. I feel like if we can just get one, then the whole momentum changes.”
Are the Packers good enough to get to the playoffs? Maybe. They’re also bad enough to lose next week at Detroit.
This is not a good team. Perhaps adding a field-stretching receiver at the trade deadline to pair with a strong running game will change the dynamic. But an offense that predictably has struggled and a defense that has shockingly underperformed, with no signs the coaches can fix the problems on either side of the ball, point to mediocrity being the new standard.
That they weren’t blown out of Buffalo doesn’t change that reality.
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