The Green Bay Packers are in the midst of their longest losing streak with Aaron Rodgers at the helm in six years. Not many, or any for that matter, Vikings fans will shed a tear about that.
After the Vikings thumped Green Bay on opening day the Packers rattled off three straight wins to keep pace with Minnesota at the top of the division. Now, after eight weeks, the Vikings are 6-1 and the Packers are 3-5, all but dead in the division race.
According to FiveThirtyEight, the Packers have a 4% chance to win the NFC North. The Vikings are in complete control with a 94% to conquer the North. Green Bay simply making the playoffs is a tall task, with FiveThirtyEight giving them a measly 17% chance to sneak in.
There has been one game all season where the Packers were good: Week 2 in a 27-10 win over the Bears, though one might argue they were only good on offense for two quarters because they scored just three points in the second half.
Aaron Rodgers threw both of his touchdown passes eight minutes into Green Bay’s 14-12 win over the Bucs in Week 3. What followed was three quarters of inept offense.
Green Bay hosted the Patriots in Week 4 and needed overtime to beat third-string, rookie QB Bailey Zappe. They were trailing 24-17 more than halfway through the fourth quarter, and it took a Mason Crosby field goal as time expired to avoid a tie.
In their current four-game losing streak the Packers twice jumped out to double-digit leads before blowing them and losing (Giants and Washington), and twice had their doors blown off (Jets and Bills).
Rodgers has called for teammates to be benched if they’re making too many mistakes and asked to “simplify” the offense, which is a polite way of begging coaches to dumb things down for his young receivers.
According to PFF, the Packers’ offensive grade has fallen to 73.3, ranking 12th in the NFL. Middle of the road without many weapons for Rodgers doesn’t sound awful, but it’s down from an 82.1 grade in 2021 and 90.7 score in 2020.
Green Bay’s vaunted defense? It ranks 30th against the run.
Green Bay could very well lose at the 1-6 Lions this week. They’re dead in the water if that happens, but even if they win they still face a difficult road in which it would require a massive collapse for the Vikings to make the division race close.
After the Packers go to Detroit, they play consecutively against the 7-0 Eagles, 5-2 Titans and 6-2 Cowboys. And later this season they still have to go through the 5-3 Dolphins and 6-1 Vikings, though there’s a pretty good chance that New Year’s Day game against Minnesota at Lambeau Field won’t matter much for the Packers. The Vikings, if all goes well, could be fighting for homefield advantage in the playoffs at that time.
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