Could things get any worse for the Packers? Hell yes!

Remember last week when the Packers out-gained the Bills 423 to 145 and yet managed an offensively unimpressive 22-0 victory? Could it get any worse than that? Hell yes! The Packers outgained the Lions today 521 to 264 and—drum roll—lost 31-23 in a game that wasn’t even that “close.” Three fumbles lost was bad enough, but the real goat this time was Mason Crosby, who made those infamously bad kicking days of 1968-1971, when the Packers tried out about 50 would-be placekickers to no avail before drafting Chester Marcol, seem like halcyon days. Crosby missed a hair-pulling four field goal attempts, three of them well within his normal range. If he had made those three attempts (or the Packers had not blown a first-and-goal that ended in one of those misses), the Packers might have won this game. 

Aaron Rodgers claims to have hurt his knee early in the game while wearing a lighter brace, and was just 9-19 in first half and fumbled twice as the Packers fell behind 24-0 at half time. What did we expect in the second half? Another “Motown Miracle”? Rodgers completed 23 of 33 for 281 yards and three touchdowns in the second half as the Packers moved the ball literally at will, but Crosby’s missed field goals (and a missed extra-point) were simply too much to overcome. Going into the game, he was 10 for 11 on field goal attempts; only he can “explain” what happened in this game.

With Rodgers not 100 percent (or even 75 percent) the Packers cannot afford to have disastrous performances by key players. This team just seems out-of-sorts, and if it isn’t one thing one week, it’s another the next. One team that certainly isn't playing out-of-sorts through today are the Milwaukee Brewers, who swept the Colorado Rockies for their 11th straight victory and are moving on to the NLCS.