Already panic time for Pack?
WAS it merely “just one game’’ and merely “one of those karma?days?’’ Or was it a case of bad
Was the Packers’ stunning seasonopening 38-3 loss to the Saints an aberration from a team that finished each of the past two seasons 13-3? Or did it represent one step closer to the end of quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ brilliant run in Green Bay, after his bizarre offseason of discontent, during which he leaked claims he would never play another game in a Packers uniform?
Sunday’s loss was the largest margin of defeat in a game Rodgers started and finished. It, too, was the worst loss in a season opener by a team that played in either the AFC or NFC championship game the previous season. Where did it come from? New Orleans is no longer the Drew Brees Saints, but the Jameis Winston Saints. Rodgers, who was intercepted five times in all of the 2020 season, was picked off twice by New Orleans. Winston, who’s just two years removed from a 30-interception season, wasn’t picked off once.
Was it a bizarro world moment or was it a byproduct of Rodgers’ lingering unhappiness with still being a Packer and a sense of foreboding about a long season in Green Bay?
“If we’re starting to freak out after one week, we’re in big trouble,” Rodgers told reporters this week, several days after calling it “just one game.’’
It’s not likely we’ll learn a lot about the Packers in their home opener Monday night at Lambeau Field,
because they’re playing the perennial-loser Lions, who are rebuilding again with one of the youngest rosters in the league.
As great as Rodgers has been — and he has been one of the greatest players of our generation — you have to wonder how he’s affected by still being in Green Bay after his fit of wanderlust this offseason.
It’s far too early to tell, of course, especially considering recent history. The Packers have lost just seven regular-season games in Matt LaFleur’s two-plus years as head coach, but Sunday’s defeat was the third by 25 points or more. After each of the first two, Rodgers rebounded by throwing four TD passes in the game that followed. Look out, Lions.