Why they lost: Green Bay Packers stall out at Minnesota
By Kenn Korb
Fumble-itis
During the tenure of Aaron Rodgers as the Packers’ starting quarterback, Green Bay has been among the league’s best pretty much every season in not turning the ball over. He are there totals and rankings for every year in that time:
- 2008: 21 total (13 INTs/8 Fumbles); 10th-best
- 2009: 16 (8/8); 1st
- 2010: 22 (13/9); 10th
- 2011: 14 (8/6); 2nd
- 2012: 16 (8/8); tied-2nd
- 2013: 25 (16/9); tied-15th
- 2014: 13 (6/7); 1st
- 2015: 17 (8/9); tied-4th
As you can see, every year outside of 2013 (when Rodgers missed part of the year due to his collarbone injury) the Packers have been at least in the top-10 for not giving the ball away.
That didn’t happen on Sunday night.
The team was careless with the ball from the start, with Davante Adams putting the ball on the ground right on the first couple plays. That was followed up by three other fumbles on the night.
Luckily for the team, most of the times they put the ball on the ground they got it back. The Adams fumble was somehow gotten back by Randall Cobb forcing his own, and the first two that Rodgers put on the ground had fortuitous bounces right back into Packer hands.
The final fumble finally saw that luck run out, and short-circuited one of the final two drives that saw some life from Green Bay’s offense die out before they could capitalize on what little positive progress they had begun to make.
These guys — Rodgers especially — will have to make a conscious effort to hold onto the ball better going forward, especially with how disjointed the offense has remained even with the return of Jordy Nelson.