Packers continue to beat themselves

The Green Bay Packers are in the midst of a stretch of difficult opponents, but the opposing teams are not their biggest obstacle, it’s themselves.

As Packers fans, the type of play that we’ve seen from our team this year has been quite unusual, especially during the Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers era.

The only thing consistent about this team has been their inconsistencies and they continually find ways to shoot themselves in the foot.

Green Bay has dug themselves into quite the hole half way through the season and they are currently working through a very tough stretch in their schedule.

However, the greatest issue facing the Packers isn’t who they play but rather not continuing to beat themselves.

Missed opportunities

Green Bay will enter Week 9 with a record of 3-4-1 after letting a number of victories slip through their grasps early on.

Although back-to-back road games against the LA Rams and New England Patriots is very difficult, they had great opportunities in each game to steal a win.

In a tight game against New England, the Packers were driving in the third quarter and appeared poised to take the lead. But a fumble from Aaron Jones and a quick Patriots touchdown swung the momentum.

Jones’ error coupled with a roughing the kicker penalty on Robert Tonyan and an unsportsmanlike conduct ejection from Jermaine Whitehead is not a recipe for beating New England.

A week ago in LA, the Packers got off to a fast start against the Rams but the offense sputtered, allowing the Rams back into the game, and we all know how this one ended with the Ty Montgomery fumble.

If we rewind to the Detroit Lions game, Green Bay managed to lose without ever attempting a punt. I didn’t even think this was possible! But a sloppy performance that consisted of two Aaron Rodgers fumbles and a horrendous game by kicker Mason Crosby, resulted in the loss.

Against the Washington Redskins, it was really a lackluster performance all around with minimal effort and the Packers really never stood a chance.

Lastly, when they faced the Minnesota Vikings in Week 2, Green Bay controlled a majority of the game, leading 20-7 at one point and being up by eight in the final minutes. But because of poor execution on both sides of the ball, they could not put the game away and Crosby missed a game-winning field goal.

This Packers team has a great amount of talent but up to this point, the season is going to be remembered for sloppy, inconsistent play and blown opportunities.

What needs to change?

We find ourselves at a point in the season where we have to wonder if Green Bay can even make the necessary changes to salvage the season.

There are a few changes that must take place if they hope to turn things around. The easiest fix is to be more disciplined and to have good fundamentals, meaning no dumb penalties, executing plays and protecting the ball.

Next, Mike McCarthy has to call a more balanced game. The Packers are one of the top teams in the league at passing plays per game and Aaron Rodgers has made 40-plus pass attempts six times this season, already tying his career-high.

Rodgers is an amazing player but the imbalance is making his job much more difficult than it has to be.

In addition to everything stated above, the play-calling needs to be simplified. The offense flows well on a mixture of quick passing plays and the run game, which allows them to get into a nice rhythm.

The perfect example of Green Bay not doing this was at the end of the game against New England. The Packers had a third-and-four, followed by a fourth-and-four, and instead of a quick throw or a run to get the first down and to extend the game, Green Bay ran two unsuccessful, long developing plays where the receivers were all 15-plus yards down the field.

And don’t be mistaken, some of these struggles fall on Aaron Rodgers.

Finally, they absolutely have to get better in the red zone. Currently the Packers are scoring a touchdown roughly 50 percent of the time that they are in the red zone, which is ranked in the bottom third of the league. With the players that they have on this offense, this is unacceptable.

It’s going to take quite the transformation but there is still time to turn the season around. Unfortunately based on what we’ve seen, I’m not sure they have it in them.

However if they do, it’ll all start with not beating themselves.