In the near-48 hours since the conclusion of the Green Bay Packers’ game against New Orleans on Sunday, I keep thinking that the loss the Packers suffered was some type of dream.
A bad nightmare, more like it.
That surely could not have been the Green Bay Packers that I saw dust through the regular season in 2020 and give the eventual Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers a competitive game in the NFC Championship last January.
I mean, this year’s team returned nearly everybody from last season. Heck, the team from Titletown even added a few pieces in the draft and free agency in the offseason.
So, why the heck did the Packers play so awful on Sunday?
To be honest, this was the most surprising bad loss I’ve seen, maybe ever. The reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers looked as bad as I’ve seen him, the defense was confused (and gassed) and the team’s overall performance looked incredibly uninspiring.
It sucked.
I don’t want to be all doom-and-gloom. I know this is just the first game of the season. The Buccaneers were beat by the same score last year, then went on to win the Super Bowl.
I get it – I think we’ll be fine.
So do all the players.
However, there are obviously plenty of things to fix. To start, new defensive coordinator Joe Barry’s defense struggled. There were constant miscommunications between players, the secondary played seven yards off defenders all game and not many adjustments were made.
Offensively, the gameplan was lacking. It looked like the Packers abandoned the run game for the most part. Plenty of looks out of empty formation. And, Aaron Rodgers struggled.
So who is to blame?
I think everybody gets a little piece of the cake on that one.
And, again, the sky isn’t falling. I know how talented this team is. The Packers will get better.
Maybe this is just the wake-up call they needed.
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Gunnar Davis is a lifelong Packers fan and a recent graduate of Simpson College, where he was a 3-year letterwinner on the offensive line and graduated with a degree in multimedia communications. You can follow him on Twitter at @Gunnar57Davis.
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