Packers can not afford to minimize their serious problems as a result of another disappointing loss

The Packers are broken.

Thursday night – third and second in his own 33-yard line – Aaron Rodgers spent a brief stint at Marquez Valdes-Scantling and left the field with the look of someone who had just lost his life savings on a horses race.

Despite the fact that there is only one time out, despite a budding star with an average of nearly four yards per race that night, despite Davante Adams having constantly opened up Seahawks' defense defense throughout the evening, head coach Mike McCarthy decided to keep the offensive out of the way. the ball to the Seahawks. Seattle, despite all its offensive weaknesses, has the staff needed to run the clock well. You can guess what happened next.

For most of the season, the Green Bay Packers looked like a runner on a treadmill. Three quarters in a game, they display their strengths. They are taxed but roll. We marvel at their gifts, which are obvious. And yet, despite all the inflections, despite the appearance of constant dynamics, they are just running. They are nowhere near where they should be after an hour of work.

On Thursday, Rodgers imposed one of the season's best touchdown passes, Robert Tonyan Jr., who had never managed a pass in the NFL before. He smashed his elbows with his offensive linemen and pumped his fist like Tiger Woods. Two quarters later, he saw his head slowly evaporate under the orders of a team whose average score per game was lower than that of the New York Giants.

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This was once the most copied offense in football. McCarthy's system spawned two main coaches (Joe Philbin and Ben McAdoo), while they never called (or rarely) matches while in Green Bay. This has propelled Rodgers to the rank of star even with a scattered group of wide receivers and an almost laughable absence of play running.

It is not enough to go past Brian Schottenheimer who is getting ready for a short week. Now, against all odds, McCarthy trusts the defense rather than Rodgers, or even himself.

The Packers have been sleeping for quite some time. All hope is not lost at 4-5-1, but only because they belong to a division of teams as dysfunctional (Detroit), difficult to master (Chicago) or inconsistent (Minnesota).

It will be fascinating to discover what caused such a series of disappointing games. Rodgers and McCarthy have been insisting for years that nothing is going well, and yet no reasonable spectator would be able to watch the game on Thursday night and consider it a healthy and operational machine. Stars are aging and their talents are blurring, but not Rodgers. Not yet anyway. In the life of an NFL quarterback, he should be still in his heyday.

The teams go through valleys and valleys, but that sounds like something else. Like boredom or coldness. After the game, Rodgers said it would take "a moment of galvanizing" to get the season back on track. Here again, they could finally be short of short-term solutions reinforced by incredible talent. It might be time to really dig and repair the Packers.