Was it merely “just one game’’ and merely “one of those days?’’ Or was it a case of bad karma?
Was the Packers’ stunning season-opening 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. A loss to the Lions, however, and there’d be a full-on freak out in Green Bay.
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. At some point, maybe that catches up to a player on the field.
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.
Rodgers told reporters he was not going to make the lopsided loss to the Saints “bigger than it was.”
“I’ll let you guys on the outside world do all that,” he said. “Look, we’ve won a lot of games around here. We’ve lost a few. But you move on.
“There shouldn’t be some big drastic change and alteration the way that we do things, the way we practice, the way we prepare. If it’s good enough to get you to this point, then it’s good enough from this point forward. I haven’t changed any of the stuff that I’ve been doing.”
Rodgers’ postgame comments had a feel reminiscent of the 2014 public message to his teammates, in which he famously spelled out “R-E-L-A-X” during a radio show, after a 1-2 start.
“I wasn’t trying to be inspiring,” Rodgers said of his postgame message. “I was trying to put the loss in the context where it deserves to be put. And that is, it’s not acceptable, but it’s just one game and we’re not gonna be held prisoner mentally by that poor performance.”
This from a player who spent the entire offseason making it sound as if the Packers were holding him prisoner in Green Bay.
All of this bears watching.