The Green Bay Packers played their 3rd noon kickoff in the last four weeks, but
Mike McCarthy
for whatever reason, for this game, they lacked energy and were flat right from the start.
Those aren’t my words, rather the words coming from the players mouths following Green Bay’s 24-15 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars (1-6).
The Packers started the day a 15-point favorite over the Jaguars. It wasn’t supposed to be close. But instead of coming out and throttling the Jags, the Packers struggled. They couldn’t run the football again, and they struggled to maintain any kind of rhythm in the 9-point win.
Packers’ linebacker Clay Matthews said the entire stadium had no electricity.
AUDIO: Clay Matthews on being flat :22
The Packers didn’t give their crowd much to cheer about and they decided to sit on their hands instead of trying to take matters into their own hands. The Jaguars, who have just 1-win this season, had an easy time running their offense. Jacksonville committed no false start penalties and didn’t appear to be rattled at all.
You could pin it on the Packers missing 8 different starters, but then that’s the same number of starters Jacksonville is missing, including star running back Maurice Jones-Drew.
The Packers need to wake up. It’s supposed to be a good thing when you get a 1-5 opponent on your schedule. You shouldn’t have to sweat out a matchup like that deep into the game.
This isn’t a 162-game major league baseball season. This is the 16-game NFL. You don’t get many chances and it’s absolutely inexcusable to not be ready to play any game, regardless of the time of kickoff or the opponent. We’ll see if this is a lesson learned!