Chad Clifton (ankle), Nick Collins (clavicle) and Aaron Rouse (neck stinger) all suffered injuries in the contest.

Donald Lee was also hurt when he took a shot from Roy Williams late in the [...]]]> Not only did the Green Bay Packers lose in embarassing fashion Sunday to the Cincinnati Bengals, they got pretty banged up while doing it.

Chad Clifton (ankle), Nick Collins (clavicle) and Aaron Rouse (neck stinger) all suffered injuries in the contest.

Donald Lee was also hurt when he took a shot from Roy Williams late in the game, but it sounds like he’s okay.

Clifton and Collins seem to be the most banged up, as coach Mike McCarthy talked today as though neither is likely to play in Sunday’s suddenly crucial game at St. Louis (0-2).

Rouse doesn’t appear to be as banged up, although we won’t know more until Wednesday.

Clifton’s injury will likely lead to a re-shuffled offensive line with Daryn Colledge at left tackle, Jason Spitz at left guard and Scott Wells at center.

Colledge was awful at left tackle against the Bengals, but with a week to practice there, he should be better. Really, I don’t know how he could be much worse. Spitz doesn’t have much experience at left guard, but he’s played right guard quite a bit so I don’t have as much concern about him. Wells is a solid center. Turns out he didn’t have to sit on the bench very long after losing his job to Spitz in the preseason, huh?

Regardless, the group has to play better. This team won’t go anywhere until it does.

(One more thing on that topic: I thought Allen Barbre did a solid job Sunday after everyone spent the past week ripping him to shreds. He wasn’t great, but he wasn’t getting killed, which shows progress and I’ll take it.)

If Collins can’t go, cornerback/safety/bain of my existence Jarrett Bush or Derrick Martin would play in his place. I’d go with Martin; yes, I know nothing about him, but that’s more than I can say about Bush.

Finally on the injury front, in the same Press Gazette article, McCarthy says B.J. Raji (RAJI!) didn’t play because he still runs with a limp. It seemed like he’d play, as he was a full participant most of last week. But the coaching staff wants to be very cautious with him.

I can understand that, to a point, but he’s got to get on the field pretty quickly because the team only has three solid d-linemen at the moment. And those guys are going to get gassed much sooner than later if it’s just them playing the majority of the snaps.

Where were you, Greg?

A big reason for the offensive struggles, outside of the line crapping themselves, was the disappearing act pulled off by wideout Greg Jennings.

Jennings was held without a catch for the first time in his career Sunday. He was only even targeted a few times, one of which he dropped.

Jennings declined to speak with reporters after the game, so it’s hard to say exactly what his problem was. I have a hard time believing it was the Bengals’ corners, so I have to think it was a mental issue with Jennings.

Not totally out-of-the-ordinary with him, if you think about it. Yes, he’s a very good receiver. But, sometimes, Jennings isn’t as much of a consistent factor as you’d like him to be.

That wasn’t as much of a problem earlier in his career. But, now that he’s being paid elite money, he needs to play like an elite player every week.

After all, Andre Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald and Reggie Wayne aren’t being held catchless by mediocre teams. If Jennings wants to be in that group, performances like his Sunday can not continue to happen.

Wishing for Bubba

I can’t believe I’m even saying this, but there were quite a few times during the Bengals’ game where I found myself wishing Bubba Franks was still a Packer.

Yes, Franks was an overpaid pass-catching liability who only really had a couple of good seasons and struggled to stay healthy. But he could block. Boy, could he block.

That was something the Packers clearly missed, as evidenced by Antwan Odom’s five-sack performance, the most ever surrendered by the Packers to one player in a single game.

Green Bay had no one who could really help Clifton or, later, Colledge in blocking Odom. Lee and Jermichael Finley are primarily pass-catchers and Spencer Havner is a converted linebacker who is still learning the position (although his catch over the middle Sunday wasn’t half bad).

Had the Packers had a pure blocking tight end, perhaps they could have neutralized Odom – or, at the very least, slowed him down. There’s no one in that group who could help. They tried using a fullback or running back to help, but by then Odom had a full head of steam and they weren’t stopping him.

I was on-board when Franks got cut, for all of the reasons I listed above. But an inability to replace what he brought to the team is one of the few glaring mistakes made by Ted Thompson over the past couple of seasons.

-Chris Lempesis

Mike McCarthy had called a better game. The defense did look more aggressive. The Green Bay Packers were nothing like they were in 2008.

As it turns out, though, hyperbole is the only way to describe my, well, descriptions of Green Bay after last week’s win over Chicago.

Sunday’s utterly [...]]]> It didn’t seem like hyperbole a week ago.

Mike McCarthy had called a better game. The defense did look more aggressive. The Green Bay Packers were nothing like they were in 2008.

As it turns out, though, hyperbole is the only way to describe my, well, descriptions of Green Bay after last week’s win over Chicago.

Sunday’s utterly embarassing 31-24 loss to the lowly Cincinnati Bengals showed that the Packers are still a long ways off from putting last season behind them.

It was all there….again.

An offensive line that couldn’t give quarterback Aaron Rodgers time? Check.

Rodgers was sacked six times, five coming from one player (Antwan Odom), in what was perhaps the worst o-line showing of McCarthy’s tenure as head coach. The group was consistently beaten off the ball by the Bengals from the opening snap on Sunday, showing very little punch or determination. It’s more than enough to seriously make me re-think my theory that McCarthy should stick with his five linemen, no matter what.

Oh, wait – he’ll have to move some pieces around now as left tackle Chad Clifton was carted off with an ankle injury, an injury that could keep him out for some time. Doesn’t really matter who is in there at this point; they have to play better or Rodgers, already sacked 10 times in two games, won’t make it through the season alive.

Rodgers holding on to the ball way too long? Check.

For as bad as his o-line was, Rodgers didn’t do himself any favors by hanging on to the ball for well beyond an acceptable amount of time. That led to a couple of sacks. It was a big problem last season, too, and, from what I can tell, it’s about the only thing that can hold him back from becoming an elite quarterback. But it’s a fairly big thing if it doesn’t get corrected.

A tentative defense that couldn’t stop the run, couldn’t tackle and spent way too much time on its heels? Check, check and check.

The defense was gashed by Cedric Benson – yes, that Cedric Benson – to the tune of 141 yards on 29 carries. The front seven failed to control the gaps and played with little enthusiasm. Hell, even when they got there, they either flailed about weakly or, worse, were just flat out knocked over by Benson. Most worrisome is that several times, the defense had chances to stop Benson when the group knew he was coming – and, yet, they couldn’t.

That’s not even to mention Green Bay’s numerous failures in coverage (not you, Charles Woodson. We still love you). Playing out of a lot of nickel and dime sets, the Packers sat back and let Carson Palmer – a thoroughly mediocre quarterback, as it turns out – find receivers 10-20 yards downfield. Where was the aggressive defense that pressured the hell out of Jay Cutler a week ago? Did Dom Capers forget about blitzing? What happened? I’m not even going to discuss the fact that the defense gave up a third-and-34 because, well, I feel like I’m going to puke whenever I think of it.

Of course, picking apart a secondary easy to do when cornerback/safety/bain of my existence Jarrett Bush is manning one of the safety spots. Bush replaced injured Nick Collins (chest) and once again showed that he must have incriminating pictures of Ted Thompson, as that can be the only reason he has stuck around this long. You could have thrown Anthony Smith out there and maybe gotten more favorable results – wait, no you couldn’t because they cut him in favor of some guy (Derrick Martin) who hasn’t done a thing yet.

(And, on the topic of Collins, why is he always getting hurt and having to leave the game? How many times is this going to happen with him? Yes, he’s a very good player, but he’ll never be great – and he’ll never be worth a big-time contract extension – unless he can start finishing games. And fast.)

A special teams unit that can’t cover punts and consistently loses the field position game? You better believe that’s a check.

The Packers almost surrendered two punt returns for touchdowns, one saved by A.J. Hawk (who, after a good game last week, reverted back to his bust-like form. Glad to see you again, A.J.) and another by punter Jeremy Kapinos. The second was particularly inexcusable as it came late in the game with Green Bay trailing. All day, though, the special teams units failed to do their jobs and, as a result, the Packers lost the field position battle most of the afternoon.

Penalties? Oh yeah – big-time check there. The Packers were once again totally undisciplined with 11 penalties for 76 yards. This has become a major trademark of the McCarthy teams and, unless they clean it up, it will be his undoing as a coach. Good teams don’t do this. Period. Penalties equal sloppy play and if a team is sloppy, that means its head coach didn’t get them ready to play.

McCarthy becoming one-dimensional with his playcalling? Yep, that’s the last check – and it’s a big one. With the game tied coming out of halftime, McCarthy – as he’s done countless times as coach of this team – abandoned the run. The run game was struggling, to be sure, but you have to go to it every now and then, at least. Otherwise, the defense pins its ears back and attacks. That’s exactly what the Bengals did and, against this offensive line, we all saw the results.

For all his bluster about being a tough, Pittsburgh guy, McCarthy too often turns his offense into a group that’s about as tough as a bowl of ice cream. You can’t win in the NFL that way – or, at least, you can’t win anything meaningful.

After reading the past 880 words or so, you might think I’m pulling off a case of reverse hyperbole, that I’m being too harsh (oh, the receivers dropped a bunch of passes by the way, which was lovely).

Well, no I’m not, actually.

When you’re playing a team like the Bengals, a team every bit as bad as we thought they were, at home and you’re supposed to be as good as the Packers clearly thought they were, you don’t do the things they did today. You just don’t.

But the Packers did and the result was a defeat as pathetic and embarassing as any I can remember in my lifetime as a fan of this team.

-Chris Lempesis