You have to go back to Week 11 of the 2006 NFL season to find the kind of result we saw Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field. Mike McCarthy’s Green Bay Packers fell to the Baltimore Ravens, 23-0, and saw their record this season fall to 5-5. It marked the first time that the club was blanked in more than a decade. On November 19 of ’06, Bill Belichick and company came to Green Bay and leveled the Pack, 35-0. In that contest, the team watched starter Brett Favre and reserve Aaron Rodgers combine to complete 9-of-27 passes for 105 yards. The duo was sacked a combined five times.
Rodgers fumbled twice and lost one of those bobbles as the club was humbled at home.
What went wrong on Sunday?
On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers had one of those afternoons similar to the aforementioned loss to the Patriots. McCarthy’s team got a big effort from the defense, limiting Baltimore to 219 total yards, but the Pack managed only 265 total yards on 67 plays, a dismal 4.0 yards per play. Led by ageless outside linebacker Terrell Suggs, the Ravens entered Sunday with 22 sacks in nine games – 5.5 quarterback traps by the 15-year pro. The club had allowed 11 TD passes but have also totaled 13 interceptions, nearly half of those by the combination of cornerback Brandon Carr (3) and safety Eric Weddle (3).
Baltimore left Lambeau Field with 28 sacks and 16 interceptions this season.
Suggs had two of the club’s six quarterback traps while the Ravens picked off Packers’ quarterback Brett Hundley three times and forced him to fumble. All told, Green Bay coughed up the football a total of five times after committing nine turnovers in their first nine contests in 2016.
Where does the Pack go from here?
All told, Sunday’s debacle against the Ravens was the Green Bay Packers’ fourth loss in five games and their third consecutive setback at Lambeau Field, and it was a significant step backwards for Hundley, who looked like he had made strides in the previous two weeks. He finished Sunday afternoon completing 21-of-36 throws for 239 yards, but six sacks and four turnovers added up to the team’s first shutout loss in more than a decade.
Next up this Sunday is a visit to Heinz Field and a primetime showdown vs. the 8-2 Pittsburgh Steelers. It begins a stretch in which the Packers play four of the final six games on the road. This is a club that has now fallen three games behind the Minnesota Vikings and one game behind the Detroit Lions in the NFC North, and this is a club that is not only running out of bodies, but time as well.
