5 takeaways from Packers’ miserable 5-game losing streak

The Green Bay Packers hit rock bottom on Sunday when they lost to the 1-6 Detroit Lions, marking their fifth straight loss on the season.

Green Bay has continued to make the same mistakes over and over again. They never fully commit to Aaron Jones (just 11 touches before he left the game in the third quarter), they lose the turnover battle (they’ve only forced more turnovers than their opponents in one game this season) and they lose must-win games.

It’s like we’ve been stuck in a time loop since Week 5 when the streak started with a loss against the New York Giants. Every week since, the Packers have talked about the importance of getting on the right track and how the game ahead of them was a get-right game. Only, they’ve never actually gotten right.

Here are four more takeaways from this nasty losing streak.

Here are five primary takeaways from the Green Bay Packers’ terrible, horrible, no-good very bad five-game losing streak.

2. Travel weary

The players will never mention it, but I wonder if they are travel weary. They’ve essentially been on the road for a month straight and have played in five different stadiums over the last five games.

It began with a cross-globe road trip to face the Giants in London on October 9th, followed by a game in Green Bay on October 16th, to Washington, DC on October 23rd, Buffalo on October 30th and finally Detroit on November 6th. They’ll stay home for the next two weeks, but that’s a lot of traveling for any team to handle.

3. Turnovers hurt

The Packers continue to put the ball in the other team’s hands. Green Bay has had at least one turnover in all but one game this season–the opposite of what made them so successful in the past. They rank 21st in giveaways per game at 1.4 and 29th in turnover margin per game at -0.9. Furthermore, their giveaways seem to come at the worst times like in the red zone or when they finally have some momentum.

4. Red zone offense

Speaking of the red zone, this team has plummeted from their days of being an automatic touchdown once they get inside the 20. They are now fortunate if they even put points on the board at all.

First off, they rarely get there–averaging fewer than three red zone trips per game (21st in the NFL). When they do, it’s not very good. They only score touchdowns on half of their red zone trips, ranking 23rd in the league. They lack creativity and execution close to the goal line and seem intent on making life as difficult as possible.

5. Season’s over

I don’t mean to be that guy, but the Packers’ season is over. They are 4.5 games behind the Minnesota Vikings in the division and 1.5 games behind the San Francisco 49ers for the final wild-card spot.

That may not seem horrible, but Green Bay just got through the easy part of their schedule. They still have to face the Dallas Cowboys (6-2), Tennessee Titans (5-3), Philadelphia Eagles (8-0), Miami Dolphins (6-3), and Minnesota Vikings (7-1). This will likely be a double-digit loss season for the green and gold.