Packers punched and fail to fight back

By Kerry J. Byrne
Cold, Hard Football Facts heavyweight chump
 
The Green Bay Packers lost 19-14 at Kansas City Sunday, ending a history win streak at 19 games – a streak that included three straight playoff road wins and a Super Bowl triumph over perennial AFC power Pittsburgh last season.
 
It’s hard to be overly critical of the defending champs. They’re a 13-1 team; destined for the No. 1 seed in the NFC and still the favorite to win Super Bowl XLVI February in Indianapolis. Those 19 straight wins were the second most in history , behind only the 21 straight the New England Patriots won in 2003-04 (so much for that whole “parity” thing defining the modern game, huh?).
 
But there has been one very big lingering issue with this team, an issue that our own Captain Comeback, Scott Kacsmar, has discussed several times this year: we have no idea if this team can take a punch and fight back.

Captain Comeback has been way ahead of every storyline in quarterbacking this year and caused a mini-internet sh*tstorm by referring to Packers All World QB Aaron Rodgers as the NFL's greatest front runner way back at the start of the season.  
 
If the Kansas City game is any indication, the answers for the Packers (for the time being) are that 1) they cannot take a punch and fight back; and 2) Kacsmar was right and Rodgers remains very good at taking a lead and holding on, but very unproven at snatching out victories like some of the game's other elite QBs.
 
Wilting after a punch
The Chiefs scored field goals on each of their first two drives, while beating up Aaron Rodgers on Green Bay’s first possession: he was 1 for 4 for 5 yards on that drive, while getting sacked and fumbling on a 1st and 10 play. The Pack recovered, but the statement had been made. Meanwhile, the drive should have ended earlier, but was extended when the Chiefs were whistled for roughing Packers punter Tim Masthay.
 
The drive fizzled out when Mason Crosby missed a 59-yard attempt.
 
Kansas City responded with another field goal on their next drive and a 6-0 lead.
 
It appears that’s all it took to take the fight out of the front-running Packers.The Chiefs, who entered the game 4-8, largely dominated the 13-0 Packers all day in all phases of the game. If you were wondering if the Packers can fight back after getting their knees buckled, there was no evidence Sunday that they can.
 
The front-running Rodgers
Kacsmar wrote earlier this year that the Packers have never trailed in the fourth quarter during their long win streak. Of course, the first way of looking at this fact is that Green Bay has been so good that the team has never been forced to come back in the fourth quarter. Not a bad place to be. 
  
The bigger concern is that Rodgers has not been very good in comeback opportunities throughout his career. In fact, Rodgers is now 3-17 during his fourth-quarter comeback opportunities. Captain Comeback Kacsmar has been all over this story since early in the year.
 
None of this means that Packers aren’t still favorites to win it all. None of it means they’re not a great team.
 
But what it does mean is that the Packers have given us little evidence that they can win a street fight. They had an opportunity here in Week 15, against a struggling team that just fired its coach. And they emerged from the alleyway with a couple black eyes and their first loss since their last few fourth-quarter street fights back in 2010.

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Read more: Aaron Rodgers, Captain Comeback, Green Bay Packers, Kansas City Chiefs, Kerry Byrne, Kerry J. Byrne, NFL, Scott Kacsmar