Packers' win streak over with loss to Bills

The Packers have had a lot of home games lately, so we’ve gotten used to seeing Aaron Rodgers play just about perfect football.

The Packers, however, are not the same team on the road. And now, they’re in danger of having to go on the road in the playoffs.

Green Bay dropped a low-scoring 21-13 game to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. The Packers’ offense just never showed up. That’s a big result for the NFC playoff picture, and in particular for whoever wins the NFC West. The 11-3 Arizona Cardinals have a one-game lead over the Packers now. The Seahawks were alive for the No. 1 seed, but they had to win out and take the division title from Arizona, and have the Packers take a loss. They got that Packers loss.

The Packers don’t have an inside track for the No. 1 seed anymore, because of a poor offensive game against a pretty good Bills defense (don’t forget, Peyton Manning didn’t throw a touchdown pass against them last week, either).

Rodgers was uncharacteristically off. Dropped passes didn’t help. Green Bay had six of them. The worst one came in the third quarter when the normally reliable Jordy Nelson just dropped what would have been a 94-yard touchdown. That’s the kind of day it was.

A long Nelson touchdown would have made Rodgers’ numbers look better, and the Packers might have won. But Rodgers didn’t play well. He was 17-of-42 yards for 185 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. It was shocking to see him be off, considering how good he had been. And given one final shot, deep in Green Bay territory trailing 19-13 just inside of the two-minute warning, Rodgers was stripped of the ball by defensive end Mario Williams and the Bills had a game-clinching safety. With Tom Brady and J.J. Watt playing well in Sunday victories on Sunday as MVP voting nears, maybe Rodgers cost himself in that race too.

The road for the Packers gets tougher now. The NFC North race isn’t over, although it would likely take the Lions winning at Lambeau Field in Week 17 to put the Packers into the wild-card race. But given how well the Packers have played, the NFC North wasn’t the goal. Winning the NFC and the Super Bowl was. And if the Packers have to go on the road, especially to Seattle (we all remember the Thursday night season opener), it is a much bigger challenge than doing it from home, where they seem unbeatable.

That cheer you heard? It came from Arizona and Seattle. Whoever wins the division among them might not have to go freeze in Wisconsin in January.