Pack falls to 1-6 with 21-14 loss to Bengals

CINCINNATI — Now it’s probably just a matter of how far the Green Bay Packers’ season unravels. Their 21-14 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium had its own unusual, even bizarre finish with a fan running on the field to cut off a crucial play in the game’s final seconds.

But in most ways it bore the mark of several other Packers losses in this fading season.
As they did in a defeats at Carolina and Minnesota, the undermanned Packers had little running game to speak of and a defense that played at least one bad half, but they were still in the game coming down to the final possession. As in those games, the Packers made a gallant last-ditch comeback, but as happens to teams that don’t quite measure up, they’d sprung too many leaks in too many places to actually pull out the win, or at least the tie on this day, on the game’s final possession.

“A lot of almosts,” coach Mike Sherman said. “This has been the almost season.”
The Packers dropped to 1-6, which in the incomparably bad NFC North Division doesn’t in and of itself knock a team out of playoff contention. The Packers are only three games out of first place after Chicago took over the top spot at 4-3 with an overtime win over Detroit, who now is in second at 3-4.

But in reality, the Packers are simply trying to avoid completely falling apart. Coming into the season, they weren’t the team they’d been the past several years, but now they’re not even a shell of the club that closed training camp in early September. Season-ending injuries to Javon Walker, Ahman Green, Najeh Davenport and Terrence Murphy have seen to that.

“(Sunday’s loss) had nothing to do with injuries,” Sherman said. “We turned the ball over too many times, didn’t get off the field on third down in the first half. It’s that simple.”

So less than halfway through the NFL’s 16-game marathon regular season, the Packers are playing for pride. Some players still were talking as if the playoffs were realistic, though whether that’s out of habit or genuine hope is another matter.

“We still play for (the playoffs),” linebacker Nick Barnett said. “We’re not far out of it. You never know what’s going to happen. If anything, play for yourselves, play for your team. That’s where our hopes are, that we’re playing for the playoffs, but before you play for the playoffs, you still have to play for your team.”

At 1-6, though, it’s getting hard for anyone in the organization to keep up pretenses.
“All I’m concerned about is trying to get this team another win,” Favre said.

Sunday at least offered one of the more bizarre endings to a Packers game in the last decade. Favre, despite the five interceptions, actually was poised for a possible repeat of his first great moment in the NFL. His first meaningful playing time in the NFL came against these same Bengals in the third game of the 1992 season, when after replacing injured Don Majkowski he brought the Packers back for a stunning 24-23 win at Lambeau Field by leading a final-minute touchdown drive.

On Sunday he pulled the Packers to within a touchdown with 3 minutes, 11 seconds left, then got the ball back with 56 seconds remaining at his own 10, which quickly became the 5 because of a Chad Clifton penalty. With the help of what appeared to be a gift 48-yard interference call, Favre had the Packers at Cincinnati’s 28 with 23 seconds to play.

But just as he took the snap on a no-huddle call, the officials stopped play because a fan had jumped the fence and run onto the field. He even took the ball from Favre, who didn’t see him.
The Bengals rested and set their defense as security chased down and then arrested the man. Defensive end Duane Clemons then sacked Favre on the next play.

“That play might have put us in the end zone, who knows?” receiver Donald Driver said.

Cincinnati linebacker Brian Simmons said the fan’s actions allowed the Bengals valuable time to collect their thoughts at a critical stage of the game.

“They were in a hurry-up, and that did slow it down and give us a chance to huddle, and we kind of came together as a defense,” Simmons said.

When Favre got the team lined up, he faked a clock-stopping spike to set up the final play and instead tried to catch Cincinnati flat footed. He dodged a pass rusher but then couldn’t find a receiver, and time ran out as he crossed the line of scrimmage and threw an underhand pass to Franks.

Thus ended a game in which the Packers actually outgained the Bengals 353 yards to 317 even though they had little to speak of for a running game with Tony Fisher, Reshard Lee and even newly activated Samkon Gado at halfback. Fisher averaged only 3.0 yards on 17 carries in the Packers’ pass-heavy offense, which saw Favre throw 35 passes.

Favre’s five interceptions was the second-most of his career, behind only the six interceptions he threw in the Packers’ playoff loss at St. Louis in the 2001 season.

“Early in my career we were able to overcome a bad play, a careless play,” Favre said. “But now I can’t afford to waste one play. Like the one I throw to Fish and the guy hits me in the leg, I thought it was going to be a hell of a play. I said, ‘If I ‘m going to get drilled like this, this is going to be a hell of a play to capitalize on.’”
source: www.packersnews.com