So, what’s the deal with Green Bay?

After Sunday’s home loss to the Indianapolis Colts, a bewildering 31-26 stumble as seven-point favorites at Lambeau Field, the one thing that’s become clear through nine weeks is that the Packers are absolutely not a great football team. They might be good; there’s still time to turn things around. They might just be average, though it’s hard to evaluate with so many key players injured. They’re not bad, especially given the diluted talent across the NFL. But not being bad has never been the expectation for general manager Ted Thompson, head coach Mike McCarthy and the rest of Cheesehead Nation.

Each week, there’s something different that’s disjointed, deficient and sloppy. If it’s not Aaron Rodgers’ quarterbacking – and this week, it wasn’t – or the offense’s underproduction, it’s the depleted defense getting exposed or the special teams groups failing to execute.

Against the Colts, the offense started slow – by the time it really got going, it was too little and too late – the defense allowed at least 30 points for the second straight game and the kickoff coverage unit gave up a 99-yard touchdown on the first play and a 61-yard return in the second quarter.

Last week’s loss to the first-place Falcons in Atlanta was a semi-encouraging performance after a convincing 26-10 home win over the Bears. But, as has been the case for all of this up-and-down season, the Packers did not continue that strong play, with another erratic outing that’s become the norm for 2016. Green Bay has not developed any sort of rhythm or consistency –a Week 1 win at Jacksonville was followed by a Week 2 loss at Minnesota; after two home wins against average Lions and Giants teams, the Packers were overwhelmed at Lambeau by the Cowboys; then came the victory over Chicago, the one-point defeat in Atlanta and Sunday’s fart against Indianapolis.

What then to make of this squad and this season? "I’m disappointed," McCarthy said after the game. "I’m irritated with the fact we were not sharp as a football team. We need to play better than that." But halfway through the year – with a 4-4 record that has them in third place in the NFC North division and tied for eighth place in the conference, which would keep them out of the playoffs – there’s been no evidence so far to support a sentiment that the Packers are capable of playing better than that.

Green Bay came out looking lethargic against Indianapolis, with the Colts’ kickoff returns and the Packers’ lifelessness combining for a 24-10 halftime deficit. It’d be easy to say the Packers didn’t start with enough effort, as Rodgers suggested afterward, but it’s becoming more evident that due to injuries and inability, it might just be that this is no longer a very good team.

"I have no idea, I don’t understand it. This is what we get paid to do, is to bring it every week," Rodgers said of the lack of energy. "I don’t know what the lack of juice was; you kind of felt it over the entire sideline – we didn’t have the same kind of enthusiasm and encouragement that we had the previous two weeks. So we’ve got to look deep in the mirror there, because that’s just not acceptable."

It’s a different problem each week, which would seem to indicate a larger, more institutional failure, rather than the breakdown of one specific area of the game, or position group, or player every game. The Packers looked bad in an ugly game against a mediocre opponent. There’s been some silver lining talk, particularly of social media, about Green Bay just needing to get healthy and then, as they did in 2010, to get hot at "the right time," whatever that means and as though it’s entirely in their control when they can flip the light switch on and magically start playing better.

It’s important to remember, despite the similarities in injuries and record to this year, that Super Bowl team never lost any of its six games by more than four points during the regular season. This squad has already lost twice by at least that margin in half the number of games.

Here's everything you need to know, or just forgot, or missed because you got mad and stopped watching, plus all kinds of other wacky whatnots, from the Packers' Week 9 loss to the Colts on Sunday.

Who starred?

This is good; let’s start with something positive. Safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix made all the big plays for the Packers defense – their only big plays, in fact. He had two interceptions of Andrew Luck in the first quarter and got his first sack of the season in the second quarter, becoming the first Packers player since Charles Woodson in 2009 to register two picks and a sack in a game. Afterward, McCarthy called Clinton-Dix "an excellent player" and noted his takeaways "definitely were big momentum potential swings for us."

Unfortunately, though, on third-and-10 late in the fourth quarter, when the Packers crucially needed a stop, Clinton-Dix had a chance to sack Luck – even had both his hands on the quarterback – but couldn’t bring him down. Luck completed a 20-yard pass and the Colts’ game-ending drive continued. Honorable mention star was Rodgers, who completed 60 percent of his passes for 297 yards, with three touchdowns and one interception for a 94.8 rating.

Who stunk?

The defensive front seven. With a still banged-up secondary, the Packers’ comparatively healthy group of defensive linemen and linebackers did not play nearly well enough. The Colts’ offensive line, which entered the game having allowed a league-high 31 sacks, kept Green Bay’s pass rush at bay and made its front seven look feeble on running back Frank Gore’s two very easy rushing touchdowns inside the 10-yard line. Linebacker Jake Ryan was all over the field Sunday – finishing with 12 tackles, including one for loss, a quarterback hit and a pass defensed – but the others didn’t show up.

Mike Daniels, Mike Pennel, Datone Jones and Julius Peppers were nonfactors; Letroy Guion couldn’t penetrate and disrupt the Colts’ backfield; Blake Martinez and Joe Thomas looked overmatched. Nick Perry got a little bit of pressure, but not enough. The run defense only allowed 85 yards (and a 3.0 average), but the entire unit lacked urgency and opportunism and didn’t make the stops it had to make.

Unsung hero

The Lambeau squirrel that made its initial appearance on the field in the first half, then returned in the third quarter made for a fun sideshow during a poor game. In the third quarter, the squirrel darted along the goal line, forcing the referees to call an official timeout, before the animal went out of bounds. Green Bay then kicked a field goal to get within 24-13. Perhaps if the Packers had had the squirrel’s energy and tenacity, they’d have won the game.

McCarthy score

(Mike McCarthy isn’t renowned for his play-calling, having fired and then rehired himself for that role last year, but he does try his best. Here we rate his coaching performance, on a score from one to 10 McCarthy heads.)

At this point, it’s a worthwhile thought experiment for Packers fans to wonder if more of the blame for the team’s average season lies with the front office, coaches or players. Thompson constructed a roster that’s been disproportionately damaged by injuries but also an apparent lack of foresight; McCarthy is at the helm of a staff that has not sufficiently prepared its team in all three major areas of the game; and the players are not performing at the level expected of a squad picked by many to be in the Super Bowl.

The offense looked good, but a few of McCarthy’s common questionable decisions were on display again Sunday: He ran the same unsuccessful play twice in a row in the first half, elected not to go for two in the second half when the Packers had momentum and needed points, and his clock management was head-scratching at times. A 53-man football team put together by Thompson and also coached by a dozen assistants makes it hard to pin these losses completely on McCarthy, but there’s a disconnect – in energy, efficiency and decision-making – between scheme and execution, and the results are demonstrating it’s a problem. Five heads.

Two-word reaction

Uh oh.

Dumb #hottake

The Packers, who are now 3-2 at home and no longer have a Lambeau Field advantage, will get things figured out on the road and return to Green Bay on Dec. 4 ready to dominate again.

Good quotes

"We have to come out firing earlier. We can’t sit back and expect a team like that to lie down for us and then come out with all the energy in the world in the fourth quarter because it’s not going to be enough." – wide receiver Davante Adams

"It’s all good in the fourth quarter scoring that many points and making a comeback. But we need to play with that energy from the get-go and put points up and sustain drives, and find ways to win these games. That’s two weeks in a row now where we’re losing by a score. We need to find ways to close these things out." – right tackle Bryan Bulaga

Best photo

Encouraging thing

The Packers are getting healthier, and they finished the game against the Colts relatively unscathed. Defensive back Micah Hyde left with a shoulder injury, but that was the only one the Packers announced. Ty Montgomery returned and played well out of the backfield, carrying three times for 53 yards and catching three passes for 38. Randall Cobb also was activated, though his role was limited as he continues to recover from his hamstring injury. Damarious Randall and James Starks should return soon, though Clay Matthews reportedly suffered a hamstring setback. Also, the Lions beat the Vikings, so Green Bay is still very much in contention for the uninspired division's title; that's as encouraging as it gets right now.

Alarming thing

The fact that, this week, it was special teams’ turn to underperform after being mostly competent all year is troubling. Allowing a 99-yard touchdown on the opening kickoff, especially at home, is never acceptable. Then allowing Jordan Todman a 61-yard return one quarter later represents a real issue in coverage. Mason Crosby missed a 48-yard field goal, only his second miss of the season. And Montgomery, Trevor Davis and the blockers didn’t give the Packers much at all in their own return game. Will special teams coach Ron Zook be a sacrificial lamb?

Looking ahead

On Sunday at noon in Tennessee (FOX), Green Bay faces the Titans (4-5), who are themselves a very flawed team. The Packers open the week as 1-point favorites. It will be a matchup of Green Bay’s No. 1 run defense against Tennessee’s No. 2 rushing offense. Rodgers has not lost three consecutive starts since 2009; he’s dropped the last two this season and has never won in Nashville, where he last played and was defeated in 2008.