![]() You just want to be able to make that play to elevate him.” “That energy just spreads throughout this team. “He plays like it’s his last game every single time,” McLaurin said of Heinicke. One of those TD throws was a perfect pass to Terry McLaurin. Heinicke, making his first start of the season in place of injured Carson Wentz, threw for two touchdowns and was 20 of 33 for 200 yards after starting 1 of 7 for 14 yards with the interception. Only a series of penalties on the Commanders (3-4) made the game close in the final minutes. With no blitzing necessary and a basic defensive scheme, Washington’s front four also played a role in frazzling Rodgers and making him look more like a rookie than a 38-year-old four-time NFL MVP. “I don’t think anybody thought we’d be in this spot that we’re in right now.” “Our guys are extremely disappointed,” LaFleur said. It added up to the Packers “losing to teams that we feel like we’re better than,” Jones said, and the losses rarely go like this for a team used to winning. The Packers had no third-down conversions for the first time since 1999 - 370 games ago with Brett Favre at quarterback and before Rodgers graduated high school. ![]() “We didn't run the ball particularly well, didn’t catch it particularly well and I didn’t really move a whole lot to extend plays until that last drive,” Rodgers said. Playing behind a remade offensive line without All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari, Rodgers struggled to find a rhythm, missing wide-open receivers at times and others putting the ball in their hands for ill-timed drops. The negatives outweighed the few positives: a 63-yard pick-6 of Taylor Heinicke by De’Vondre Campbell and two touchdown passes from Rodgers to Aaron Jones - the second of which completed a 75-yard drive aided by Washington penalties that pulled the Packers within two with 3:26 left in the fourth quarter and gave them one final chance to end the skid before falling short. Amari Rodgers continued his struggles returning punts by muffing one that set Washington up in the red zone, and cornerback Eric Stokes was flagged for a costly illegal contact penalty that wiped out a fumble return touchdown and later for unsportsmanlike. Rodgers is right: The problems were not limited to offense. The margin of error is so tight, a couple calls don’t necessarily go our way and we don’t execute at all on offense in certain situations. “There’s probably a number of plays in every phase that we could’ve done better. “We just got to play better - all of us," said Rodgers, who taped his throwing hand at halftime after jamming the thumb on a couple of snaps. Green Bay (3-4) had just 232 total yards of offense to Washington's 364 and lost Allen Lazard to a shoulder injury, making him the team’s third wide receiver to go down during the first losing streak under coach Matt LaFleur. ![]() Nursing a sore thumb and out of sync with receivers, Rodgers was 23 of 35 for 194 yards and the Packers went 0 of 6 on third down. Rodgers and the offense sputtered, penalties piled up at the most inopportune moments and the Packers lost their third game in a row, 23-21 to the Washington Commanders on Sunday for their longest skid since 2018. This is not exactly what the four-time NFL MVP envisioned when he returned for another season in Green Bay. Aaron Rodgers finished the game face down on the turf after sailing a lateral out of bounds on a frantic, failed final play. NFL, Washington Commanders, Green Bay Packers Aaron Rodgers, Packers lose to Commanders, drop 3rd in a row
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