GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Those 50-point outbursts and 30-point blowouts may be a thing of the past without Jordy Nelson, the Green Bay Packers' big-play receiver who was officially lost for the season on Monday due to the fluke knee injury he sustained in Sunday's preseason game at Pittsburgh.
Coach Mike McCarthy's offense will change without Nelson; that much we already have acknowledged.
The Packers might have to grind out more 10-, 12-, 15-play scoring drives without the player who was tied for the NFL lead last season in touchdown catches of 40 yards or more with seven and was a major reason coach Mike McCarthy's team led the NFL in scoring and ranked third in point differential.
But barring another major injury to one of their key playmakers, the Packers' offense remains good enough to get this team to -- and even win -- a Super Bowl.
Even the oddsmakers still believe in the Packers, although understandably not quite as much. The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook had the Packers as the co-favorites (with the Seattle Seahawks) to win the Super Bowl at 9-2 odds before Nelson's injury. After it, SuperBook oddsmaker Ed Salmons lengthened Green Bay's odds to 6-1. The Packers' season win total also was adjusted from 11 minus-110 under to 11 minus-150 under.
Don't forget, the Packers won the NFC North in 2013 without quarterback Aaron Rodgers for nearly eight full games because of his broken collarbone. Sure, the division might be better now than it was when they won it at 8-7-1 then, but the Packers have been division champs every year since 2011 and a playoff team every year since 2009. Only the Packers and Patriots have been to the postseason the past six years in a row.
In the Packers' Super Bowl season of 2010, they had a whopping 15 players on injured reserve.
To be sure, what matters more is who's on IR rather than how many, and the Packers' margin for error has been reduced without Nelson. But McCarthy, associate head coach Tom Clements and the rest of the offensive staff have the experience and pieces to adjust.
With Nelson, they had 11 starters back on offense. The other 10 aren’t bad, though.
Running back Eddie Lacy has proved he can handle a significant workload; he's missed only one start in his two-year career. Randall Cobb nearly matched Nelson catch for catch (91 to Nelson's 98) and touchdown for touchdown (12 to Nelson's 13) last season. The coaches and the quarterback both love young receiver Davante Adams and have pointed to tight end Richard Rodgers' offseason improvement.
Defensively, Dom Capers' unit probably can't afford to finish 23rd in rushing defense like it did last season, but it played perhaps its best game of the season -- for 55 minutes anyway -- in the NFC Championship Game loss at Seattle in January.
Fast-forward to Week 2, when the Seahawks come to Lambeau Field. If the Packers beat the defending NFC champs, there's no reason to think -- even without Nelson -- that they can't keep things rolling.