GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Don't tell Aaron Rodgers that the loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday was a sign that everyone has the Green Bay Packers offense figured out.
The Packers, who were the first team in NFL history to score 150-plus points without a turnover in the first four games of a season, fell flat in their 38-10 loss that featured -- among other things -- a rare mistake by Rodgers, who threw just the third pick-6 of his entire career.
"So because of one game, what is it that you're implying?" Rodgers asked Wednesday during his Zoom session with reporters.
That the Bucs showed a way to figure out the Packers' offense.
To which Rodgers replied: "One out of five."
And with that, it was on to the next question.
There were reasons to wonder, however, if the Packers' high-powered offense had hit a snag.
Take the pick-six, for example.
Bucs cornerback Jamel Dean said after his 32-yard interception return for a touchdown, which came with the Packers leading 10-0, that he knew what was coming "when I saw the formation and I'd seen how everything started to develop, I'm like, 'I have to make this play because I know something's coming."
Davante Adams, the target of that pass, wasn't buying it.
"That's just something that DBs like to say to make it seem like they're more of a student of the game than what they are," Adams said Wednesday. "At the end of the day, whether or not, I mean, nobody knows but him. But, I mean I think it was more so the coverage and the situation than anything. But saying that you knew based off of formation, all that makes you sound smarter, so, I think that's just why you go with that."
A recurring theme since the game has been the poor week of practice Rodgers and coach Matt LaFleur have lamented. When they returned to the practice field Wednesday, they did so with an injury report that listed 13 players. That prompted LaFleur to shorten practice and approach the first part of the preparation for Sunday's game at Houston with more of an "above-the-neck type practice."
Perhaps the most troubling injury could directly impact Rodgers' ability to bounce back from the second-lowest passer rating game of his career as a starter (in a game in which he didn't leave because of an injury), and it's his blind-side protector. All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari left Sunday's loss in the third quarter because of a chest/rib injury. Rick Wagner finished the game in Bakhtiari's place, but LaFleur wouldn't commit to Wagner as a full-time replacement for however long Bakhtiari is out. The Packers earlier this season moved left guard Elton Jenkins to right tackle, so he's a possible option at left tackle against the Texans, too.
Either way, there will be a lot of eyes on the Packers' offense this week.
Texans interim coach Romeo Crennel said he told his team Sunday's dud against the Bucs was not the norm for Rodgers & Co.
"You have to tell your team that basically that was a fluke because when you look at what they've done to that point, they're putting a lot of points on the board, they're winning easily," Crennel said.
As for Rodgers, he wasn't interested in riding the week-to-week ups and downs of their performance.
"We can't ride this roller coaster of feeling ourselves and reading all the clippings if it's going great and then down in the dumps and not reading anything and feeling sorry for ourselves when we get beat like that," Rodgers said. "You have to get off the surf board and get off that wave because this is a long season and you have to find the process of preparation that works for you and move forward. With all due respect, I'm just not going to go down that hypothetical route because it's not the way I believe."