By Kyle Reilly

AP Photo/Mike Roemer

“The reality is that it’s the third game of the season,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “It was a big game. It’s a great measuring stick for our football team. And I’ll tell [the media] exactly what I told them. The Dallas Cowboys are further ahead than we are right now. That’s the facts and that’s Week Three. How far ahead, time will answer that question.”

With that Coach McCarthy pretty much summed it up perfectly.  The Cowboys looked like the NFC contenders and the Packers looked filled with potential, but not as good a football team.  Talent-wise the Packers have what looks to be every bit as good a team as Dallas, but Sunday night the Cowboys executed plays and the Packers executed themselves.  Problems abound; the defense was gashed for 217 yards rushing, heartbreaking 3rd down and long coverage lapses allowed the Cowboys to retain the ball, and Rodgers was sacked 5 times as the O-line struggled to stop the rush.  Complicating the matter was Al Harris leaving the game, with Atari Bigby already inactive the young corners did well, but not well enough.  Although the corners limited T.O. to just two catches for 17 yards, something called Miles Austin did the sticking with two clutch catches for 115 yards.

Rodgers had a respectable game.  He hit Jennings 8 times for 115 yards.  For the third straight game he didn’t have an INT, but trailing by three scores later in the game the Packers became one dimensional and Rodgers struggled against 6 defensive backs on most plays.

“It’s disappointing,” Rodgers said. “You’d like to win them all, obviously, but Dallas is a very good football team and we unfortunately didn’t play our best. We’re going to have to watch some film, be very critical of ourselves and get better.”

So we are not the greatest team as of yet, and perhaps our young and talented team needs a beat down like this.  Post-season berths are not automatic and no one cares what you did last year.  Mistake free football should be the goal of the next several weeks as that is what it will take should the Packers be lucky enough to play Dallas again.