Assessing Blame for the 5 Green Bay Packers Most Responsible for Loss

Self-reflection can sometimes be the best medicine for what's ailing a football team. With the Green Bay Packers falling for the first time this season on Sunday to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Packers now get a genuine opportunity to fix what's wrong.

The most obvious place to start? Sunday's disaster. 

In the aftermath of the Packers' first loss of the 2011 season, the following players and coaches (in no particular order) receive the most blame for the defeat:

Mike McCarthy

The biggest gripe on McCarthy from Sunday was his failure to challenge a play that likely would have given the Packers the ball after a long pass play from Kyle Orton to Leonard Pope. The resulting fumble through the side of the end zone would have taken three points off the board for Kansas City. He also handed the ball to John Kuhn on a 3rd-and-1 play where everyone in the stadium knew who it was going to.

Marshall Newhouse

Tamba Hali gave Newhouse troubles all afternoon long. Without consistent protection, quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered through his worst game of 2011. This was a tough matchup for the second-year pro, but the Packers need him to play better down the stretch.

Jermichael Finley

Finley continued his recent run of drops Sunday with four passes (two which were admittedly tough catches) that clanked off his hands. By now, this is solely a mental problem for Finley. He's pressing in a contract year, and everyone clamoring for him to replace Greg Jennings on Sunday probably didn't help.

Dom Capers

The Chiefs were one step ahead of Capers throughout Sunday's game. The game plan from Kansas City was solid; safe throws from Orton to prevent the possibility of a game-changing turnover with runs on early downs to set up short third downs.

The screen game really took the Packers out of their blitz packages, then Orton cut up the mostly zone defense he saw in the second half. Capers never made the right adjustments to get the Packers off the field defensively.  

Jordy Nelson

Maybe it was unrealistic to expect Nelson to replace Jennings' production, but it was obvious Sunday that taking away the Packers No. 1 receiver had a trickle down effect to the rest of the receivers. Nelson caught just two passes for 29 yards and also had two offensive pass interference penalties.