On the wrong end of a final score for the first time this season, the Green Bay Packers' initial loss of 2020 was perhaps a humbling one and, maybe, a proverbial blessing in disguise.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers piled on 38 straight points to throttle the Packers, 38-10, on Sunday, sounding an alarm for Green Bay that this season won't be quite as easy as the first four weeks were.
"You don't ever want to lose like this," Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said, via WKOW 27's Karley Marotta. "I feel like we needed a little bit of wake-up call this season. I think we needed a kick in the ass a little bit to stop feeling ourselves so much."
Through the first quarter of the season, the Packers (4-1) had risen to the top of the NFL hierarchy, the defense doing its part and the offense rolling on high, having scored at least 30 points in each game and 40 or more twice.
Then Sunday afternoon in Tampa rolled around, a season-low 10 points were had and the Packers were left in the wake of a Buccaneers scoring parade.
While Packers coach Matt LaFleur didn't subscribe exactly to Rodgers' theory that the Packers' cheese heads had grown a bit too big or that players had been too loose in drinking in their success, he did point out a pour week of practice as a likely culprit.
"I don't want to say that. I will say that our practice this past week was not up to our standard that these guys have developed over the last year and a half," LaFleur said. "That's what happened today. You practice like crap and then you go out and play like crap."
Regardless of the exact details, it's clear from Rodgers and LaFleur's accounts that the Packers weren't prepared as they should've been and they took one on the chin and now find themselves a half-game behind in NFC North with the Bears (5-1) leading the way.
Up ahead is a Week 7 trip to Houston to play the one-win Texans. An alarm has been sounded, the Packers have arisen from their bye-week slumber and one can only prognosticate a better week of practice and a better showing next game lie ahead.