GREEN BAY — Maybe we have to at least start considering the possibility that the Green Bay Packers are simply not going to be a very good football team this season. 

There’s a lot of ballgame left, of course, and a lot of time to turn things around. But one thing is certain: They were not a very good football team on Thursday night, losing their home opener at Lambeau Field to the visiting Atlanta Falcons, 35-14.

Their defense missed tackle after tackle after tackle on Falcons running back Bijan Robinson. Their patchwork offensive line let quarterback Jordan Love get smacked around once again. Their special teams got a field goal blocked. Their defensive backfield got confused pre-snap on an easy Michael Penix-to-Austin Hooper touchdown pass. Their offense went three-and-out four times in the first half alone and looked out of sync all night long.

As a result, the Packers find themselves at 1-2 — and basically a New York Jets collapse away from being winless. The Falcons (1-2) not only were winless coming into the night, but they hadn’t run a single offensive play from inside their opponents’ red zone in two games. That changed during their second offensive possession of the night.

The 1-2 start marks the first time under head coach Matt LaFLeur that the Packers started a season with two losses in the first three weeks, and the first time overall since the 2014 team started 1-2. That team, of course, went on to finish 12-4 and reach the NFC Championship Game.

Here are three aspects of the Packers’ 35-14 loss to the Falcons that stood out:

1️⃣ There were lots of really good offensive linemen on the field on Thursday night. Unfortunately for the Packers, they were all retired guys who were on hand for alumni day and were introduced at halftime.

Adam Timmerman. Marco Rivera. Earl Dotson. Frank Winters. Aaron Taylor. Jeff Dellenbach. One by one their names were called, and they stepped forward from the goal line and waved. If they weren’t all in their 50s, the Packers could have asked them to suit up in the third quarter.

OK, maybe that’s a bit hyperbolic. But the way the current group of twentysomethings up front is playing, it would have been hard to tell the difference.

With right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele done for the year with a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee and left guard Aaron Banks inactive with a toe injury (in addition to his nagging tendinitis in his left knee, the Packers started Jordan Morgan at left tackle, rookie Jager Burton at left guard, Sean Rhyan at center, Jacob Monk at right guard and Anthony Belton at right tackle.

Burton got off to a rocky start with a false start penalty on a fourth-down play on the Packers’ opening series, and he had other protection mistakes later on. Monk and Belton seemed to struggle for much of the night, too. It also looked like Belton was to blame when the Falcons blocked a 47-yard Trey Smack field-goal attempt.

2️⃣ Two games in, it seemed like the Packers defense might be good enough — even without star edge rusher Micah Parsons — to carry the offense while it figured out how to protect Love. Apparently, that was fools’ gold.

New defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon was asked on Tuesday how he felt about his unit’s strong start to his tenure.

“We’ve got to play better in the red zone, play better on third down and keep the score down,” Gannon replied. “That’s where my mind’s at right now.”

Turns out, he was right. For all the good his crew had done in the first two games — including the opener at Minnesota when late touchdowns on short fields skewed the final score — Gannon’s group looked nothing like it had in two road games to start the year.

There were countless missed tackles on Robinson, leading to a night on which they allowed an astounding 244 rushing yards — only slightly less embarrassing than when last year’s defense gave up 307 yards to the visiting Baltimore Ravens.

Robinson finished the night with 194 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries and the Falcons piled up 500 total yards as a team. Their back-breaking fourth-quarter touchdown drive (with a successful 2-point conversion to boot) covered 67 yards and looked ridiculously easy.

3️⃣ If LaFleur thought his team’s offensive numbers were bad — he specifically called the third-down conversion rate of 19.05% “disgusting” on Tuesday — then the offense’s performance must’ve really made him sick to his stomach.

Even with some garbage-time yardage that they racked up on their final possession, the Packers offense finished the night having failed to reverse their early-season trend lines.

The Packers were 6 for 15 on third downs (40%). They amassed only 328 net yards. Their running backs carried the ball a combined eight times for 17 yards. Love completed 28 of 53 passes for 312 yards with two touchdowns and a late interception for a passer rating of 75.4.

“Every week,” LaFleur said at halftime on Amazon Prime, “it’s the same old issues.”

Yes, yes it is.

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