The roughing-the-passer penalties remain a conundrum as well. Clay Matthews was called for his third in three weeks, this time when he sacked Washington QB Alex Smith head-on with what looked like a clean form tackle.

During the game, the NFL's league office tweeted that the roughing call was correct, saying Matthews landed with his body weight on Smith, but the Packers are already clearly tired of going back-and-forth with the league on this.

"I think Clay did what he's supposed to do there," McCarthy said. "How it's being officiated are questions for other people. He hit him with his shoulder, he's coming full speed off the block, he braced himself. I was fine with what Clay did."

Rodgers simply said, "That's for the league to decide," and he suspected the NFL would again "double down" on confirming Matthews' infraction.

After one of the four sacks he took, Rodgers could be heard in the stadium press box (because referee Craig Wrolstad left his microphone on during the TV timeout) asking whether Wrolstad thought Daron Payne slammed Rodgers down on his head. No call was made.

"He said he couldn't see through the 14 guys, something to that effect," Rodgers said.

So that's all clear as mud.

In the end, it's probably the sluggish starts that's most important for the Packers to get a handle on, because three-score deficits early in games is no way to live.

It wasn't a problem in Week 2 vs. Minnesota. After three strong quarters, Green Bay needed to cash in on just one of many opportunities to put the game away late, which would have avoided overtime and ultimately the tie.

That didn't work out the way the Packers had hoped, but odds are it's a better formula than how the other two games have gone.

"We need to start a little faster," Rodgers said. "We haven't been starting fast in games, double-digit deficits.

"We have to play better in the first quarter so we don't have to do something heroic in the fourth quarter."