Packers running back Alex Green rushed for 30 yards on 10 carries Sunday. The offense needs him or James Starks to get going. Credit: Mark Hoffman

East Rutherford, N.J. - Always trust the guy in the mustache. Aaron Rodgers knows what's coming.

Two deep safeties. Zero blitzing. A defense inviting, begging, pleading, the Green Bay Packers to run the football. No, Rodgers was not exactly unloading trade secrets at the podium Sunday night after his team's humiliating 38-10 loss to the New York Giants.

"Teams are going to play us like this," Rodgers said, "so we're going to have to have answers and execute better than we've done most of the season."

Got that right. For Green Bay, every route to New Orleans leads to the same detour. The Packers must, somehow, solve the riddle that is a Cover-2 defense. Inferior defenses, like Detroit, have frustrated Rodgers. And superior defenses, like New York, have shut him down. The big play is eliminated. For stretches, Green Bay's receiving corps has been quarantined to a finite amount of space.

But hang on. There is a solution, a way out.

"You have to run the ball effectively," Rodgers said. "You have to throw at a high percentage."

Emphasis on "run the ball."

With five games to go, the Packers still have given teams no reason to trash their Cover-2 blueprint. Some games, coach Mike McCarthy has been reluctant to embrace the run. At Indianapolis, the Packers threw seven times in a row to start the second half and a 21-3 lead vanished. Some games, McCarthy has defied his pass-first, spread-'em-out background in favor of the run . . . to no avail.

Sunday's loss at MetLife Stadium was the breaking point. The Giants sat back, generated pressure with their front four and Rodgers was smothered.

In an instant 31-10 hole, the Packers didn't have time to get a ground game going. Nor was it respected. James Starks rushed for 35 yards on eight carries. Alex Green had 30 on 10 carries.

Not very frightening.

"At times (Sunday), we ran it pretty well," offensive coordinator Tom Clements said. "I thought Alex Green ran well. Unfortunately, we had some gains nullified by holding penalties, which were kind of thin calls, really. That impacted it a little bit. And we obviously fell behind by a large margin.

"You don't want to abandon the run entirely, but it's hard to really focus on it when you're behind as much as we were."

There should be genuine concern. The Packer offensive line isn't built to mash a defense for 25, 30 rushing attempts per game. It's an athletic group, not a bruising one. Swapping Scott Wells for Jeff Saturday was a downgrade in the run game. And T.J. Lang - the one player who rightfully lobbied for the run earlier this season - is now playing right tackle.

Does Green Bay have the personnel and experience to emulate a San Francisco? Not a chance. But in Starks, maybe there is some hope.

A non-factor half the season, he's starting to catch on. Starks can take a pounding. At Detroit, 44 of his 75 yards came after contact. He's been in this situation before, too. In 2010, Starks was the variable that suddenly diversified Green Bay's offense.

McCarthy says he wants a balance between Starks and Green. That's fine. But by the postseason, he probably wouldn't mind seeing Starks doing exactly what he did two years ago - heating up, carrying the ball 20-plus times a game.

The Packers haven't had a 100-yard rusher in 38 games.

Running the ball well, once and for all, would be one heck of an antibiotic for this offense.

The team's pass protection, fragile of late, catches a break. Opposing defenses would have to think twice about being so passive, possibly creeping a safety into the box and allowing Rodgers to strike.

And maybe, just maybe, the Packers would become a more physical team in the process. New York reminded Green Bay precisely where it must improve, where urgency is highest.

"They were more physical than we were, and that's something we need to look at," McCarthy said Sunday night. "It's one game, and it's a bell we'll have to answer."

Inside the locker room after Sunday's game, defensive end B.J. Raji said "We got out butts whupped" and right guard Josh Sitton said the Giants "kicked our (expletive)." At one locker, Erik Walden nursed a bloody finger. And on the way out, Ryan Pickett walked with a slight hitch.

For Green Bay, opposing locker rooms haven't looked or sounded anything like this.

A run game is needed.

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