NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The first bit of fight that the Green Bay Packers showed came midway through the second half on Sunday.

By then, it was too late.

Credit Davante Adams for showing some life after he took offense to a late hit on his quarterback in the third quarter, but it also brought to light exactly the kind of attitude that was nowhere to be seen to that point in Sunday’s 47-25 loss to the Titans.

A week after quarterback Aaron Rodgers ripped the team for having a lack of energy and defensive tackle Mike Daniels went on a postgame expletive-filled tirade in the locker room following the home loss to the Colts, the Packers looked apathetic on a day when many of their fans made Tennessee’s Nissan Stadium look like Lambeau Field South.

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How could coach Mike McCarthy and Rodgers let this happen? Especially after the coach said “that’s not even a concern of mine” and Rodgers promised this past week to “make sure that our guys are ready to play and we’re enthusiastic about it and fired up to be out there.”

At this point, it’s hard to find much the Packers (4-5) can rally around. Maybe they’ll take solace in the Minnesota Vikings’ fourth straight loss and the jumbled NFC North that no one can take control of. The idle Lions moved into a first-place tie with the Vikings at 5-4. But that kind of loser’s mentality can’t erase the showing the Packers put on display and on film for the rest of the NFL on Sunday afternoon.

"I was proud of our preparation; [we] had a great week," Rodgers said. "Ha Ha [Clinton-Dix] had a great speech in the locker room. He’s a great leader for us. We just didn’t execute very well. I think guys were ready to play but it comes down to execution. You can say all the right things and be as prepared as possible, but it comes down to executing when you get out there and we didn’t execute well enough on offense to give us some momentum early."

A woeful start by the Packers’ defense -- the Titans scored touchdowns on their first four possessions and five of the first six in the kind of performance that should put more heat on longtime defensive coordinator Dom Capers -- put Rodgers back in pass, pass, pass mode. It wasn’t until McCarthy reverted to the quick-hit rhythm game in the second quarter that the quarterback got rolling.

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Adams and Jordy Nelson were the beneficiaries, but their stats -- Adams had six catches for a career-high 156 yards (but only one catch in the second half) and Nelson had 12 for 126 and a touchdown -- were once again bloated by the lack of a true running back, even with James Starks (seven carries for 33 yards) back from his knee injury. Rodgers threw it 51 times and was sacked five times. He completed 31 passes for 371 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions for a 79.8 rating before McCarthy let Brett Hundley take the final series.

Maybe it was frustration on Adams’ part, but he did about the only thing worth remembering from this one when he shoved Tennessee’s Perrish Cox after the Titans cornerback drilled Rodgers a few yards into the end zone after his 20-yard scramble for a touchdown in the third quarter. It ignited a mini-melee in the back of the end zone.

What was supposed to be a fresh start to the second half of the season only increased the heat on McCarthy, Rodgers and general manager Ted Thompson in what is in danger of becoming a lost season that won’t get any easier with games at Washington and at Philadelphia next on the schedule.

"We’re 4-5, so everything we want to accomplish big-picture wise is still right there in front of us," McCarthy said. "But the reality is we need to get a little healthier and we’ve got to play better. We’ve got to play better. We’ve got to play better and win the next game."

And McCarthy said that's not about effort or enthusiasm, but rather execution.

"We had too much fight today," he said. "Obviously had 12 penalties, so we knew coming in that this officiating crew was very high as far as conduct, personal conduct, their focus and so forth. We had 12 penalties today and that definitely didn’t help us."