The defense forced four straight Washington punts in the second half, but that only made the slow start seem worse because it might have been avoided.

"We just came out and laid an egg in the first half," Matthews said. "It’s kind of like (McCarthy) said, it’s the fundamentals. Strictly speaking on behalf of the defense, it’s the missed tackles, the missed assignments. It’s them making more plays than we did. Obviously, we came out in the second half, and you’ve got the stats as far as what we were able to do on how many third downs and keeping them off the board until the very end, but we dug ourselves in too deep."

The Packers offense drove 75 yards for a touchdown to start the second half and closed the gap to 28-17, then spent the rest of the game squandering opportunities to get closer. Between penalties, dropped passes and sacks, their drives stalled every time.

Wide receiver Randall Cobb and tight end Lance Kendricks ended drives with dropped passes. Later, Cobb had the ball ripped out of his hands after a catch, a fumble that cost Green Bay another opportunity.

Cobb also dropped a third-down pass on the Packers' opening drive of the game, but he was in no mood to use the wet conditions as an excuse.