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Pair of disappointments face off as Packers visit Jaguars

Dec 9, 2008 - 3:18 PM Green Bay (5-8) at Jacksonville (4-9) 1:00 pm EST

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Ticker) -- Two of the most disappointing teams in football meet Sunday when the Jacksonville Jaguars host the Green Bay Packers.

Green Bay, which went 13-3 and earned home-field advantage last season, has greatly underachieved despite stellar play from first-year starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers entered the season as a pariah following the trade of future Hall of Famer Brett Favre to the New York Jets in the offseason following an ugly, drawn-out dispute regarding his un-retirement.

Rodgers has held up his end of the bargain in trying to get the Packers back to the playoffs in the face of constant scrutiny.

The 25-year-old signal caller has throw for 3,192 yards with 22 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and his 92.1 quarterback rating is sixth in the NFC among quarterbacks who have started at least 10 games.

Rodgers cannot play defense, though, and that has been the Packers' Achilles heel.

Green Bay allowed quarterback Matt Schaub to throw for a career-high 414 yards in his first game back from injury, and Kris Brown kicked a game-winning 40-yard field goal in a 24-21 loss to Houston last week.

The Packers, who are ranked 21st in defense, are allowing over six points more per game (24.5) than last season (18.2 ppg). They allowed the Texans to rack up 549 total yards en route to their third straight loss.

"The big play's kind of something that's been lingering of late," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said.

The Jaguars entered the season with high hopes as well, having gone 11-5 and losing to New England in the AFC divisional playoffs. They too have fallen flat on their faces with four straight losses, and head coach Jack Del Rio may be on thin ice.

David Garrard has thrown 10 interceptions after throwing all of three picks in 2007-08. Garrard was just 19-of-38 for 178 yards with one touchdown and one interception in a 23-10 loss to Chicago last week.

"I got to be better than that," Garrard said. "You continue to start behind and just putting a lot of pressure on your team."