TAMPA – It was about as unhappy as Head Coach Matt LaFleur and quarterback Jordan Love have been at the postgame podium following a victory.
The likely season-ending injury to defensive star Edgerrin Cooper was certainly on their minds in the wake of the 17-14 decision over the Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday.
But so was another performance filled with self-inflicted mistakes in the form of penalties, dropped passes and turnovers that nearly cost the Packers a win against a winless team.
"I feel like we played better," Love said, which was true as it relates to his pass protection. "We put some good drives together, the run game had some good plays there, some explosive plays.
"There's still so much we can clean up, though. A lot of stuff we control. We're hurting ourselves right now."
Love had played a very solid game until a late interception thwarted the Packers' last chance to put the game away offensively.
The miscues leading up to that remain of greater concern, because they're many of the same ones the Packers committed in the season's first three games.
"We've got to finish plays," LaFleur said. "We had a couple drops that were in critical situations on third down that would've been huge plays that we didn't convert. There's plenty of stuff to look at and we have to get better and we have to get better in a hurry."
If there's an area trying the head coach's patience the most, it's ball security. In a span of four plays early in the fourth quarter with the Packers driving to take a two-score lead, the Packers fumbled twice.
Running back MarShawn Lloyd lost the ball after getting into the red zone, but it fortunately rolled out of bounds. Then three snaps later, on first-and-goal from the 3, running back Kaleb Johnson coughed it up and the Bucs recovered.
Asked how to get that corrected, LaFleur replied in a way he hasn't over his nine seasons as head coach.
"Well, I think a great teacher's the bench," he said. "If guys don't start holding onto the ball, they're going to be sitting on the bench."
The Packers are already thin in the backfield with Josh Jacobs on the commissioner's exempt list and Chris Brooks leaving this game with an ankle injury. So how the coaches go forward remains to be seen.
But whatever the solution, the frustration was audible as well as understandable given how the offense has looked since the fourth quarter of Week 1.
The offensive line, with the addition of veteran Laken Tomlinson at left guard and eventual insertion of veteran Kevin Zeitler at right guard, is coming around. Travis Glover held his own at right guard in this game, but with the entire unit, there were still too many flags, both pre-snap and post.
"It's just the focus," Love said. "We gotta obviously lock in and focus more. The pre-snap penalties, the false starts, that is 100% a focus thing. We gotta listen in the huddle, focus on when we get to the line of scrimmage, and just not jump."
To be fair, one of the offensive penalties that wiped out a completion to move the chains was a highly dubious pass interference call on receiver Christian Watson. LaFleur suggested he was upset about that call after the game.
But the Packers are still making life too difficult on themselves in too many ways, and the schedule only gets tougher. They're fortunate to be 2-2 based on how sloppy the offense has looked for multiple games now.
All that said, no matter how frustrating, no one is surrendering.
Love believes they are "not far at all" from getting to a better place. That's probably true, because just as things are never as good as they seem when all feels well, they're also never as bad as they might seem.
But four games in, the Packers have a lot to prove.
"I know the type of team we are, I know the players we got, so we're right there," Love said. "I have no doubt we can get better and improve."
