GREEN BAY — Wide receiver Greg Jennings was all alone near the left sideline when Aaron Rodgers, scrambling to his right, finally spotted him.

But the Green Bay Packers' quarterback, by his own admission, didn't have enough arm strength to get the football all the way across the field to Jennings.

Not on this day, anyway.

"We know he's not 100 percent, we know he can't throw with the same velocity," Jennings said. "We've got to be able to help him out the best we can."

Unfortunately, the rest of the Packers didn't feel the same way about their Favre-tough quarterback, who was a surprise starter just a week after dislocating his throwing shoulder.

Talk about surprises. You'd have thought the rest of the Packers would have been elevated by Rodgers' gritty performance, one that on most days would have been good enough to ensure a victory. You'd have thought the rest of the Packers would have said, "Rodgers is limited, so we need to pick him up by dominating in other areas."

If you had thought those things, however, you would have been wrong.

Instead of rallying around their new leader, the Packers turned in another lackluster, mistake-filled performance in a season that so far has been filled with them. Their 27-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons Sunday at Lambeau Field was their third straight and dropped them to 2-3 for the season, a dangerous position for a team that finished 13-3 in 2007.

The improved Falcons are hardly road warriors — they hadn't even scored a touchdown in their first two road games — and were starting rookie Matt Ryan at quarterback, but the Packers fell behind 10-0 and could never regain the lead due to an alarming lack of urgency in the first half and a plethora of mistakes throughout the game. Not even Rodgers' courageous effort could snap the Packers from the malaise that has afflicted them all season.

Afterward, Green Bay's sloppy performance had coach Mike McCarthy talking tough.

"We need to demand more," he said. "We need to do a better job demanding as a staff that they get it done the right way, the players. I'm not happy with the way it's going as far as the fundamentals. We're making common mistakes, things we're stressing in practice, and we need to clean it up. Our house is messy right now."

Funny, but didn't McCarthy spend all last week with a vacuum cleaner in his hand? Didn't he give the same speech after a loss to Tampa Bay eight days ago? And didn't he have the Packers practice in pads last week trying to get them to execute their fundamentals?

Apparently, some of the players weren't paying attention, especially those on defense and special teams.

The Packers failed to record a sack for the second straight game and gave up 176 yards rushing, the fourth time in five games their opponent has reached that figure. They committed nine penalties, matching their average through the first four games. In addition to taking three points off the scoreboard via penalty, their special teams lost the field position battle with shaky punting and silly penalties.

"Everybody on the team has to look at their game and look at their level of play and see what they can correct," cornerback Charles Woodson said. "We're being coached well. We can all talk until we're blue in the face, but if you don't go out and do the things you're coached to do, do the things you instinctively know how to do, we're going to have more days like this."

Rodgers pointed out that the Packers have yet to play a complete game this season, though they've looked very good at times. Now, their injuries are starting to mount.

The Packers were still better than the Falcons, however, and they would have won had they taken it upon themselves to assist Rodgers during his valiant effort Sunday.

"We're going through (an injury) phase that every team goes through," McCarthy said. "That's what we're in right now and it's important for people to step up. (Rodgers) was an injured player that didn't practice all week and he stepped up large today."

Too bad his teammates didn't.