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GREEN BAY https://www.thepackersfanshop.com/Marwin-Evans-Jersey , Wis. (AP) — The Green Bay Packers must make a stand just to stay in the playoff conversation.The injury list is growing. Their postseason hopes are in serious jeopardy. They’ll need breaks to go their way with teams ahead of them in the wild-card chase.Tune out the outside noise and criticism of what might be wrong, David Bakhtiari said.“I think there is a lot of, on the outside, a lot of fingers pointing a lot of different directions,” the veteran left tackle said on Wednesday. “And if you were to ask me what we need to do I think we need to take that finger and we need to point it at ourselves.“No one needs to point any other direction,” he added. “We need to figure out ourselves what we need to do to win.”While it may not be a long list, some of the same problems keep nagging the Packers: they’re having problems on third downs and they’re having trouble closing out tight games on the road.Fortunately for Green Bay (4-6-1), the last month of the season has a favorable schedule starting with a home game this weekend against the Arizona Cardinals (2-9). It’s the same team that allowed Philip Rivers to go 28 of 29 for 259 yards with three touchdowns in a 45-10 loss to the Chargers.“He’s one of my favorite players to watch,” said Rodgers. He watched last week’s film and praised Rivers for, among other things, throwing into tight spots and finding the right receivers.As for Rodgers, he’s apparently taking some heat from TV pundits for at least a couple of poor throws in last week’s 24-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. The two-time NFL MVP fielded a couple of questions about fundamentals after practice Wednesday.One attempt might stand out — a throw to receiver Equanimeous St. Brown on second-and-1 at the 20 with 2:34 left that bounced near the rookie’s feet. The Packers settled for a field goal Jermaine Whitehead Jersey , and the Vikings ran out the clock. Another misfired throw stuck to the quarterback’s hand, Rodgers said.“Oh, it’s embarrassing, for sure. … I remember (Hall of Fame quarterback Brett) Favre used to say, ‘Anything you do, I’ve done many times previous.’ And I actually tell the young guys this all the time, ‘The mistakes you make, I’ve made before,'” Rodgers said.But when it comes to fundamentals, Rodgers said nothing has changed, other than his completion rate of 61.7 percent is down from the past couple of seasons and below his career average of 64.9.He still drills them. He said he’s not playing any differently.“I don’t put a lot of weight into a pundit on (TV) talking about fundamentals,” Rodgers said. “I listen to my quarterback coach and my offensive coordinator and my head coach. My study of myself Aaron Ripkowski Color Rush Jersey , I’m very critical of my own film.”The Packers’ offense has been so prolific for so long under Rodgers and coach Mike McCarthy that season-long problems such as they ones the offense has had tend to stand out.“We had some opportunities that we hit sometimes and sometimes you don’t. The most important thing for us is to keep going after it. And that’s what we’re doing,” McCarthy said.Consider that Rodgers has thrown 20 touchdowns to just one interception, a ratio that almost any other team in the league would crave. He finished the second drive against Minnesota with a vintage back-shoulder touchdown throw to No. 1 wideout Davante Adams.The quarterback was hamstrung earlier in the year by a left knee injury that limited his practice time. Starting receivers Randall Cobb and Geronimo Allison have been hurt for much of the season, and tight end Jimmy Graham is now trying to play through a thumb injury.It has left more attention from opposing defenses to Adams, and more snaps for rookies St. Brown and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.The Packers were 2 of 10 on third down against the Vikings, including 1 of 6 in the second half, when they were held to just three points after being tied at 14 at halftime. Green Bay also couldn’t convert on fourth-and-1 from its 44 in the third quarter.“I think we’ve just got to be more decisive as a unit,” Bakhtiari said.His availability is in question for Sunday after he missed practice with a knee injury. Starting left guard Lane Taylor (quad), along with Cobb (hamstring) and cornerback Kevin King (hamstring) were limited. While there are certainly still things to work on for the Green Bay Packers in all phases after a 2-0 start, the defense remains one of the team’s strong points after two weeks. Holding the Vikings’ offense to just 16 points despite being placed in tough situations in the second half, the Packers’ defense finished the day with four takeaways. Outside of a handful of big plays that helped pad the stat line, the Vikings struggled to move the ball for the majority of the game.Aiding the cause was the Packers’ ability to contain Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen https://www.thepackersfanshop.com/Demetri-Goodson-Jersey , two players this author referred to as public enemies one and two heading into Sunday’s game. Diggs entered the game with a touchdown reception in five consecutive games against Green Bay, while Thielen had put together a strong stretch of 100-yard performances in the teams’ past several meetings.This time around, Green Bay’s defense was stingy and slowed down the two stars, particularly in the first half. Diggs finished with zero catches on four targets in the first two quarters of play. The former Maryland Terrapin dropped a key 3rd-and-2 pass in the second quarter before having a ball tipped away from him in the end zone at the last moment later on as Kirk Cousins tried to find him down the seam. Jaire Alexander contested that ball and did his part to keep Diggs at bay for most of the game. Darnell Savage also helped the cause, jumping a Cousins pass to Diggs and deflecting it into the waiting arms of Preston Smith for a critical turnover earlier in the game.When Diggs did touch the ball in the first half, he was a a victim of pass interference penalties. Diggs caught a red zone touchdown that was later nullified by a PI call on Dalvin Cook after an official review inside of two minutes to play in the first half. He was then flagged himself for a push-off on a 15-yard reception that would have put the Vikings in position for points with under a minute to go in the half. It was not until the third quarter when Diggs would break free, catching a 45-yard touchdown pass that sailed through the hands of Alexander. If not for Alexander’s short-armed attempt at an interception — which he said after the game was caused by losing the ball in the sun — the ball could have easily been deflected away in double coverage. Diggs’ frustration was visibly released after catching the ball, picking up an unsportsmanlike conduct flag for taking off his helmet and taunting the Lambeau Field crowd. The penalty would cost the Vikings an extra point after their backed-up kick from Dan Bailey was blocked.While Diggs nearly hauled in another 40-plus yard throw in the fourth quarter that was just overthrown, he was well-covered in a red zone attempt that Kevin King was able to pluck away for an interception to effectively ice the game late in the fourth. Diggs did continue his touchdown streak against the Packers, but Green Bay deserves a lot of credit for holding the Pro Bowler to just one catch on seven targets, his lowest yardage output against the team since 2016.Likewise, the Packers kept Thielen in check throughout the game. At halftime JK Scott Jersey , Thielen had just one catch for 20 yards on two targets. While he finished with five catches for 75 yards,it took an additional six targets to get there and one was a bobbled 30-yard catch in which Thielen did not look comfortable with Alexander in tight coverage. Thielen, like Diggs, also was charged with an offensive pass interference penalty in the third quarter during a jump ball situation with Savage in the end zone.On Sunday, the Packers’ defense bottled up Diggs and Thielen for the majority of the game, keeping the pair of receivers, as well as Cousins, out of sync. While a few missed opportunities from Alexander provided Diggs and Thielen with their best plays of the day, the corner’s aggressiveness was felt by the Minnesota offense. Green Bay will surely need to shore up its run defense this week, but its performance against the pass helped solidify the feeling that the Packers’ secondary is playoff-caliber for the first time a long while.