This Green Bay Packers team has had the talent all season to be a Super Bowl contender. There are a few things you need in order to really be considered a contender, though. One of the main things is that you've got to be healthy, and that's not something that can be said about this team anymore.

Even before this 34-26 loss to the Denver Broncos, they were without star players in Tucker Kraft and Elgton Jenkins.

It's now even worse, because it sadly seems like Micah Parsons may be gone for at least the rest of this season with a knee injury and star wide receiver Christian Watson could be joining him as well.

A loss in this spot was always going to be disappointing, but a competitive game against a great Broncos team would have at least given Packers fans hope that they could compete with any team in this league.

And to be fair to the Packers, they did compete. Heck, they had the ball with a minute to go in the game with the chance to tie with a touchdown and a two-point conversion.

Credit the players on the field for that.

Ultimately, though, this loss and the way that it went down (read: who went down with injury) may be the beginning of the end for the Packers in 2025. At the very least, it feels like the end of their ability to call themselves contenders. 

These are the three biggest dissapointments from this Week 15 loss.

Dissapointment #3: Jordan Love came back to earth against the Broncos

In the first half of the game, it looked like Jordan Love was about to make an MVP statement. He finished the first half having completed 17-of-22 passes for 215 yards and a touchdown. His passer rating was 159.8 against arguably the best defense in the NFL, so it was an incredibly impressive half.

Unfortunately, the air came out of the ball in the second half and Love really lost his confidence when Watson was lost early in the third quarter to what looked like either a collarbone or shoulder injury.

It didn't help that star right tackle Zach Tom had to leave the game in the first half with a knee injury. It didn't help that the offensive line could not contain the Broncos' elite pass-rush. Love was on the run for much of the game and was sacked three times.

Ultimately, Love finished the game completing just 24-of-40 passes for 276 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. His passer rating of 68.3 was by far the worst of this 2025 season.

Dissapointment #2: The Packers defense made the Broncos offense look elite

We knew heading into the game that the Broncos defense was top two in the NFL with a case to be the best defense in the league. Their offense, led by second-year quarterback Bo Nix, wasn't considered a world-beater, though.

Unfortunately, Green Bay's defense made them look that way, and that was even while Parsons was on the field.

The Broncos put up 391 yards of offense and Nix threw for 302 yards and four touchdowns on 23-of-34 passing.

The Packers couldn't get a sack on Nix and far too many of his receivers ran wide open during the game. Courtland Sutton caught seven passes for 113 yards and a touchdown, averaging 16.1 yards per catch.

Again, the Packers had Parsons in this one until later in the contest, so this was altogether a terrible performance from a defense that was supposedly amongst the elite in the NFL.

Disappointment #1: Injuries have ruined this season for the Packers 

It was tough when Tucker Kraft went out with a knee injury because he was clearly ascending to a level of superstardom that the Packers haven't seen out of a tight end in years -- perhaps ever.

It took some growing pains, but Matt LaFleur adapted his offense and things started clicking over these last few games. A huge part of that was that Watson came back from his torn ACL looking like a true WR1 for the Packers. Over seven games heading into this one, he had caught 38 passes for 452 yards and five touchdowns.

And now, he may be lost for a significant amount of time yet again:

To make matters worse, the prevailing thought coming out of this game is that Parsons has indeed torn his ACL. IF that's true, it will have devastating consequences for the end of this season as well as the beginning of the 2026 season.

Again, it's never fun to lose, but this just feels extra cruel if you are a Packers fan.

From a true Super Bowl contender to feeling like this season may be ruined...Week 15 was very tough for the Packers.