Only slightly less unthinkable than the idea of Brett Favre playing for the Jets is that the Packers are 1-6 in their past seven games.

A team that last season hosted the NFC Championship Game and was one of the conference’s favorites this preseason has slumped badly. It has lost six of its nine games by four points or less, so the team has been in games, it just has not been able to win them.

Some of it might have to do with the absence of Favre. But there also are the presence of other factors.

The chief ones include:

*Running in place — Last season, Packers running back Ryan Grant averaged 5.1 yards per carry; this season, after holding out of most of training camp while seeking a new contract, Grant is averaging only 3.9 yards per carry. The explosion Grant demonstrated last season has been absent this season. Part of the problem has been the hamstring Grant pulled; only recently has he begun to get back on track. But now it’s too late.

*Sacked –- Whereas Green Bay routinely manufactured pressure on the quarterback last season, it has been unable to do so this season. The Packers traded inside pass rusher Corey Williams, cut Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila and lost Cullen Jenkins to injury. Without those three players, Aaron Kampman has been unable to get to the quarterback the way he had been accustomed. And this defense already has surrendered 48 more points than it did all of last season, with two more games to play.

*Injuries — Every team has them, so this is hardly an excuse. But the heart of Green Bay’s defense — Jenkins, linebacker Nick Barnett and safety Atari Bigby, each of whom played at a Pro Bowl level last season — is out for the year with injuries. Green Bay has not been good enough, tough enough or deep enough to overcome the loss of key players.

Still, even with the tremendously disappointing season, general manager Ted Thompson and head coach Mike McCarthy are safe.

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