While it would be difficult to think Green Bay won't be able to reverse its recent trend of bad defensive performances when it plays at the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, at the Chicago Bears on Dec. 22 and against the Detroit Lions on Dec. 28, those teams' suspect offenses will have to be taken into account when passing judgment.

As such, head coach Mike McCarthy might already have his mind made up that he won't be retaining Sanders as the leader of the defense going into next year.

McCarthy publicly supported Sanders earlier this week, but in professional sports, what is said in front of cameras and microphones doesn't necessarily hold water when it comes to making decisions on personnel.

Four and a half months after McCarthy stood in front of many of those same cameras and microphones and declared that the face, the identity of the post-Brett Favre 2008 Packers would be the defense, that very unit has been the biggest reason why Green Bay is destined to not play postseason football. The Packers, at 5-8 and three games out of first place in the NFC North, would need to win out and get a lot of help in the process to sneak into the playoffs.

"We're not hitting the targets that we wanted to on defense, and we're all aware of that," McCarthy said Wednesday.

He tried to temper the damage that has already been done by saying, "We have games left," before acknowledging, "We've had obstacles to overcome. We haven't done it at a high level, whether it be injuries, adjustments in games. We'll just keep battling away.

"But, I stand by the vision that we had for the football team. Sometimes, the course of your season doesn't go the way you'd like. I think we're kind of going through a spot with that right now, particularly the last three weeks."

The foundering by the defense the past three games has been as precipitous as the Packers' falling out of a first-place tie with the existing front-running Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears, when all were 5-5, to third place in the division with the three-game losing streak.

Since then, Green Bay has plummeted from 16th in the league rankings to 23rd for total defense, yielding an average of 346.2 yards per game.

The carnage inflicted Sunday by the Houston Texans in their 24-21 win at Lambeau Field was 549 total yards - the most allowed by the Packers since the Washington Redskins rolled up 552 in a 48-47 Green Bay win in 1983.

The pass defense, in particular, is a shell of its former successful self. After boasting of a season-best No. 3 ranking three weeks ago, the Packers are 12th in the league, giving up an average of 204.5 yards per outing.

After allowing Drew Brees to sling the football around for 323 yards and four touchdowns in the New Orleans Saints' 51-29 rout Nov. 24, Green Bay surrendered a franchise-record 414 yards and two touchdowns to the Texans' Matt Schaub last weekend.

Sanders' battle cry is to "try to get our guys in the best position they can be successful."

Those words haven't been put into action in recent weeks, however, with a defense that hasn't been able to generate a pass rush most of the season (21 sacks) and no longer is the opportunistic bunch it was early in the season. After picking off 13 passes in the first seven games, when Green Bay had a 4-3 record, the Packers have only five interceptions during their 1-5 tailspin since their bye.

"The pressure helps the coverage, and the coverage helps the pressure. It all works together," Sanders said. "When one or the other gets out of whack, for whatever reason, whether it be a bust or we're just not getting pressure or the coverage is not there, then things break down. In the way we do business, that's imperative to try to get that done."

In Sanders' defense, he has been coordinating a unit that has been injury-riddled from the outset of the season.

Strong safety Atari Bigby has been in and out of the starting lineup with an assortment of leg injuries. Productive defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins suffered a season-ending torn pectoral muscle in Week 4. Middle linebacker Nick Barnett was lost for the season to a torn knee ligament in early November. Several other contributing players have been sidelined at various points of the season.

"We've had different rotations, different combinations of guys, and I think that's probably been one of our biggest detriments, not having a consistent group, so to speak," said defensive end Aaron Kampman, in reference to the D-line. "We've had guys with injuries and so forth. Just like an offensive line, it's good to have some cohesion in that group."

SERIES HISTORY: 4th regular-season meeting. Packers lead series, 2-1. The only win by Jacksonville came in the teams' last meeting, 28-25 at Green Bay in 2004. The Packers are 2-0 at Jacksonville, winning 24-14 in 1995 and 28-21 in 2001.