By Jason Wilde
Channel3000.com's Packer Insider from ESPN Madison

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – People who wonder why there’s a movement to eliminate two NFL preseason games as part of the league’s proposed 18-game regular-season schedule are referred to Thursday night’s preseason finale between the Kansas City Chiefs’ junior varsity and the Green Bay Packers’ freshman team.

With coach Mike McCarthy scratching quarterback Aaron Rodgers, running back Ryan Grant, left tackle Chad Clifton and cornerback Charles Woodson – Woodson didn’t even travel to Kansas City – from the lineup in pregame and the starters who did suit up playing only one series, the Packers’ 17-13 preseason-ending loss to the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium will make for a pretty good argument for why these exhibitions are useless.

Because while the game was vital to making some of the tough roster decisions ahead with Saturday’s final cutdown to the league-mandated 53-man roster limit, the three-quarters empty stadium and hard-to-watch low quality of the game itself made for less-than-compelling theater.

Nevertheless, the Packers (2-2) got out of it exactly what they’d hoped – except a victory.

“We came into Kanas City to win the football game. We came here to make sure we gave a lot of people as many opportunities as we possibly can, and I thought we accomplished that,” said Packers coach Mike McCarthy, now 9-11 in preseason games.

“The offense played 70-plus plays tonight, (the) defense had an opportunity to play against a no-huddle and had an opportunity to play against the Wildcat. Our special teams unit was able to get more reps in the punt and punt protection in the punt contest, so I feel like we maxed out our opportunities with the four preseason games, and from that, we’ll make the right decisions.”

By not starting Rodgers, it meant the No. 1 offense finished the preseason having scored seven touchdowns in 13 possessions, gaining 542 yards on 78 plays. The unit also lost two fumbles, punted three times and turned the ball over on downs once.

Rodgers finished the preseason having completed 41 of 53 passes for 470 yards, with six touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 141.2 rating in three preseason games.

“I feel great. I think we did some really good things in the preseason, I like the identity we’ve created, I think we’ve got a lot of weapons,” Rodgers said when asked how he feels about the offense. “I think it’s a matter of figuring out how to get positive matchups on Jermichael (Finley) and Donald (Driver) and Greg (Jennings) and J.J. (James Jones) and Jordy (Nelson) – find ways to get them the ball.

“It’s going to be a different guy every week, I think. We have that potential. If teams are going to try to take away Jermichael, I think Greg and Donald will hurt them. If they try to take away all three of them somehow, we’ve got Jordy and J.J. At some point we need to really be able to run the ball effectively, but I like the way we established things in the three games we played together.”

Asked why he didn’t play, Rodgers replied, “That’s probably a question for Mike. He just told me I wasn’t playing.”

Meanwhile, the Packers’ pseudo-starting defense forced a three-and out on its only series – the Chiefs didn’t gain a single yard after Javier Arenas’ 44-yard punt return to the Green Bay 33-yard line – before calling it a night. The unit started Ryan Pickett, B.J. Raji and Mike Neal up front; Brady Poppinga, A.J. Hawk, Nick Barnett and Frank Zombo at linebacker; Tramon Williams and Sam Shields at cornerback and Nick Collins and Morgan Burnett at safety.

In reality, the No. 1 defense never truly played together all preseason, with Pro Bowl linebacker Clay Matthews missing all four games with a hamstring injury, defensive end Cullen Jenkins missing the final two games with a calf injury, Woodson getting both road games off and the entire starting linebacking corps missing the game against the Seahawks.

What passed as the starting defense ended up playing 14 preseason possessions, allowing seven touchdowns and a field goal while forcing five punts and one turnover (a Morgan Burnett interception of Peyton Manning last week).

“You’d like to have seen more of all of our guys that have missed. They’ve been in and out,” defensive coordinator Dom Capers said. “One of the purposes of training camp and these preseason games is to get to that opener with guys healthy and ready to go. This week of practice will be important for us.”

What any of it means for when the games start to count – beginning with the team’s Sept. 12 regular-season opener at Philadelphia – is anyone’s guess. The Packers are a trendy pick for Super Bowl XLV in Dallas – several players wore western-theme get-ups, including cowboy hats, to the annual Welcome Back Luncheon on Wednesday before departing for Kansas City – and they’ll four practices (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) to get ready for the Eagles.

“We’ll be fine. I think we’ll be just fine,” linebacker Nick Barnett said. “We have had some injuries in training camp, but it’s happened before. It happens to every team. There’s always some injuries and things you have to deal with, adversity. But I think we have some core players there and some talent. I think we’ll be fine.”

The Matt Flynn-led Packers offense did move the ball effectively after beginning the game with four three-and-outs, with Flynn making the most of his three quarters of work by completing 23 of 37 passes for, 304 yards with no TDs, no INTs and one sack for an 88.1 rating.

Digging out of a 14-0 hole, the Packers’ only touchdown drive came courtesy of a busted coverage, as the Chiefs let Brett Swain get wide open behind their defense for a 77-yard gain, setting up Kregg Lumpkin’s 1-yard touchdown plunge to cut Kansas City’s lead to 14-10 with 10 minutes, 52 seconds in the third quarter.

The Packers pulled to 17-13 on Mason Crosby’s second field goal of the night, a 41-yarder with 6:12 left in the game, and Robert Francois recovered the ensuing onside kick, but third-string quarterback Graham Harrell couldn’t lead the offense to the go-ahead score.

They got the ball back with 1:53 left, but Charles Dillon couldn’t hold onto Harrell’s fourth-down pass with 26 seconds left, ending the Packers’ comeback hopes and giving the Chiefs (1-3) their lone preseason victory.

Let the season begin.

“I’m excited to get to Monday, but between now and then, there (are) tough days for everybody (with cuts),” McCarthy said. “We’re ready. We have no choice. So we’re ready.”