GREEN BAY — Afterward, Jason Spitz sat in his locker, a blank stare on his face.

"It just slipped away from us," the Green Bay Packers offensive lineman said, shaking his head. "It just slipped away from us."

Spitz was talking about Sunday's stomach-turning 35-31 loss to the Carolina Panthers at Lambeau Field. But he might as well have been talking about the Packers' season, which would be over if they weren't members of the mediocre NFC North.

"It's a combination of not making enough plays and (not) doing some of the basic things that we've been able to do in the past," Packers coach Mike McCarthy lamented.

The result? Less than a year removed from a berth in the NFC Championship Game and a franchise best-tying 13-3 regular-season record, the Packers find themselves a previously unthinkable 5-7 with four games to play — two games behind division leader Minnesota (7-5) after the Vikings 34-14 win over the Chicago Bears (6-6) Sunday night.

Why? After going 5-1 in regular-season games decided by seven points or fewer last year, the Packers are 1-4 in games decided by a touchdown or less this year. In fact, they've lost five of their last six such games dating back to their 23-20 home loss to the New York Giants with a berth in Super Bowl XLII on the line last January.

"We didn't make plays in crunch time," said Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, whose interception with 1:09 to play ruined his second-half comeback and rendered his otherwise solid day (29-for-45, 298 yards, three touchdowns, 96.3 rating) meaningless.

"We've had a number of games that have come down to the wire, and we haven't been able to pull them out — and we lose by a close margin. ... We've just come up short so many times this year. You look at the games we've lost — make a play and win in the last minutes. We haven't done that."

That's what happened again Sunday. After battling back from deficits of 7-0, 14-3 and 21-10 to take a 28-21 lead, they failed on offense (settling for a 19-yard Mason Crosby field goal with two point-blank scoring chances from the 1-yard line), then on defense (giving up a 54-yard Jake Delhomme-to-Steve Smith bomb to set up DeAngelo Williams' go-ahead touchdown with 1:30 to play), and then on offense again (linebacker Jon Beason's interception of Rodgers' on-the-run heave to Donald Driver).

"You look at last season, the games that came down to the wire, we found ways to win them. And this year, for whatever reason, down the stretch, late in games, with opportunities — we're not doing it," said cornerback Charles Woodson, who moved to safety for the game and was beaten by Smith on the play before the decisive TD.

"Right now, we're not a good team. We're supposed to win this game. A big play here, a big play there — that's been our Achilles' heel on defense."

Against the Panthers, there were four such plays: Williams' 27-yard run to set up the first of his four 1-yard TDs for the Panthers' first points; Jonathan Stewart's 43-yard run to set up quarterback Jake Delhomme's 1-yard score to make it 14-3; Smith's 36-yard catch to set up Williams' third TD to tie the game at 28; and Smith's final catch against Woodson, setting up the game-winner.

The Green Bay defense has surrendered 86 points in the last two games — the most in back-to-back games since the Ray "Scooter" McLean's 1-10-1 team gave up 91 points in two games in 1958.

"It's really frustrating, when you know what you have and the potential of what you have. But if you don't show up at a certain point, it really doesn't mean anything," said halfback Ryan Grant, who left the game with a sprained right thumb in the second quarter.

"Right now, we need to stop talking about what we can do and what we should do and what we will do and go out there and do it."

The Panthers, in contrast, did it.

"You get down the stretch, we always talk about people remember what you do in December. I know it's not officially December yet, but it's close enough," said Carolina coach John Fox, whose Panthers (9-3) are tied with Tampa Bay atop the NFC South. "As you get down this last month of the year ... every one of these games becomes huge. Everyone is fighting for that same 12-team tournament. Once you get in that, it's whoever gets hot."

To even have hope of getting into that tournament, the Packers will have to get hot and win their final four games, starting next Sunday at home against Houston.
"We're not in a good spot. There's no other way of looking at it," veteran right tackle Mark Tauscher said.

We're just not making big plays when the money's on the table. We're playing in spurts, and we're not doing enough to win games. You put everything you've got out there, you play hard, you're in a position to win, and you don't do it. You only get 16 shots at this, and when you're not taking advantage of 'em, it's frustrating."