It ended as most Green Bay Packers seasons do under coach Mike McCarthy, with a playoff loss on the final play of the game.

In fact, of Green Bay’s seven playoff losses during McCarthy’s 10 seasons, five have come on the game’s final play, including each of the past three years.

As much as history repeated itself with the Packers’ 26-20 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday, there was one major difference between this season and previous ones since McCarthy and quarterback Aaron Rodgers became a team in 2008: For the first time, Rodgers showed some vulnerability.

As great as he is, the two-time NFL most valuable player wasn’t able to cover for an offense that had injuries on the line, a suspect receiving corps and a shortage of playmakers. Rodgers even played tentatively at times, as if he didn’t trust the people around him.

If that subtle reminder that Rodgers isn’t getting any younger didn’t send shivers through the Packers organization, nothing will. He is 32 and the team’s window of opportunity for winning another Super Bowl with him at quarterback, while still a good distance away, is starting to close.

Five seasons have come and gone since Rodgers took the Packers to the NFL title. After still another playoff failure, the time has come to ask if the Packers are squandering his prime years. Indeed, it’s starting to look like they’re not putting a good enough team around him year after year to even get a second title, much less four like New England’s Tom Brady has.

Elite quarterbacks are the lifeblood of NFL contenders, but they can have another effect as well. They can mask a team’s weaknesses during the regular season and get an average team to the playoffs. Once in the playoffs, however, those weaknesses usually are exposed and the team falls short of the title. That is a pattern the Packers have fallen into under McCarthy and general manager Ted Thompson.

McCarthy has had Rodgers or Brett Favre as his quarterback since 2006 and the only time he won more than one playoff game in a season was in 2010. Besides the Super Bowl season, the McCarthy-Rodgers tandem only reached one other NFC Championship Game — last year in Seattle.

Some attribute that to coaching, especially after that inexplicable blown lead at Seattle last year and again after Saturday’s crazy finish in Arizona. There is some truth to that, though this year McCarthy should be lauded for getting his injury-riddled team to finally play its best football during the playoffs.

Still, some think McCarthy should have gone for a two-point conversion after Rodgers’ Hail Mary touchdown pass to Jeff Janis cut Arizona’s lead to 20-19 with no time on the clock. Sorry, I can’t buy that. Yes, the Packers were 4-for-6 on two-point conversions during the season, but it’s hard to imagine any coach putting a team’s entire season in the hands of an offense that had sputtered badly for four months.

There is merit, however, to wonder if the defensive coaching let Green Bay down. Some are blaming defensive coordinator Dom Capers for going conservative late in the game, but that misses the point. The real problem was the lack of in-game adjustments throughout the second half.

After catching one pass for 6 yards in the first half, Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald caught seven for 170 in the second, most of them in front of Green Bay’s zone coverage. Capers never found a way to get Fitzgerald under control after halftime and he had both the back-breaking and game-winning catches in overtime. Also, the Cardinals adjusted after the Packers sacked Carson Palmer three times in the first half and Green Bay barely touched the quarterback after that.

As hard as the loss was to take, the Packers played a solid, gritty game against the Cardinals. They simply weren’t talented enough to beat a good team. When push came to shove, their personnel shortcomings showed up, just like they do every year.

For that reason, it’s time to wonder if Thompson’s strict adherence to his draft-and-develop philosophy is too confining for the Packers’ good. The approach is sound and the Packers are in contention every year, but Thompson’s lack of flexibility in using secondary sources to find players always leaves the team vulnerable at one or two positions, shortages that often end up undermining their season.

In 2011, it was a defense that ranked last in the NFL. In 2012, the Packers had no starting-caliber running back. In 2013, they had horrible safety play and didn’t have a backup plan when Rodgers went out with an injury. In 2014, the inside linebackers were so weak the Packers had to move elite pass rusher Clay Matthews inside just to stop the run.

This year, the Packers’ lack of speed on offense after wide receiver Jordy Nelson’s season-ending injury was alarming. At wide receiver, tight end and running back, they had no one who could throw fear into a defense. Minus a home run threat to worry about, defenses changed the way they played the Packers and not even Rodgers could make them pay.

As controversial as tight end Jermichael Finley was before his career-ending injury, the Packers missed him — or someone like him who could stretch the defense — terribly. Getting caught without a quality third tackle was also a major blunder, especially after Don Barclay’s struggles during the preseason revealed a need at the position.

Those manpower deficiencies helped the Cardinals usher the Packers out of the playoffs, just as other teams had done before them.

Meanwhile, the sound you hear is Rodgers’ clock ticking.