"If it's possible to have a disappointing 1,000-yard rushing season, Ryan Grant has done it.

Disappointing according to whom? The Green Bay Packers' running back himself, when asked this week if it was an accomplishment.

"No. No. No. No," said Grant, who enters Sunday's season finale against the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field having rushed for 1,097 yards and four touchdowns on 293 carries (3.7-yard average).

"It's an accomplishment, but we're not winning, so that doesn't make much of a difference No. 1. And No. 2, compared to what I know I can do, what I expect to do myself, knowing what the expectations level here, it's not the kind of accomplishment that I want.

"I honestly feel like I should've had 1,400, 1,500 yards - easy."

It wasn't that long ago that cracking the 1,000-yard barrier was cause for celebration in Green Bay. When Edgar Bennett accomplished the feat in 1995, gaining 1,067 yards, he became the first Packers back to eclipse the mark since Terdell Middleton in 1978 - a 17-year span during which such luminaries as Eddie Lee Ivery, Gerry Ellis, Kenneth Davis, Bret Fullwood, Michael Haddix, Darrell Thompson and Vince Workman led the team in rushing.

In fact, when Grant surpassed 1,000 yards at Jacksonville on Dec. 14, he became just the eighth player in the team's 87-year history to do it. And his first career 1,000-yard season was just the 20th in Packers history, joining Tony Canadeo (one), Jim Taylor (five), John Brockington (three), Middleton (one), Bennett (one), Dorsey Levens (two) and Ahman Green (six).

But after what Grant did last season, rushing for 929 yards in the final 10 weeks of the regular season (second only to San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson) and finishing the year with 956 regular-season yards on only 188 carries (5.1-yard average) - not to mention a franchise postseason record 201-yard game against Seattle in the NFC divisional playoffs - his production this season simply pales in comparison.

So much so that offensive coordinator Joe Philbin said one of his offseason projects will be to study why Grant's yards-per-carry average fell from 5.1 to 3.7 - a precipitousfor any back.

"This is not all on Ryan Grant. But if you looked at the statistics, there's a dropoff there that's concerning to everybody. It's concerning to him, it's concerning to me, it's concerning to our offensive staff," Philbin said. "Your primary back is averaging 1.(4) less than he was the year before. That should alarm you."

The Packers define an explosive run as any gain of 12 yards or more, and while Grant had 20 such runs in 10 games last season, he has 20 in 15 games this year. In addition, he's had more "minus" runs - 35 of his carries have lost yardage this year (83 total yards lost), compared to 22 (for 35 yards) last year.

"That's not his fault. There's some major problems if you've got somebody 5 yards deep in your backfield," Philbin said. "But again, minus-5s don't h