As they closed November with yet another loss — a 40-33 defeat by the Philadelphia Eagles that felt far more lopsided than the final score indicated — the Green Bay Packers approached a crossroad.

Sunday night, as they meandered toward their eighth loss of the season, and seventh in the last eight contests, their legendary quarterback gingerly made his way through the bowels of Lincoln Financial Field. Already nursing a broken thumb on his throwing hand, Aaron Rodgers had suffered a rib injury that required medical attention. Meanwhile, Jordan Love — the quarterback once (and possibly still) viewed as the future — filled in rather admirably, providing a spark while directing two fourth-quarter scoring drives.

Love’s play, Rodgers’ ailments and the Packers’ 4-8 record and bleak postseason prospects have put Green Bay in the unenviable position of having to decide how to tactfully handle a marriage that, despite the best intentions, appears to have run its course.

Green Bay’s top decision-makers must determine whether they should begin preparing for life without Rodgers now, or whether they should delay the inevitable despite the constraints of a $150 million, three-year contract extension awarded to the future Hall of Famer less than nine months ago.

This isn’t how anyone wanted things to end. When Packers brass rewarded Rodgers for posting back-to-back MVP campaigns and three consecutive deep playoff runs, they hoped their quarterback could continue to defy time as the big 4-0 approached, just as contemporaries Tom Brady and Drew Brees had done before him. The team hoped he could continue Green Bay’s chase for additional Lombardi trophies, to add to the four it has already won. Rodgers quarterbacked the Packers to one of those titles, beating the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV in February 2011.