GREEN BAY — The good news for the Green Bay Packers' special teams Sunday was, Derrick Frost wasn't the problem.

Well, not after his first punt — a 37-yard line drive with 2.97 seconds of hang time — he wasn't. But while the Packers' struggling punter may have finally gotten untracked, his teammates more than made up for it with their mistakes in a 27-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons at Lambeau Field.

From Jermichael Finley being called for a holding penalty on Mason Crosby's 43-yard field goal, to Crosby missing the ensuing 53-yard attempt, to allowing a 54-yard Jerious Norwood kickoff return immediately after the game-tying touchdown, to a poorly executed and premature onsides kick with less than 2 minutes left — plenty went wrong on special teams.

The Packers took issue with Finley's penalty and a holding call on Jarrett Bush during the second-half kickoff.

"The guy blitzed the inside gap, he tripped me up, so I was falling back, and the (official) on the other side of the field said I grabbed his collar," Finley said. "I thought it was a poor call."

Said Bush of his flag: "We know we're going to get penalties called on us because of the way we play. But we're going to keep playing like that. I don't know. That's the way they teach us."

But there was no disputing the special teams' other mistakes. Crosby took the blame for missing the 53-yarder — he'd been good from 60 in either direction in warmups — and for the onsides kick, which didn't pop high into the air as designed following the Packers' last touchdown.

"I wasn't worried about the distance. (A penalty) is unfortunate whenever you make it," Crosby said. "I've got to be able to make that. … It's unfortunate when you lose by three."

Crosby said he needed to hit the onsides kick "a little flatter," while special teams coordinator Mike Stock was confused by the timing of the kick.

"It didn't look like anybody was really set. I don't know why we pulled the trigger," Stock said. "I tried to get to the bottom of that, everybody's got a different answer. The bottom line is, it looked like we were out of sync. That's got to be my fault."

The back-breaker, Stock said, was Norwood's return, which followed Aaron Rodgers' 25-yard TD pass to Greg Jennings pass that forged a 17-all tie. Starting at the Packers' 48, the Falcons needed only one first down and 25 yards to set up Jason Elam's go-ahead field goal.

"You tie the game like that, momentum's got to stay on your side. Kickoff coverage has to do their job," Stock said. "We missed two tackles on that play. We had the guy. We had the guy, and we did not make the tackle."