The numbers, now, aren't unsure about the story they are telling. After the first 12 games of the 2015 MLS season, the Portland Timbers have the same number of points they did after the first 12 games of 2014, and the same number of points after 12 games played this year as they had in 2012.

In 2012, of course, things got ugly. Manager John Spencer was sacked, general Timbers czar Gavin Wilkinson took over as interim coach, and Portland finished with 16 losses and 34 points.

We're not there yet with this Timbers team, but total chaos isn't impossible to see down the road. Frustration is quickly mounting. This latest setback—a 1-0 loss to Toronto FC—was a performance particularly short of ideas and devoid of belief.

Portland look like losers right now. It's that simple. They play slowly and listlessly, they're in ninth place in the Western Conference, averaging just over one point per game, and they've got the Eastern Conference leaders coming into Providence Park on Wednesday night.

Oh, and Diego Valeri got hurt again. Could things be going any better?

Until Saturday, Portland had not repeated a result all year. They had bounced back for two wins and a draw after their previous three loses, and Caleb Porter's highs-low-lows-high soup has always produced a team that responds well to defeats.

Not in this one. Portland was behind before the arrival of Toronto's late-arriving crowd thanks to a splendid strike from 5'5" Italian star Giovinco, who took advantage of nonexistent pressure from the Timbers' defense to fire past Adam Kwarasey and open the scoring.

Kwarasey himself would do much of the work to close the scoring, with able assists from TFC midfielder Jonathan Osorio and the Timbers' inert attack. Kwarasey made several stops worthy of consideration for Save of the Week, robbing Giovinco, in search of his second, Warren Creavalle, and the ever-influential Michael Bradley.

And that is just about where the praise stops for the Timbers' effort.

The writing was on the wall as soon as Diego Valeri sank to the turf with a non-contact injury. What was later revealed to be a rolled ankle forced Valeri to be withdrawn for his compatriot Gaston Fernandez, who refuses to rebuild his much-diminished reputation. La Gata's performance in almost 70 minutes was meek and lacking quality. His time in Portland is just about up.

The offense wasn't helped by Fanendo Adi, a player who is very earnest in his desire to impress, and consistently hurts his team by trying to do too much when the game and goals aren't coming naturally. Rodney Wallace was sorely mediocre again, while the central midfield of Jack Jewsbury and Diego Chara provide nothing but the basics in the attack.

Toronto should have scored a second—and a third and a fourth, for that matter—but it didn't take a savant to realize that they might not need it.

Portland did have one moment—a penalty that should have been given as a foul against TFC goalkeeper Chris Konopka for bringing down Maxi Urruti in the box—but it's hard to get too worked up over a call that the Timbers' play didn't warrant in the slightest.

It was thanks only to Kwarasey that the final scoreline wasn't unseemly. The defense in front of him got carved apart time and time again, with Alvas Powell, struggling with a knock turning in a poor performance for a second consecutive week. Neither Jewsbury nor Chara could hang with Giovinco, and his verve—combined with Bradley's zeal—made Toronto's offense a treat to watch.

The Timbers used to be like that too. Not anymore. Had TFC had a fit Jozy Altidore, they would have scored multiple goals. Portland's squad could use upgrading, sure, but what the Timbers really need right now is for their existing players to play better.

Adi started the year on fire, keeping things simple, working center-backs, and taking chances with aplomb. Wallace has another gear, as we saw last year and the year before. Darlington Nagbe, who continued his disappearing act as well against the Reds, needs to come back to life and realize that the biggest reason why the offense is sputtering is that his initiative isn't there like it was in the first month of the season.

Part of players not playing up to their abilities has to fall on the coach's shoulders too. Caleb Porter spoke of the encouragement he took from the second half of the match post-game, but he certainly appears like a coach who has no answers right now.

When Porter changed his tactics last year and took away the high-press and mandate for stylish football—and continued to put his faith into a direct, fairly rudimentary style this year, it made sense. But it looks like the Timbers have forgotten how to break teams down. The offense in the early and middle stages of games consists mostly of lumping an excessive amount of crosses onto opposing center-backs' heads, feet, and straight out of bounds.

Their is a dearth of creativity that feels about right when you see where the Timbers are in the standings. Second from last. The regression from 2013 to now is currently a straight slide down the table. First to sixth to ninth.

Losing makes soccer a lot less fun, and that's important. The Timbers look joyless right now. Maybe the return of captain Will Johnson on Wednesday night helps with that. Maybe it doesn't. What's clear now is this: The start of this year has been just as bad as the start of last year which, hands down, cost the Timbers a playoff spot.

It's a long campaign. It's possible that Portland wins these next two games and everyone calms down, but it's not probable. What everyone spinning the tried and true excuses—the weather, the travel, the referee, the injuries—doesn't understand is it's the performances, not the score-lines, that have people so upset, just as it was the performances, and not the score-lines, that had people keeping the faith in March and early April.

How we got here is still somewhat a mystery, but right now, on the field, the Timbers have sunk to 2012 lows again. And everyone who was around for that 2012 disaster knows that no insult, no setback, and no defeat can sting as deeply or as profoundly as that.