Winning Division Just Got Tougher
by Mike Spofford, Packers.com
NEW ORLEANS - The Packers' road to a possible NFC North Division title took a significant detour in Monday night's blowout loss, but it isn't blocked completely.
While the Packers dropped below .500 once again in the 51-29 defeat, they're still just one game out of first place at 5-6 with five games to play. The Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings, who both won on Sunday, are 6-5 and tied for the top spot.
That's not an insurmountable deficit by any means, but leapfrogging two teams in the final month of the season will not be an easy task.
"We've got five games left and it's still wide open," linebacker Brady Poppinga said. "We're still within one game of the Bears and the Vikings. We're just going to give 'em hell and see what happens at the end of the day. You can't say the season's over yet. We're still within striking distance."
They have to win this Sunday against Carolina, though, in order to stay there. With the Bears and Vikings playing against each other on Sunday night, one of them will be 7-5 heading into December.
That means the Packers must beat the Panthers in order to stay just one game out of first. Carolina, now 8-3 and co-leaders of the NFC South, comes to Lambeau Field for the first of the Packers' three remaining home games. The others are against Houston (Dec. 7) and Detroit (Dec. 28).
"We've got to get ready," cornerback Al Harris said. "We've got another good team coming in here, another good group of receivers. We have to play."
Adding to the urgency is the preparation will be on a short week. The players will take Tuesday off, as is customary, while the coaches work on the next game plan.
As painful as it may be, the players say they will watch the film of Monday night's loss sometime before hitting the practice field again on Wednesday afternoon.
"You definitely got to get something out of it," safety Nick Collins said of the film study. "You must watch this game. This is a lesson. You have to look at the mistakes and hopefully they'll never occur again. We'll look at the film, correct our mistakes, and go from there."
Some players felt the short week might actually work to their advantage mentally, after playing such a bad game.
"This is a tough loss, but the good thing about losing on Monday night, we have a game on Sunday afternoon," defensive tackle Ryan Pickett said. "It's not that long a wait. We'll be excited to get back out there."
"What are our options? We're not going anywhere," added linebacker A.J. Hawk. "We have a huge test against Carolina at home next week. It's good to have this short week for us to come back and try to put this one behind us.
"Once we step on the field come Wednesday, we're going to correct our mistakes, but this loss has to be behind us. We have to flush it and let it go because we can still do some good things and we know we're capable of it."
The Packers have proven that, posting an impressive 37-3 drubbing of the division rival Bears just one week ago. But as has been the case much of the season, sustaining success has been the biggest challenge, and it's what this team somehow needs to do over the final five weeks.
"We're inconsistent," center Scott Wells said. "That could be the word to describe us the whole year. We've shown signs sometimes of dominance, and then we've shown signs of the complete opposite. We have to find a way week in and week out of playing more consistent football."
The Bears and Vikings have had the same struggles, but one of them is going to enter December on a two-game winning streak and be the favorite to take the division. No matter who it is, the Packers will be playing catch-up, but for now, there's still time to do so.
"We just have to keep pushing, keep fighting," receiver Greg Jennings said. "The season is not over. We've got five games left, and we've got to have them. It's the same story every week - we gotta have it, we gotta have it - but it's just the facts.
"Either we go home and feel sorry for ourselves, or we give ourselves an opportunity to make a run at it."
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