Perspective After a Dissapointing Loss

Obviously yesterday's loss was tremendously disheartening. After looking for the first 35 clock minutes as if we would be blown out of the water, and looking for the next 20 clock minutes like we were the best team in the NFL, it's difficult to come to determine how we packer fans should feel about our performance or view our team right now.

In the standings, we're 2.5 games back, which is virtually three because the Vikings now have the tiebreaker should we finish with even records. The Bears won big against the woeful Browns, and so we now cling to second place just above them. We have 9 games to play, and the toughest patch of our schedule is in those 9 weeks. our record sits at 4-3. What's to make of all this?

We need to put our loss in perspective. The first half was agonoizing, and at 24-3 it was as bleak as it's been this season. But the late 3rd and early 4th quarters were inspiring to watch, and the fact that we made that a game again shows we have some more fight than we had last year. With both our starting offensive tackles and our starting center injured, the 6 sacks are definetly a little inflated from what they'd be if we played them with a healthy line, and frankly those 6 sacks vs. our 0 was the difference in the game. The 2nd and 2 miscommunication between lang and colledge was the biggest turning point in that game; with clifton in there, that doesn't happen and maybe we take the lead from their 27 yard line. percy harvins 2 long returns and a vast penalty difference also helped the vikings in unorthodox ways which are unlikely to repeat should we play a second time. we've played them close both times, and in my opinion, we definatly can beat the vikings if we were to meet them healthy in the divisional playoff round.

So, I think our we should forget about catching the Vikings in the regular season.. I'm not saying it can't happen that we win the division, but the Vikings are such a good team and I can't see them losing 3 more games than we do over their next 8 games. We should take it one game at a time, aim for a 10-6ish record and settle for a Wildcard berth. A Super Bowl victory would be real nice, but it's probably unlikely for this season. The most important priority to boost the morale and confidence of our young players by getting into the playoffs, and that's a still very possible goal with 9 games to play. our approach as fans should be to temporarily ignore the vikings, ignore favre, and instead root for the Bears and NFC East teams to lose. with any luck we'll get a Minnesota rematch in January.