4th And 26 Why the Packers aren't dead yet

I know it’s hard. Just like everyone else from Hales Corners to Hurley, I too want to throw up my hands and call it a season. (Or at least throw a brick through the Lambeau Field atrium). You’d have to be a fool not to. And it’s not just because the Packers served up a shit-sandwich for the ages in Tampa. That certainly didn’t help, but let’s face it: Our green-and-gold heroes have looked punch-drunk since Week 1. Right about now it seems the only positive is that the Bears stink, too.

Take a deep breath everybody. There’s still half the season left, and if the Packers can beat the Cowboys on Sunday you know damn well you’ll be doing the happy dance and chewing the fat about how the ’04 team started 1-4 and still made the playoffs. It comes with the territory—if you’re not irrational, don’t bother calling yourself a fan. It’s true the second half looks only slightly less dreary than a symposium on The Bell Jar, but it is still eight games. That’s an eternity in the NFL, and seasons can turn on a game, or even one play. Besides, what else are we going to do on Sundays for the next two months? Go outside? Be social? Please. Here then are four reasons to hold off on stringing that noose just yet.

Everyone else kind of sucks
Outside of the Saints and Vikings, see if you can find an NFC team that makes you say, “Wow, those guys are awesome!” I sure can’t. Six other teams are sitting at .500 or better: Philadelphia, Dallas, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Arizona. First off, three are in the same division, so one will likely be knocked out in the scrum. Secondly, they’re all flawed to some large or small degree, just like the Pack. And most importantly, we get to play three of them down the stretch. I realize for any of this to matter we’ll have to, you know, actually beat a good team—a task we haven’t accomplished in over a year. Still, there’s too much talent at 1265 Lombardi Ave. for this squad to lose every single close game for two seasons.

Fear as a motivator
It’s official: The Mike McCarthy haranguing has reached critical mass to where even he has to understand if he doesn’t pull a 9-7 out of his ass, he could be gone. Add in Rodgers-for-Favre and how that’s played out, and it makes no difference that it was the right decision. Someone’s going down, and I’d be shocked if it was the zombie named Ted Thompson. If nothing else, the Packers owe the two of them roughly $16 million through the remainder of their contracts, and that’s way too much paper to eat. So who would you rather be right now? The coach, or the guy who hires and fires the coach? With no moves being made before the end of the season, McCarthy has eight games to prove he’s not a fraud. Wherever the internal rot and sloppiness stems from—lack of respect, lack of control, some combo of the two—it has to be corrected. Or he simply doesn’t deserve his job.

We’ll look at the tape and get it fixed
Looking for hope amid all the maddening mistakes feels a lot like dredging a septic tank for a lost wedding ring. But outside of the disastrous O-line, the problems the Packers have are correctable in-season—at least in theory. How tough can it be to have less than atrocious special teams coverage? Every other freaking team in the league does. Or pressure the quarterback a little? I know Dom Capers watches the same games I do, so he has to see that Aaron Kampman can’t cover a hash mark. At this point, does it really matter if anyone knows if he’s rushing or not? It’s all he can do, let him do it. And the mental errors, come on. Quinn Johnson bobbled one ball against Minnesota and hasn’t been seen since, so I know McCarthy has a stone in his shorts somewhere. Mac doesn’t have to castrate any bulls or bring an axe into the locker room, but he might want to consider doing something to remind the team he’s still the boss. (For now, anyway.)

Those knotty intangibles
Let me just throw this out there as the teeniest, tiniest positive to come from losing to an 0-7 team: If there was any game where it’d be hard for Dallas to get up, wouldn’t it be this one? They’re coming off a huge divisional win against a rival, after our stink-bomb everyone’s written us off, and Wade Phillips is more likely to be confused for a zaftig mannequin than Tom Landry. However slight, I’m calling that an edge and taking it.

Prediction: This is one of those games where all the conventional wisdom points to a Cowboys beatdown: The ’Boys are riding a four-game winning streak, Miles Austin is unstoppable, Tony Romo has been acting less douche-y than normal, and their monster lines should own the trenches. All of this is true. Just don’t underestimate the mental looseness that comes with knowing you can’t possibly sink any lower. Rock-bottom, baby, it’s ours! As an eternal homer, I’m calling for the wounded animal upset special: Packers 30, Cowboys 28.