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Many of the same people who overreacted to the Packers whipping of the Bears are now going to bury the Packers after they got embarrassed by the Saints. One fact overwhelms all of the swings in emotion: the Packers play in the NFC North. They are one game out of first place with five games left and their division record could earn them the tiebreaker nod. Everything else is just noise.That doesn’t mean that the Saints debacle wasn’t telling. For Nick Collins to say that the team wasn’t ready to play and lacked fire is more condemning that anything fans or media could say. How could they not be fired up? Their two division title contenders had already posted wins on Sunday and a national television audience was watching to see what the Packers were made of. What was revealed was a mediocre team with only one path to the playoffs—win a mediocre division.Did you ever think that maybe the Packers pass defense numbers were a little skewed because teams had so much success on the ground against the Packers? When faced with a real quarterback in Drew Brees with enough talented skill position players (even without Reggie Bush), the Packers defense got gashed. Aaron Kampman must feel like the lone ranger in mounting any kind of pass rush.Welcome to the 2008 NFL where, unless you’re one of the league’s elite, your team can look great one week and awful the next. Here’s how bad the NFC North is—the Packers could lose Sunday at home to Carolina and still win the division. A 9-7 record might very well be good enough. What the Packers can’t afford to do is lose two more games. They can’t stumble at home to Houston or Detroit and they need to win at Jacksonville. That leaves Carolina at home and the Bears in Chicago. If you split those two and beat up on the three losing teams on the schedule, that might be enough.Winning the NFC North may just be a ticket to a first-round playoff exit, but the Packers are still right there. Even if the Saints game showed they might not deserve to be.
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