Plan B

We'll return later this week to an analysis of the actual football that was played at Lambeau on Sunday and what to make of our team. For this moment, however, let us step back and consider what to make of our season.

The road to the playoffs got considerably harder with yesterday's loss. Plan A for every team, of course, is to win their Division. Plan B is to earn a wild card berth.

The Packers are now looking at Plan B.

Minnesota has already won 7 games, and they'll come back after their bye to play both the Lions and Seahawks at home. That tells me that the Vikings will have 9 wins with 6 games left to play. Now the rest of their schedule has a little more starch, but even if they only win 2 of those last 6 games, that's still an 11-5 record. In order to win the NFC North, then, the Packers would have to get at least 12 wins, or 8 of our next 10 games.

Look at that Green Bay schedule on the right. Do you see us winning 8 of those 10 remaining games? And that's with the Vikings going 2-4 down the stretch, which is far worse than I think they'll actually do.

The bottom line is that the Division is out of reach for Green Bay now, and so we've got to think wild card. And so now our cheering each week has gotten considerably more complex. Suddenly we're rooting for the Saints to beat the Falcons tonight, because we're thinking like a team in the wild card hunt. Now we have to pay attention to what's going on in that tight NFC East race. And now our remaining games against the Cowboys, 49ers, and Cardinals take on extra meaning.

Of course, the first principle of Plan B is exactly the same as in Plan A: win your games. But the second principle -- whom we need to have lose -- is a much more complicated business now.