Associated Press
GREEN BAY, Wis. ó The Carolina Panthers and Green Bay Packers both believe they’re better than the scores of their last games would indicate.
But only the Panthers can point to their record as evidence.
At 8-3, Carolina appears in decent playoff position heading into Sunday’s game at Lambeau Field. And while the Packers still have a shot at the playoffs at 5-6 thanks to the mediocre nature of the NFC North, they’d be in big trouble with a loss today.
And that means rediscovering the Packers team that recently beat Indianapolis and Chicago ó right away.
“I’m very confident in this team,” Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “And the guys we’ve got in this locker room are a very high character group ó a lot of talent. We need to put together a five-game stretch of the kind of play that we did against Chicago and Indianapolis, games where we’ve played the way we feel we’re capable of playing. And if we can do those things, I feel like this is a team that can make a run.”
The Panthers are coming off a surprising 45-28 loss at Atlanta. The Packers, meanwhile, were trounced 51-29 in New Orleans as Saints quarterback Drew Brees took apart Green Bay’s highly regarded secondary.
“It’s two teams coming off some pretty bad losses, two teams that both need a win,” Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme said. “Certainly, I think when you watch that game it got out of hand at the end, somewhat kind of like our game. But it’s two teams that certainly feel embarrassed by the way they played and look forward to going out and playing better.”
For the wildly inconsistent Packers, that loss came just eight days after their dominant 37-3 victory over the NFC North co-leading Chicago Bears.
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In other games today, Miami is at St. Louis; the New York Giants at Washington; San Francisco at Buffalo; Baltimore at Cincinnati; Indianapolis at Cleveland; New Orleans at Tampa Bay; Atlanta at San Diego; Denver at the New York Jets; Kansas City at Oakland; and Chicago at Minnesota.
Jacksonville is at Houston on Monday night.