Like the Bears and Vikings, the Packers have three home games remaining among their six contests.
The NFL's long and arduous 16-game schedule was just shortened to a six-game season for the three NFC North Division contenders on Sunday.
With the Packers beating the Bears, 37-3, and the Vikings losing to the Buccaneers, 19-13, there is now a three-way tie atop the division amongst Green Bay, Chicago and Minnesota. All three are 5-5 with six games left and a home playoff game awaiting the winner.
"It's up for grabs," receiver Greg Jennings said. "We feel like we're definitely turning it around right now at the right time. We definitely feel like we have a shot, and we're going to get it done. Period. There's no other option but to get it done."
Judging by Sunday's performance, there's no reason to think the Packers can't. With nearly every head-to-head game involving two NFC North teams this season, including those against winless Detroit, coming down to the fourth quarter, Green Bay's domination of Chicago could be assigned extra weight in the ongoing analysis.
But ultimately it's still just one game, though hopefully for the Packers the one game that kicks off a strong finish to 2008.
"We feel like we're going to have to win every game," quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. "We control our own destiny now.
"It's been an up-and-down season, but we played the way we feel like we're capable of playing today. We're very confident."
The Packers came into Sunday's game needing a win worse than either of their two rivals. At 4-5 before kickoff, a loss to the 5-4 Bears would have dropped the Packers two games back in the division race.
"We knew if we wanted to have a chance, we needed this game," linebacker A.J. Hawk said. "We knew that going in. It was no secret. Everyone around here knew that this was just one step we needed to have, and we got it today."
And with a little help from the Buccaneers, it's anybody's race, and it's almost impossible to look at each team's remaining schedules and figure out who has an edge.
All three teams have three home games and three road games left. The Bears are the only team that still has to play each of the other two again, traveling to Minnesota on Nov. 30 and hosting Green Bay on a Monday night, Dec. 22.
The Vikings have probably the toughest finish to their schedule, playing against three potential NFC playoff teams in succession the last three weeks - at Arizona and then home against Atlanta and the New York Giants. But at the rate the Giants are going, they could have their playoff position and seed wrapped up before that finale.
The Packers have four straight non-division games now before finishing with the two division contests at Chicago and home against Detroit the last two weeks.
With so much football left, it's clearly a one-game-at-a-time approach, and even though the Packers are currently the only team with two wins in the triangle of head-to-head meetings, the players are reticent to call themselves the team to beat.
"Actually, New Orleans is the team to beat," cornerback Al Harris said. "We play them next. We're just looking to get our game plan for New Orleans, and anything after that, is after that."
{sportsad300}That said, now that the Packers have climbed back into a tie for first, there was some talk in the locker room of defending the division title the team won last season. That hasn't really come up since the team's three-game losing streak in Weeks 2-5.
"We feel like we're the champions until somebody takes it (from) us," running back Ryan Grant said. "I think we need to take that approach, but we also need to go out and earn our wins.
"The way guys came out today and just stepped it up across the board in every phase of the game, we need to keep that mentality. The mentality we had going into this game was all-or-nothing, and we need to keep that approach through these next six."
And therein lies the number, as it stands now. Six games, with the best getting to play some more.
"We have to put a string of games together, go out and play with the same intensity we played (with) today down the stretch," cornerback Charles Woodson said. "Somebody's got to emerge from the pack, and hopefully that will be us."
