The Packers defense surrounds Vikings RB Chester Taylor during last season's game at the Metrodome on Sept. 30, 2007.
There's never any time to dwell on a tough loss in the NFL, and this is certainly not the time to do so for the Green Bay Packers.
Sunday's hard-fought 19-16 overtime defeat to unbeaten Tennessee must be made ancient history in a hurry as the Packers have two critical NFC North Division contests coming up the next two weeks.
The team sits at 4-4, tied for second place in the division with the Minnesota Vikings, one game behind the 5-3 Chicago Bears. With games against those two teams the next two weeks, beginning this Sunday in Minneapolis, the bottom line is this - even at .500 at the midway point, the Packers can take over first place in the NFC North with wins in their next two games.
"We're aware of the standings and where we are in the standings," Head Coach Mike McCarthy said. "I can't speak for the players. I'm sure they're well aware of what everybody's record is, everything is so publicized.
"But we're more in tune with what our record is, 4-4, and the things we need to improve on to keep moving forward."
Still, there's no downplaying the importance of the next two weeks. After hosting the Bears on Nov. 16, the Packers will have just two division games remaining, and those come in the final two weeks of the season at Chicago, and at home against currently winless Detroit.
The time is now to make a move, and it starts this Sunday at the Metrodome, a facility that won't intimidate a team that has won its last two trips there in 2006 and 2007.
"It's a division opponent, so we know it's going to be a hard-nosed physical type of game," running back Ryan Grant said. "That's what we need to get ready for."
Added McCarthy: "Division road games are probably the toughest road games that you play throughout the year, in my opinion. So this week's challenge will be big for us, no doubt."
Midseason all-pros
Two Packers players have been named to Pro Football Weekly's midseason all-pro team - receiver Greg Jennings and cornerback Charles Woodson.
Jennings ranks second in the NFL and first in the NFC with 764 yards on 40 receptions, with four touchdowns. Only Houston's Andre Johnson has more yards, with 834 on 60 catches.
Meanwhile Woodson is tied for first in the league with four interceptions, including two returned for touchdowns.
Interestingly, Jennings and Woodson are the only players from any NFC North teams to make the magazine's midseason squad.
Frustrated vs. the run
After two weeks of some improved play against the run, the Packers lapsed on Sunday against one of the league's top rushing offenses.
The Titans' Chris Johnson and LenDale White combined for 166 rushing yards on 32 carries, the most damaging a 54-yard run by White that set up Tennessee's lone touchdown in the second quarter.
"I'm disappointed in some of the continuous gap control problems that we've had," McCarthy said. "Floating to the gap instead of attacking the gap, just the fundamentals of football.
"There's a number of different fundamentals and techniques involved in gap control. And we do it as good as it can be done, and then we slip up and it costs us, and it's happened too much to us this year."
Finding consistency against the run has been the major struggle.
"We'll see eight, nine, 10 plays in a row of solid play and all of a sudden there it was, and there it went," defensive tackles coach Robert Nunn said. "We just have to tighten up, keep working on it, keep bringing focus to it. It is frustrating, but we can't get frustrated. We have to keep improving."
The most frustrating part, aside from the one big play, was that the Titans made their most critical plays on the ground late with the game in the balance.
Backed up to their own 8-yard line with 1:49 left, the Titans ran Johnson up the middle for 8 and 4 yards on consecutive snaps to pick up a critical first down and jump-start their drive. Had the Packers, who had all three timeouts, stopped the run there, they might have been able to force a punt and get good field position for a potential game-winning drive of their own.
{sportsad300}Then in the overtime, with Tennessee on its own 42, Johnson busted loose for a 14-yard run across midfield, and three snaps later, White barreled for 7 yards off the left side to convert a third-and-4 and get the Titans into field-goal range. White's run came from the Green Bay 38, leaving the Titans with a field goal of 50-plus yards if he doesn't get the first down. But he did, and a couple of runs later, the game-winner was a very makeable 41-yarder.
"There's going to be a lot of that tape that you could put on a highlight tape, but we didn't get it done," Nunn said. "When it came down to crunch time, we didn't get it done, and those are the things we have to clean up."
Noting that he didn't feel the defense was fatigued late in the game, McCarthy added, "It's all about technique and the ability to do it right, play in, play out. That's the challenge every week."
Injury update
McCarthy said the team came out of Sunday's game with no significant injuries, just the usual bumps and bruises.
Grant got hit a couple of times on his hand, bruising it, and that's why he came in and out of the game several times.
Tackle Chad Clifton is not having any lingering effects from the medication reaction that sidelined him on Sunday, and McCarthy expects him to practice on Wednesday.
