While the mood in the Lambeau Field locker room Monday was noticeably different from that of the post-game atmosphere from the past six weeks, the Green Bay Packers were determined not to let any effects of Sunday's defeat hang around much longer.
The feeling throughout the team reflected the words so often spoken by their leader, GM/Head Coach Mike Sherman. Sherman is a strong proponent of the idea that you take each contest individually and can not put too much stock in one game - win or lose.
Even with the nature of Sunday's loss, a 30-point shocker at the hands of the NFC-leading Philadelphia Eagles, Sherman said that he and his charges are equipped to bounce back, especially after they followed a four-game losing skid earlier in the season with six straight wins.
"You lose four games in a row, that has some pretty significant impact as well," Sherman said when asked how his team would respond to their weekend setback. "You have to rebound from that. Certainly this one loss is significant as well.
"I think we just measure the men in the locker room and see how well we respond. If we can put it aside and say, 'Hey, they had a great day, we had a bad day.' Then we put it away and go to the next one. Make the corrections that we need to make today, make sure they transfer to the game next week, and we go."
Left guard Mike Wahle agreed with his coach's assessment of what the team must do to be ready for Sunday's NFC North match-up with the Detroit Lions.
"You've got to keep and even keel," said Wahle, a seven-year veteran. "You can't get too high or too low in any situation. Something that's kind of been stressed to us this week so far is that maybe last week our preparation wasn't what it should be from a total team standpoint.
"So I think we've really got to pick it up and maybe some of the older guys need to set the example or start barking and making sure everybody's doing their job."
Safety Darren Sharper - the longest-tenured member of the Green Bay defense - is certain that the Packers will be focused and ready when they get an opportunity to redeem themselves the next time they take the field, carrying nothing of Sunday's sting with them.
"We have to (put it behind us)," he said Monday. "We have a tough team coming in here in Detroit who's playing really well on the road, and we will put it behind us. You'll see a different team come out here and play because we still have everything there that we want to accomplish still in our grasp. We'll put it behind us."
