Game got ‘real weird,’ but Packers responded the…

By staying calm, the Packers helped settle down the game as a whole after a barrage of big-play touchdowns by both sides in the second quarter – three offensive, one defensive and one special-teams score covering 290 yards in five plays – made the NFL’s oldest rivalry look more like a video game than anything resembling the black-and-blue division.

“That got real weird, man,” receiver Davante Adams said. “Haven’t been a part of one like that. I have now. Hopefully we don’t have to deal with that again.”

But if they do, there’s reason to believe they’ll find a way to manage it.

If the next-man-up mentality can be considered engrained by now, so can the no-flinch mindset.

The fact that in three years the Packers have lost nine regular-season games under LaFleur, and are 9-0 in the games following those defeats, isn’t just a cool stat. It’s how this team is wired, and the strands that make up that DNA were on display over and over Sunday night.

The hope is that whatever remains to be overcome over the last four games of the regular season, another loss won’t be on the list, because the Packers probably can’t afford one.

At 10-3, Green Bay is in great shape, and waiting to see how 10-2 Arizona fares on Monday night. But defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay is also 10-3 after an overtime triumph over Buffalo Sunday, and the Buccaneers’ four remaining opponents have a cumulative 19-33 record, by far the easiest schedule on paper of the NFC contenders.