GREEN BAY u2012 The rebuilding Green Bay Packers have had their ups and downs this season — Sunday's loss was clearly a down — but their problems pale in comparison to their next opponent, the Carolina Panthers.
Even the Panthers' ups, like Sunday's 9-7 victory over the Atlanta Falcons, are downs. Carolina won its second game of the season, against 12 losses, in front of mostly empty seats at Bank of America Stadium, where the Packers will play at noon on Christmas Eve. To be fair, torrential rains along the East Coast affected turnout, but by most reports, Carolina fans had better things to do than watch their team flail around without even the hope of the first draft pick in next year's NFL draft, which they traded to the Chicago Bears.