Theres THREE ways this season can end.
1) Under 9 wins, with losses to San Fran, Pittsburgh, Arizona in the last game, and take your pick of losing a game we should win (@Chi, vsDallas, @Detroit on Thanksgiving). If this happens and we drop 4 more games against the upper-half of teams in the league(SF,PIT,ARI,DAL), then the bottom WILL fall out on the fan base and the team. McCarthy's firing will be called for by the fans and some players. But Mark Murphy will publicly state his confidence in Ted Thompson, and in turn Thompson will publicly state his confidence in McCarthy. ... keeping the current regime for the 2010 season, which would mean keeping mostly the same roster, is recipe for disaster.
2) We pull a 2008 and go from 4-3 to losing record. If the first seven games is a display of what we are FULLY CAPABLE of, then we are just 2008 all over again. McCarthy will continue to run the team THE SAME way he does every week/season. No change in what he does. Memo to McCarthy: you can only be a team that does the same thing every week if it gets WINS. Anyway... if this team has already peaked, and what we have seen is the best we will see, then there's at least SIX losing games coming up. vsDallas, vsSF, vsBaltimore, @Chicago, @Pittsburgh, @Arizona. If you think about the matchups, and if you bank on the Packers committing 10 penalites a game, the Defense giving up 2-3 TD drives per game(with no 3rd down success and no pass rush), then these games are all losable. In fact EVERY game is losable if we continue to play the way we have seen for the last 23 games.
3) And finally. We can finish 11-5 or 10-6 in theory. A 6-3 run to end the season is common in the NFL. And if you look at the yardage the passing game has been able to put up, you have to think GB has a chance at making a run. The question is: How much did McCarthy learn from the two Minnesota beatdowns? I'm not sure he learned anything. But there is always the chance that McCarthy will rally the troops and start making the proper adjustments to the weaknesses of his own team, just we have not seen that ability from him since he had Favre, so I am doubtful. But, if we roll on Tampa like we did to the other crappy teams, then we might be able to put together wins against Dallas, San Francisco, Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago and Seattle. That is possible people, the passing game is THAT good. The D has been good against everyone not named Brett Favre. Does Tauscher and Clifton being healthy give us enough OLine help? If they really are healthy, then that could be the answer MM is searching for...