The words would have been ridiculous during the Holmgren and even Sherman years in Green Bay.

The Packers are a terrible home team. Lambeau Mystique has become Lambeau Mistakes.

The Packers dropped to 1-5 at home this season by getting trounced, 38-10, by the Jets Sunday afternoon. The Packers are 4-8 overall with a three-game losing streak that has taken away much of the promise shown earlier in the season. The Packers have been outscored, 73-10, in their last two home games.

Jets coach Eric Mangini may be the youngest coach in the NFL, but the 35-year-old Mangini and his staff certainly coached rings around Mike McCarthy, Bob Sanders and the Packers. The Jets embarrassed the Packers in the first half and had won the game by half at 31-0. You can pretty much throw out anything that happened in the second half. It didn't mean anything.

When it mattered, the Jets rolled up 340 total yards in the first half and scored on all five of their possessions. There was no fluke about the way they did it. The drives were 63, 51, 83, 70 and 77 yards in length. Chad Pennington picked apart the Packers defense. It was like watching an episode of "CSI." The Jets used the no-huddle offense to confuse the Packers with shifting and disguises on both sides of the ball. the Packers looked unprepared and were left standing naked in the cold winds of Green Bay.

McCarthy confounded until the end, leaving Brett Favre in to take some extra hits in a game that was long over and taking a time out with 10 seconds left just to prolong the agony. No wonder CBS couldn't wait to switch away from Green Bay the millisecond the game was over. They had to be wondering why in the world they had sent their top broadcast crew of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms to such a mismatch.

There are four games left for the Packers. But now it's all about subtle improvements and draft position. In the words of Counting Crows, it looks like "A Long December" in Green Bay.