By Matt Mueller Culture Editor Published Nov 21, 2015 at 11:56 AM

So hey, the Packers sucked on Sunday. There we were, all gathered together by our TVs, radios or other devices, looking forward to briefly forgetting a truly awful weekend with a seemingly foregone victory over the more-wretched-than-usual Detroit Lions.

Nope!

The Packers’ season is far from over – more on that later – but man, will it be hard for another game to so perfectly fit the role of this season’s nadir. Everything was awful. It wasn’t a case of the Lions outplaying the Packers either; the Lions were terrible and constantly trying to hand the game over. And yet the Packers treated this 'W' like it was "Aloha" and took a hard pass on it. Aaron Rodgers looked shaky and rattled. Mason Crosby’s game-winning kick looked like it got hit with a tranquilizer dart at the line of scrimmage. Worst of all, we were outscored by an offense guided by a man named Jim Bob Cooter.

Of course, people took to the Internet to rage – its second-most-common use, just behind cats. And that’s totally fine and legitimate. But some of it – most of it from the loud, dumb minority of fans – left me sadder than Mason Crosby’s kick. So here are some quick guidelines that we can hopefully follow for next Sunday – and all the Sundays after, too, while we’re at it – to make Packer Nation a little more worthy of pride.

1. Stop blaming Olivia Munn           

Olivia Munn seems like a fine person – and I say this as one of the 11 people who sat through "Mortdecai." What she doesn’t seem like is some sort of mystical Packers-hating gremlin with the powers to ruin talented football players. But you just have to search Olivia Munn on Twitter during Packer struggles to see that some people – and some normally legitimate journalists – would seem to disagree.

I’ll put this simply: If you think Olivia Munn has anything to do with the Packers’ problems, stop thinking that. You sound like an inhumane idiot. You have nothing to back up that claim other than some prejudiced and frankly kinda sexist beliefs. There are lots of legitimate reasons for the Packers’ recent lack of success; Olivia Munn is about as plausible and rational an explanation as "Space aliens from Moron Mountain stole his talent with a glowing football to win a pick-up football game against the Looney Tunes." So stop it; you’re making us all look bad.

2. Aaron Rodgers is a good quarterback

It’s kind of crazy to have to make this argument since he is the defending MVP and has proven in the past to be the ultimate cog in making the Packers run effectively … but a quick spin through the highly-amusing-repository-of-all-things-idiotic JSComments Twitter feed would seem to force me to reiterate the obvious.

Aaron Rodgers is a good quarterback. Like, really good. You could say one of the best. There is no doubt he is struggling now – whether it’s because of concerns with his offensive line making him skittish or distrust in his bruised-up wide receiver corps or something else non-Munn related because we are humans with brains and logic.

But some recommend tossing in backup Scott Tolzien because he can’t be any worse.

Hey, let’s check out what happened last time that happened:

Not great, Bob! And those are his numbers with a competent Lacy and a healthy Nelson. You’d prefer that? There is a reason why he is a backup quarterback – and why the Packers went out of their way to get another backup in Brett Hundley in the most recent draft – and it’s not because he got caught calling McCarthy names behind his back.

Oh, and about this tweet:

Let’s put Rodgers on the trading block and see how many teams come out with offers. You would have at minimum about 25 teams calling and sacrificing first-born children to have him at the helm. A quality starting quarterback is the rarest commodity in the NFL – to the point that there are genuine thoughts about changing the game to end the crisis – and we don’t just have one, we have one of the best. So shut up. Sorry he’s a flashy California guy and not some low-key country boy. 

Also: While we're trolling through the JSComments Twitter, let's address this:

Indeed. If only he had the character of a married guy who sent dick pics to a reporter. 

3. Ignore Skip Bayless for everyone’s sake

Skip Bayless is a professional sports troll with no knowledgeable insights to offer. So when he chirps up Monday morning to belch that Aaron Rodgers is overrated or some other statement desperately churned up to incite rage, ignore it. He only says those things – and is paid to say those things – because it inspires outrage in fans and goes viral for the company that employees him. You make him happen.

So until he starts backing up his statements with arguments of worthwhile consideration, analysis and merit, just don’t. Grantland dies while "First Take" lives mostly because of you. Give your clicks to those who deserve them.

4. It’s OK for people to be upset …

This (now deleted) tweet from the City of Milwaukee – but not the actual City of Milwaukee – caused a mild hullabaloo Sunday night.

A majority of the responses were angry that those youngsters just don’t appreciate the fancy new Packers they have now. Back in their day, the Packers were garbage, and they had to walk uphill both ways to school in the rain.

It’s true: For a significant time, the Packers were trash, and we should appreciate that they have been predictably good rather than predictably awful the last decade or two. But it’s still fair for people to be disappointed that the team everyone knows to be good is playing so poorly, and yes, the Lions loss was embarrassing. The Lions are awful, and they played awful. The Packers weren’t outplayed Sunday; the Lions just managed to suck less – an impressive feat for the Lions this year. 

5. … but remember things have been worse

Indeed, we are living in an unprecedented time of Packers success. Despite our recent flopping and flailing, we should enjoy that too. Could you even imagine being a Lions or Jaguars fan? Or, heaven forbid, a Browns fan?

6. No one cares about your fantasy team

Literally no one. The only person who cares when a person starts talking about his or her fantasy football team is the person talking about his or her fantasy football team.

OK, nobody’s perfect.

7. These are people

I know, crazy notion that these aren’t humanoid robots on the field. This is what rankles me most about the whole Olivia Munn thing and Packer fans’ general attitude toward Aaron Rodgers and general sports culture: this notion that playing football, or any sport, means becoming a joyless Hermetic monk.

Aaron Rodgers should smile while playing football; he’s having fun playing a game – GAME! – for our entertainment – ENTERTAINMENT! – and playing it often very well. Football, and all sports in general, are more fun when the people involved seem to enjoy it, too. When Babe Ruth called his shot, it became an iconic sports moment. Now Cam Newton dances after scoring a touchdown, and it's all-caps, clutch-your-pearls and WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN problematic. Calm down, Helen Lovejoys. 

Aaron Rodgers also has all the right to date someone who, by all of our outside knowledge, has no effect on his football prowess and, by all accounts, doesn’t have him doing bar crawls on Saturday nights before games or anything like that. And while we're at it, he also has the right to do commercials, movies and whatever to make money while he can before his arm pulls a Peyton Manning and dies, or his brain gets concussed into oblivion. These players play a dangerous game and only have a relatively short, unpredictable window to get paid like stars. Have at it, dudes.

Have fun playing this game, living your lives and getting paid for entertaining me while I sit on a couch on Sundays, eating snacks and doing nothing of merit to advance the state of humanity.

8. Hey, look at that: The season’s not over!

The Packers are currently 6-3. Fun question: What was the Packers' record at this point last season? That’s right: It was also 6-3, and true, we looked infinitely better at this point last year, but did that end in Super Bowl rings and tickertape parades?

The constantly churning sports media world would have you believe that EVERY. GAME. MATTERS., but really, the regular season is just an extended audition to get into the playoffs. No one won the Super Bowl in Week 10. You don’t have to have a great regular season to win the title. Just ask the New York Giants. Or hell, just ask the 2010 Packers.

No, the Packers don’t look good, but there’s plenty of time to make things right and, at worst, sneak into the playoffs where everything actually matters and anything can happen.

In the meantime, though, let’s try our best to bring some rationality to the irrationality that is social media. Except when it comes to the Bears. The Bears always suck. 

Matt Mueller Culture Editor

As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.

When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.