By Matt Mueller Culture Editor Published Dec 26, 2023 at 2:56 PM Photography: Evan Siegle / Packers.com

This is going to be hard to believe, considering the discourse and displeasure surrounding Joe Barry and the whole team ... but the Green Bay Packers won on Sunday. No, really. Fans may want to fire Barry, LaFleur and anyone within 15 feet of the defense, but Green Bay was actually the victorious team on Christmas Eve AND improved their postseason chances in the process – even if they needed a Christmas miracle or two to hold on to a 33-30 win over the worst team in the NFL. 

No, it wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing victory of all time, a Christmas turkey that gave fans stomach problems and regret afterwards. And the cries to fire defensive coordinator Joe Barry will continue to be loud enough to drown out even the most boisterous of Christmas choirs belting out "Joy to the World" – deservedly so, as Bryce Young and the Panthers proceeded to effortlessly score their most points since before Halloween, almost swiping Wisconsin's Christmas spirit (and playoff hopes) in Grinch-ian style.

But let's stay festive and cheerful (at least for this paragraph) and remember: This was supposed to be a rebuilding season for the Packers, a year of awkward adjustment and assessment – and instead, it's turned into a year with a proven quarterback of the future, a bunch of exciting young offensive weapons and even postseason hopes still alive with two games left. Yes, the Green Bay defense is wretched, refusing to adjust and learn its lessons and put its players in the best place to perform – and yet, here the Packers are, winning and putting themselves in a position where the final two games in the season still have meaning beyond simple pride. Sunday, as ugly as it was, was a success; the present season has been a success; and their (assumably Joe Barry-less) future looks to be a success. That's a lot more than many other teams – like, say, ones clad in navy and orange – can claim.

OK, the nice paragraph's over: Yuck, what a chocolate orange of a game! I'd have preferred coal than another game of Joe Barry's "defensive" "scheme" seemingly just existing to pad current and future back-up quarterbacks' stats. So, let's unwrap the naughty and nice from the most un-victorious-feeling Christmas Eve victory in franchise history. 

1. Less-than-special teams 

Anders Carlson

Maybe we should've known Sunday's Packers game was going to turn us all into Scrooges right off the bat, when Joe Barry's defense got a rare remarkable stop ... only for the Panthers to get the ball back thanks to a dim roughing the kicker penalty on the punt. Add yet another missed extra point from Anders Carlson, and in the first half, Green Bay's special teams felt as special as Santa delivering some second-hand socks. (In fairness, though, Carlson did end the day putting five of six kicks between the uprights, including the game-winner – so it wasn't an entirely blue Christmas on that side of the ball.)

2. Not-so-nice Bryce

Bryce Young under pressureX

Christmas came early for Panthers rookie quarterback Bryce Young, gifted Joe Barry's all-too-generous defense on Sunday. It sure didn't seem that way early on, though, as Young looked very young indeed, missing throws by a long shot while desperately scampering away from the Packers' pressure. Unfortunately, like flurries in this unseasonably warm Wisconsin weather, his sloppy rookie rust melted away and Young eventually turned in a career-best performance. Joe Barry defense's truly can perform miracles ... just not to the Packers' benefit.

3. Dashing through the Carolina D

Aaron JonesX

Oh what fun it is to see Matt LaFleur finally use Aaron Jones like the explosive star he is! Between injuries and LaFleur's general stubbornness, the running back's been on the back burner for too much of the season – but on Sunday, he got to shine like the star on top of the tree. On the team's first drive, Jones accounted for 48 of the team's yards through the air and ground, helping grind the Pack to their first score of the day. He'd continue crushing it in the running game, posting his first 100-yard rushing effort of the season while averaging an impressive six yards per carry. Not sure why LaFleur and company saved this kind of emphasis and workload for the worst team in the league – but hey, it turned out to be needed, so who am I to second guess. 

4. Defense: on the naughty list

Want to punish naughty Packers' fans? Forget putting coal in their stockings: You could be far meaner and stick this play on repeat instead. From Barry's undisciplined and soft defensive scheme making Carolina – a team that hadn't scored a touchdown since before St. Nick's Day – look like an offensive steamroller to polarizing cornerback Jaire Alexander making his grand return ... just so he could tackle so poorly that his attempt was more effective as a shove into the endzone, this play was a nightmare. And yet the worst was somehow yet to come on Sunday ... 

5. A holiday to Love

For a season that began with such uncertainly, it's offered a ton of clarity for the Packers' future. For one, Joe Barry's not going to be a part of it. Second – and most important – Jordan Love definitely is.

It was already clear Love was a real capable NFL quarterback before Sunday's game – but then this play happened and Love solidified that he's the guy. It's not the flashiest or craziest throw, but the pocket presence to get out of harm's way followed by the maturity to not try running for the first down – and almost certainly coming up short – and instead keep his eyes downfield to find Wicks breaking open is elite-level quarterback play. Love finished Christmas Eve with more than 200 yards passing plus two touchdowns and a push into the endzone on the ground – another impressive performance that would be the talk of Wisconsin sports if Joe Barry's defensive disappointments weren't using up all the oxygen.

6. A comfortable Christmas, right?

Even with the spotty special teams and early defensive lapses, it looked like Packers fans would be able to get cooking the Christmas dinner early as Green Bay took a 30-16 lead early in the fourth quarter with this smooth Romeo Doubs score. A two-touchdown lead with less than a quarter left against a Panthers team that hadn't scored 20 or more points in more than two months? Time to start happily prepping the ham and mashing the potatoes with the game as background noise, right?

7. Wrong.

Panthers score touchdownX

I actually think Joe Barry might be a secret genius. After all, what a four-dimensional chess move to coach your absolutely worst defensive performance against a terrible team .... but on Christmas Eve, when people will either be immediately distracted by festive spirit (and drunk by festive spirits) or want to avoid being too mean since it is the holidays. 

I'd like to avoid being mean, too – but frankly Sunday was just too much of an unpolishable turd to tolerate. The Packers let Bryce Young throw for a career-high 312 yards in a rookie campaign where he'd only topped 200 four times before. They gave up 30 points to Carolina on Sunday, the most points the woeful two-win Panthers have managed in a game all season long. Heck, the Panthers hadn't scored more than 20 points in a game since mid-October – and in that game, the last seven points came from the Carolina defense late in a loss already in-hand. And yet, while the rest of the league comfortably locks down the Panthers, Joe Barry's defense coughed up 20 points to them in the second half alone – and, as is the Joe Barry tradition, without much of a sweat on Carolina's part. 

To be fair to Barry, he was far from the only problem on Sunday. LaFleur's offensive play-calling in the final frame took the foot off the gas while taking no time off the clock, opening the door for Barry's defense to kick the Panthers comeback through. Even on the final game-winning scoring drive, with the game on the line, the offense moved away from Aaron Jones in the redzone to glorified substitute Patrick Taylor.

But while it's far from the only issue, Barry's defensive scheme is obviously the biggest issue. And there may be plenty of excuses right now to keep Barry employed in Green Bay (It's a rebuilding year! There's only a few games left! It's Christmas, you soulless monsters!!) one imagines those excuses won't survive long into 2024, and the season of giving will disappear into the season of giving pink slips.

8. A Christmas miracle

Despite the defense's worst efforts, Sunday's holiday game still came with a Hallmark-approved happy ending for Packers fans – thanks to maybe a little unexplainable magic.

Facing a third down in their own territory and a Panthers defense invigorated by the 14-point comeback, Love hoisted this deep bomb to Romeo Doubs for a big 30-yard catch ... apparently. Upon further review, it sure looked like the ball not only jostled out of Doubs' hands while he rolled out of bounds but even hit the ground. But apparently the catch was finished when he landed, and everything else was superfluous. Once again, I have no idea what a catch is in the NFL – but much like Santa Claus, I may not understand how it works, but I appreciate the gifts!

The Packers would turn that big gain eventually into an easy Anders Carlson field goal, giving Green Bay a 33-30 lead with less than 20 seconds left for the Panthers. How much damage could a Joe Barry defense inflict in just 19 seconds? Ugh, I don't want to know the answer to that ... 

9. Asking for seconds 

Indeed, 19 seconds were almost enough for Joe Barry to steal Christmas.

The Panthers offense – which, once again, was last seen incapable of scoring a single touchdown for almost a month – feasted on the Green Bay soft coverage like Santa on cookies, marching 44 yards in just two plays and quickly setting themselves up for a game-tying field goal. The Packers' only defense? The passage of time, as Bryce Young couldn't quite spike the ball before the clock hit zeroes, keeping their kicker on the sideline and keeping the W in the Packers' column. Thank the holiday heavens for that, too, because if Carolina got to kick a field goal and made it, overtime sure looked like it was trending toward the newly energized Panthers. And if you thought the Joe Barry rage was loud now ... 

But thankfully, that didn't happen, and Green Bay held on for a holiday win – with hopefully another one on the docket for New Year's Eve next Sunday night against the Vikings minus Kirk Cousins as well as potentially their best tight end and their starting running back. Will the Packers play down to their wounded competition, as is their habit? Or will the Packers step up in the spotlight against a playoff contender – as is ALSO their habit? Either way, 2023's ending with a bang.

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.