Bleacher Report takes a look back and determines sees that the Packers were three plays away from winning the 2008 NFC North championship:

If you assume the first two plays highlighted above [K Mason Crosby missing a late field goal at Minnesota and at Chicago]...went the other way, and if Longwell misses wide from the same distance Mason Crosby missed from in week 10, the Vikings lose 19-17.

This would have left the Vikings, Bears, and Packers tied with identical 8-8 records. And our Packers would have been awarded the NFC North crown as a result of their 6-0 record within their division!

It would have been a weak 8-8 division crown, but as the lowly seated Arizona Cardinals proved last season, just get into the playoffs and hope for the best.

But 2008 wasn't just a tough luck season. There were some serious problems (i.e. run defense, special teams, run offense) with the team, which Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson addressed by hiring new assistant coaches and targeting two defensive players in the 1st round. The Packers weren't some hard luck team; they just weren't very good. They deserved to miss the playoffs. Ron Wolf wrote about the 1991 Packers, who felt they were a good team that just had bad luck, and he had to fire the coaches and make some major personnel moves to let everyone know that they really weren't that good. This offseason has shown that Thompson is not waiting for his luck to change.