The Green Bay Packers got the break they needed Saturday night in the race for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs in the NFC.

The Dallas Cowboys beat the Carolina Panthers, 20-13, to remain a half game ahead of the Packers going into Sunday’s action. A Carolina win Saturday would have been great for Green Bay but they received something just as nice.

The Dallas Cowboys lost wide receiver Terrell Owens in the second quarter to an ankle injury. Initial reports has Owens with a high ankle sprain. These sorts of injuries normally take a couple of weeks to heal.

That would have left the Cowboys without Owens for next week’s game at Washington. The Redskins are fighting for the last playoff spot in the NFC. A Washington win next Sunday gives the Redskins the final spot left in the NFC playoff picture.

The Cowboys offense is nowhere near as potent without Owens on the field. Owens commands double coverage almost every offense play and therefore it opens up the field for the likes of Whitten, Crayton, and Barber to have huge games.

Dallas is not a very good road team and probably would’ve lost next week to the Redskins in Washington minus TO.

That all doesn’t matter anymore because the Packers might have played the worst game I’ve ever seen a 12-win team play Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field in Chicago.

The Packers needed to win this game, beat Detroit next week and have Dallas lose to Washington to capture the No. 1 seed. Instead, it goes to the Cowboys, with Green Bay locked in at No. 2.

Brian Urlacher returned an interception for a touchdown for the first time in his career, Adrian Peterson ran for 102 yards, and the Bears beat the Packers 35-7 on a frigid Sunday afternoon.

I’ve been playing 17 years, and that was the worst condition I’ve ever played in,” Favre said. “Excuse? No excuse. It was, but they handled it better than we did. We have historically handled it well. It’s kind of our ace in the hole, but today, obviously, it wasn’t.”

Favre was at his worst on a bone-chilling, windy and at times snowy afternoon, and the Packers (12-3) took their most lopsided loss of the season.

He passed for just 9 yards in the first half and 153 overall, giving him 4,058 this season and putting him over the 4,000-yard mark for the fifth time.

He was 17-for-32 and threw two interceptions. Alex Brown picked him off on the first possession of the third quarter, setting up a touchdown that made it 21-7, and Urlacher ran one back 85 yards early in the fourth after juggling the ball.

But Favre, who left Soldier Field in tears after leading the Packers to a win last New Year’s Eve, wasn’t the only one to have a rough afternoon. The Bears blocked two punts by Jon Ryan, who also dropped a snap and booted a 9-yarder.

The Packers had gone 12 years and 929 punts without a block before Darrell McClover knocked one down in the second quarter. More damaging was Charles Tillman’s block midway through the third quarter. Corey Graham recovered at the 7 and ran it in for a 28-7 lead.

The Bears (6-9) had little to celebrate this season, but they got some consolation by knocking off their archrivals twice. And the 35 points were their most against Green Bay since a 61-7 win on Dec. 7, 1980.

The Packers head back to Green Bay for a meaningless game this weekend with the Lions. Whether coach Mike McCarty decides to rest his players or not should be an easy decision.

Any team with Super Bowl aspirations should not get a week off before the playoffs after they just got humiliated by their arch-rival. The worst part of Green Bay’s performance is they made the whole state of Wisconsin get out of bed to watch that debacle Sunday afternoon.

Remember the old saying, practice makes perfect. If I was coach McCarthy, I would have the beloved Green and Gold outside all week working on the basic fundamentals they couldn’t execute in the snow, wind, and bitter cold temps Sunday in Chicago.

For a minute their Sunday afternoon, I thought it was April Fools Day. I keep thinking that somehow, the Miami Dolphins slid into the Windy City and had put on the Green and Gold.

I quickly realized that it couldn’t have been the Dolphins because the only thing good on the Miami team is their punting unit (they have had plenty of practice this year with that offense in South Florida).

The Packers better right the ship in a hurry because I have a feeling that Green Bay will be seeing their former coach, Mike Holmgren, and the Seattle Seahawks in the divisional round of the playoffs.

One thing Packers fans will remember about Holmgren is that he usually wins in January at Lambeau Field. Sunday’s clunker at Soldier Field might have been the dagger in the Packers back.

 Only time will tell.