GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers have been saying the same thing ever since Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone in Week 6.

"We still have everything in front of us," fill-in quarterback Brett Hundley said last week, reiterating what had become a mantra of sorts after Rodgers went down.

The Packers can keep telling themselves that, but the reality is that might no longer be the case. Not after they lost Sunday night in Pittsburgh on the last play of the game. Sure, they had reason to feel good because of their valiant effort as two-touchdown underdogs, but they can't deny how grave their situation looks with five games to play.

At 5-6, they're under .500 for the first time since they were at the same mark last season, and Rodgers can't play in either of the next two games -- although they look eminently winnable against Tampa Bay (4-7) at home this Sunday and at winless Cleveland.

"Six losses," McCarthy said when asked about the state of his team. "I mean, it is what it is. You can sit there and you can jump around and look at schedules and all that. I'm sure that's fun for the fans and all the potential scenarios and all that, but at the end of the day, if you don't get to 10 wins, to me there's nothing else to talk about.

"We're at five. We've got to get to six, and that's what really it's all about. Got to get to six. We're at six losses. That's always been our mindset when we get to this point in the season. It's no different this year."

With Week 12 in the books, the Packers know exactly where they stand. They're in a four-way tie for ninth place in the NFC with three other 5-6 teams -- Dallas, Washington and Arizona. At this point, they would win all tiebreakers with those teams (the explanation can be found here).

Any hope of winning the NFC North is all but lost; they're four games behind the division-leading Vikings, who won the season's first meeting and come to Lambeau Field in Week 16. The current wild-card teams, Carolina and Atlanta, have eight and seven wins, respectively. Two other teams, Seattle with seven wins and Detroit with six, stand between the Packers and the final wild-card spot.

"We still have some games left to play, and we have to make the most of them," Hundley said. "We still have our divisional games, which are huge. But we have to take it one game at a time and really, really, focus in on this last stretch. But we can't look too far ahead. ... But this next one coming up is the most important, so we've got to understand that, just keep pushing."

It might take at least 10 wins to get a wild-card berth, which would mean the Packers probably have to win out.

"To me you've only got so much time and energy in the day," McCarthy said. "You obviously have to fill up your time and energy talking about those things. To me, five plus five equals 10. I don't think there's anything else to talk about."

McCarthy had to like the way his team responded a week after it bombed at home in the shutout loss to the Ravens. That they did it against one of the AFC's premier teams was another positive sign. But that won't help them in the standings.

"That was a playoff-caliber football game," Packers defensive tackle Mike Daniels said.

But are the Packers a playoff-caliber team?

"If we play like that, I don't see why not," Daniels said.