GREEN BAY, Wis. -- As the euphoria of the Hail Mary victory over the Detroit Lions permeated through the Green Bay Packers' locker room late Thursday night, coach Mike McCarthy offered a dose of reality.

“Well, unfortunately, it [only] counts as one win,” he said. “It feels like more, and I think we all feel that way. I know I do.”

At this point, four days removed from what McCarthy called “our greatest regular-season win,” his task now is turn it into a momentum builder rather than a one-off moment of jubilation in otherwise underachieving season.

Like any coach worth his salt, you would expect McCarthy to explore every way possible to do that.

However, as quarterback Aaron Rodgers put it after the game, “that’s tough because it’s tough to carry over momentum game to game.”

The other thing McCarthy and his staff must do is examine why they were in that unenviable late-game situation to begin with. His offense did nothing for two-and-half quarters and got a boost from a game-changing defensive play -- Julius Peppers' strip-sack of Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford in the third quarter.

Can one throw and catch change the fact that McCarthy and play-caller Tom Clements have a floundering offense that still ranks in the bottom third of the NFL.

“I don’t know about that,” Rodgers said. “It’s a hell of a game, a big one for us. Get to eight wins ... keeps us right in the mix for the playoffs.

“But the thing about this sport we love is, we’ve got to get right back out there next Sunday and play another game.”

The final quarter of the season begins with a home game against the Dallas Cowboys this Sunday and ends with a home game against the Minnesota Vikings sandwiched around road games at the Oakland Raiders and Arizona Cardinals.

Even at 8-4, which looks a lot better than 7-5 and has the Packers in a much better postseason position as the NFC North division leaders, this was a Packers’ team that trailed the Lions 20-0 early in the second half. McCarthy surely doesn’t his players to think that kind of comeback is easily repeated.

“You talk about the word focus, and focus covers a lot of things,” McCarthy said. “What are you think about when you’re down 17-0 [at halftime]? What’s going through your head? You have one of two choices. Make sure you’re taking the positive one and if you’re not, make sure you switch it to the positive one. Those are kind of things that really give you a good look inside your football team and tell you what you’re all about.”