Packers fans hoping Mike McCarthy's return won't go as badly for them as Lindy Infante's did

For the first time since he was fired as head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 2018, Mike McCarthy will return to Lambeau Field on the sideline Sunday, leading the Dallas Cowboys against his old squad. The third-year Cowboys coach had won seven of his last eight meetings against Dallas when he was still with the Packers, including memorable playoff wins after the 2014 and 2016 seasons.

The homecoming loses some of its luster given that the Packers have lost five straight games and find themselves in crisis mode. It's also not the first time a former coach has squared off with the Packers … and you may be stunned to learn how one of those reunions went.

More:Aaron Rodgers' gratitude for Mike McCarthy grows over time: 'I’ll always be tied with him'

More:Nickel: Relax, Packers fans. Some of us have lived through much worse than this.

Do you remember the stunning win for Lindy Infante's Colts?

Lindy Infante was named the 1989 AP Coach of the Year for the Packers after they turned around from 4-12 in his first season to 10-6 the next year, with a narrow playoff miss. But Infante was fired after the 1991 season, replaced by Mike Holmgren.

He became Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator in 1995 and then head coach for the 1996 and 1997 seasons. Though the latter year wound up being Infante's last as an NFL head coach, he delivered a heck of a parting blow to the Packers on Nov. 16, 1997.

The 1997 Colts finished 3-13 and started the year 0-10, becoming only the second team to start 0-10 since 1987 … but then shocked a Packers team that finished 13-3, winning the NFC and advancing to the Super Bowl. The 41-38 stunner at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis was Green Bay's lone loss in a stretch of 13 games, including two playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl.

So what in the world happened?

The Colts had the second-worst offense in the NFL but produced the second-highest point total scored against the Packers in 11 seasons, with 467 total yards.

With Reggie White on the sideline in the fourth quarter nursing a back injury, the Colts mounted a winning drive with 5:19 left on the clock, an 11-play drive that ended with Cary Blanchard's chip-shot field goal for the win as time expired. The Packers had been favored by 13 and cheered on by roughly a third of the stadium full of Packers fans.

With White hobbled, he didn't fare well against infamous former Packers offensive lineman Tony Mandarich, the famed 1989 draft bust who reclaimed his career in Indy. Gilbert Brown also left the game with a sprained ankle, enabling the Colts to run the ball up the middle.

The Colts were playing without their starting quarterback (Jim Harbaugh), pass rusher (Tony Bennett), best defensive lineman (Ellis Johnson) and starting middle linebacker (Stephen Grant).

Quarterback Paul Justin hit 24 of 30 passes for 340 yards despite a dislocated middle finger on his left hand.

"We've got a history of making average quarterbacks look great," safety LeRoy Butler said. "The guy wasn't even going to (expletive) play. Then to have a game like that ... that really hurts us."

Marvin Harrison had a great day matched up with cornerback Doug Evans (who had success the previous two weeks against talented receivers), bringing in eight receptions for 98 yards. Linebacker Bernardo Harris couldn't keep tabs on tight end Ken Dilger.

The loss, though rare, was somewhat costly. The Packers lost the tiebreaker with the San Francisco 49ers for the top seed in the NFC playoffs and had to travel for the NFC championship game to face a fellow 13-3 team. Of course, Green Bay won that game.

The loss wasted three touchdowns and 195 scrimmage yards from Dorsey Levens, and the Packers offense averaged a preposterous 10 yards per play.

"I'd be lying if I said this wasn't special; I'm human like everyone else," said Infante, who called upon motivational speaker Bob Wieland, a Greenfield native who lost his legs in Vietnam and had worked as a weight-training consultant with the Packers during Infante's tenure there. Wieland spoke to the Colts before the game.

Mike Holmgren's reunion with Packers also went badly, though Green Bay got last laugh

Holmgren, who had already led the team to one Super Bowl title and was in the process of heading back when he lost to the Colts that year, joined the Seattle Seahawks as head coach in 1999 and stayed through 2008.

In his first season with Seattle, he led the Seahawks to a 27-7 upset win at Lambeau Field. Brett Favre threw four interceptions for the second time in his career, and new coach Ray Rhodes replaced Favre with Matt Hasselbeck in the fourth quarter.

"I'd be lying if I said it was just another game," Holmgren said. "First of all, when you're coming out of the tunnel in this place, it should give anybody goose bumps. I did it on the other end for seven years, and I'd get them every night."

The Packers would mostly get the last word against Holmgren, defeating Seattle in the 2003 regular season and then in the playoffs on Al Harris' famous pick-six in overtime to seal the victory against Hasselbeck (after being traded to the Seahawks), 33-27. In an eerie bit of serendipity that mirrored the Infante game in 1997, the 2005 Packers that finished 4-12 beat the Seahawks at Lambeau Field … in a year Seattle went on to lose in the Super Bowl.

The Packers lost to Seattle in 2006 but beat it again in 2007 and 2008, finishing 5-2 against Holmgren's Seahawks. In the 2007 season, the "snow globe game" at Lambeau Field resulted in a 42-20 playoff win, advancing the Packers to the NFC championship game against the Giants. Thus, Holmgren's final playoff game as head caoch would take place at Lambeau; the Seahawks won just four games the following year, his last as a head coach.

Seattle's defensive coordinator from 2003-07 was Rhodes, fired after his one season as Packers head coach in 1999.

Other major reunions

Brett Favre (2009). It's not hard to remember that Favre threw for 271 yards and three touchdowns on Oct. 5, 2009, a massively anticipated Monday night game at the Metrodome. The Vikings won, 30-23. Then came the Nov. 1 rematch at Lambeau, when Favre threw for 244 yards and four scores (and amazingly, no interceptions in either game), leading Minnesota to a gut-punching 38-26 win. He authored two of the Packers' five losses that year, a season that ended for Green Bay in a high-scoring overtime thriller in Arizona. Minnesota, meanwhile, got to the NFC championship game.

The Packers, of course, then defeated Favre and the Vikings twice the following year en route to a 10-6 season and a run to the Super Bowl. Favre threw three interceptions in a 28-24 loss to the Packers in his last game at Lambeau on Oct. 24, 2010, and he threw for just 208 yards with one interception in a 31-3 shellacking on Nov. 21.

Reggie White (2000). The legendary Packers pass rusher retired after the 1998 season and didn't play the following year but returned with the Carolina Panthers in 2000 for one last hurrah. He played in all 16 games but was a nonfactor when the Panthers hosted the Packers on Nov. 27, 2000. Carolina won, 31-14. Rookie offensive lineman Mark Tauscher kept White at bay.

Charles Woodson (2015). The Hall of Famer had been a key piece of Green Bay's run to Super Bowl XLV, but he played the final three years of his career back in Oakland with the Raiders, which happened to be where his career started. In his final season, 2015, the Packers won a Dec. 20 clash at O.co Coliseum, 30-20. Woodson made three tackles but was juked by Randall Cobb on a big first-down play in the fourth quarter; it was relatively quiet otherwise.

JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.