Aaron Rodgers was delighted to "knock back" the negative voice in his head by leading the Green Bay Packers to an overtime comeback win over the Dallas Cowboys.
The Packers went into the game, which saw Rodgers go against former head coach Mike McCarthy, on a five-game losing streak that dropped them to 3-6.
Green Bay last week scored only nine points in a defeat to the Detroit Lions, with many viewing that as the final nail in their coffin.
Rodgers agreed that loss was a low point, but felt the Packers could only go in one direction from there.
He ensured they went on an upward trajectory, throwing three touchdown passes to rookie receiver Christian Watson as the Packers fought back from 28-14 down in the fourth quarter to see off the Cowboys 31-28.
"Last week was definitely a low, rock-bottomish for sure," Rodgers said. "Not in a depressive, isolationism way but more disappointment. And I felt like that was the bottom and it was only up from there.
"I think a lot of the battles that we face are between I and I, between the person that can go out there and dominate and knows that they can, and the little voice in your head that tries to knock you out of that confident perch around you.
"I'm happy that I knocked that voice back into hell and had a good performance today."
The Packers' win over the 6-3 Cowboys and the coach in McCarthy who led them to glory in Super Bowl XLV in the 2010 season keeps them alive in the NFC playoff picture.
They are 4-6, two games back in the loss column of the 5-4 San Francisco 49ers, who would be the seventh and final seed in the conference if the season ended today.
And Rodgers is hopeful it could be the start of a remarkable turnaround in their fortunes.
"That was a turning point for us, hopefully a turning point that leads us to go on a streak," Rodgers said of the fourth-quarter fightback.
"But that [trailing 28-14] was a chance for guys to [go], 'Ah, it's not our season, 3-7, what are we doing in the offseason, it's not gonna be our year.'
"It just felt like energetically something was gonna go our way, and we stuck together in the fourth."