A system and method for detecting and correcting bit errors in received packets is disclosed. The presence of bit errors in a received packet are detected using CRC bits carried in the received packet. One or more erroneous bits may be identified in a header of the packet. The erroneous bits are corrected by setting the erroneous bits to match the expected bit settings. The corrected packet is then error-checked using the CRC bits. Errors may be detected in two sequential packets where a second packet is a retransmission of a first packet. Differing bits are identified in the two sequential packets. A packet is modified to include additional combinations of the differing bits and then error-checked with each combination of the differing bits. If a modified packet passes error checking, then process the modified packet.