Well, Sports Illustrated has released its annual NFL preview, including predictions for all 32 teams, plus a tumbnail analysis of each, including our beloved Packers http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/nfl/08/31/packers/.
In the end, SI figures Green Bay to finish 10-6 (a significant improvement over 2008), but still 3rd place in the division (just the same as in '08). Still, in keeping with their confidence in the NFC North, they figure on our division sending three teams to the playoffs.
I wonder how the NFC East feels about that.
Also in keeping with their newfound love for the old black-and-blue, SI foresees the Bears and Packers in the NFC Championship Game, with the Bears prevailing in order to go on and lose to the Patriots in the Super Bowl.
All that love for the Bears springs primarily from the acquisition of Jay Cutler. The long-dormant Chicago offense is now expected to be a world beater. We shall see. I don't remember seeing the Cutler-led Broncos in the Super Bowl.
I buy the conventional wisdom that QB is the most important position in football (perhaps in sports), and Chicago has clearly upgraded there. Logically, therefore, they should be much improved. But their back-up situation is as suspect as Green Bay's, and I'm not sure that the 2008 Bears were just a quarterback away from championship ball.
Personally, I'm more afraid of the package that the Vikings have put together. But if the new 3-4 defense can do to Cutler and Favre what it has done to its preseason foes, then I'm not too afraid of anybody.
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