It’s all intramural in the NFC North this week. The Lions play in Minnesota, while the Packers play in Chicago.
Detroit and Minnesota are two teams going in opposite directions. The Vikings’ moment was the 2009 season, when everything went right for them -- up until that critical Favre interception in the playoffs, that is. The wheels came off in 2010. And now they are off to a grim 0-2 start in 2011. The Lions, on the other hand, were 0-16 in 2008, but have reeled off six straight wins (going back to last season), and are coming off a public embarrassment of the Kansas City Chiefs. (The Chiefs, remember, were division winners last year.)
So I fully expect that, by the time the curtain closes on Week Three, the Lions will still be undefeated and the Vikings still winless. Still, anything can happen in the Division.
And, speaking of in-the-Division, the Packers head to Chicago in one of this Sunday afternoon’s late (i.e., marquee) games. No need to elaborate on why this is a huge early-season game.
I’m sure that we’re the better team. Clearly, though, we need to straighten out a few things in order to be all that we can be. The offense is not as consistently balanced and productive as it really ought to be, given the quarterback, the skill, and the weapons we have. And the defense -- oh, my! I heard a local radio person immediately following this past Sunday’s Packer game say, “Well, the real problem for the Green Bay defense is the big play, and then the way that quarterbacks can check down and throw short against us.” Okay, but which is it? The big play or the dink-and-dunk? I’m afraid it’s both, and that’s pretty unsettling. And they didn’t even mention the poor tackling.
Still, going back to the must-win games with which we ended the 2010 regular season, plus the playoff victories, plus the two games so far this year, we see this undeniable pattern: Capers’ defense manages to do what they need to do in order to win. And I think they’ll do the same against Chicago this Sunday.
Elsewhere around the league…
Life doesn’t get any easier for the 0-2 Chiefs. They’ve been snake-bit with injuries, they were humiliated by the Lions, and now they have to head to the west coast to face the San Diego Chargers. The Chiefs were a playoff team in 2010. I expect that they’ll be starting 2011, however, at 0-3.
Nor does the future look any brighter for the 0-2 Colts. They host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football. (I’m sure NBC expected that to be a better match-up than it will probably turn out to be in the end.)
Finally, it’s a battle for AFC North supremacy when the 2-0 Patriots (no surprise there) face the 2-0 Bills (big surprise there) in Buffalo. Only one team will emerge undefeated, and I fully expect it to be the red-hot Patriots.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment