1. Green Bay. It's not just the maturation of Aaron Rodgers. It's the carryover from a fluky end to 2009 (the weird playoff loss at Arizona) and the fact that only one team in football -- New Orleans -- had a better point differential than the Pack's plus-164 last year.
"zombieslayer" wrote:
I talk about this stat all the time (point differential) and it doesn't get as much credit as it deserves. It's rare for a team to win a SB that's not a #100 team. If you look at our 3 SB teams - we were +246, +123, and +172. Lombardi's best team was +267, and that was only with a 14-game season. Had it been today's 16 game season, we would have been around +300.
You want to not only beat teams, but completely obliterate them. Show them that you are dominant and that they have no place being on the field with you.
Our point differential last year showed that we were better than a 11-5 team. Our D just fell apart in the Playoffs though, but we can score at will.
I strongly think that people who don't see that we're for real will look like fools this year. We may not win the SB, but we'll win at least one Playoff game, barring real bad injuries.
As for the others, Pittsburg and MN are better than #12 and #13. The Steelers found ways to lose last year and this year, they won't be so bad. Favre will be back in purple this year and MN will post double digit wins, although they are the Vikings so it's guaranteed that they'll find a new and exciting way to lose in the Playoffs.
San Diego is not #2.
If I had to say pick a Cinderella team, it would be the Niners. Singletary's a genius. One of these years, he's going to surprise everyone and post a deep Playoff run. I wouldn't rule out 2010.