2011 Regular Season Re-cap

In August, I blogged about my predictions for the 2011 season. And I don't want to sound too proud of myself, but I was pretty darn good! Here's a re-cap of the NFC North:

Packers

My Pre-season Prediction: 11-5, 1st in the division
Actual: 15-1, 1st in the division

The Packers surprised a lot of people by remaining undefeated into December, myself included. I knew the offense was good, but I didn't know they were THIS good. I think that they surprised even more people with the lack of defense. This team had had a top 5 defense 2 years in a row (2009-10), but fizzled in 2011 with the injury to Nick Collins and the loss of Cullen Jenkins. The pass rush has been pathetic and the secondary coverage has been almost as bad. The redeeming factor has been the turnover margin. The Packers have dominated the league with over 30 interceptions. Will the dependence on turnovers make or break the team in the playoffs? We'll start to find out in 2 weeks!

Lions

My Pre-season Prediction: 9-7, 2nd in the division
Actual: 10-6, 2nd in the division

I said all along that Stafford's health would determine the success of this team. And he has started all 16 games. The Lions came out of the gates strong, winning their first 5 games. But then they started to tail off down the stretch. The suspension of Ndamukong Suh seemed to be a big blow to this team. But they have since rebounded and earned a playoff spot for the first time in over 10 years. Granted, they are the 6 seed but it is still impressive. The Lions have a lot of young talent in Calvin Johnson and Matthew Stafford and on the defensive line. If they can find a RB that can stay healthy they will be tough in the years to come. The question at hand now is whether they can go to New Orleans and upset the Saints in the wildcard playoff game this weekend.

Bears

My Pre-season Prediction: 7-9, 3rd in the division
Actual: 8-8

This was the prediction I was most nervous about 10 games into the year. The bears were sitting at 7-3 and looked like a team that nobody wanted to play. But then the injuries started. First Jay Cutler went down with a hand injury after trying to make a tackle after an interception. Not the end of the world...but then the worst thing imaginable for the bears happened...Matt Forte who accounted for almost all of their offense went down with a knee injury and that ended pretty much all hope for the bears. They finished the season 1-5 and missed the playoffs. Mike Martz and their GM are gone and the Bears will go into a pseudo-rebuilding mode in 2012. It will be interesting to see what the future of Matt Forte holds. He is an unrestricted Free Agent. It's likely that the bears will use the franchise tag on him to keep him from signing elsewhere. We're all hoping they get an offensive coordinator that neglects Forte and trusts Cutler's arm. That always seems to benefit the Packers.

Vikings

My Pre-Season Prediction: 5-11, last in the division
Actual: 3-13, last in the division

Well, the Donovan McNabb experiment failed. And I predicted that by midseason Christian Ponder would be the starting QB. I think everyone figured out quickly that the queens would struggle this year. I just don't think anyone thought that they would struggle THIS much. McNabb was awful. They released him and he hasn't signed with another team. Ponder has looked like a rookie. He may develop into a good QB, he may not. And the biggest blow came in week 16. Adrian Peterson went down with a torn ACL and MCL in a meaningless game. His status for the beginning of the 2012 season is in question. I never like to see anyone get hurt. So we here at the Malnarn wish him the best in his recovery.

All in all, I am very pleased with the result of the regular season. The Packers own the best record in football and are the #1 seed in the playoffs, the bears and queens are done, and barring a huge upset Aaron Rodgers should be the MVP. Let's enjoy this weekend of stress-less football watching. GO PACK!