Last year, the Green Bay Packers barely eked out the NFC North title despite losing Pro Bowl quarterback Aaron Rodgers for seven weeks. Had they had Rodgers the entire season, they'd have won ten or eleven games and been the third seed in the NFC and, most likely, would have lost to the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the playoffs instead of the San Francisco 49ers.
Bottom line: The Packers were a playoff team, but not a Super Bowl contender.
Coming into this season, that is where I had them again. Yet whatever "experts" didn't have the New Orleans Saints representing the NFC at the Glendale Toaster in February had the Packers Super Bowl XLVIX-bound (because defending Super Bowl champions NEVER repeat, of course....). I thought this was absurd. And the first four weeks of the 2014 season have certainly vindicated me and not the "experts," so far. Indeed, the Packers may have saved even a playoff season with their 38-17 win over the Chicago Bears last Sunday. 2-2 is manageable in the NFC North; 1-3 would have been exceedingly dicey at best (just ask the New Orleans Saints).
The Minnesota Vikings, meanwhile, with absolutely no playoff expectations, have seen first Matt Cassel and then Teddy Bridgewater go down in the first quarter of the season. Can the legendary Christian Ponder take the Vikings into Lambeau and upset the Pack? Should I even dignify that question with a snarky riposte?
Minnesota
Green Bay* (-9.5)
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