Can’t argue with any of that. I’m not saying they won’t make it to the NFCCG, just that they don’t have better than a 50/50 shot to do so. That schedule is awfully hard not to like, though, especially with the Ravens and Steelers out of the way.
Dare I say the Bengals might be resting starters by Week 15 with the division locked up? 
You wanna talk easy schedules? Look at the Cards the rest of the way.
8 Nov 01 CAR @ ARI
9 Nov 08 ARI @ CHI
10 Nov 15 SEA @ ARI
11 Nov 22 ARI @ STL
12 Nov 29 ARI @ TEN
13 Dec 06 MIN @ ARI
14 Dec 14 ARI @ SF
15 Dec 20 ARI @ DET
16 Dec 27 STL @ ARI
17 Jan 03 GB @ ARI
They get the Packers and Vikes at home. They have a couple potentially tough divisional games with Seattle and San Fran left, but I think they have better odds of sweeping those games than the Vikes do of handling GB and Chicago twice. As for the rest: Carolina, St Louis twice, Tennessee and Detroit for a combined total of 3 wins. That Bears game in Soldier Field might be cold but with the way the Bears played this week even I’m not feeling great about it, aside from Tennessee there isn’t another game where the elements will play a role. They lose maybe 3 games for the rest of the season at worst, assuming a split with the SF and SEA and losing 2 or 3 versus the NFC North.
ORLY?
The Bears thought so too!
The Bengals are only going to get better as the season progresses. Favre has shown the tendency to regress as the season wears on, last season being a glaring example of that.
Incidentally I find it patently absurd that the Giants coming to Minny qualifies as a “tough game” but traveling to face the Cardinals, a team that just went into the Meadowlands and beat the same Giants in Primetime, doesn’t.
That’s because the Cardinals have yet to show up for games on a consistent basis, while the Giants do show up. It does seem like the Cardinals are going to explode through the SB hangover, though.
I think it remains to be seen whether the Bears are an easy W or not, or whether the Bengals are a softer opponent than the Ravens. Maybe, maybe not. Too soon to say. The Packers get the Bucs instead of the Panthers, and the Cowpokes instead of the Giants. I don’t think there’s as big a difference between the remaining schedules than you make it out to be. I will go on the record now, however, and say that 15-1 is out of the question for Minnesota.
Early line is GB by 3. Nationally televised Fox game. The season starts Sunday!
I think it will be interesting to see if Favre’s body can handle the second half of the season. And not only that, his mind and his sharpness. Last year was a colossal collapse by the Jets, whom by every right looked to be a playoff team after eight games last year. Favre bears a lot of responsibility for their meltdown.
I wonder if history will repeat itself. Perhaps they should look to try to insert Tarvaris into the lineup at random intervals to spell the old man and maybe run a little wildcat with Jackson and AP. Interesting times.
A lot of Jets fans and Favre-haters seem to be willfully ignoring Favre’s injury last year that contributed to his (and the Jets’) poor finish. Look - I even have a cite:
He’s playing with the same injury now.
Check your facts, man. He had surgery in May to address it.
Ha! Speaking as a Giants fan, I don’t see the Giants game as a tough one for Minny simply because the Vikings have consistently pushed the Giants shit in during the Eli/Coughlin era. I’m personally hoping that the Giants/Vikings game ends up not mattering for at least one of them. If it ends up being a big playoff seeding game, I just might shit my pants.
Adrian Peterson did once have a 243 yard game against the Giants. That was in his rookie year, though, and it was before teams were scheming 9 in the box against him.
Arizona I have a hard time buying into all the way because of their inconsistency. Of course, I never really bought all the way into them last year either and they made it to the Superbowl, so that shows what I know.
After sunday, I do concede that I’m probably underrating the Bengals. I don’t think that any team is going to see them as an easy beat from here on out.
The Bears probably should scare me a little, but they don’t.
I admit that I’m not feeling tremendously confident about the Packers game on sunday. I feel like that one could go either way, and it remains to be seen how Favre will perform as the enemy at Lambeau. He probably doesn’t know himself. I know it can be feast or famine with him. He could could have one of his Jedi games (like when his dad died, or like his first fgame against the Pack this year), or he could have one of those patented Brett Favre, five interception meltdowns. The one thing that encourages me is that he’s been a lot more willing to just take the sack this year and not try to thread the needle. I think he’s consciously trying not to make thsoe wreckless mistakes he’s so infamous for.
This is going to be one hell of an interesting game, no matter what, maybe the most interesting game of the season.
I stand corrected.
Favre for the most part this season has been under good control. Not sure if that is the result of the coaching, or just his determination to prove people wrong. The Pittsburgh game showed a couple flashes of the old Favre impatience. I’m seriously hoping that he doesn’t have the “A” game Sunday. He sure did up in Minnesota a couple weeks ago, and if he does have it at Lambeau, gonna really shut some cheese-headed peeps up. :eek:
Did he have that injury at the end of 2007 too?
Didn’t he have one of his best statistical years and go the the NFC Championship game that year?
Yes. He then threw two awful interceptions including a Favre end-of-season classic in overtime to set up the Giants’ winning field goal.
I’ve always thought it was a shame that Favre didn’t have the patience throughout his career. You put Joe Montana’s head in that strong armed body and the sky would be the limit for him. Back in 95-97, when he was playing so damn well and his TD to INT ratio was very good, I thought he’d be a world beater, the best quarterback ever. But he got his ring, White retired, and Holmgren left, and he became the reckless gunslinger who would cost the Packer’s games (as well as win them).
Favre has always been better when he has something to prove which gets him to focus his meathead on the game of football. Early last season with the JETS, and so far this season, he’s been a quality quarterback, playing within a system and not making idiotic throws. We will see if he can keep it up.
Yes, he played really well. Until it got cold. Ryan Grant carried the team over Seattle, The only other real cold games he had to play late in the season were in Chicago and against the Giants, both of which he did relatively poorly in. My theory is it is the cold, in which case Minnesota doesn’t have a whole lot to worry about, unless they lose homefield advantage to a place with an outdoor cold stadium. However, it could be a stamina/endurance thing, in which case Minnesota might need to worry.
And part of the Bears nightmare at LG is over. This should not have taken this long and I suspect it will pay dividends almost immediately. There are still a ton of issues on the line, and it remains to be seen if another move needs to be made, but at least this should prevent the jailbreak at that position every 8 snaps or so. I hope that Beekman can help bring us a sliver closer to the running game we managed last season.