NFC North

[lastchance]

In the NFC North, the Bears have at least a 10% chance to win this division, with Culpepper sucking, Lions sucking, and Packers on the decline.

[Russ McGinley]

Chicago may go 10-6 just because they will beat up on these putrid divisional opponents.

[Clarkmeister]

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In the NFC North, the Bears have at least a 35% chance to win this division, with Culpepper sucking, Lions sucking, and Packers on the decline.

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fyp

[Sluss]

I'm really interested in the Bears vs. Bengals next week. I'm not 100% sold on the Bengals D yet. If the Bears can score 21 I think they could win. Then it's a bye week and then these are their next 6 games:
10/09/05
at Cleveland
10/16/05
Minnesota
10/23/05
Baltimore
10/30/05
at Detroit
11/06/05
at New Orleans
11/13/05
San Francisco

I think they could win 4-5 of these games and then they still have the Packers twice.

[JayLear]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm really interested in the Bears vs. Bengals next week. I'm not 100% sold on the Bengals D yet. If the Bears can score 21 I think they could win. Then it's a bye week and then these are their next 6 games:
10/09/05
at Cleveland
10/16/05
Minnesota
10/23/05
Baltimore
10/30/05
at Detroit
11/06/05
at New Orleans
11/13/05
San Francisco

I think they could win 4-5 of these games and then they still have the Packers twice.

[/ QUOTE ]
The Bears have 2 things going for them -- they have a very good (I'm still hesitant to say "great") defense, and they play in the worst division in football. I'm very interested to see if they can carry this week over against the Bengals. At this point it's very difficult to say how good either of these teams are, but I'm not sold on either.

[unlucky513]

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Chicago may go 10-6 just because they will beat up on these putrid divisional opponents.

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no way, not with orton at QB. pack wins the division at 9-7.

[JayLear]

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[ QUOTE ]
Chicago may go 10-6 just because they will beat up on these putrid divisional opponents.

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no way, not with orton at QB. pack wins the division at 9-7.

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While I agree that 9 wins could win this division, what about the Packers season thus far makes you think they'll win 9 games? They have absolutely no defense, and the offense looks hapless.

[benfranklin]

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The Vikings blowing has as much to do with the loss of Matt Birk as it does with the loss of Randy Moss.

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Qadry Ismael (sp?) just made this exact point on ESPNnews- NFL Blitz. He had some very nice commentary on the situation. I was impressed.

[/ QUOTE ]

A lot of people, including many Twin City sports writers, think that the loss of offensive coordinator Scott Linehan was as critical as the loss of Moss or Birk.

One of the big stories that I didn't see on TV yesterday (I may have just missed it flipping channels) was that Tice took over play calling in the 4th quarter. Speculation in today's paper is that he will keep it.

One of the best sports columnists here is Patrick Reusse of the Star Tribune. Some quotes from Monday's paper:

"These Vikings have been immensely overrated in the alcohol-addled minds of their fans since the athletes reported to Mankato.

What was shocking were the similarly optimistic forecasts coming from the national media. Apparently, this was based on the Viking's addition of several aging players with injury histories to a porous defense."


Regarding the Vikings scoring after Tice took over play calling:

"Hopefully, he doesn't see this as any more than it was--a consolation touchdown against a retreating defense that didn't care if the Vikings made it to the end zone. What this offense doesn't need is Tice at the helm."

[jacki]

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Chicago may go 10-6 just because they will beat up on these putrid divisional opponents.

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no way, not with orton at QB. pack wins the division at 9-7.

[/ QUOTE ]

Have you watched either of the Packers games?
They've played two terrible to slightly below average teams, and have scored 10 pts. during normal game conditions. Their O-line is putrid, so the D's are playing saggy zone and Favre has nowhere to throw it.

And have you looked at the Packers schedule?
They just finished the easy part, and they're 0-2. They still have to play Pitt, Philly, Carolina, Atlanta, at Minn., Chicago twice, TB, ugh.
They'll be lucky to win 5 games this year.

[gomberg]

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Quote:
In the NFC North, the Bears have at least a 35% chance to win this division, with Culpepper sucking, Lions sucking, and Packers on the decline.



fyp

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I bought 250 contracts on the bears to win the NFC North on tradesports before the season started at 10.0 (9:1 odds for $250). I did this because no way in hell were the bears only 10%, I thought they should be closer to 18-22% range with how weak the rest of the division is and how underrated Orton was going to be and how healthy the bears D is compared to last year.

I am very interested to see how the next week looks. I want to unload some of my Bears position for about 35%, as you said, but on tradesports the market is closer to 25%, which I don't want to do because I think that's giving up too much edge.

If they win this week, I'll probably ride it to the end.