Fleur-de-Links: January 23, 2012

Brutal? Naw. Difficult, yes, but brutal is overstating it.

Division rivals are nothing new, we face them every year whether we win or lose we’ll face them again the next year. No big deal.

GB on the road is going to be tough, but a lot depends on whether our defense improves more than their OL from the end of 2011. Health of various major players will be a huge key. If we’re getting pressure from our front four we’ll have a shot. If we aren’t, then probably not. Weather/time-of-year may also play a role.

Giants may well be the defending super bowl champs (Patriots are currently favored but they shouldn’t be), but who knows what that will mean. Eli is one tough sucker. Hitting him isn’t enough, you have to sack him and end the drive. Hopefully we can do so. Again, tough game, health will be key, if they are as beat up as they were when we played them in the Dome we’ll very likely win, if not it’s more a toss-up, though again weather may play a role. Pretty sure they’re a turf field, tho, which would likely help us out at least a tiny bit in that there wouldn’t be massive inconsistencies in the field from one area to another that the locals would know about and we wouldn’t.

Broncos overachieved in a weak division. They don’t scare me. Ditto on the Raiders. DMC is a beast, but if he can’t stay healthy he can’t hurt us. Palmer was great, but his injury history has made him gun-shy. Hit him a dozen times or so and he’ll be misfiring passes all over the place (again). Now both teams are good enough that they won’t be overlooked like the Rams were this year, but they are bad enough we should win comfortably (barring, of course, some huge improvements on their part in the offseason).

Cowboys and Romo are so ridiculously inconsistent you can’t know what you’ll face but at least we’ll be on a fast track in a Dome. That means we are able to play whatever game we want, as long as Sean can make himself run if it’s working. No gimme, but no guaranteed loss either.

Of course, we also have absolutely no clue what this team will look like next year. Will we still have Drew? (we better!) What about Nicks? Colston? etc… What about the defense, will it at least be “decent” on a consistent basis instead of “when we have no choice but to make a play, we usually do”? If we at least still have Drew and Nicks and the defense is decent, we’ll be at least as good a team or even better next year. Without one of those key areas, we probably won’t be… but then it still won’t be the schedule, it will be we aren’t a good enough team.

No, if we are as good or better next year then I think we are fully capable of winning every single game on the road next year. For that matter, ditto on the home games. We won’t, of course. We’re not going 16-0, and I figure at least two home and two road losses next year is fairly likely (though I’d love to be high on those numbers). But there isn’t a single game on that schedule that’s impossible to win so long as our defense improves to “consistently decent” and we still have Drew and Nicks.

So difficult, yeah, but brutal is a bit much.

I’m still kind of pissed that the league scheduled us to go on the road to Lambeau two seasons in a row. Seems more fair that they should have to come to us the second time.