2013 NFL Recap: NFC North

My Preseason Predictions:
1.Green Bay Packers (12-4)
2.Chicago Bears (9-7)
3.Detroit Lions (7-9)
4.Minnesota Vikings (6-10)

Actual Standings:
1.Green Bay Packers (8-7-1)
2.Chicago Bears (8-8)
3.Detroit Lions (7-9)
4.Minnesota Vikings (5-10-1)

Chicago Bears: The 2013 Bears season was pretty typical: Plenty of optimism at the start only to end in crushing disappointment. This year it was even worse since the defeat that kept the Bears out of the playoffs this time around was at the hands of the rival Green Bay Packers in a game they could've easily won. The difference with the 2013 Bears letdown was the fact that it wasn't because of the play of Jay Cutler or the lack of offensive firepower, it was the fact that the play of the defense was wildly unreliable. It really is shocking to see just how fast the Bears defense crumbled. During the 8-year tenure of Lovie Smith, the defensive play was the backbone of the team with consistent strong play across the entire defense, ability to create takeaways and score an unrivaled almost amount of defensive touchdowns. The 2013 Bears couldn't generate much of a pass rush, greatly reduced their amount of takeaways and had one of the saddest excuses for a run defense that I've ever seen. The sudden demise of the Bears defense can be blamed on two things: injuries and age. The injuries kept wracking up early in the year as Henry Melton, D.J. Williams and Nate Collins were all out for the year by the time September came to a close. Veteran leaders Lance Briggs and Charles Tillman also missed significant time, taking away two field generals and leaving a mostly inexperienced group of guys on-the-field (especially in the front 7.) The inexperience and loss of depth lead to their subsequent, well-documented struggles against the run that ultimately was the primary reason the Bears aren't playing into January this year. In addition to so many veterans getting hurt, the one's that did stay healthy showed signs of age. Julius Peppers has lost a few steps yet still managed to lead the team in sacks with 7.5 while Dallas Cowboys cast off Jay "Jeremiah" Ratliff pretty much showed that he has nothing left in the tank at defensive tackle. This is a defensive unit that needs young playmakers now because aside from Melton and Major Wright, none of their top defensive contributors are south of 30. Things were a lot rosier on the other side of the ball this year thanks to a very successful reinvention of the offense. First-year head coach Marc Trestman is every bit of the offensive genius he was touted to be turning around one of the worst units in the league into one of the best in just a single year. Trestman nuked the entire offensive line save for center Roberto Garza and turned a long-standing weakness of the Bears into one of its strongest points. Free-agent tackle Jermon Bushrod and guard Matt Slauson were dominant while rookies Kyle Long and Jordan Mills far outplayed expectations and rounded off this suddenly-stout unit rather nicely. The improved offensive line play was the catalyst for the Bears much-improved offense. Quarterback Jay Cutler played the best football of his career despite all the time he missed with various injuries this year while backup Josh McCown was shockingly great when Cutler was absent while running back Matt Forte and wide receiver Brandon Marshall put up the big numbers you've come to expect from them. The big surprise for the Bears offense in 2013 was the sudden emergence of second-year wideout Alshon Jeffrey. Jeffrey built upon the flashes of potential he showed in his rookie year and became a much more disciplined, complete player with the ability to turn any play into a big play thanks to his speed and knack for making highlight-reel worthy catches. The emergence of Jeffrey makes the Bears offense that much more deadly now that opposing defenses have to worry about him in addition to Marshall, who has long had a reputation as one of the most talented wideouts in the league. The Bears have a lot of things to be excited about offensively, they just need to reestablish the stiff defense of the Bears of old if they want finally to make the breakthrough from solid team to legitimate contender.

Detroit Lions: There were certainly more disappointing teams in 2013, but no team fell harder after a strong start than the Detroit Lions. The Lions blew their lead in the NFC North thanks to downright terrible play in the last two months of the season losing their last 4 games and 6 of their last 8 overall, leading to head coach Jim Schwartz being fired after 4 wildly disappointing seasons. Despite the collapse, the Lions certainly showed a lot of promise this season. Matthew Stafford had another 4,000 yard season, Calvin Johnson had yet another dominant year ranking 2nd in the league in receiving yards and tied for 5th in touchdowns , Reggie Bush fixed their running back problems with a 1,000 yard season and their rushing defense was absolutely suffocating. Their secondary is still weak ranking 23nd in the league, but that's about their only vulnerability on-the-field. So how does squad with a boatload of talent across-the-board just repeatedly fail to deliver in the win column? For my money, it's all on the coaching. Schwartz was a rough personality who just didn't gel with his players and couldn't inspire them when the going got tough. If their kinder, gentler new coach Jim Caldwell can come in and inspire these guys in a way that Schwartz wasn't able to, they'll become a winning franchise instantly. All the major pieces are there, they just need someone to captain the ship and we'll see in 2014 if Caldwell is up to the task.

Green Bay Packers: Where their rivals in Chicago have absolutely no luck, the Green Bay Packers had all the luck in the world in 2013. Against all odds, the Packers survived franchise quarterback Aaron Rodgers missing 7 games down the stretch and managed to clinch a playoff spot thanks to an epic collapse from the Lions, a miraculous comeback win against the Cowboys with burnout Matt Flynn at quarterback and beating the rival Bears in Week 17 on a bomb touchdown pass from Rodgers to Randall Cobb on 4th and long with under 2 minutes to play. Prior to Rodgers going down, it was business as usual with the Packers as their offense was outstanding and their defense was terrible. The Packers passing offense was once again as Jordy Nelson had a spectacular year per usual and undrafted second-year wiedout Jarret Boykin shined in the wake of major injuries to young playmaker Randall Cobb and veteran tight end Jermichael Finely. The real surprise in Green Bay this year was the reemergence of the running game thanks to rookie running back Eddie Lacy. The Packers haven't been able to run the ball in the slightest since Ryan Grant's last productive season in 2009 so Lacy's production was a godsend. Lacy shook off preseason rumors off being overweight and looking sluggish in training camp to become a powerful rusher with great field vision and a pretty decent set of hands to reel in short passes. In such a down year for rookie skill players, Lacy's strong 2013 campaign makes him pretty much a shoo-in for Offensive Rookie of the Year. Where the offense was familiarly strong, the defensive was familiarly weak. Leaders like Clay Matthews and Sam Shields missed a fair amount of time, but that still doesn't excuse the poor play for much of the year. The secondary was very beatable thanks to below average play across the board and a majority of the front seven (save for linebacker A.J. Hawk, who has arguably never looked better) had down seasons, especially defensive tackle B.J. Raji, who looked like a shell of his former Pro Bowl self. The 8-7-1 finish in 20013 really isn't a concern for the Packers moving forward. With Aaron Rodgers, a new-minted elite running attack and the return of a healthy Matthews on defense, I fully expect the Packers to be a title contender once again in 2014.

Minnesota Vikings: The 2013 Vikings spent the entire season proving that their 2012 playoff run was a fluke. While Adrian Peterson was very good in 2013, he wasn't nearly as dominant as he was in 2012, which subsequently proved all the theories/jokes about Peterson being the entire team are pretty much entirely true. Aside from the rock that is Peterson, the supporting cast on both sides of the ball just really didn't cut it. When your 2nd best player was Cordarelle Patterson thanks to his impact in the kick/punt return games, you have some serious issues. Above all, The Vikings can not seem to find a quarterback for the life of them. Christian Ponder and Matt Cassel split time starting this season to similar amounts of failure with occasional glimpses of strong play to keep the people on their toes (with a 1-game cameo midyear from Buccaneers castoff Josh Freeman, who by comparison made Ponder and Cassel look like the second coming of Joe Montana.) The quarterback play also limited their pretty talented receiving corps to being almost complete nonfactors.Greg Jennings, Jerome Simpson and Patterson were able to make some plays when they got the ball, but it was far too rare of an occurrence to overcome the severe passing woes the team had this year.  It was clear throughout 2013 that neither Ponder, Cassel or Freeman are the answer at quarterback in Minnesota and they need to make finding a new quarterback their top priority. The underwhelming play on offense translated to the defensive side of the ball. Their secondary was god awful with the consistent struggles of Chris Cook and rookie Xavier Rhodes at corner and standout second-year Harrison Smith missing half the season only made matters worse for this weak unit. Cook and Rhodes coverage skills were subpar on a good week, which allowed them to get burned frequently. The rushing defense was above average thanks to their linebackers, but their interior line was awful as Kevin Williams further confirmed that his career is pretty much over and rookie Sharrif Floyd just couldn't gain any traction in his 1st year in the league. On the upside, Chad Greenway was rock solid yet again at inside linebacker and Jared Allen can still get the job done at age 31 racking up 11.5 sacks on the year. Leslie Frazier was a great defensive mind, he just couldn't work any magic with such a terrible group of defensive backs and an aging front seven who mostly can't perform like they did in years past. The Vikings need to improve at just about every position on both sides of the ball if they want to contend in the increasingly deep NFC. But with a live wire coach like Mike Zimmer taking over the team, it wouldn't be completely crazy to watch this team beat the odds and rebound in 2014.