NFL Conference Championships: Are the Chicago Bears Really the Outsiders?

January 21, 2011   ·   Richard O'Hagan   ·   Jump to comments

Take a casual stroll through the murky backwaters of the betting exchanges and you'll discover one surprising fact about this weekend's Conference Championships.
Just about everyone—and I mean just about everyone—now make the Chicago Bears the outsiders for the Super Bowl this year.
That's right. The No. 2 team in the NFC, the side that is facing the No. 6 team, is expected to lose on Sunday, and if not this Sunday, then on February 6th instead.
When was the last time a side who finished the regular season ranked so highly was left so far out of the betting?
You could argue that so far, as this game is concerned, the salient factor is not that they are a bad side, but that they are playing the Packers, a side who didn't just beat the top-seeded Atlanta Falcons on Saturday, they destroyed them.
This, though, is to ignore two important facts. The first is that comparing the Bears defense to the Falcons' is like comparing Vince Lombardi to Charlie Brow...

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