As a Bears fan, it does pains me to say this, but it’s the truth. I try my best to be a unbiased fan. I will admit faults of my favorite teams, as well as praise players I my not personally like for whatever reasons. Yes. Albert Pujols is probably the best hitter in the league. Do I like him? No.

The Green Bay Packers are the most underrated and underestimated team remaining in the playoffs. At the beginning of the season, I picked them to easily win the NFC North, with the Bears inconsistency, the Vikings having Brett Fav-ree on roster and the Lions being the Lions. Aaron Rodgers is probably the 2nd best QB in the NFC behind Drew Brees. Obviously, I say that before Mike Vick was the full time QB for the Eagles, but I think he’s probably better overall than Vick (excluding Fantasy implications) and has a higher QB Rating. I can’t find the exact stat anywhere, but I remember a commentator mentioning that Rodgers has something like 17 (if not more) rushing first downs this season. That seems like a pretty high number for a QB not named Vick.

Early on in the season the Defense had a lot of injuries to key players. Aaron Rodgers sat out one full game and was knocked out of another game this season. The last four games of the season, they’ve gotten themselves back to full force and ended up winning their last four games of the season, so needless to say they’re running hot into playoffs. Now with wins against the Eagles, and now completely dismantling the Falcons.

Rodgers has some of the best toys to play with in his receiving corp. Donald Driver. Greg Jennings. James Jones. Jordy Nelson, Andrew Quarless. All of those guys are good players. When you factor a healthy Jermichael Finley to the mix, it’s probably close to the best overall receiving team in the NFL. With the emergence of James Stark over the last few games of the season (after “practice issues”) as the true feature back, it gives them the full package as an offensive unit.

A few weeks ago I was not happy the when the Bears lost to the Pack in the last game of the season, because this allowed them to sneak in to the playoffs, knowing full well they’d be a seriously dangerous team. The caveat; however, was the Bears would not be able to face the Packers in the Divisional game because they were the six seed and the Falcons was going to be playing the lowest seeded team in the playoffs. That worked out well for the Falcons didn’t it? The Bears play the 7-9 team, and the Falcons play the 10-6 team. Oops.

Next weeks NFC Championship game between the Bears and the Packers is going to be a fantastic game. It’s the first time the two teams have played each other since the 1940′s. The Bears have really found a good groove the 2nd half of the season. A lot of that is due to Mike Tice getting the offensive line shuffled and to an optimum configuration. I’m pretty sure with the game being in Chicago, will make it a much more even game. It will be a very exciting game knowing an NFC North team will be in the Superbowl.