The Power Sweep

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Week 4 Picks - What does it mean to know the Packers, anyway?

I've been harping on something through the first four weeks of this year's season, and I'm wondering if it really even matters.

We've spent quite a bit of time talking about what we know and don't know about the Packers, and I'm starting to wonder if we'll ever know anything about this team at all, and even if we do, if it matters at all.

I think trying to get to know a team comes down to trying to make predictions about how they'll fare in a given situation. If we know what their offense is like and how their defense will try to stop their opponents, we can set expectations for what's going to happen for a particular week, then later measure the outcome against those expectations.

That seems like a pretty reasonable thing to do and to want to do, but can you actually do it? To bring up my other theme for this year, if all football is situational, can you actually get to know a team and their tendencies in a meaningful way? I'm kind of starting to lean towards no being my answer.

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