After toasting the New Year and recovering from the revelry, Wisconsin sports fans will get back to business as usual.

That means they will start worrying about the Packers.

A 34-13 dismantling of Detroit in the season finale Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field should have allayed some concerns. But, you know folks are around here.

You'd think a 13-3 record would be enough to silence some of the cynics. But, there are people worrying about which potential first-round opponent will give the Packers the most trouble on Jan. 12 at Lambeau.

The answer?

It doesn't matter.

This is hard for some fans to process, because it happened so quickly and things looked so bleak about 13 months ago, but the Packers are an excellent football team led by an outstanding second-year coach.

There is no reason to doubt that they will win their first playoff game, probably by a comfortable margin. How can we be sure of this?

With all due respect to the guy who wears the sweatshirt in New England, if Mike McCarthy doesn't win NFL Coach of the Year honors, there should be an investigation.

Remember how some of your friends howled when McCarthy was hired? People asked, "Why would they bring in the coordinator of the worst offense in the league (San Francisco)?"

Well, McCarthy has gotten Brett Favre to buy into his program. He's taken the youngest roster in the league beyond even the wildest expectations. But, he's done more than that. This is a guy who wants to run the ball. He wanted this team to be three yards and a cloud of dust. He wanted Pittsburgh Macho.

But, he didn't have the guys in place to do it.

So, he adjusted.

He went to five wide receivers. He let Brett Favre have the keys to the offense. He let him use his 16 years of experience to look at defensive alignments and decide whether to run, pass, check down or improvise.

The scheme worked. Everything was golden. The division title was secured early. A bid for home field throughout the playoffs fell short after a gut-punch loss to Chicago at Soldier Field. That game, which came on the heels of a somewhat sloppy victory in St. Louis, put the Packers in an unusual and practically unprecedented predicament.

There was nothing to be gained by beating the Lions on Sunday. McCarthy, who was fuming after the loss to the Bears, had to corral his anger and strike a balance between developing rhythm and momentum and keeping his key players healthy.

Six starters didn't dress: Greg Jennings, Ryan Picket, Donald Driver, Donald Lee, Aaron Kampman and Charles Woodson. When the Packers scored touchdowns in their first three possessions against the limp, lifeless Lions (do you realize they are 31-81 in seven years under Matt Millen?), many other regulars put their feet up, as well.

McCarthy handled the situation perfectly. By the end of the first quarter, the only real drama left in the game was how many officials Favre would high-five and whether Fox would show us more shots of fans in bikinis. As a result, the Packers will enter the postseason rested and generally healthy.

Based on McCarthy's past performance, you can bet that they'll be ready.