Preseason Offense

Commentators have been falling all over themselves after watching the Packers in preseason so far. They've been gaga over the offense of course. Usually they stick a caveat in near the end about how preseason can be a bit misleading. Out of curiosity, I looked at the 2009 preseason points leaders (team, points scored, listed by rank):

Jet 108
Saints 107
Packers 105
Titans 102
Eagles 100
Patriots 98
Seahawks 92
Bears 90
Cowboys 88
Jaguars 88

Here is how the same group fared at the end of the season (team, points scored, rank):

Jet 348 16th
Saints 510 1st
Packers 461 3rd
Titans 354 15th
Eagles 429 5th
Patriots 427 6th
Seahawks 280 25th
Bears 327 18th
Cowboys 361 13th
Jaguars 290 23rd

Obviously some strong teams there but some fell off quite a bit. Only four of them stayed in the top ten. The problem with using team performance in the preseason is that there are so many more variables than in the regular season. The most obvious being that not every team is trying to actually score points and win games.
If you're curious the Vikings ended last season with 470 points, the second highest total. In last year's preseason they scored 78, which would have put them in 15th place.