The NFC North Just Got Weird — Again
It’s hard to believe we’re already at week ten of the NFL season. Teams’ records and tendencies are finally starting to separate. Wait! Stop! No, they’re not! How so?
The Broncos barely beat the Raiders; the Jets returned a punt and a kick for touchdowns and won after trading away some of their best players; the Bills got trucked by the cellar-dwelling Dolphins; and the 49ers got whooped by the Rams.
The NFC North turned chaotic again in Week 10, with upsets, penalties, and surprises leaving the division race as unpredictable as ever.
The NFL remains a mystery wrapped in an enigma, a riddle on a weekly basis. Before the season ends, teams will obviously start to fall into two categories: in or out of the playoffs, and those in the top ten draft status and those outside it. This year’s out-of-bounds outcomes will keep us guessing on some of these positions until the very end.
The NFC North Turned Got Funky Again
The race for the top of the NFC North is definitely on as the final two months of the regular season stare us in the face. The division could go either way, depending on whether some teams continue to improve and others fall apart. The NFL has been a conundrum in guessing winners and losers all year. This week seemed to be a bit easier.
Bears vs Giants
The Bears are continuing to improve each week, even if they lose. Caleb Williams has been showing signs that he was a first-round pick in year two. The rest of the team has been supporting him in the run game and with a decent defense.
Taking on the Giants at home was a game that could go either way, simply because they have also shown some bright moments with a young quarterback in Jackson Dart. It was an exciting game with both teams battling back and forth.
The Giants were actually up by seven at the end of the 3rd quarter. Things changed when Dart went out under concussion protocol after a scramble in which he also fumbled the ball. Russell Wilson came in, and the team seemed to lose the momentum they had built during the game. Caleb Wilson was locked in, either throwing for positive yardage or running, and it was the latter that led to his winning touchdown.
All it took was the defense getting to Russell Wilson to finish them off. Would Dart being in there have made a difference? Possibly, as he has been a spark for that team since he was made the starter. Regardless, the Bears got the stop and the win at home, keeping pace with the Lions and Packers for the division lead. Even when the Bears take a step back, they seem to bounce back the following week.
Vikings vs Ravens
After last week’s win over Detroit at home, many fans had turned back to thinking the Vikings could be a legit threat in the division. Having the Ravens at home was never seen as an easy win, though, even before the season started.
Having some confidence that the Vikings would steal one had grown over the week as the Ravens have struggled at the start of the season. Once they got MVP Lamar Jackson back, things seemed to snap back into place. Derrick Henry has not been as impressive in years past, and it looks as if Father Time may be catching up to him.
Baltimore’s defense is also in a bit of flux, so there was a feeling that, all things considered, the Vikings could vault to a win to keep the momentum going. Things started well until everything just seemed to stall. Aaron Jones being back had been tremendous, and he was averaging over 6 yards a carry in the game.
His pass blocking is also key and has helped J.J. McCarthy have more time in the pocket to make critical throws. So, why did the team seem to move away from what was working so well? No one really knows outside the coaching staff, and those who don’t know are left with their shoulders shrugging.
The Ravens are another one of those teams the Vikings could catch off guard, and that could— and should — have won the game. Everything seemed to be clicking at one point and then completely fell apart the next.
Three turnovers will doom any team, and that was only part of why the Vikings lost today. Aaron Jones got into the end zone, and it seemed like this would be another good game, similar to last week. They started defensively shutting down or slowing the Ravens and holding them to field goals, including when McCarthy threw an interception when Justin Jefferson tripped on a long ball, and Baltimore turned that into 3 points.
McCarthy seemed to get more off his game as it went on. He was throwing the ball high to receivers and threw another interception that the Ravens scored on. To make matters worse, Myles Price fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and that led to another short field for the Ravens. McCarthy did make some great throws to Jordan Addison and Jalen Nailor, who had a breakout day with 5 catches for 124 yards and a toe-tapping touchdown at the back of the endzone.
Even after a failed 2-point conversion, the Vikings still seemed to have a chance to march down the field and tie it up. Alas, that didn’t happen with McCarthy scrambling on 4th down and finally throwing it to Aaron Jones a bit short, and the game was over. The worst part of this game was the 13 penalties that accumulated to 102 yards. To add salt to the wound, 7 of those were false starts, and they just killed the momentum — or at least slowed it.
The Vikings just seemed out of sync most of the game, and it felt like they let one slip through their fingers again. Maybe it was emotional fatigue from last week’s game, but that’s no excuse at this level.
Lions at Commanders
The Lions must not have liked how they lost to Minnesota last week. The Commanders were the unfortunate recipients of their ire. Detroit racked up 546 total yards of offense as they rolled over the Commanders with a 44-22 win, and it wasn’t even that close.
Washington was without Jayden Daniels and relied on Marcus Mariota, who didn’t play poorly, throwing for 2 touchdowns, but the defense played more like a broken fence: full of holes. The Lions easily moved up and down the field and embarrassed the Commanders in their own home.
Jared Goff threw for 3 touchdowns, and Jamyr Gibbs ran in two, and the Commanders couldn’t keep up in this boat race by Detroit. Even though the Motor City Kitties looked like they were falling off last week, they quickly put all ideas of a midseason slide out of the conversation by keeping their punter on the bench and putting points on the board. That’s all there is to say about how this game went.
Packers vs Eagles
This game was slated as a meeting of two playoff contenders and possibly Super Bowl contenders. Either team could come out the winner because of the inconsistent play by both. The Packers just lost at home to the Panthers and tied the Cowboys.
The Eagles have been hot and cold all year, with losses to the Broncos and Giants, and most of their wins by only one score. The Eagles almost lost to the Vikings as well, so this was truly a game of even odds. The final score reflected all these ingredients to make a terrible game. The final score of 10-7 was indicative not of two defensive giants going head-to-head, but instead of two offenses that are, to say the least, inconsistent.
Jordan Love was missing Tucker Kraft in a big way and his wide receivers in other ways. Micah Parsons‘ stats for the evening: 2 tackles. That’s it, and it’s magnified when you see that the Eagles lost Lane Johnson from the offensive line. Neither offense looked in sync. The Eagles’ defense looked improved with newly acquired defensive end Jaelan Phillips, and when the Packers lost center Elgton Jenkins for the game—and most likely the season — with a broken leg, it allowed the Eagles to be more aggressive.
The Packers looked lost, and while receivers were open, Love was missing them. While both teams are inconsistent, the home-field advantage should have gone the Packers’ way. That’s why the Vikings should have beaten them at home as well. The Packers missed out on a key victory, which puts them another step behind the Lions and the Bears.
Division Standings
- Lions
- Packers
- Vikings
- Bears
As a reminder, these are my opinions on where the teams in the NFC North stand, and nothing has changed from last week.
The Lions came back after a bad loss and creamed the Commanders, which made me wish they could have played a more competitive game, even against a division opponent. I say they stay there until they trip up or the Packers have another signature win.
With the Packers’ loss to the Eagles, the Lions are cemented at the top. Good teams reestablish their dominance to stay on top, and that’s what Dan Campbell’s squad did. The Lions still have a clear path to the division title and some great tests along the way.
The Packers aren’t as good as everyone thinks they are. Their wins aren’t as high-quality as the Lions but are better than the Bears. In fact, you could almost say their wins are less potent than the Vikings.
They take on the Giants without Cam Skattebo or Jaxson Dart in New York next week, and that can be an empty win, or even worse, they could lose. Hosting the Vikings at home after that doesn’t guarantee anything either, since their last two home games have been losses to the Panthers and Eagles, and Minnesota has been playing cold and lukewarm this year, and could surprise them. Serious playoff teams don’t lose at home like that twice.
Even though the Vikings lost embarrassingly to the Ravens, I’m keeping them above the Bears —barely. The Vikings stayed in the game as they’ve done most of the year, and if they cut out the mistakes, they can be the team many see floating just below the surface.
They also have the win over the Bears early on, and that’s the razor’s edge they’re balancing on. The Vikings and Bears meet up at US Bank Stadium next week at noon. If the Vikings lose that game, they go back to the basement. If they play as badly as they did in Week 10, they may never get out of it.
The Bears got the win today over the Giants, but New York has been inconsistent and may have pulled off the win if they hadn’t lost Dart. The Bears have the better record, and I really struggled to decide which squad is better, but I feel the Vikings are better than them in a head-to-head matchup.
That’s today. Next week, it could change if the Bears come out on top. Also, look at the Bears’ wins this season: the Raiders, Saints, Giants, and Bengals are all bad teams, and the Commanders and Cowboys are unpredictable from game to game. Add in that the Cowboys’ and Saints’ games are the only ones they won decisively, while the others are by a combined score of 7.
The Vikings are going to play another game they need to win to turn their season around. Should they lose next week at home against the Bears, the rest of the season will be more than an uphill battle.
At five losses, the fans start questioning whether winning any more games is good or makes their draft picks less enticing, since every win moves them further down the chart. No one cheers for a loss, and I think hope is still alive with most fans.
However, those who think the team is less than capable of doing anything worthy of those wins will start to grow louder, and that has merit. Let’s get ready for another week of will-they-or-won’t-they when it comes to the Vikings and more debates over whether McCarthy is “the guy.”
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