There’s a Shift in the NFC North
Is there anyone out there just waiting for the season to be over? That’s a rhetorical question. Most Vikings fans who see that this season is a bust are already peeking at the offseason and grabbing onto hope for next year.
A shift is unfolding in the NFC North, and the Minnesota Vikings are feeling the impact as rivals surge, and the division’s balance of power begins to change.
With five weeks left in the season, Vikings fans are only looking for two things: can this team show improvement, and more importantly, can J.J. McCarthy improve in the last few weeks to build on that hope? The top three teams could still be mixed around in the blender that is the final weeks, as they face each other and like opponents.
Basically, nothing is set in stone, and there will surely be another surprise win. If you guessed that the Panthers were going to knock off the Rams last weekend, you were most likely the most ardent Panthers fan or thought the payout in Vegas was too good to pass up.
The Bears Are Now in Pole Position in NFC North
There were two surprises in the North this Thanksgiving weekend. No, not that your uncle actually didn’t decide to talk politics around the turkey, but two teams came out on top that most didn’t expect, and it caused a major shift in my thoughts on who rules the NFC North.
Lions vs Packers
Thanksgiving Day is synonymous with football. The Cowboys and the Lions are always slated to play in their home stadiums. Even when the Lions were bad, they knew all eyes were on them and that they would suddenly elevate their level of play some years.
Non-Lions fans just hoped it was their team playing or at least a team worth watching. Dan Campbell has elevated the Lions to the point that no one wants to play them on any day of the week, including holidays. Matt LaFleur marched the Packers into Detroit, looking to take back the top spot in the North, and that path runs in that direction before they can try to overtake the Bears.
I thought Jared Goff and the offense with the best backfield in the NFL, of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, would run rampant on the Packers. While the Lions had a slow start, they eventually got going in the 2nd quarter. The problem is they let Jordan Love and the Packers hang around too much. Goff had a decent day, throwing 20-26 for 256 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Love didn’t have as good a completion percentage; however, he did put 4 touchdowns on the board. Yes, one was ruled a catch when the receiver was out of bounds, but that wasn’t the whole story of the game. The Lions’ defense has a few injuries, and that may have contributed to the Packers looking unstoppable near the end.
With the lead, the Packers took a huge risk and threw the ball on 4th down around midfield, and Dontayvion Wicks made an athletic catch on a Love pass that he barely got off as he was falling backwards. The Packers are a good team, and it doesn’t entirely surprise me that they won, but I thought the Lions would play angrier to avoid the season sweep. The Packers went home carrying turkey legs while the Lions got the leftovers.
Bears at Eagles
If I thought, as most do, that the Lions/Packers game would be exciting, I thought the Bears and Eagles would be a sure win for Philadelphia. Both teams had 8-3 records and are at the top of their respective divisions.
The biggest advantage of this “Black Friday” game is that the Eagles got to stay home and shop online, without having to wait in line at the store. While the Bears have played well, most of their opponents have been suspect this season, and they really didn’t have a signature win.
Add in that, early in the season, they got blown out by the Lions and a Tyler Huntley-led Ravens team a few weeks ago. That all changed on Friday. Watching back, the one thing I noticed is that the Bears’ offensive line was blowing out the Eagles at the point of attack. Kyle Monangai had so much space to run that he wasn’t touched in many cases until he was 5+ yards down the field.
The Eagles’ defensive line is a great unit, and they looked very pedestrian. Caleb Williams didn’t have a great number, throwing 1 touchdown, but Monangai ran for 130 yards and a touchdown, and D’Andre Swift got loose for 125 yards and a touchdown behind that offensive line’s dominance.
The quarterback doesn’t have to be great when you can run that much. The Eagles’ offense has looked slow and old this year. Jalen Hurts is not in the same conversation as Patrick Mahomes, but he’s in that next level of quarterbacks. He doesn’t seem to be a player who can take a game over.
Saquon Barkley has looked like he lost a step this year, and AJ Brown looked almost like he didn’t care to be there. Those things aside, the defense looked the worst in this game. They made Williams look better than he is, and the running backs looked like Walter Payton had been cloned. The Bears beat up the Eagles like an ’80s mom beating someone up to get that Cabbage Patch Kid at Toys R Us.
Vikings at Seahawks
The Vikings took their annual trip to Seattle to face the Seahawks, who are benefiting from Sam Darnold’s growth. Darnold took his newfound growth and confidence to a place where he didn’t have to look over his shoulder, got the best chance to start, and could make some more money.
He has been playing very well, and I know it hurts to see that, as a Vikings fan who only had him for one nearly magical year. The one thing the team and fans know about him is that he tends to fold in big games.
While this game looked like an easy win for the Seahawks, everyone knew it could get dicey, as Brian Flores’ defense can be a challenge. After the Rams’ loss, it put more pressure on the Seahawks to tie them for the NFC West lead. Kevin O’Connell wasn’t exactly coming in with the offense at full strength, as has been the theme this entire year.
Christian Darrisaw and Donovan Jackson were both out, and JJ McCarthy was still in the concussion protocol. Enter undrafted rookie Max Brosmer at quarterback. While some hoped for a miracle, most knew this was going to get ugly.
There’s a big difference between “hoping” he has a breakout performance and standing on the limp premise that the Vikings were keeping him held back because he is actually better than McCarthy.
The defense came out flying around. They slowed or stopped the run and sacked Darnold 4 times. Once again, they kept the Vikings in the game. The only change was that O’Connell didn’t allow Will Reichard into the mix and went for a 4th-down conversion instead of kicking a game-tying field goal.
No one is sure why they did this with a rookie quarterback in his first game, and then why it was a pass play that was magnified by a million with Brosmer throwing the ball away while getting sacked right to the defense, who returned it for a touchdown. A 10-point swing is brutal. The unfortunate thing is that it may have been the Vikings’ only chance to score on the day, and it would have kept 7 points off the board.
That’s right, for the first time in 18 years, the Vikings didn’t score any points, and Justin Jefferson had 2 catches for 4 yards. Yuck. Brosmer threw 4 interceptions, and other than one that took a lucky bounce off Jefferson, they were all on him. The more concerning aspect is seeing Jefferson visibly frustrated on the sidelines, as most fans are.
Another concern was Adam Thielen being inactive for the game as a healthy scratch. The next day, the team released him per his request to seek a winning team for his final season and final five games. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is truly on the hot seat with a string of bad draft picks, and the deal for Thielen to come here in the first place looks terrible.
Losing by 26 is bad, but not scoring at all is worse. Former Viking Robert Smith tried to ease the pain by tweeting, “Look on the bright side- it’s not 41-0,” referencing the infamous playoff loss to the Giants years ago.
Division Standings
- Bears
- Packers
- Lions
- Vikings
Yes, the Bears jump to the top after hanging out at the third spot for most of the season. They have not just the NFC North lead, but the NFL lead, record-wise. Add in a signature win over the Eagles, and I feel they have earned the top spot in my rankings.
They have yet to play the Packers, but they play them this weekend, and then two weeks later with the Browns in the middle of that. Should they fall to the Packers, they would quickly drop back down a spot or two. This Sunday is a big deal, as the Bears are rolling and the Packers have lost at home to inferior teams.
The Packers swept the Lions, which was very surprising. The Packers have special players in the right spots. Jordan Love is a good quarterback, and having Micah Parsons roaming around on the defense adds to their ability to beat you in multiple ways.
While their win at Detroit wasn’t dominant, it was a win where they out “Lioned” the Lions by going for it on the final 4th down of the game when they really should have punted and let their defense stop them. Had that play not gone well and the Lions scored and won, Matt LaFleur would be scorched on their fan radio stations and podcasts.
The risk paid off, and they are sitting comfortably in the second slot of the division. Will they overtake it this weekend or take a step back?
The Vikings are a hot mess. There’s nothing they could have done other than kick the ball and at least gotten a few points on the scoreboard. Brosmer didn’t look any better than McCarthy, and the injured offensive line woes continue to plague the team.
Ryan Kelly got injured again in the game, and Michael Jurgens had to jump back in at center with Blake Brandel and Justin Skule to his left. Offensively, they are not good. The running game has had spurts of success this season, but it got shut down as the score got out of hand. The only thing to watch for is McCarthy showing improvement, even in losses. He has to show growth to keep fans positive and keep teammates on his side.
The defense and special teams have been performing pretty well all year, with letdowns usually being driven by the offense playing poorly. The defense only gave up one touchdown in the game, and that was in the 4th quarter after all of those turnovers. They also got to Darnold many times and caused a fumble. These last five games can’t go fast enough.
The NFC North is still interesting, as it could still go a few different ways before the season ends. The Vikings still have a chance to even be spoilers in a couple of games with the last two at home against the Lions and Packers. Rivalry games could go either way and can’t be taken lightly, regardless of records.
Heck, the Vikings could still make the playoffs if they went undefeated and got some help. I don’t see that happening. The division doesn’t look anything like most thought, as we couldn’t wait for the season to arrive. Now, we can’t wait for it to end.
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