NFC North Still Up for Grabs
The Green Bay Packers are fading fast since star quarterback Aaron Rodgers went down three weeks ago with a broken collarbone. However, despite their 5-5 record, they are still only one game behind the two division leaders, the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions who are both 6-4. Rodgers is not due back for a few more weeks though, so the Pack needs to figure out how to steal a game or two in the meantime.
Green Bay has a date with the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday and then will take on the Lions on Thanksgiving Day. Two wins there and they will be 7-5 and Rodgers could be getting back soon after. Their final four games are all against teams they can beat with Rodgers in there and in fact, even if it takes him another week to get back, the game after the Lions game is against the 2-8 Atlanta Falcons. So while things look bad right now after their 27-13 loss to the New York Giants this past week, do not count the Packers out just yet.
The Lions started the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers red hot with 27 first half points. They took a 27-20 lead into halftime but were shut out in the second half of the Steelers 37-27 win. Perhaps they were too distracted by the Steelers’ bumble bee uniforms? That loss was huge because it dropped them into a first place tie with the Bears. Detroit is now facing a very much improving Tampa Bay Buccaneers squad on Sunday, then the Pack on Thursday and after that they get a very hot Philadelphia Eagles team. This is a critical three game stretch for them.
The Bears got back into a tie after overcoming some huge adversity on Sunday. Not only did they get behind the defending Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens 10-0, they had to endure a two hour weather delay as tornadoes swept through the Midwest. But the “Monsters of the Midway” came back and won the game in overtime on a Robbie Gould field goal 23-20 to improve to 6-4. The Bears have only one team remaining with a winning record and that is the 6-5 Eagles in the next to last weekend. But they do have the 5-5 Dallas Cowboys in two weeks and the 5-5 Pack on the final week so they could both be over .500 by game time. But of the three teams, their schedule is probably the weakest. This week they have the 4-6 St. Louis Rams.
With these three teams all in a tight battle and all playing each other one more time, this race will be exciting right down to the end. Also, since they have all been beating each other, there likely will not be a Wild Card spot out of this division, so these games are almost like a playoff. It is going to be “winner take all” at the end.
Our pick to win it is the Bears. Like the Pack, they have had their starting quarterback go down to an injury, Jay Cutler is probably out this week. He has missed time due to injury already this year. We don’t know when Rodgers will be back at full strength. The Lions have a tougher schedule and they did not look good on defense against the Steelers who are not the usual Steelers by any means. But do not count out the Packers or Lions in this thing.
