DETROIT – The Detroit Lions came into Week 5 with the inside track to an NFC North Division title, but after what happened the last two days, their advantage is massive.
Before this week’s games kicked off, the Lions held a one-game lead over the Green Bay Packers and a two-game lead over the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears.
The Lions took care of business against the Panthers while the Packers and Vikings both lost. Suddenly, the Lions have a multiple-game lead over everyone.
And it’s not just that. The Lions have already gone into Green Bay and beat the Packers, meaning unless they lose the rematch on Thanksgiving Day (not likely), they’ll also own the head-to-head tiebreaker. So it’s more like a 2.5-game lead over the Packers.
Minnesota looks like a better team than Green Bay, in my opinion, and is already a full three games back. The Vikings also just lost their best player for at least four weeks. Superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson was placed on injured reserve, meaning he’ll miss games against the Bears, 49ers, Packers, and Falcons.
At some point, the Vikings will need to decide whether they want to pull the plug and try to trade quarterback Kirk Cousins, who is on an expiring contract. If that happens, their season could really take an ugly turn.
With how the Lions are looking, the worst-case scenario is probably that they finish 10-7. Even if that happens, meaning they go 6-6 down the stretch, the Packers would have to finish 8-4 and/or the Vikings would have to finish 9-3 to force a tie.
Having watched both of those teams, that sure doesn’t seem likely.
This is Detroit’s best chance to win the North since 2013, when both Aaron Rodgers and Jay Cutler got injured. An 8-7-1 team eventually won the division, and the Lions still couldn’t take advantage.
The difference this year is the Lions are actually good. So good, in fact, that there’s a chance this division race isn’t much of a race, after all.