By virtue of Thursday’s game in Los Angeles, the Minnesota Vikings got a mini-bye over the weekend to rest, relax and take inventory of the rest of the league.
Most of the NFL has now reached the quarter mark of the season after Sunday’s results. Let’s take a look at what the latest batch of games meant for the dormant Vikings.
The Vikings (barely) stayed out of last place, and the Bears might be for real
The NFC North went 2-1 on Sunday, but the Detroit Lions’ 26-24 loss to the Dallas Cowboys kept them below the Vikings in the division race. The Lions stormed back from 20-10 down in the fourth quarter to take a 24-23 lead on Golden Tate’s 38-yard touchdown catch with just over two minutes to go, but Dak Prescott led a game-winning drive to squelch the comeback, highlighted by a 34-yard pass to Ezekiel Elliott. Brett Maher, the man who replaced current Vikings kicker Dan Bailey in Dallas, knocked in the game-winning field goal.
Detroit is off to a 1-3 start under new coach Matt Patricia and is in danger of getting buried in the division with a loss to Green Bay next week.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears moved to 3-1 to maintain their NFC North lead as Mitch Trubisky tossed six touchdown passes in a 48-10 rout of the Buccaneers. The Bears have allowed just 13.7 points per game in their three-game winning streak, and they stifled a Bucs offense that was averaging 34 points per game coming into action on Sunday.
Due to a scheduling quirk, the Bears don’t play an NFC opponent until Nov. 11. Their Week 5 bye is followed by a stretch of four straight AFC East foes. Chicago will likely be favored in at least two of those games (New York, Buffalo) and has a great chance to be 5-3 or better at the halfway mark of the season.
That Vikings loss to the Buffalo Bills isn’t looking great
Speaking of the AFC East, the Buffalo Bills came plummeting back to earth at Lambeau Field Sunday, getting shut out 22-0 by the Green Bay Packers. Josh Allen was sacked seven times, the team went 3 for 16 on third downs, the run game averaged 3.6 yards per carry, and the offense produced zero points.
Minnesota may regret its 27-6 to the Bills for the rest of the season. Buffalo has been non-competitive in three of its four games, and Allen has looked every bit a rookie quarterback in his two starts sandwiching the win against the Vikings.
Green Bay moved to 2-1-1 with the win as Aaron Rodgers again played below his normal standards with his bulky knee, but the Packers gained 141 yards on the ground to spearhead the winning effort.
The NFC might be more ordinary than we thought
Besides the undefeated Rams, the NFC as a whole appears more ordinary than some thought entering the season — or perhaps the league’s level of parity has increased.
Chicago is an unexpected 3-1, but the Packers, Vikings and Lions have just four wins between them. New Orleans is 3-1 by the skin of its teeth thanks to a late comeback win over the Browns and an overtime win against the Falcons (who are now 1-3 after a gutwrenching loss to Cincinnati). Washington had a bye this week, but their 2-1 record is the only above-.500 mark in the NFC East.
The conference only has six of 16 teams above .500, and the only one of those six that looks dominant is the Rams team that just beat the Vikings.
Minnesota went 4-0 in the proverbial second quarter of the season last year to put itself in the playoff conversation. Another run like that could propel them forward in a conference without many powerhouses at the moment.
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