GREEN BAY
Record: 5-2-1
Week 9 result: Carolina 16, Green Bay 13
Offensive rank: 8th (360.4)
Scoring offense: 11th (25.8)
Defensive rank: 5th (286.4)
Scoring defense: 8th (20.6)
Remaining strength of schedule: 3rd, .554
vs. Philadelphia (6-2), at New York Giants (2-7), vs. Minnesota (4-4), at Detroit (5-3), vs. Chicago (5-3), at Denver (7-2), at Chicago (5-3), vs. Baltimore (3-5), at Minnesota (4-4).
Quotable: "Everything," Packers head coach Matt LaFleur told packers.com after Sunday's loss to Carolina at home when asked what bothered him most about the loss. "Give Carolina credit, they played the perfect game in terms of being able to run the football and keep it away from us. Kept a lid on their coverages so we couldn't get explosive plays.
"Ultimately, we couldn't finish in the red zone. One of five in the red zone is not going to cut it and we had the two turnovers – missed field goal. I think if you look at it, we had errors in every phase of the game and I don't care who you are playing in this league, if you do that, you're going to lose games."
Twentyman: This was a great reminder that it doesn't matter the opponent or the point spread — 14.5 in favor of Green Bay heading in. If a team doesn't play well, turns the ball over and can't convert in the red zone or on third down, they can be beaten on any given Sunday to anyone in this league.
Sunday was an opportunity for Green Bay to create some space for themselves atop the NFC North with Detroit losing. They let that opportunity slip away. Now things get very tight in the division for the second-half sprint to the end. It was probably a tough tape to watch Monday in Green Bay, but sometimes a team needs a loss like that as a wakeup call to refocus and start doing the little things right that lead to winning in this league.
Next up: vs. Philadelphia (6-2), Mon. Nov. 10, 8:15 p.m.
DETROIT
Record: 5-3
Week 9 result: Minnesota 27, Detroit 24
Offensive rank: 11th (350.8)
Scoring offense: 3rd (29.9)
Defensive rank: 8th (294.8)
Scoring defense: 13th (22.3)
Remaining strength of schedule: 7th, .541
at Washington (3-6), at Philadelphia (6-2), vs. New York Giants (2-7), vs. Green Bay (5-2-1), vs. Dallas (3-5-1), at Los Angeles Rams (6-2), vs. Pittsburgh (5-3), at Minnesota (4-4), at Chicago (5-3).
Quotable: "Credit those guys over there, man. They had a good plan, came in, they executed, made the plays they needed to and that's a credit to that team," Lions head coach Dan Campbell said after Sunday's loss. "As far as us, we did everything we needed to do to lose that game. We made every critical error you needed to at the right time to lose it. Perfect storm.
"When you don't play well in all three phases, that falls on the head coach. That's me. I did not have them ready coming out of a bye. We made too many critical errors, man. Some of our discipline, the penalties caught up to us. Man, there were some things we were out of sync. We never looked comfortable. We just didn't make enough plays. We had multiple opportunities to set ourselves up to have a chance to win that game and we made none of them."
Twentyman: Like Green Bay, Detroit didn't play well and made critical errors in all three phases Sunday. That led to their first loss at home this season and drops them to 1-2 in the NFC North.
Offensively, Detroit looks a little out of sync and now they have injuries upfront along the offensive line they must navigate through. Will they make any adds at the trade deadline? Detroit has a chance to get back to their winning ways Sunday in Washington against a Commanders team on a short week without a couple of their starters after quarterback Jayden Daniels (elbow) and cornerback Marshon Lattimore (ACL) suffered injuries in their loss Monday night to Seattle. Detroit's got to clean up some of their protection issues and penalty problems that surfaced Sunday against the Vikings.
Next up: at Washington (3-6), Sun., Nov. 9, 4:25 p.m.
CHICAGO
Record: 5-3
Week 9 result: Chicago 47, Cincinnati 42
Offensive rank: 4th (378.4)
Scoring offense: 6th (26.9)
Defensive rank: 26th (368.8)
Scoring defense: 29th (28.4)
Remaining strength of schedule: 3rd, .554
vs. New York Giants (2-7), at Minnesota (4-4), vs. Pittsburgh (5-3), at Philadelphia (6-2), at Green Bay (5-2-1), vs. Cleveland (2-6), vs. Green Bay (5-2-1), at San Francisco (6-3), vs. Detroit (5-3).
Quotable: "Just really proud of the group and how resilient they were," Bears head coach Ben Johnson told chicagobears.com after Sunday's win in Cincinnati. "There were a number of things that weren't pretty, that weren't clean and yet what you learn about this group through the first half of the season is they are an extremely resilient bunch. They show up and they're going to fight you all 60 minutes and they really don't waver.
"I give them a lot of credit for their poise. With the way that game went, you're up two touchdowns in the fourth quarter and they get the onside kick, they get the lead, it's easy to fold and our guys didn't do that. They kept the faith and found a way to come out on top."
Twentyman: It certainly wasn't pretty, but Chicago was able to find a way to win in Cincinnati Sunday on a terrific offensive performance. Johnson has certainly had a huge impact on the Bears' offense that is now fourth in total offense and sixth in scoring through nine weeks of the season. They are creative and fun to watch on that side of the football. If they just get marginally better play from their defense moving forward, they'll be in playoff contention in the NFC.
Next up: vs. New York Giants (2-7), Sun., Nov. 9, 1 p.m.
MINNESOTA
Record: 4-4
Week 9 result: Minnesota 27, Detroit 24
Offensive rank: 26th (291.8)
Scoring offense: 18th (22.8)
Defensive rank: 14th (316.8)
Scoring defense: 20th (23.3)
Remaining strength of schedule: 15th, .520
vs. Baltimore (3-5), vs. Chicago (5-3), at Green Bay (5-2-1), at Seattle (6-2), vs. Washington (3-6), at Dallas (3-5-1), at New York Giants (2-7), vs. Detroit (5-3), vs. Green Bay (5-2-1).
Quotable: "It would be very easy to succumb to some of the aspects of this league when things are not going your way, and this team just does not do that," Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell said after the win."We're 2-0 in the NFC North and just earned a very hard-fought-total-team win, doing a lot of the things that we thought that it would take to win the game from a standpoint of things we talked about all week."
Twentyman: That was a big win on the road in Detroit Sunday for the Vikings and first-year starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy. That's going to be a huge confidence booster for him and the entire offense. Minnesota's defense overwhelmed Detroit with their pressure and dominated both lines of scrimmage, something few teams accomplish, especially in Detroit.
This is still a Vikings roster, for the most part, that won 14 games last year. If McCarthy continues an upward trajectory, this will be a dangerous team the second half of the season with the easiest remaining schedule of the four teams in the NFC North.
Next up: vs. Baltimore (3-5), Sun., Nov. 9, 1 p.m.
