Pride of Detroit
Last week, the Detroit Lions were barely clinging to the final playoff spot in the NFC race. This week, after pulverizing the Washington Commanders and regaining their mojo on offense, they could very well finish the week in the NFC North’s top spot.
But that doesn’t mean a very tight and competitive playoff race isn’t ahead. The pretenders are starting to separate from the contenders, and there are at least eight teams with a very good chance to win one of the conferences’ seven playoff spots.
Here’s a closer look at the NFC playoff standings with a big “Monday Night Football” game to be played.
NFC North standings:
The Packers still temporarily hold the top spot despite having one fewer win than the Lions and Bears. That’s because their tie counts as a “half-win,” and 5.5 wins in eight games is a better winning percentage (.6875) than six wins in nine games (.6666). But if the Packers lose on Monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles, they will drop to third in the division—and nearly out of a playoff spot entirely (more on that later).
Those pesky Bears continue to cling onto the Lions’ leg. Their 10-point comeback win over the Giants has them keeping pace with Detroit. They have now won six of their last seven. While the team is flawed, they are spirited and never act like they’re out of a game. But we’ll see what the Bears are really made of shortly. They play the Vikings, Steelers, Eagles, Packers, Browns, Packers, 49ers, and Lions to finish out the season.
Minnesota’s high lasted an entire week. The Ravens handled them fairly easy, and now the Vikings’ season is on life-support once again. Their next two games are divisional games, though, (vs. Bears, at Packers), so a pair of back-to-back wins would get them right back in this thing.
Division leaders:
Wild Card race (top three advance)
The Lions jump a spot from the seven seed to the six seed thanks to a loss from the 49ers. In fact, it was another terrible week for the NFC teams now outside of the playoff picture. The Panthers, Vikings, Cardinals, Falcons, Commanders, Saints, and Giants all lost and look pretty hopeless right now—the Niners lost as well, but more on them in a bit. The only team in the conference that doesn’t hold a playoff spot and also didn’t lose this week are the Dallas Cowboys, who are currently on a bye.
While this isn’t close to mathematically true, it certainly seems like there are only eight teams that are playing well enough right now to contend for a playoff spot: the four division...
