It’s all intramural for the NFC North in Week Three. The Vikings host the Lions on Sunday afternoon and the Packers play in Chicago on Monday Night.
The fascinating thing about these two games is how the records match up. The NFC North currently boasts two winless teams and two undefeated teams, and each like kind is facing its counterpart. That makes for high drama.
In the case of the Lions-Vikings, for example, you have two teams that are desperate to avoid an 0-3 start.
For Detroit, it would be most deflating, for they came into this season genuinely hopeful that this Lion team was going to be an improvement on the futility of recent years. For them, though, a loss would put them alone back at the bottom of the Division, including two losses already within the Division – a nearly hopeless profile.
For Minnesota, meanwhile, an 0-3 start would be a complete disaster. This is a team, after all, that was in the NFC Championship Game last year – and came close to winning it! While I didn’t expect them to match last year’s magic, NO ONE would have believed that they would start 2010 at 0-3.
Because of my contempt for the Vikings, I’ll be pulling for Detroit. My prediction, however, is a Minnesota win.
Meanwhile, the Packers travel to Chicago for a big-deal Monday Night game. It’s got it all, you know: Division rivals, both undefeated, playing for the early leg-up in the NFC North race, oldest rivalry in the NFL, quarterback star power, and all in prime time. It’s got the makings of a great game.
The two concerns, of course, are these: (1) Is Chicago’s offense really suddenly that good? (2) Can we possibly create any sort of balanced attack against them when (a) we don’t seem to have a running game under the best of circumstances, and (b) Chicago’s D is killer against the run? Yet if we just give up on trying to run the ball altogether, then they’ll pin their ears back and come after Rodgers. And even if he manages to be prolific enough to get the Packers the lead, an all-pass offense doesn’t give much rest to our defense, and it’s a lousy way to hold a lead.
I’m fearful about this one. If I had to put money on it, I’d still take the Packers, for I think we are the better all-around team. Still, it’s a game that I can imagine us losing.
Finally, elsewhere around the league, the Cowboys-Texans tilt should be a surprisingly interesting match-up. The Texans have lived for years in the Cowboys’ large shadow there in Texas, but in 2010 the attitudes about the two teams are quite different. Undefeated Houston is suddenly the hot commodity, while winless Dallas has joined Minnesota as the patron saints of disappointment in 2010. And while I don’t foresee the Vikings falling to 0-3, I really can imagine the Cowboys losing this game on the road. Could Wade Philips survive such a development? Could the Cowboys, lacking the strong sort of leadership that characterized their glory years in the 90s, right their ship after such a miserable start? It’ll be fascinating to see.
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