It was a prosperous and fortuitous week for the NFC North, with three winners and just one loser.
Of course, the loser happened to be wearing purple.
We won’t bore you with the painful details of the Vikings game yet again, watching it was bad enough, and when you take away the moving pictures and replace them with non-moving words, it only makes it worse.
Here’s what the rest of the NFC North accomplished today.
Green Bay 19, Baltimore 17:In a game that was horrendously ugly for the first two and a half quarters, Green Bay used four Mason Crosby field goals and 315 yards passing from Aaron Rodgers to hang on against the hard charging Ravens.
Baltimore, down 13 going into the fourth quarter, got two Joe Flacco touchdowns, one to Dallas Clark and one to Jacoby Jones, but came up short in the end.
Two of Rogers’ top targets, Randall Cobb and James Jones, both left the game with injuries and did not return.
Detroit 31, Cleveland 17:The Lions trailed 17-7 at the half to the upstart Browns, but Detroit scored 24 in the second half and shut down Cleveland’s offense, finishing off Brandon Weeden and Co. 31-17.
Matt Stafford welcomed back Calvin Johnson after he missed last week with a knee sprain, finding his top target three times. Stafford found the end zone one more time than he found Johnson, hitting tight end Joseph Fauria three times for touchdowns, while also finding running back Reggie Bush for a score.
Cleveland was penalized nine times for a total of 87 yards, while Weeden threw two interceptions to put the nail in the coffin of Cleveland’s chances.
Chicago 27, N.Y. Giants 21:How bad are the Giants?
Eli Manning threw three more interceptions, running his total to 15 on the year, the last of which ended New York’s chances as they were driving late in the fourth trailing by six. Chicago ran the clock out, sending New York to their first 0-6 start since 1976.
Jay Cutler had a solid outing for Chicago, completing 24 of 36 passes while hooking up for two scores with Brandon Marshall, and Matt Forte racked up 111 total yards.
STANDINGS (With a note on each team):
Detroit: 4-2, have themselves set up nicely having played just two home games in six weeks.
Chicago: 4-2, outside of Denver, the top scoring team in the league.
Green Bay: 3-2, next two games against Cleveland and Minnesota, they’ll be at the top of the division in no time.
Minnesota: 1-4, among many other problems, fifth-worst point differential in the league.
