1-5. It's hard to believe the Packers could possibly have gone 1-5 in the division this season. Especially with all the crowing I've been doing in this space. Of course, it's a very fluky 1-5. On one end, the one win was because of a blocked field goal in the final seconds. On the other, four of the five losses were by a combined nine points and the Packers held the best offense in football to 17 points in the other loss. Even weirder, the Packers didn't have another loss in the United States.

Vikings and Lions

The Lions embarrassed the Vikings in this one, 31-9. 

Game Notes

• Interestingly this was the biggest point differential in a division game this season. The Lions narrowly beat the Bears in both match-ups and Packers in one but killed the Vikings in this game. The Vikings sort of got a taste for what it was like to be the Packers in an NFC North game this season. The refs weren't calling anything on the Lions' defensive backs, Jared Goff got away with an obvious intentional grounding in the end zone and the Vikings had several red zone trips come away with no points. The schadenfreude doesn't get much better than watching Justin Jefferson complain about being held one week after the Packers probably had to buy new jerseys for their receivers because of the holding Vikings defenders did. 
• The other similar thing was Sam Darnold randomly turning into a high schooler playing on 4 Loko. Darnold had 8 overthrown incompletions in the first half. Playing all-pro level ball for weeks and then forgetting how to throw is a patented Jordan Love move. Darnold was a horrendous 16/41 for 166 yards. Goff didn't exactly, have a gangbusters performance either, throwing two picks and a should-have-been safety. The Lions won big but neither team should be happy about their passing game going into the playoffs.
• The Lions can be plenty happy about Jahmyr Gibbs who had four touchdowns and 170 total yards and came this close to causing Paul Allen to jump out of the booth live on air. They were great stats but I have to reiterate that 28 touches for a sub-200-pound running back in a game well out of hand where he sat out a series hurt probably isn't a great idea.  
• The Vikings defense was hot or cold, compiling seven TFLs to go with the two picks. They just gave up way too much at the same time. 

Bears

After seven years and between 5 and 36 offensive coordinators, the Bears finally did it. 

Game Notes

• The sad part is that the Bears didn't really outplay the Packers. At one point in the fourth quarter, the Packers had 200 more yards. Caleb Williams averaged 5 yards per attempt even with a 32-yard completion. Three different Packers had over five yards per carry on more than seven carries. It was just a perfect storm. How does the punt coverage team not know where the punt is going?? How do you call a timeout and not run the clock out before the final file goal?? How do you give up an easy completion to get into field goal range?? It was maddening and that doesn't even include Christian Watson's season-ending injury. I can't imagine a more annoying way for the game to have gone. 
• Statistically, the Packers played OK on offense. Jordan Love and Malik Willis combined for 17 completions on 25 passes for 206 yards. No touchdowns. No interceptions, Nothing exciting. At some point this season, the Packers beat into Jordan Love that he should take the easy throw every time and he stopped throwing interceptions. In this game, it was like they also beat into him that every pass needed to be a softly thrown floater to not hurt the receiver's hands. The pass game just never looked good in this one. The run game did, so of course they went away from it when it mattered in the second half. 
• The Packers defense somehow did not come away with a sack, though it was fun that Xavier McKinney got his 8th pick. The defense played well for 90% of this game. It was the 10% that ultimately mattered. 
• Two weeks ago I would've taken the Packers against any team in the NFC. The pass rush was on a run of bangers. The secondary was killing it. Even the linebackers were good. And the offense is almost always good anyway. But now, I'm not sure I'll go into the Eagles game with any kind of confidence. The offense is so much better with Christian Watson and the defense is the same way with Jaire Alexander. If the Packers are going to win a few rounds in the playoffs they're going to have to dig deep and change their identity a little.