The Minnesota Vikings were not the only team in their division to come out with a victory in Week 3 of the 2017 NFL season.
Heading into the 2017 NFL season, the NFC North was predicted by some to be one of the weakest divisions in the league. Now three weeks into the regular season, the NFC North looks like it could be the best division in the NFL this year.
Only the NFC South (a division the Minnesota Vikings are unbeaten against in 2017) has a higher winning percentage than the NFC North this season.
During Week 3, the Vikings were not the only member of their division to pick up a win. Overall the NFC North won three of their four matchups during the week and the team that lost had a chance to get a win during their game’s final seconds.
We know Minnesota won their matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but how did the other three members of their division do in their Week 3 games.
Bears get their first win of the season after shocking Pittsburgh
Heading into their Week 3 matchup with the undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers, the winless Chicago Bears were not given much of a chance to even keep the game close. Those thoughts apparently did not seem to make it into Chicago’s locker room on Sunday.
Thanks to their defense holding the Steelers’ offense to just 282 total yards and running back Jordan Howard gaining 138 yards on the ground, the Bears defeated Pittsburgh in overtime by a score of 23-17. Certainly not the result many outside of Chicago saw coming.
The Bears went into the half up 17-7, but then allowed the Steelers to tie up the score in the second half and send the game into overtime. After a long touchdown run by Chicago running back Tarik Cohen was negated by him stepping out of bounds before crossing the goal line, Howard responded two plays later with a game-winning 19-yard touchdown run of his own.
With the victory, the Bears improve to 1-2 on the season, but now only have a few days to prepare for their Thursday night matchup with the rival Green Bay Packers in Week 4.
A controversial call gives the Lions their first loss of 2017
In a battle of two unbeaten teams, the matchup between the Detroit Lions and the Atlanta Falcons turned out to be one of the week’s best games.
The Lions fell behind 17-3 early in the second quarter, but a 37-yard pick-six by Detroit safety Glover Quin and a Matt Prater field goal cut the Lions’ deficit to just seven points at the half.
Trailing 30-26 with 2:23 remaining in the fourth quarter, Detroit’s offense had one final chance to come out of Week 3 with a win. After starting from their own 11-yard line, the Lions put together an offensive drive of 10 plays that eventually led to them facing a 3rd and goal situation with just 12 seconds remaining in regulation.
Instead of attempting a pass to either sideline to potentially give their offense one final chance on fourth down, Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford opted to throw a pass to a crossing Golden Tate, who was stopped just short of the end zone, thus giving the Falcons a 30-26 win. The play was originally called a touchdown, but after an official review, the score was overturned and a 10-second runoff ended the game due to the Lions having no timeouts left.
Detroit will try and rebound from their first loss of the season in Week 4 when they head to Minnesota to face the 2-1 Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Packers need overtime to get a win over the Bengals
After getting blown out by the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2, the Green Bay Packers returned home for a matchup with the winless Cincinnati Bengals.
It was not looking good for the Packers at first, as the Bengals stormed out to a 21-7 lead at the half thanks to their defense sacking Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers six times in the game’s first two quarters. But the Packers outscored Cincinnati 17-3 in the second half and sent the game to overtime with the score tied at 24 apiece.
In overtime, Rodgers found receiver Geronimo Allison for a 72-yard pass to set up an easy 27-yard field goal by Green Bay kicker Mason Crosby and give the Packers a 27-24 win over the Bengals.
For a team that was picked by many to contend for a Super Bowl this year, Green Bay certainly has not performed like a team with those capabilities so far in 2017. Now at 2-1 on the season, the Packers Week 4 matchup pits them against the 1-2 Chicago Bears at home on Thursday night.