NFC North roundup: Stafford's surprise stretch
Every week we comb through the action elsewhere around the NFC North in an effort to keep you updated on what the Vikings division-mates are up to.
One had a bye week, the ailing Chicago Bears, so their idle 4-3 record fell to third-best in the division thanks to wins by Green Bay (ugh) and Detroit (wow).
DETROIT 31, DALLAS 30: We thought it would be more of a shootout than this, so when it was 13-7 Dallas after three, we paused to scratch our heads.
Then both offenses woke up, led by Detroit's 24 fourth-quarter points and quarterback Matt Stafford's trickery of the Dallas defense after three big passes got the Lions down the field with time winding down.
With Stafford's extension over the goal line, Detroit pulled out a 31-30 win, moving them to 5-3 on the year, a half game behind the other NFC North winner Sunday.
The other takeaway from Detroit's win? Megatron, who racked up a beastly 329 receiving yards, second only to Flipper Anderson on the list of most receiving yards in an NFL game.
GREEN BAY 44, MINNESOTA 31: We don't have to relive the Metrodome mauling blow-by-blow, so here's some main takeaways from Green Bay's blowout win over the Vikings.
Firstly, it wasn't this close, as the score read 41-17 Pack with 6:10 left in the contest. Two garbage time rushing touchdowns, one by frequently flustered QB Christian Ponder and the other by human defeat cigar Toby Gerhart, made the score look respectable, but it was not.
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Check out our game recap,by the numbers, and postgame press conference stories for more in depth coverage of the game, but unless you were living under a rock, you know how good the Packers looked last night.
Heck, you probably knew how good they'd look before the game even started.
The standings in the division look like this after eight weeks of play:
Green Bay: 5-2
Detroit: 5-3
Chicago 4-3
Minnesota: Bad.
Here's next week's slate of games, with Detroit the NFC North squad to get some well deserved time off in Week 9.
