Imagine how horrific this article could've been. The Lions demolished the Jags, the Vikings barely pulled off another win against a bad team, and the Bears beat the Packers. It's painful to even think about. Thank God the Bears still suck. 

Lions

The Lions destroyed the Jaguars, 52-6. 

Game Notes

• Remember when the Packers played the Jags, Trevor Lawrence had one of his best games ever, and the defense was playing like it never had before? Somehow, this was that same team, though admittedly, Mac Jones at quarterback is substantially worse than even a bad Trevor Lawrence performance. Jones was 17/29 for 138 yards and a pick. The rare sub-5.0 YPA while also throwing more interceptions than touchdowns. Clutch. 
• Jared Goff was a demigod by comparison. The rich man's Mac Jones 24/29 for 412 yards and 4 TDs. Even Hendon Hooker got in on the action with a few drives. The Sun god and Jameson Williams led the way on the receiving end with 161 and 124 yards respectively. The two running backs combined for 136 yards on 26 carries. The Lions didn't really do anything badly in this one. Ugh.
• On defense, Kerby Joseph added another interception and Jack Cambell led the team in tackles. It's hard to tell against teams like this but if the Lions' defense is real, you expect them to hold down bad teams.
• NFL teams go through runs like this where it's hard to even imagine them losing (much less losing to a team that barely squeaked out a win against the Bears). The Lions are in the middle of one right now and feel like the clear best team in the NFL. Who knows what happens next but until someone figures out how to beat them, the Lions are the 800-lb gorilla. 

Vikings

In a game where Titoons fans were ready to write several strongly worded letters about the refereeing, the Vikings won 23-13.

Game Notes

• Sam Darnold had a pretty good game - 20/32 for 246 yards and two TDs. And, weirdly, eight carries for 18 yards. Odd. Darnold wasn't a superstar in this one, but he didn't need to be. He didn't turn the ball over and that's more than you can ask from some $55mm quarterbacks. 
• Justin Jefferson led the way among receivers though Jordan Addison did add a 47-yard TD. Remember when people were mad this off-season because I said Jayden Reed was better? Addison has a whopping 359 yards in eight games. 
• The defense was hit or miss. Hit against the run for sure - the Titoons had 19 carries for 33 yards, an almost impossible feat of ineptitude. And hit sometimes against the pass, they intercepted Will Levis once and sacked him five times (two from your boy Andrew van Ginkel). But also miss against the pass too often. They gave up a 98-yard TD (the furthest in the NFL in years) to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and another 60+-yard TD to Calvin Ridley that was called back because of an extremely dubious illegal formation penalty. 
• The Vikings have taken care of business against a few bad teams in a row but I'm still not stressed about a rematch with them. We know the defense has holes and the offense can't keep up with the Green machine. 

Bears

The Bears lost in laughable fashion to the Packers, 20-19. 

Game Notes

• Be ready for plenty of Packers analysis in here. Caleb Williams, fresh off killing a coach, had probably his best game of the season. Which is the problem. Williams had no TDs and 21 of his 31 attempts came within five yards of the line of scrimmage. None of them were further than 25 yards. So how was it his best game? He attacked the Packers defense with his legs early and often, finishing with nine carries for 70 yards. We'll see if this "new" scheme works for the Bears - every throw is a YAC throw and Williams bails from the pocket way more often. 
• The weapons all got involved, at least. D'Andre Swift had a typical D'Andre Swift game. He had 13 carries for 32 yards and also a 39-yard carry for a tud. We've talked all year about how Swift is an extremely boom or bust back and the Packers gave up a boom run at the worst time. DJ Moore had seven for 62 and Rome Odunze had 6 for 65 while Keenan Allen added a few third-down conversions in the second half with Javon Bullard lined about ten yards off of him.
• On the other side of the ball, the Packers were relatively dominant. Jordan Love was 13/17 for 261 yards, a TD and a pick. The interception was just an overthrow. On the ground, the Packers had 106 yards on 25 carries. The star of the game was Christian Watson who had four catches for 150 yards and every one of them was huge. 
• There's all sorts of Bears fan crying going around but this game really shouldn't have been as close as it was - the Packers turned the ball over twice in the red zone on fluky plays. First the overthrow interception and then an offensive lineman falling down when they got stuffed on the goal line. If the Packers offense was as good in the red zone this year as it has been in previous years under LaFleur, this game could've been a 35-19 shellacking. The Packers were lucky to get out of it with a win, maybe, because of the blocked field goal, but the Bears needed plenty of luck to have the game that close.