In the end, it was a bridge too far for the Green Bay Packers. It was also one too far for the Detroit Lions. 

If you are a Chicago Bears fan, at least you were spared the pain of believing there was a chance to make the playoffs.

While the stumbling miss of the playoffs is kind of old hat to Lions fans, it's pretty new for Packers fans. Somehow, the team has found ways to pull out of tailspins before. This year, they couldn't. 

There are a ton of questions for Green Bay this offseason. Do they need to move on from defensive coordinator Dom Capers? How much of a defensive reboot is needed? Do they have the backfield worked out? Is Jordy Nelson done? How much longer does Aaron Rodgers have and what do you do with the backup quarterback situation, which definitely was lacking this year?

The Packers face a lot more questions than usual this offseason.

As always, though, there will be plenty of content on this site regarding those questions and more, as well as ample time for it. This column is about the rest of the division and as it's pretty much the end of the road for the year, we're going to take a look at home the other three NFC North teams stand as we close the regular season.

Minnesota Vikings

For the most part, the Vikings look to be in the best shape of any team in the division, including the Packers. That's a hard truth for people around here to swallow, I'm sure, but position by position, the Vikings are better than the rest of the NFC North. 

Save for one position, and it's likely to be the team's undoing this post-season: quarerback.

We keep expecting the wheels to come off on the Case Keenum train, but they really haven't. Maybe it won't kill them during the NFC side of the playoffs. The defense is rock solid, the run game is decent, the offensive line is improved and they have some really good receivers. Looking at the rest of the NFC, there isn't a dominant team. Philadelphia was the odds on favorite with Carson Wentz, but it's hard to feel good about them after watching Nick Foles last week. Carolina has been inconsistent. The Rams are really good but really young, and the Vikings have already beaten them in Minnesota. New Orleans is a threat, but are they really that much better than the Vikings?

All that being said, it's hard to believe in Keenum. And after the season, what do you do at quarterback? Do you bring Keenum back and have an open competition with Teddy Bridgewater? You can't just assume Bridgewater is going to be "the guy" coming off his injury — especially when there were already questions about it before he was hurt.

More than anything else, the Vikings have to figure out what is going on at quarterback. They have some hard decisions to make, and not as much data as you would like on either quarterback. It's hard to trust Keenum isn't just having a great year and won't revert to type in 2018. It's equally hard to assume Bridgewater will bounce back and be the answer at quarterback.

That decision could be the difference between being in the conversation for a Super Bowl and missing the playoffs. 

Detroit Lions

The Lions looked pretty good for the first four games of the season, but it all went to hell in Week 5. You could excuse the loss to Atlanta in Week 3, and maybe you could write off the Week 5 loss to Carolina, but from Week 5 to Week 7, Detroit lost three in a row and all the concerns we would have for the rest of the season were on display there.

The inconsistent offense, the occasionally brutal defense, the constant injuries. Lions fans got excited when Detroit beat the Packers, Browns and Bears after that, conveniently forgetiing that they were the Aaron Rodgers-less Packers, Browns and Bears.

Sure, it was the Bengals who finally put the bullet in the Lions with a Week 16 26-17 win, but this is a team which never seemed as good as they were supposed to be.

What does this team need to do in the offseason? 

First and foremost, the Lions need to address the middle of the defense. There are a few good d-tackle prospects this year, and the Lions should take a long look at them. They should also be looking for a pass rusher, and that might be an even bigger need. The Lions should continue to work on the offensive line as well, and it wouldn't hurt to see if they can upgrade the backfield a bit.

The Lions continue to be a team which just falls short of expectations, and is always struggling to find those one or two missing pieces to push them over the top. 

Worse? How much longer does Matt Stafford have? And will Jim Caldwell be back?

At the end of the day, the window for this team feels really small.

Chicago Bears

Before anything else, the Bears have to decide if John Fox will still be the head coach in Chicago. Frankly, Fox has looked like he was a dead man walking most of the season, so firing him seems like the way to go. 

There's some optimism for this team, in that they seem to have found at least a serviceable startsr in Mitch Trubisky. Mind you, the team isn't asking him to do much right now, and he barely throws downfield. So he appears to be the answer but still may not be.

The offense around Trubisky is a hot mess. It has a solid backfield, but that's about it. The Bears gambled they could let go of Alshon Jeffery and that Kevin White would step up. 

Instead, White ended up on injured reserve. This is emblematic of something the Bears need to change — betting on the wrong horse. It's one thing to guess wrong, it's another to always guess wrong. Maybe it wasn't worth retaining Jeffery. That's fair. 

However, given that White had been hurt most of 2016, was depending on him to be your main piece at receiver smart?

They sure as heck cannot do that again. White has played five games so far in his career, and caught just 21 passes for 193 yards. You don't have to throw him away — he could become a solid receiver and stay on the field — but depending on him to stay on the field is ignoring history. You need other answers.

Defensively, this team didn't look awful. In fact, they improved against the run and pass  this season. They aren't dominant, but they were middle of the pack and that's something to build on. They need to keep adding pieces, as the more defensive support the young quarterback can get, the better. That said, they were on the field too much this season, so it once again comes back to making this offense better in the coming offseason.