It was a great weekend for the Lions as they won their second game of the season. The victory came over Atlanta by a score of 30-14. After Sunday finished, the end result of a few other games definitely was surprising.
In the NFC North, out of the four teams that played, only one ended up with a victory. That team was the Detroit Lions. Chicago, Minnesota, and Green Bay all lost their games, allowing Detroit to gain some ground on the rest of the entire division. Although that may not mean much now, you never know down the road (more on that tomorrow).
For the Chicago Bears, they were undefeated and looked to have an easy game against Miami. Unfortunately for them, they were caught off guard as the Dolphins, led by former Lions quarterback Joey Harrington, came in and won pretty easily. That handed Chicago their first loss all season and shocked the football world. Somewhere, the 1972 Dolphins are feeling a little better. Now they just have the Colts to worry about.
The Minnesota Vikings were another team to really be surprised on Sunday. Even though Minnesota has looked questionable more than once this season, their chances of making the playoffs were pretty good. After this week, that may have changed. The Vikes went out to San Francisco and got shut down offensively. They only allowed 9 points, but since they could only score 3 themselves, they left with a loss.
The team closest to Detroit's area in the current standings, the Packers, also lost this weekend. They actually were defeated by the only team Detroit had picked up a win against prior to this weekend. Buffalo came out and pulled away from Green Bay to get a win, and make it 3 out of 4 teams to lose from the NFC North.
It's not often that you can say Detroit had the best week out of all the NFC North teams, especially when one of them only has 1 loss all season. But, it certainly feels nice for a change. The Lions will hope to continue some of that success this coming Sunday when the 49ers come to town.