With the Lions winning on Sunday and Minnesota losing, there is now a two-way tie for third place in the NFC North between the two teams. The post-Week 8 NFC North standings look like this:
| Team | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | Net | Div. |
| Green Bay Packers | 5 | 3 | 0 | .625 | 176 | 136 | +40 | 2-1 |
| Chicago Bears | 4 | 3 | 0 | .571 | 126 | 114 | +12 | 2-0 |
| Minnesota Vikings | 2 | 5 | 0 | .286 | 129 | 144 | -15 | 1-1 |
| Detroit Lions | 2 | 5 | 0 | .286 | 183 | 165 | +18 | 0-3 |
Two quick comments: 1) The Vikings play at home against Arizona next Sunday, which is a very winnable game. If the Lions want to keep pace, they will likely have to upset the Jets. 2) Had the referees not screwed Detroit in the first game of the season, the Lions and Bears would be tied for second right now. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to move past the what-if scenarios regarding what the standings could look like. Oh, well.