Headed North: An NFC North Podcast
Headed North Podcast is a show that focuses on all of the top stories and headlines from the NFL's NFC North Division. Hosting By an avid Detroit Football fan, this podcast will explore one fan's thoughts regarding the NFC North Division.
Headed North: An NFC North Podcast
Episode 16: Lions' Stunning Comeback, Vikings' Defensive & Bears Woes Continue
Get ready for a wild ride through the dramatic world of NFC North football! Discover how the Detroit Lions staged a jaw-dropping comeback against the Texans, even as Jared Goff threw five interceptions. Are you curious about how the Minnesota Vikings managed to edge out the Jaguars while showcasing their defensive tenacity? We've got the inside scoop on their ironclad defense that kept Jacksonville to just 143 total yards, and we dive into the potential impact of Sam Darnold's red zone woes on his future performances. Plus, we look ahead to the Vikings' upcoming clash with the Titans and discuss how TJ Hockinson's revival could set the stage for a Justin Jefferson showcase.
But that's not all—there's plenty of action in Week 10 for NFC North enthusiasts. See how the Lions are gearing up to keep their momentum rolling against the Jaguars, and explore the struggles the Chicago Bears face as they prepare for their age-old rivalry with the Packers. Can a change in the Bears' offensive strategy alter their fate against Green Bay's historical dominance, especially with the Packers coming off a restful bye week? As we wrap up the episode, we extend a warm thank you to our listeners in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, for their engaging feedback and invite everyone to keep those comments coming as we prepare to head north for the next thrilling chapter of NFC North football!
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Before the show. I'd like to just say if you could like and share the podcast. I am a one-man show and I really do appreciate both the feedback and the support that you give. As a matter of fact, down in the comments you can actually reach me directly if you ever want to share a message or get featured on the show. I got a text from Mount Pleasant, michigan, telling me good show last week. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. All right, let's get into the episode. Appreciate that. Thank you very much. All right, let's get into the episode. Are you still talking about football? Yeah, football, nfc North, the list of football. Welcome back everybody.
Speaker 1:This is Headed North, the NFC North podcast, and I'm your host. Detron, are you still fired up? I know it's like Friday or Saturday when you're listening to this and maybe it's worn off just a bit for you, but if you're a Detroit fan or a fan of the grit or, you know, a fan of never giving up when it's football time, then you had to love the way that the Lions and Texans game ended last Sunday. And again, I know it's been a while. You're're probably over it already, but I'm not, even if you're a Vikings fan, packers fan, bears fan. That had to be like a tip of the cap moment for the Lions and something that you had to be happy to see if you want to see the Lions ever reach the Super Bowl, because that was overcoming some real odds, some odds that they put themselves in looking at you, jared Goff, but odds nonetheless. So we're going to talk a little bit about that. But since the week is long gone, we won't spend a whole lot of time there. We will talk about this upcoming week's games and I'm going to try to get you some spread in the field so we can make some money. But before we do any of that, let's kick it over to our sponsors so they can tell you about their stuff. This episode of Headed North Podcast is sponsored by OffRackShopcom. Offrackshopcom is an online thrift retailer. They specialize in men and women's clothing, shoes, accessories and more. So if you haven't already head to our description. You can find a discount code for your next purchase at OffRackShopcom.
Speaker 1:All right, we're going to get it kicked off here, but let me just say that something had to be in the water last week in the NFC North. Jeez, these games were like they were wild. Let me tell you what happened. The Green Bay Packers were safe because they were off. Green Bay Packers were safe because they were off.
Speaker 1:Caleb was sacked nine times by a 2-7, a now 3-7 New England Patriots. They threw zero touchdowns and finished with one field goal. Sam Darnold also threw zero touchdown passes. He threw three interceptions and their only points came on field goals. And speaking of interceptions, hello again, jared Goff Five picks and he joins a club that not a whole lot of people are in, but you probably aren't that tore up. If you're there, it's people who've thrown five interceptions and still won the game, people like Tony Romo and, I think, matt Ryan. That's not a great stat, but you know what A win is. All that matters and that's what they got.
Speaker 1:So let me run down three things from last week and tell you about three things for this upcoming week. Let's start with the Minnesota Vikings. They played the Jaguars and the Vikings were a minus four against the Jags. They end up pulling it out. They won 12 to seven to 7.
Speaker 1:First things first 143 total yards for the jaguars. Didn't expect much for mac jones coming in and starting instead of trevor lawrence, but minnesota's defense just shines. They're the key. They're clearly the key here and that's, I think, the big thing that 143 total yards left a Jag teams that has weapons really without a chance to win. That I won't say a chance. They did have a chance to win that game but it wasn't because their offense was lighting it up, clearly. 143 total yards.
Speaker 1:Second, sam Darnold threw three picks and they were not difficult. Looks like difficult looks. He's thrown five in his last six games and multiple picks in the red zone in the last two games. That's not a good trend, sam Darnold starting to regress just a little bit, or at least over the last two games. They still got a win this week. But I would watch out if I were Minnesota Vikings potentially simplify some of what Sam is having to do out there, because it seems like he's getting especially in the red zone. It looks like he's not seeing the whole field because the picks that he's thrown there should have been easy non-interceptions. And the third thing about last week, which is going to take us right into this week, is TJ Hockinson is looking primed to get back to top five tight end status and I think what that does is steal some spotlight away from Justin Jefferson, which is probably going to just help his production and that's what I'm going to look at.
Speaker 1:Going into this week's game where the Vikings are at the Tennessee Titans, the Vikings are a minus six. Well, that's a lot of points for a team that was not able to put a very many on a Jaguars team that had Mac Jones leading the show. But I think with TJ Hawkinson firmly being Sam Darnold's go-to guy, it's going to make those safeties cheat up and you're going to see Justin Jefferson have a huge game this week. That's my first thing is that TJ Hawkinson's creating space for Justin Jefferson to do what he does best. Secondly, I think the defense is going to do exactly what it did against the Jaguars.
Speaker 1:The Tennessee Titans have had a rough year so far. Rough year going against the NFC North also had a bunch of points put up on them by the Lions. The defense for the Minnesota Vikings are going to smother this Titans offense. I just think it's going to be a tough watch. I think Minnesota gets this game pretty easily. And the third thing on this list is offense will simplify plays, especially in the red zone for Sam Darnold. Expect to see more Aaron Jones in the red zone when it is time to try to score. They're going to stop putting the ball in Sam's hands until he gets that confidence back. I think you're going to see at least one score, but possibly two rushing scores from Aaron Jones this week against the Tennessee Titans.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm going to roll right on into my Detroit Lions and I know at the top of the show I really gave them some applause, but that was a tough game to watch. For the first half it was whoa. So first thing on this top three things from last week is five picks and please don't panic is the second half of that. He threw five picks but in his last five games he's gone without a pick and he threw more in this one game than he's thrown through eight games. So this is absolutely unlike the Jared Goff that you have this year and don't expect to see that kind of performance again. That's first. Secondly, man, I'm really happy that Jake Bates gave up the brickwork and got back to the kickwork. It was tight, real tight on both of those kicks, but you know what? He pulled it out and I got to stand back and applaud. I'd applaud right now if it wouldn't mess up the audio on this show.
Speaker 1:Thank you, jake Bates, for closing out what should have been a losing effort by the Lions and really turning the fortunes of this group, showing them that they can fall behind, come back and win. They can beat teams by big margins, they can score on you in all facets. The defense feels rewarded that they were able to pull it out after giving such a great effort in the second half. This was capped off by Jake Bates, but really a full team effort, believing in their ability to come back. And third, the defense. The defense made a way. They kept Joe Mixon to 46 yards on the ground. Two picks off CJ Stroud, four sacks of CJ Stroud keeping up that pattern of him getting sacked. The Detroit Lions defense stepped up in a huge way. If they failed, that game would have quickly got out of hand. Well, it was already out of hand, but it would have continued down that path. There was some big, those big interceptions by Carlton Davis. I mean like that was huge interceptions, especially the one where Tank Dell was in the end zone, wide open. You know, if CJ puts that on him, that game could potentially not have gone the way that it did. So huge shout out to the Lions defense.
Speaker 1:Now this week the Lions have the Jags, the same Jags that just went up against the Minnesota Vikings and put up 143 total yards with Mac Jones at QB. Now I don't know if Trevor Lawrence is back this week Maybe he is, maybe he isn't but the Lions are minus 13 as of today, and that's a lot of points for any NFL team. I also think it's a lot of points because the Lions are likely coming out to try to put together an efficient game. So first sorry, first things first for the Lions. You would think my confidence would be shaken in them, but after Sunday night you're wrong. I feel even better about them. So that's first and foremost. Secondly, expect a bounce back performance from Jared Goff, but not like you might expect. He's not going to be throwing the ball all over the place, although he is going to put together his normal array of play action passes. I think they're going to search for efficiencies here, definitely be able to lean on the run game a little bit more and help Jared Goff get over this shaky five interception game and get back to what they've been doing. And third, I think the defense carries. Again, the Lions defense are going up against a Jags team that has struggled all year and I don't expect them to come out and somehow find a way to put it together against the Lions in Detroit. That's a really tough task. So I'm expecting the Lions to still win big here. I just don't think that it's going to be an air out game like you've seen with some of their other performances, like against the Cowboys or the Titans.
Speaker 1:All right, rolling right on into the Chicago Bears and boy, there's disappointment all over the Windy City. The Chicago Bears took on the Patriots last week. They were a minus six. I told you don't do that, take the Patriots. And they lost 19 to 3.
Speaker 1:So first up for the Chicago Bears. I alluded to it in the. The Caleb was sacked nine times and he only completed 16 passes on 30 attempts. Caleb is not getting protection, but you could guess that by the number of times that he's being sacked it's not all him, because there's certainly some of him in there. But I think the second point Caleb has been failed by the coaches. They needed more designed, quick passes to get him in a rhythm. You know, get some of the pressure off of him, take some of the pressure off. You know, completing these long drawn out plays and that also means he's going to have to get the ball to weapons who are good in space and good quickly. That's DJ Moore, things like bubble screens and Cole Komet, who is a major target that they are not using right, like to get Rome on a post. It's going to take a little while and you need blocking to be able to do that. It's not there right now, so you've got to hit these weapons that can get the ball and make plays quickly. Again. I think it's dj moore and cole komet. So there's one caleb sacked a lot. Two caleb has been failed by his coaches because they're not even moving in the pocket or they're not setting him up with the kind of plays that are going to get the ball out quickly.
Speaker 1:I will say this they did get rid of their OC, which I'll talk about here, which might benefit them in their Packers game. But the third and final thing about last week's game Caleb has been outplayed by Drake May and Jaden Daniels in their matchups. I know their situations are completely different. Organizations are different, the coaching is different, but I just want to note I mentioned he was not the best quarterback coming out of this draft and somehow Chicago got their prodigal son and have not done anything with him yet. Oh, I don't want to be Eberflus right now.
Speaker 1:The Packers are getting ready to take on the Bears, and Eberflus has never beat Chicago the Packers. So I want you to first be aware, though, that there could be a situational boost for the Bears based on firing Shane Waldron and promoting Thomas Brown. It's situational because they could completely overhaul the offense in this week before they take on the Packers. I doubt it, but they could, and that could give them just what they need to be able to get over the hump against the Packers. But the second thing about this Packers and Bears matchup is the Packers have won 10 straight against the Chicago Bears, and they've won nine of the last 15 games after the bye week, which they're coming off of a bye week. So they've got being rested to their favor. They've got history on their favor. Lafle four and oh against iberflues and he is 10, and oh against the bears. Lafleur has not lost against the bears. Jeez, imagine having that in your own division. Like every time you get ready to go up against that guy, you're like, yeah, I've never lost against them.
Speaker 1:Third thing, and it's important, there's two things that chicago can hope to do so that they do not absolutely get crushed. The first is protection shift it, move it, add more of it, max, protect it doesn't matter, you gotta protect Caleb, making his play selection smaller, but protect him. And the second thing that they got to do is cross their fingers and hope that the Green Bay secondary does not play well. If the Green Bay secondary fails them, I think the Chicago Bears have a chance to not get blown out and an outside chance of winning. But those two things both have to happen. They have to have protection for Caleb and the Green Bay secondary has to absolutely fail for them to not get this game won. So that is the rundown for Packers, lions, bears, vikings, down for Packers, lions, bears, vikings.
Speaker 1:And you know week 10, we had some spread in the field. Some of it was good, some of it not so good. So if you listen to my picks last week, you would have heard me say take the Minnesota Vikings minus four. You would have been correct on that one. They did win by five. I told you, with Chicago and the Patriots, to take the Patriots plus six again. You would have been correct. Not only did they get the plus six, they won big. And then I told you a no-brainer was the Lions minus three and a half against the Texans Boy. They made me sweat and they got the win. But they did not get the win by four, they got the win by three. So the game I felt most confident about betrayed me. But that's okay. We're back to the drawing board with all four teams playing this week with a divisional match up there. So we've got the Vikings at the Tennessee Titans and the Vikings were a minus six. Take the Vikings.
Speaker 1:I think there's a good bounce back going on here. Sam Darnold's going to lean on Aaron Jones some more with the running game. He's going to be able to hit some big plays with Justin Jefferson because they got Hockinson back. I think the Vikings win by 10. So give me the Vikings minus six.
Speaker 1:For the Jags in Detroit, detroit minus 13. I think this is a game where they can win. Oh, they probably win by two touchdowns. So I'm going to tell you to take the Lions minus 13. I would feel so much better if I could get this line at minus 10, but I would take minus 13. I wouldn't take 14 or 14 and a half, because I think they win by two touchdowns here.
Speaker 1:And then the Packers at the Bears. It's so hard for me to believe that the Bears are going to beat the Packers after a bye week with all that they got going on. But again there is the potential for a situational boost. I just don't think it's going to be enough. Give me the Packers minus six. I think they win by at least a touchdown. I guess it could be a two field goal kind of game. But I just don't think that the Packers are ready to lose yet to the Bears. It's not their time yet.
Speaker 1:All right, that is the show for the day. I hope you enjoyed and if you did leave me a comment, there's a spot down there in the description you might be able to click that says send us a text. I appreciate I got a text from Mount Pleasant, michigan, telling me good show last week. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Keep those comments coming and, as always, if you come back next week which I hope you do make sure you've got your bags packed because we are heading north. I'm D-Tron Peace. Are you still talking about football? Yeah, football, talent, nfc North, the list of football.