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 17: NFC North Battles Heat Up with Surprising Wins and Losses
What if the NFC North held the key to your next winning bet? This week on "Headed North," we unravel the drama and dynamics that unfolded in the latest NFC North matchups, spotlighting the Green Bay Packers' heart-stopping 20-19 victory against the Chicago Bears. Celebrating their 11th consecutive triumph over their storied rivals, the Packers’ narrow escape was defined by a crucial blocked kick, dashing the hopes fueled by standout performances from DJ Moore and Cole Kmet. As the Packers gear up for a pivotal clash with the San Francisco 49ers, the stakes are high with playoff standings on the line. Meanwhile, we gear up for the Bears' determination to rise against the Minnesota Vikings, showcasing their potential to shake up the division rankings.
The episode doesn’t stop there as we dissect the Lions’ and Vikings’ recent triumphs and tribulations. The Lions face a test of tactics against Anthony Richardson's agility, yet confidence remains high for their face-off with the Colts. Meanwhile, the Vikings ride the wave of a solid win against the Titans, with Sam Darnold showing significant improvement. We navigate through my Week 12 betting predictions, highlighting why the 49ers are a smart pick against the Packers and why the Bears might just cover the spread in their showdown with the Vikings. Tune in for insights that blend game analysis with betting acumen, poised to elevate your game-day experience and maybe even your betting gains.
Table of Contents
0:00-1:37 Intro
1:38-1:57 www.OffRacksShop.com (Ad)
1:58-7:00 Blocking The Bears Blessings
7:01-10:47 More L’s in the D
10:48-13:08 Minnesota’s Keeping Pace
13:09-15:42 Spreading The Field
15:43-16:03 Closing Thoughts
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Yo, 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. All right, let's get into the episode. Are you still talking about football? Yeah, football talent, NFC North. Then let's talk NFC North, let's talk football. Welcome back everybody.
Speaker 1:This is Headed North, an NFC North podcast, and I'm your host, detron, and I know I'm coming to you like super late and you've probably forgotten all about last week's football games. Well, I'm here to remind you of a couple of things. One, the Packers certainly know how to ruin a parlay, and the second thing is the Green Bay Packers are very deep I'm talking super deep into Chicago Bears' heads, because there's no way that Cairo Santos gets that kick blocked against anybody else except the Green Bay Packers or maybe the Chiefs. But other than that, there's no way the Bears lose that game. But it's Green Bay. So they did. The Lions welcomed the Jaguars to the D, then gave them the L and Minnesota gave the Titans, you know, another reason to dislike the NFC North. All of that was last week, but we're going to talk about it. We're also going to focus on our week ahead, with some big divisional games and some revenge games in the case of the 49ers and the Green Bay Packers. We're going to get into all that a little bit more, but first I want to give you our sponsors, that way they can tell you about their stuff.
Speaker 1:This episode of Headed North Podcast is sponsored by OffRagShopcom. Offragshopcom is an online thrift retailer that 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. All right, so we are going to get the game kicked off.
Speaker 1:Like I started the show talking about the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers, that game finished 20-19. And if you watched that game last week and you're a Bears fan, you're probably still very disappointed in the way this thing ended, and if you're a Packers fan, it's much of the same. That's 11. Yes, 11 straight wins for LeFleur versus the Chicago Bears, but it shouldn't have ended that way, and I say that because Chicago had a chance If you didn't see the game. They had a chance.
Speaker 1:They did all the things they needed to do. They were protecting, they were getting the ball to DJ and Cole Komet. You know the hopes were high. A DJ caught seven for seven 62 yards. Cole Komet caught three for 42 yards. They prevented him from getting sacked a whole lot. It was only three times 11 for 7, 62 yards. Cole Komet caught 3 for 42 yards. They prevented him from getting sacked a whole lot. It was only three times he got sacked, but significantly less than before. So Chicago was doing everything that they needed to do. Swift put up 14 rushes for 71 yards on the ground and had the only touchdown scored on their offense. All that said, caleb used his legs and that was really the game changer for Chicago in this week's game. Their offense looked completely different. This loss is not on his shoulders, though.
Speaker 1:The last drive let me talk about that last drive. So in that last drive was a glimpse into what Chicago has been hoping they were going to get from Caleb all season, despite taking two sacks on that last drive was a glimpse into what Chicago has been hoping they were going to get from Caleb all season, despite taking two sacks. On that final drive he completed three passes for 49 yards. One of them was on fourth down to extend the game and put them in field goal range. So he did everything he needed to do at the end of that game to put them in a position to win. And Cairo Santos has been in the league for nearly 10 years and he's only had six kicks blocked. That's nearly 274 field goal attempts with only six blocks. What can you do? Sometimes it's just not your day and apparently against the Green Bay Packers it's really never Chicago's day.
Speaker 1:Caleb finished with 23 of 31,. Zero passing touchdowns, zero interceptions, three sacks. But he did rush for nine attempts, 70 yards. That is a significant change. He was looking to run when he needed to and not running because he was panicked or scrambling because he had no offensive line. He looked much better on his rushing attempts this week and it almost got them to win. But, like Brandy said, almost doesn't count and Love Love didn't look that great either. 13 of 17, 261 yards, a passing touchdown, an interception, one sack had four rushes for 18 yards. Really the big day for the Packers was Christian Watson had a huge day Four catches, 150 yards, a big 60-yard reception got tucked in there, the Packers get the W and now the team can move into a big challenge this week.
Speaker 1:So the Packers are taking on the 49ers at home, and the last time these two teams met were in the playoffs last year, where the Niners beat Green Bay to go on to the conference finals. So this is a different 49ers team. They've been banged up most of the year. Although even being broken and injured, they're headed back to getting healthy at the right time, which is right now. So this is going to be a very meaningful game, but it's also a game in Lambeau, I think, giving the Packers a slight advantage. If the Packers win here, they'll do some serious damage to the 49ers' chance to get into the postseason because right now they're barely treading water in a division that feels like they're all treading water.
Speaker 1:And as far as Chicago, chicago gets to move and take on Minnesota. This is the number two team in the division and they get to go out and prove that they are not little brother, despite how the last game ended, again coming off of that loss against Green Bay. That could be heartbreaking and if you take it personally, you want to come out, you want to beat Minnesota and show them that they are not going to be the punching bag for the division. So beating Minnesota Chicago would also help Green Bay in the race to stay close to the Vikings in that second spot in the division and putting both of those teams still in striking distance for the Lions. So the Bears are possibly without DeAndre Swift, jalen Jones, jaquan Brisker, who has a concussion protocol. All of those things could play and have a really big impact on Chicago's ability to be successful in this game. But it would mean a lot if they could come out after that loss against Green Bay and get a dub against Minnesota.
Speaker 1:Weather could be a factor too. Again, they're playing in Chicago. It's getting late into the year. You know how weather acts in the Windy City. All right, so we're moving on from the packers and the bears, we're gonna move into the detroit lions and the lions ran down 52 to 6 on the jags, goodness gracious, of course.
Speaker 1:I watched the game from beginning to end and it looked like a 52 to 6 game. Biggest headline, let me. Let me get you to the things that are important. Biggest headline out of this game is that there was an injury to Alex Anzalone, the second leading tackler on the team. Late in the second quarter Alex broke his forearm tackling Travis Etienne and now he's headed to the IR and he won't be eligible to return until like week 16. And that's if he can return, then that's a huge loss. Someone who really rallies the defense, someone who's all over the field Alex Anzalone is a huge part of what this defense does.
Speaker 1:Outside of the loss of Anzalone, this game was really out of hand pretty early. Eight straight scoring drives for the Lions. Seven of those were touchdown drives. Jared I thought Jared's going to come out and look to be efficient. You know, keep it mild after having that five interception game the week before. Nope, he was efficient, but he went crazy. 24 of 29, 412 passing yards, four passing touchdowns, no picks, a QBR of 158.3.
Speaker 1:My goodness, montgomery scored twice, gibbs scored once, amon Ra scored twice, jamison scored once, brock Rice scored once. Amon Ra was. 11 catches, 161 yards, two touchdowns. Jamison had four catches for 124 yards and a touchdown. This was, let me tell you this, stat line. This tells you the story. The Jags had 10 first downs and 170 total offensive yards and the Lions had 38 first downs and 645 yards of total offense. Not close? Not at all, not at any point.
Speaker 1:But the Lions get to move on to next week or this upcoming week and take on the Colts, which is likely more of the same. A complete Lions football game is on the horizon. The Lions are coming into this week against the Colts as a seven-point favorite, and justifiably so. The Lions are the number one scoring offense in the league and the number one ranked defense on third down percent and the fifth best in the league at points allowed and only giving up 17.7 points per game.
Speaker 1:The only concern that I might have for the Lions which, again, I probably would have talked about this a lot more at the beginning of the year, prior to all of the winning that they've done is Anthony Richardson's ability to be mobile and move around. Now I'm not saying that he's going to be the changemaker, but the Lions in the past have struggled against quarterbacks who are mobile, and this year they haven't had to face a lot of them. You might be able to count Kyler in there, maybe Geno because he scrambles, even Baker Mayfield because he scrambles, and they've done okay against all those quarterbacks except for Baker. They got beat by them, but other than that they've been able to hold quarterbacks who you might perceive as getting out of the pocket more often than others. They've been able to hold them. So I I only hold a bit of concern for Anthony Richardson because he runs significantly more than most of those quarterbacks. But we'll see how much the Lions win by, because I don't think there is a chance that the Lions lose against the Colts here. But we will see, and actually not we will see Prepare for another blowout. That's my opinion. All right, let's move off of the Lions because again, that game was not all of that entertaining if you weren't a Lions fan.
Speaker 1:As far as the Vikings go, the Vikings looked to take on the Titans last week and they didn't blow them out, but they beat them convincingly 23-13. Sam Darnold got back to his throwing ways like he had been earlier in the season and helped to get, you know, get over some of the jitters that he's had in some of these other games where he's been throwing crazy interceptions. This game he went 20 for 32, 246 yards, two passing touchdowns. He also had a rushing touchdown. But the biggest thing I mentioned zero interceptions in this game and that's a key driver for success for the Vikings is when Sam Darnold plays well, he's getting the ball to his weapons. You know they've got a chance to put up points.
Speaker 1:This game was a bit weird because there weren't any major performances from folks. I mean, jj had six catches for 81 yards, addison had three catches for 61 yards and a touchdown. But Hockison and Oliver those guys had marginal contributions in the passing game, much like the rest of the offense. Cam Akers and Aaron Jones shared responsibilities on the ground. They only accounted for a little over 60 yards between the two of them, although Sam Darnold did chip in another 18 yards on the ground. The defense for the Vikings and I know I harp on this a lot, but the defense really did the thing. The Vikings' defense held the Titans to 33 rushing yards in this game and really just turned them into a one-dimensional team which did not work for them, and you could see it was reflected in the score again 23-13, the Vikings beat the Titans.
Speaker 1:I already mentioned where the Vikings are going this week. The Vikings are going to be taking on the Bears in a big task. I already mentioned where the Vikings are going this week. The Vikings are going to be taking on the Bears in a big task. I mean you do want to beat the Bears. You don't want to be the one that loses in this divisional matchup and lowers your record, right? You're trying to keep pace with the Lions right now, who are at the top of the division. You're trying to keep Green Bay off of your heels. If they beat the Bears, they can improve to 9-2, which is a significant improvement from where I thought they would be at this point in the year, and it can really set them up for some big matchups at the end of this season against the Lions. All right, that is it for all four of our teams this week.
Speaker 1:I'm going to get you into spreading the field and let me recap you where I'm at through 11 weeks. Right now, I'm sitting at about 52.9%. I'm slightly better than a coin toss. People Just know that. Look, I have gotten 18 of 34 picks right through these 11 weeks. Although I didn't give you any picks in week one, I went 50%. In week two, 25%, 33%, 33%, 100% in week six, so hopefully you were here for that. 50%. In week seven 75%. In week eight, 33%, 66% and then last week, 66%, because Green Bay really knows how to ruin a parlay. All right, so now we're into week 12. The Lions are taking on the Colts. This one is easy, I call them my no-brainers. Minus seven for the Lions. Take that and you can feel very comfortable taking this line all the way back to minus 10. That's just how I feel.
Speaker 1:The Vikings and the Bears. Give me the Bears at home, looking to not to drop another dud against a divisional opponent. They still got a lot to play for. Pride is the biggest thing, but they can beat some divisional opponents. The Bears are getting three and a half and Minnesota is going to have to come and play outside. Minnesota has been playing a lot of competition really close this year and because of that I think the Bears' motivation is going to help keep this thing close. And if the Vikings win, they win by field goal and the Bears would still cover.
Speaker 1:And then the 49ers versus Green Bay Packers. Give me the Niners Plus three and a half. Look, green Bay knows how to ruin a parlay and because of that, feel free to fade me on this one. If you don't believe that Green Bay loses to the 49ers by three, take the opposite. But I'm taking the 49ers minus three and a half because Green Bay has been playing really close to their competition and the 49ers have a chance to outright win this game, especially if this is the game that Christian McCaffrey decides to have his resurgence. This could be a 49ers win outright. So running it back down again for Week 12, the Lions take them minus 7 or more, the Vikings and the Bears take the Bears plus 3.5. And then for the 49ers and Green Bay take the 49ers plus three and a half.
Speaker 1:Those are my picks for Spread in the Field and this has been Headed North Podcast. I appreciate you guys listening to the show. If you did, and if you come back next week, which I hope you do, make sure you've got your bags packed, because we are headed north. I'm Detron Peace. Are you still talking about football? Yeah, the Battalion, nfc North. The list of football.