Around the NFC North: 2024 Week Two

The Bears rookie QB was meh. The Lions lost. The Vikings have some weird QB stuff going on. And the Packers won! Back to the good ole days this week. 

Detroit Lions

The Lions succumbed to the Bucs 20-16.

Game Notes

• Tampa Bay’s defense is tailor made for playing the Lions. They want to stop the run. They want to use fancy pressures to make the QB nervous. They have plenty of guys who can cover tight ends. In this game, it worked to perfection. Jared Goff was 34/55 for 307 yards and two picks and the Lions managed just 16 points. The only reason the game was as close as it was was because the punter completed a 17 yard pass on a fake on fourth down deep in the Lions’ own territory. 
• It’s worth mentioning that the Lions had 463 yards to the Bucs’s 216. It was just a lot empty calorie yards while losing and too many turnovers. 
• Half of the Lions stars played well. The Sun God was back with 119 yards on 11 catches and Jahmyr Gibbs had 106 total yards (though 22 yards on 7 catches is insanely meh). David Montgomery did not have a great day and Sam LaPorta had just two catches for 13 yards. LaPorta is a big problem for me. I have him on a fantasy team so that I wouldn’t be too depressed for the Lions to be good for the first time in my lifetime. But now he’s bad? So I wasted a ton on a tight end, the third worst position in fantasy. Terrible. 
• Jameson Williams, everyone’s breakout star, had a solid game with 79 yards, a long of 50, and a run for 15 yards. 
• Even more depressing than any nonsense with my fantasy team is that the Lions defense looks good. Aidan Hutchinson had 5 sacks! Brian branch had a great pick. The Bucs didn’t even hit 200 pass yards. Maybe the secret to running a good NFL defense is letting the same guy call it for four straight years while also lucking into the Jaguars taking Travon Walker. 

 

 

Next Week

The Lions take on the Cardinals. 

Vikings

The Vikings upset the 49ers 23-17.

Game Notes

• This is the rare win for the Vikings that I fully support. You’d be hard-pressed to get me to want the 49ers to win against anyone and what’s funnier than watching Vikings fan fall for the Sam Darnold scam? The Scam Darnold. Speaking of Darnold, he was 17/26 for 268 yards, two TDs and a pick. Pretty good!
• Also nice for us was that Ty Chandler had 82 yards on 10 carries and Aaron Jones had 32 on nine. Who would’ve guessed that after that week one Josh Jacobs would have 5x Jones’ yards in week two. 
• Justin Jefferson had a 97-yard touchdown. Apparently his eyes work differently than normal humans or something. Which begs the question: is it really fair for the Vikings to be playing with mutants? They should be forced to trade him to the most honorable team in the division. 
• Brian Flores is back again and the Vikings’ defense played really well against the 49ers. Last week, Flores used no cover 0 and ran quarters on 40% of snaps. A total change from what they did last year. In this one he was deep in his bag again, running cover-2 from a front with 7 men on the LOS. Flores’ defense tailed off last year and we’ll see if he can keep up the momentum this year, no matter what, he’ll be doing interesting stuff. 
• As far as the players go, former Badger Andrew Van Ginkel had another great game with a sack, two TFLs and a pass defensed. 

 

 

Next Week

The Vikings take on the Texans. 

Bears

The Bears lost to the Texans 19-13.

Game Notes

• Caleb Williams broke the century mark in this one! He also threw two picks, took seven sacks, averaged just 4.7 yards per attempt and caused DJ Moore to rip his helmet off in disgust at least once. According to The Ringer’s Austin Gayle, no QB has had fewer yards per attempt over the first two weeks of a season in the last ten years. Nice. 
• Williams also led the team in rushing (44 yards) thanks to prized free agent D’Andre Swift managing just 18 yards on 14 carries. 
• The defense played pretty well against the Texans. They held CJ Stroud under 300 yards and under a 100 QB rating. Three Bears had a sack, including former Badger Jack Sanborn. It’s maddening how many NFL teams have great linebackers who went to Wisconsin (I know some of these are edges but: Steelers, Vikings, Bears, Eagles, Bears again, Chiefs, Steelers again) and the Packers haven’t had a consistently good linebacker in like a century. Half of those guys weren’t even drafted!
• Speaking of Badgers, TJ Edwards had 8 tackles in this one and Dare Ogunbawale had two catches for 20 yards for Houston. 

 

 

Next Week

The Bears play the Colts.