Three playoff teams, two teams with 14 or more wins and a top seed in the conference emerged from the NFC North, creating a historic regular season never before seen in the league.
Then the playoffs started and everything fell apart in stunning fashion.
No NFC North team has won a playoff game.
The Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions were eliminated, with all three teams losing their first playoff game by at least 12 points.
Incredibly, the Packers’ 12-point loss to the Philadelphia Eagles – an ugly, error-riddled game that included an early foul and four total turnovers – was the closest defeat of the bunch.
The day after the Packers’ loss, the Minnesota Vikings trailed 24-3 at halftime and lost 27-9 to the Los Angeles Rams, who sacked Sam Darnold nine times. After going 14-3 and not even winning the league title, the fifth-seeded Vikings suffered an 18-point loss in an uncompetitive game against the Rams in Arizona.
And that’s how the Packers, who had 11 wins and the Vikings’ 14 wins, were eliminated during the wild card weekend.
On Saturday night, the Lions ended a string of upsets in the NFC North during the divisional round.
Dan Campbell’s team had five turnovers and gave up 481 yards in a 45-31 loss to the sixth-seeded Washington Commanders at Ford Field, providing a great end to a season in which the Lions won 15 games and secured the coveted No. 1 seed in the toughest NFC.
In total, the three NFC North teams turned the ball over 11 times and did not force a single turnover. They lost their playoff games by a total of 44 points. All three were behind by 10 or more points for long stretches of the fourth quarter – in fact, the Lions and Vikings were three points behind for long stretches of the final 15 minutes.
The Packers, Vikings and Lions won 40 games in the regular season. It meant almost nothing. These three teams are 0-3 in the postseason, and now the NFC North will not have a team competing for the NFC title next weekend.
