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Bears on top! NFC North insiders react to division shake-up | 1st & North
The first-place Chicago Bears are the talk of the NFC North! On this episode of "1st & North," Lou Canellis and our NFC North insiders break down a wild week around the division — from the Lions’ playoff slip to J.J. McCarthy’s struggles and Josh Jacobs’ injury concerns in Green Bay. Are the Bears for real — and can they stay on top of the division? The crew tackles all the headlines and hot takes heading into next week.
Here's what happened around the NFC North on Sunday, where the Lions won in OT and the Pack picked another divisional win.
Jahmyr Gibbs rescues Lions with long TD run in OT for 34-27 win over Giants
DETROIT — Jahmyr Gibbs to the rescue.
Gibbs ran for a 69-yard touchdown on the first snap of overtime and had a career-high 264 yards from scrimmage along with three scores, lifting the Detroit Lions to a much-needed 34-27 win over the New York Giants on Sunday.
"He bailed us out in a big way," Detroit coach Dan Campbell said.
Giants interim coach Mike Kafka helped, too.
Kafka went for it on fourth-and-goal from the 6 with his slumping team leading by three points, instead of kicking a short field goal that would have forced Detroit to score a touchdown. Winston threw an incomplete pass to Theo Johnson to end a 14-play, 86-yard drive that took nearly seven minutes off the clock.
"We’re trying to win the game, so we want to score as many points as possible," Kafka said after coaching his second game in place of the fired Brian Daboll. "We thought that was a place to be aggressive."
Detroit took advantage. Jake Bates kicked a 59-yard field goal that matched his career high with 28 seconds left, giving Jared Goff another opportunity to put the ball in Gibbs’ hands.
Goff handed the ball to Gibbs for a run up the middle, Detroit's much-maligned offensive line opened a huge hole, and one of the NFL's fastest players took it from there.
"I’ve got the best seat in the field," Goff said. "I put my hands up when he was about seven yards down the field."
The Lions (7-4) entered the game out of the playoff picture, trailed by double digits multiple times and rallied to avoid losing consecutive games for the first time in more than three years.
"It was a must win," Gibbs said.
And the Lions wouldn't have pulled it off without Gibbs.
The dual-threat running back had a career-high 219 yards rushing — the third-highest total in team history — and two touchdowns, including a 49-yard run early in the fourth quarter. He also had a career-high 11 catches for 45 yards and another score.
"We stopped him several times, but he got away that last time," Kafka said.
New York had a chance to extend the game in overtime, but turned it over on downs at the Detroit 31 when Aidan Hutchinson sacked Jameis Winston.
Goff was 28 of 42 for 279 yards with two touchdowns: an 11-yard pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown and a 3-yard pass to Gibbs in the first half. He had a deflected pass picked off.
St. Brown had nine catches for 149 yards.
The Giants (2-10) lost their sixth straight game and fifth this season after leading in the fourth quarter.
Making his second straight start in place of injured rookie Jaxson Dart, Winston had a 33-yard touchdown reception and threw a 39-yard touchdown pass on trick plays.
Winston was 18 of 36 for 366 yards — becoming the first to throw for at least 300 yards against Detroit this season — with two touchdowns and an interception.
Wan’Dale Robinson set career highs with nine receptions for 156 yards and had a 12-yard touchdown in the second quarter that gave the Giants one of their three 10-point leads.
"That very easily — a number of times — could’ve gone the other way, but it didn’t," Campbell said. "We made the plays we had to make."
The Giants, meanwhile, did not, which continued a trend.
They have lost an NFL-high five games after leading in the fourth. Last month at Denver, they became the first team since at least 1970 to lead by 18-plus points with six minutes remaining and lose in regulation.
"We need to find a way to finish them off, and I really believe our players can do that," Kafka said.
Emanuel Wilson runs for 2 TDs as Packers pound Vikings 23-6
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Emanuel Wilson always believed he could make it in the NFL even while he was breaking into the league as an undrafted free agent from Division II Fort Valley State.
Given the opportunity to make his first career start Sunday, Wilson went out and proved to everyone else what he already knew.
Wilson rushed for a career-high 107 yards and two touchdowns while filling in for the injured Josh Jacobs to back up a dominating performance from Green Bay's defense as the Packers trounced the Minnesota Vikings 23-6 on Sunday.
"I just kept it the same," Wilson said. "I approached it today just like it’s another game. This is my first start since college, so I just tried to go out there and take advantage of it."
Wilson provided all the offense Green Bay needed on a day when the Packers forced three turnovers and produced five sacks, including two each from Micah Parsons and Devonte Wyatt. The Vikings totaled 4 net yards and three turnovers in the second half.
The Vikings (4-7) hadn't finished a half with as few as 4 yards of total offense since at least 1991, which is as far back as Sportradar's research goes on the subject.
"We did not play in any way, shape or form the type of (second) half that would give us a chance to compete," Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell said.
The Vikings were attempting to beat the Packers on the road for a third straight season, something they last accomplished in 1991-93. They instead fell for the fifth time in their past six games.
Green Bay (7-3-1) improved to 2-0 in divisional games after going 1-5 against NFC North foes last season. This started a stretch of three straight divisional matchups for the Packers, who visit Detroit on Thursday and host the Chicago Bears on Dec. 7.
Because Green Bay's defense was so dominant, the Packers didn't need to show much imagination on offense. Jordan Love completed 14 of his season-low 21 passes for 139 yards, another season low.
"I've never called the same run so many times consecutively," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. "It was like 3 yards and a cloud of dust, but it was effective. Bottom line, I just thought the way our defense was playing, we just took the air out of the ball and said, ‘Go win it for us.’ "
That meant Wilson got a heavier workload than even he expected.
Wilson acknowledged he was a little nervous when he woke up. Jacobs, who was unavailable because of a bruised left knee, offered a pregame message that helped settle him.
"Josh just was in my corner telling me to believe in myself and telling me he believed in me, so I just went out there and did what I did," Wilson said.
Wilson's 28 carries and 107 yards rushing represented the highest single-game totals by any Packers running back this season. He had two 1-yard touchdown runs.
"I think mentally he was preparing all week to be the guy," Love said. "And to find out and come out here and have over 100 yards and break off some of the runs he did was pretty cool."
The Vikings trailed 10-6 but stopped Green Bay on the opening drive of the second half when a special teams turnover helped the Packers break the game open.
Daniel Whelan’s punt bounced inside the 10-yard line and then hit the body of Minnesota’s Myles Price, who was blocking a Green Bay player at the time. Zayne Anderson recovered at the Minnesota 5 to give Green Bay first-and-goal, and Wilson scored two plays later.
"That punt was huge," Parsons said. "Huge. Changed the whole momentum of the game."
Minnesota spent the first half relying on running backs Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones to lead a ball-control attack that took the pressure off struggling quarterback J.J. McCarthy. Once Green Bay opened up a two-score lead, the Vikings needed to rely more on McCarthy but couldn’t handle the Packers’ pass rush.
McCarthy went 12 of 19 for 87 yards. Minnesota's last two series ended with McCarthy throwing interceptions to Isaiah McDuffie and Evan Williams.
"We like playing with a lead because you just get to let the big dogs eat," Williams said. "We definitely felt comfortable, smelled a little blood in the water coming into the second and knew that we could just let loose and play fast."
The Vikings’ only points came on a pair of Will Reichard field goals from 52 and 59 yards. Reichard became the first player in NFL history to have four field goals of at least 59 yards in one season.
Green Bay's Brandon McManus had field goals of 32, 30 and 40 yards.