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The NFC North is living, breathing proof that life and football come at you fast. The Vikings and Packers were, at various points over the past month, starting to really get things rolling. Now they're both reeling, and it has opened up not just the division but the entire NFC as a result.

Even when the Packers offense was struggling, they were 4-2 and in a position where Aaron Rodgers, the best quarterback in football, just needed to get better and they could make a run. A wild card looked like the worst-case scenario. The Vikings were the last undefeated team in football and a runaway favorite for the NFC North heading into their Week 6 bye.

Everything has flipped. The Packers' best running back is a wide receiver from Stanford (Ty Montgomery) and they didn't target him once out of the backfield in the first half of a horrific 31-26 loss to a pudding-soft Colts team.

The Vikings were about to get back on track after back-to-back losses and then impressively gagged away a victory to the Lions in overtime at home. The real concern there is if the defense can't stop the Detroit Lions at home and the offense isn't good, can this team really make a deep run?

Minnesota averaged 3.1 yards per rush Sunday, and, really, since coming out of the bye, just haven't had any offense.

Game Points Total Yards Yards/Rush Yards/Pass
Week 7 at PHI 10 282 3.4 4.0
Week 8 at CHI 10 258 3.2 4.8
Week 9 vs. DET 16 337 3.1 6.2

This is very bad news for Minnesota. Their offense is terrible, and it's not getting beat up by good defenses here. Philly's a stout defensive team, and we made excuses for the Bears kind of gelling together. The Lions defense was arguably the worst in the NFL coming in. There's no sugar-coating it -- the Vikings are anemic on offense. When they don't play well defensively, they're not going to win games.

The Redskins, Cardinals, Lions and Cowboys are on the docket next, so things aren't getting easier on either front.

How is Green Bay not reeling after laying a complete egg against Indy at home? This was a get-right game for the Packers, the opportunity to put up huge stats at home against an overmatched opponent with a bad defense. Instead, the afternoon ended with a loss at Lambeau and Aaron Rodgers calling out his teammates.

"I have no idea [why], I don't understand it," Rodgers said. "This is what we get paid to do. I would hope the guys would say I bring it every week. I don't know what the lack of juice was. We've got to look deep in the mirror there because that's not acceptable."

Andrew Luck gifted Green Bay a pair of unnecessary early interceptions but the Packers weren't interested in trying to convert those turnovers into actual points. Instead, the Packers were too busy letting the Colts rip off huge special teams returns and allowing Frank Gore to find the end zone.

Green Bay just lacks the mojo we've seen from this team over most of Rodgers' tenure. The offense is out of sync and there's no one left to run the ball. Worth noting: Montgomery is surprisingly good at the position.

James Starks should be back next week, so that helps. It's only midseason, but the Packers aren't a great football team. They're part of the middle class in the NFL right now, and the Vikings might be with them.

The trickle-down effect on the NFC North, as well as the entire NFC, is pretty fascinating.

The Packers are now behind the Lions and sitting in third place in the division. The Vikings are in first, but their hold is tenuous at best with Detroit's road win -- the Lions are very much in this division despite sitting at 4-4 with every single one of their games coming down to the last minute. The Bears are 2-6 and not dead yet?

When the Vikings cruised into their bye 5-0, this division was wrapped. But now, they could easily go 1-3 over the next month and be under .500. If that's the case and the Lions pick up a Thanksgiving win, this is going to get weird.

Green Bay is away for the next three weeks against the Titans, Redskins and Eagles, so it's not like they're staring down an easy stretch. They won't play in Lambeau again until December.

With the northern teams trying to play themselves out of wild-card contention, things get very interesting on that front. The Giants, who beat the Eagles to move to 5-3, and Redskins, who didn't play this week and remain 4-3-1, would be the two NFC wild-card teams if the playoffs started Monday.

New York and Washington have done some nice things this year but they're not going to run away with anything. They also play each other in the final week of the season.

So if you're the Carolina Panthers or New Orleans Saints or Arizona Cardinals, well, the NFC playoff picture is a lot brighter after Week 9.

Oh yeah, also: Squirrel!

Here are more takeaways from Sunday's Week 9 action:

1. World's worst play-calling by Pederson

It's easy to second guess a coach's decision in a certain situation when something goes wrong. Laughing at a bad play call that doesn't work out is cherry-picking; if it works, we don't have the same reaction. The process involved with Doug Pederson's fourth-down play against the Giants on Sunday wasn't good, however.

On fourth-and-2 from the Giants' 30-yard line in the second quarter, Pederson decided to be bold and go for the first down. No problem with the move here, but the play call was curious, to say the least: Pederson dialed up a read-option run for rookie quarterback Carson Wentz and the result was not good.

Wentz ended up 6 yards behind the line of scrimmage with five Giants defenders bearing down on him.

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via NFL Game Rewind

Being aggressive in fourth-down situations in the NFL is a noble endeavor. More coaches should do it, but coaches are conservative human beings by nature. The problem these days is more about the play-calling than anything else. A read-option run for a rookie quarterback on fourth-and-short isn't what you want.

At least it's different than the standard bearer for fourth downs in the NFL -- the old "run him straight into the line of scrimmage" play. Pederson had one of those in his bag of tricks too, going for it on fourth-and-1 later in the quarter from the Giants' 6-yard line.

He allowed Darren Sproles, one of the smaller running backs in the league, to run straight into the offensive line on a fairly slow-developing stretch play. It even featured a man motioning to the right side of the line and no misdirection.

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via NFL Game Rewind

And you won't believe this, but the Eagles didn't pick up the first down. They would go on to lose by five points because they couldn't convert a fourth-and-10 late in the game while in field goal range. Could have used those earlier field goals, right Doug?

2. When you're Kelce, you throw everything

My favorite/funniest moment from Week 9 was a no-brainer pick, courtesy of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who was ejected against the Jaguars for throwing a towel at an official.

In a moment that perfectly encapsulates how empowered NFL officials are, Kelce said something, got flagged for it and was so miffed that he threw his towel in the official's direction.

Look at this guy's face when he spies Kelce's towel flying through the air. Just a warm can of Coke that got shaken for 20 minutes. Ready to explode.

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via NFL Game Rewind

And he did, throwing his hat in the air and booting Kelce from the game.

Everything was in the air.

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via NFL Game Rewind

No idea why I find this so funny but it's my favorite thing from the week.

3. Early returns ugly for new Browns linebacker

The Patriots' decision to trade Jamie Collins before last week's trade deadline to Cleveland -- the Pats got a conditional fourth-round pick that could become a third from the Browns -- drew plenty of attention.

People dredged up old quotes from Collins and showed plays where it's possible that Collins didn't do things Bill Belichick wanted.

Maybe Collins just isn't always great in coverage. He struggled against Owen Daniels during last season's AFC Championship Game and in his first game with the Browns, he had some absolutely terrible coverage of Jason Witten that allowed the Cowboys to score an early touchdown.

Collins made some very nice plays for the Browns, but it's starting to look like the description from Tom Curran of CSN New England, who called Collins a ".230 hitter with 40 home run power," might be spot on. The highs are really high but the lows result in a total defensive breakdown.

Busted coverage on a tight end can totally flip a game. The Browns weren't beating the Cowboys on Sunday, but they have far less of a chance when players are left wide open.

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via NFL Game Rewind

4. Are the Panthers back?

It was mentioned above, but Carolina has to start feeling decent about its playoff chances. The Panthers won't meet expectations for this year, because the over/under is already out the window -- they would need to win out in order to hit 11 wins, and that's not happening.

But what's fascinating about Carolina is how hot the defense came out of the bye, particularly when it comes to the pass rush.

Points/GameYards/GameSacksTurnovers
Weeks 1-629.3371.5126
Weeks 8-915.0339.5122

The Panthers' defensive line was a shell of itself during the first six weeks of the season. No pressure from Kawaan Short and Kony Ealy -- both of whom were expected to have huge seasons -- led to a young secondary being exposed.

In the two weeks since the bye, Carolina has matched its sack total from the first six weeks of the season. It's not a coincidence they're 2-0 since the break, and it's not a coincidence they cut their points per game allowed in half and look like a Super Bowl defense.

Once again, Thomas Davis and Luke Kuechly look like the best linebacker combination in the league.

There's room for improvement, but this is a very important development for a team with high aspirations and a tough upcoming schedule. The Chiefs at home are up next week, then the Saints on a short week at home and then Carolina heads out west in back-to-back weeks at Oakland and Seattle.

Pulling off one west coast win Sunday was a big step in setting up a potential run.

"It's turning right before our eyes," Cam Newton said after the win over the Rams.

He might be onto something.

5. The best back in football is a rookie?

With all due respect to David Johnson and Le'Veon Bell, the only competition, it's quite possible Ezekiel Elliott is the best running back in football.

His highlight reel against the Browns is NSFW football material, a master class in footwork and patience from a guy in his rookie seasons.

You can argue any running back would have success behind the Cowboys' offensive line, and that's not an entirely false statement. But Elliott is an absolute animal out of the backfield, explosive, smart and tough to bring down.

He looks so smooth and yet so powerful, and he absolutely has a nose for the end zone.

Elliott is also threatening to break the NFL record for rushing yards by a rookie.

Stats through 8 games
Rush Att.Rush YardsYards/AttTDs
Eric Dickerson (1983)2039954.914
Ezekiel Elliott (2016)1678344.99

He's obviously fairly far behind Dickerson, who carried the ball a ridiculous number of times in his first eight games in the NFL.

You have to wonder if Elliott might be able to hit a hot stretch during the next few games like Dickerson did his first year. The Steelers (4.2 yards per carry) and Redskins (4.9) don't offer a lot of resistance on the ground. The Ravens (3.4) are one of the better teams in the league on a yards-per-carry basis, but with the Cowboys' offensive line, they can run on anyone.

The biggest difference is Dickerson finished the regular season with an absurd 390 carries. It's hard to imagine the Cowboys feeding Elliott that much -- he's too important for their offense and playoff hopes to run into the ground in games that ultimately don't mean that much late in the season.