by After the regular season finale in Detroit, Lions coach Dan Campbell told Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, “See you in two weeks.”
Less than two weeks later, both teams had said “goodbye” to the postseason.
The playoff collapse of three NFC North juggernauts — the Lions, Vikings and Packers — stands in stark contrast to their regular-season dominance outside the confines of the black-and-blue division.
As a reader noted, and as we confirmed by checking the schedules and tallying the games, the Lions, Vikings and Packers were a combined 29-4 against teams outside the division in the regular season. In the playoffs they were 0-3 against non-NFC North teams.
Minnesota and Green Bay each had 10-1 records against non-division rivals. The Lions were 9-2.
Last weekend, Green Bay lost to the Eagles and Minnesota lost to the Rams. On Saturday the Lions fell to the Commanders.
Their records were fattened by a schedule rotation that saw them play each of the teams in the AFC South and NFC West, with the 17th game coming from one of the teams in the AFC East.
Next year it won’t be so easy. The NFC North teams play the AFC North and NFC East teams, with the 17th game against the AFC West teams – the Lions play the Chiefs, the Vikings play the Chargers, the Packers play the Broncos and the Bears play the Raiders right away.
So their regular season record outside the division won’t be that good in 2025. However, their postseason record against non-NFC North teams couldn’t be worse.
