I may need an exorcism. I spent an entire game as a Bears fan this weekend, hoping they'd take out the Vikings for us, and they almost did! Unfortunately, the Vikings pulled another win from the jaws of defeat and now I just feel grimy. Of course, the Lions won too. These are the times that try men's souls.   

Vikings and Bears

The Vikings pulled off a 30-27 win in overtime. 

Game Notes

• Sam Darnold had 330 yards and Caleb Williams had 340 yards in this one - the key difference between the two explains the difference in the two offenses. Darnold hit his number with just 34 attempts (9.7 YPA) while it took Williams 47 (7.2 YPA). The Vikings' attack uses the run to set up downfield passing. And the Vikings have the receivers to take advantage of that, in a down game from Justin Jefferson, TJ Hockenson and Jordan Addison both went well over 100 receiving yards. The Bears have to use short-passing as a substitute for the run game because their run game is so inefficient.
• Let's dig into that. Between Aaron Jones and Cam Akers, the Vikings had 125 rush yards on five yards per carry. The Bears star running back, D'Andrew Swift, had 13 carries for 30 yards. Caleb Williams was more productive on his scrambles - totaling 33 yards on six carries. For years, the nerds raged against the run game and right when the NFL finally started listening, it has become more valuable than ever. Especially, if you have a meh QB. The Bears thought they did everything right to set the team up for Caleb Williams, but they have no consistent run game, making it that much harder for their rookie QB to be productive. 
• Of course, it's also hard for a young QB to be productive against a Brian Flores in any scenario. Free agent edge rushers extraordinaire Andrew Van Ginkle and Jonathan Greenard both added to their pile of sacks this season and Greenard forced a fumble as well. That said - the Vikings' much-ballyhooed defense gave up 100 more pass yards to the Bears than the Packers did last week. 
• On the Bears' side, the defense played about as poorly as it could have. The Vikings had a 300-yard passer, 100-yard rusher and two 100-yard receivers in a game for the first time ever and Justin Jefferson wasn't even one of them. It's not a good sign when your two safeties combine for 22 tackles. 

Lions

Business as usual for the Lions who cruised by the Colts 24-6. 

Game Notes

• The Lions run game also led the way. Jahmy Gibbs had 90 yards on 21 carries and David Montgomery had 37 yards on eight carries. David Montgomery sat for part of the second half after an injury that shouldn't hold him out of the game Thursday. Those numbers aren't flashy - but the Lions were consistently able to move the sticks on the ground and that likely made it possible for Jared Goff's numbers to be as good as they were. 
• Goff was 26/36 for 269 yards. The Sun God, Jameson Williams and Tim Patrick all had around 60 yards and Sam LaPorta had 19. It definitely feels weird that LaPorta is having such a rough season this year after having, probably, the best rookie season ever for a tight end last year. Through ten games, he has just 385 yards and has gone over 60 in a game just once. It could be nagging injuries, or maybe more responsibilities in other areas of the offense but I still have the feeling that he's going to have a huge breakout week at some point.  
• The story of this year's Lions is the defense. After a few years of mediocrity with Aaron Glenn, the Lions have hit on a bunch of defensive draft picks and have one of the best defenses in the league. The Lions have allowed 11 second-half points in their last five games - and the Packers got all of those. They haven't given up a TD in ten quarters. They have the second-best defensive DVOA. Seven of their 11 starters have been graded as green or blue chips by PFF. There's no way around it, they're just good now. And that's despite losing Aidan Hutchinson. 
• Against the Colts specifically, they had no sacks and no interceptions and their leading tackler had just eight. It didn't matter because they stayed disciplined and got the Colts, who scored just six points, off the field when it mattered.