It's almost not a great time to be a Packer fan. The Vikings have the best record in the league, the Lions look great and even the Bears have a young QB who is getting better each week. Thank God for Brian Gutekunst and Matt LaFleur. There's a very good case to be made that the Packers still have the best GM, head coach and quarterback in the division. 

Bears

The Bears stomped on the Panthers, 36-10. 

Game Notes

• The Bears had this one under control for pretty much the whole game. Caleb Williams took another step forward, completing 20 of 29 passes for 304 yards and two TDs. A quietly efficient day against one of the league's rising stars at defensive coordinator. Playing that well against Ejiro Evero isn't easy, even if the Panthers' defensive personnel leaves plenty to be desired. The QB's second 300-yard game this season means he already has more than Justin Fields did in his three years with the Bears. 
• DJ Moore was the biggest benefactor of Williams' big day, hauling in five catches for 105 yards and both of the TDs. Rome Odunze had 40 yards in the game - it's worth noting that other than in the Colts game, Odunze hasn't come close to matching the production of fellow rookies Brian Thomas, MHJ or Malik Nabers. 
• D'Andre Swift put up over 100 yards again but it was another boom or bust performance. Take away his long run of 18 yards and a 42-yard catch and he had 21 touches for 60 yards - under 3 yards per touch. Obviously, that's homer math, you have to include the boom plays, but those bust plays can kill plenty of drives. 
• The much maligned (mostly because of his insane contract) linebacker Tremaine Edmunds led the way on defense, with the most tackles on the team, a forced fumble and a great day in coverage. The defensive line combined plenty of pressures with four sacks and caused the Panthers to throw Bryce Young to the wolves in the second half to make sure Andy Dalton didn't get injured. Yes, you read that right. 
• Former Badger TJ Edwards had six tackles and Jack Sanborn had three. 

Lions

The Lions had a bye this week. 

Vikings

The Vikings held on for a 23-17 win over Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. 

Game Notes

• Before we get started, here's your warning that I'm going to be overly negative here. If you want non-Packers fans takes or pro-Vikings propaganda, the national media has plenty of that. 
• Sam Darnold started looking bad in the second half against the Packers last week and continued that trend into this game. He finished 14/31 for 179 yards and a pick for a QB rating of 50.3. He had a great 3.5 weeks going to his first read (which was often either the best receiver in the game, a top-10 RB, or a former first round pick) but now defenses have figured out how to get pressure on him and confuse him. I'm probably not ready to say he's turned into a pumpkin and he's just bad again, like he was in the other five years of his career, but we're pretty close. It might not even matter if he's bad because this team doesn't really need a HOF QB to be good - they have a ton of weapons and great coaching on both sides of the ball. 
• Of course, the house of cards could all fall apart if they get hit by the injury bug and Aaron Jones may have, unsurprisingly, started that trend this week. He missed most of the game with an undisclosed hip injury. It sounds like he'll play this week, but on Sunday morning if you listened closely you could hear the sound of five million people in Wisconsin saying "told you so" at the same time after Jones had 26 touches against the Packers. Ty Chandler had 30 yards on 14 carries in relief of Jones. 
• The defense did not continue the bad trend started in the second half against GB and held Aaron Rodgers to one of the worst games of his career. Rodgers had 3 picks, threw for just 4.5 yards per attempt had to target Garrett Wilson 22 times to get to 101 yards. It's a testament to how meh the Vikings offense was that the Jets were still driving to potentially get the winning score with that horrific of a performance from Rodgers.  
• Andrew van Ginkel had a pick-six, because of course he did. Have I talked about how annoying it is that the Packers don't have any of the amazing linebackers or edges from the Badgers lately? They could have Nick Herbig, van Ginkel, Leo Chenal, and TJ Edwards and would've only had to use a draft pick on one of them. Ugh.