Biggest Surprise and Disappointment for EVERY NFC North team: Packers, Lions, Vikings, and Bears

Biggest Surprise and Disappointment for EVERY NFC North team: Packers, Lions, Vikings, and Bears

Welcome back to HQ Spotlight. The NFC North got weird in week nine. The Vikings walked into Detroit and upset the Lions 27 to 24. Chicago lit up the Bengals in a 47 to 42 shootout. And Green Bay, well, they were upset at home by the Panthers on Jordan Love’s birthday. And as you can see here, the division is wide open as we take a look at this. Let’s go ahead and bring back in our guy Ran Carthan, former GM and of course our analyst here at CBS Sports. We got to start with the birthday boy cuz this was disappointing, especially from a betting standpoint. Usually you can always hammer someone on their birthday and they’re going to do well for you. But not for Jordan Le. The Packers, they were able to move the ball ramp, but they weren’t able to finish the drives. Uh going one for five in the red zone. What was your biggest surprise at this game? Well, the biggest surprise was probably that, you know, that they couldn’t finish in the red zone. We’re talking about a guy that runs an offense um like uh like coach um I can’t think of his name right now. The head coach that’s calling the place. Oh gosh, he’s so good-looking. I don’t know why I’m like the floor. You lost me. You threw me off. I I that was the layup. That’s what caused you to remember what his name is. And because we’re we’re friends and I we have that argument, but I always get myself confused because I work with both Matt and Mike Laflur and so I go back and forth, but Matt Laflur is a one of the brilliant minds in the game and being able to scheme up things in the in the red zone is kind of what this offense has been built around. And so for their inability to get in the end zone and score touchdowns in the red zone was kind of, you know, kind of shocking, especially against the defense that they played. So that’s shocking. So, I feel like we can kind of parlay this with your disappointment then. Was it the quarterback play? Was it wide receivers? What was the problem in the red? It’s this receiving core as a whole. Like, who’s going to step up, right? Who’s going to step up? They spent a lot of draft capital at this wide receiver position and have not totally got a return on investment. They took Matthew Golden this year in the first round and they were really excited about him coming out of the preseason, but we really haven’t seen that come to uh fruition for him right now. And so as you look at this schedule and you get ready to go down the schedule, it’s it’s going to be some games coming up here now where you have week 10, even week 11, this Giants defense isn’t going to lay down for you. And then you have those games, those uh division games all in a row with the Vikings, Lions, and Bears. And then you go Broncos, Bears, Ravens, Vikings. So it’s these receivers need to step up. I’ll just say it in short. These receivers need to step up. And it’s just a matter, especially with Tucker Craft going to be down for the rest of the year. They’re going to need someone. and Luke Musgrave is a viable option for them at tight end, but who at this receiver spot is going to take on those targets? Feels like it’s a bad season to be an ACL even more than any other season. It’s been very disappointing, very sad about Tucker Craft. Let’s move on here to Detroit. Uh it was a really a rough one for them as well. We’re looking at penalties, sacks, of course, a block field goal sank the Lions to 27 and 24 home loss to Minnesota. What was your biggest surprise there? Because this offense is usually such a juggernaut. Well, the the thing was I’ll tell you, it’s not really a surprise. Um, for first of all, they’ve dealt with a ton of injuries just as a team as a whole. Um, but the biggest surprise from this game was how uh Brian Flores’s defense was able to get after Jared Goff. We hadn’t seen much of that and it was a ton of pressure, a ton of blitzes where they were like, “Look, we’ll match our guys up on your guys one-on-one, which a lot of people don’t challenge uh Detroit in that way.” And so Bri Brian Flores and his defense was just able to pin their ears back and get after him. And they’ve had quite a few guys step up and be able to get the quarterback to the ground and golf just never looked comfortable back there in the pocket. I’ll tell you what, I never underestimated a Brian Flores defense. Those blitz packages that he puts together have quarterbacks running for their lives. Uh when you talk about the the disappointment with the Lions, what do you find there? Um for me, the the again and I talked about a little bit was the the disappointment in the Lions is just their injuries. Yeah. Um they’ve had to reshuffle guys in and out of the lineup. They had a couple linemen go down uh yesterday with Mahogany. I know he went down. I’m not sure if he came back in the game, but it feels like every week they have a different, you know, tan of secondary guys um playing for them on the back end. So just the amount of injuries that they’ve suffered over the last couple of seasons is something that’s going to keep them at at some point is going to keep them from achieving the ultimate goal. They got to find a way to stay healthy. All right, on the flip side here, a big statement win for Minnesota. J.J. McCarthy looked poised in his start, throwing for two touchdowns and running for another one to take down the Lions in the division. What’s been your biggest surprise there? Because I was kind of worried about JJ McCarthy. Well, not necessarily even on the offensive side. The big surprise for me has been Jaylen Redmond, the defensive tackle. Um, he’s a guy that was a great find by their personnel department. They found him in the UFFL. And with names like uh Jonathan Grard, uh Javon Hargrave, uh Dallas Turner, um you would never expect that Jaylen Redmond is leading the team in sacks with four. And so this was this is why you do what you do as a personnel department, and you’re always scouring for players that you can bring in, whether it’s in other leagues, whether it’s bottom of the uh the draft guys, and they their personnel department has done a really good job finding this young man. It must be such a a thrill as a personnel department when you bring someone on. And of course they have all the promise, but when they exceed your expectations, you must be like, “Wow, I’m really smart.” It’s one of those moments and and I’ll say for a Jaylen Redmond in particular, because he wasn’t on people’s radar, right? You can’t as a pro director like I was coming up or a pro scout, you can’t hang your hat on, you know, the the prized coveted first round pick and say, “Oh, yeah. I I love that guy.” Right? Because that wasn’t your call. But when you can go and unear a guy like Jaylen Rman, you know your pro department is the one that dug him up and now he’s paying dividends and now it takes notice around the rest of the building like, “Hey, those guys are really working and finding these players for us.” Yeah. All right. That’s always a nice surprise. What about concerns uh moving forward for this team? What are you disappointed in? Um I’m I’m I’m concerned about the inconsistency at quarterback, right? Wow. there’s been a rotating there’s been uh you know KC he’s had seven different quarterbacks since he’s been the head coach there which typically spells disaster but they found way to ways to win games and still make the playoffs but even with JJ McCarthy he kind of he was it was very up and down day he had some throws where you’re like okay we see it and some scrambles and his ability to run you mentioned um but he had a couple throws where it’s like all right what are we doing here and he has this really bad habit of especially when he’s fleeing the pocket to jump and pass. He’s got to learn to keep his feet on the ground because what that what that leads to a pass is sailing and then now hopefully there’s no one back there because like we say all the time tips and overthrows got to get those and those lead into interceptions. So he’s got to become more consistent if the Minnesota Vikings want to make make it to the tournament. But some of those are growing pains, right? Because he was injured his first season, he was injured again this season. So hopefully he can uh figure that stuff out and do well. If anyone can get the most out of a quarterback, as you said, it’s Kevin Oonnell and Kyle Shannon. All right, let’s talk about those Bears because how about those Bears? Caleb Williams was electric, throwing three touchdowns, leading a wild 47 to 42 comeback over the Bengals here. What was the most surprising thing about this incredible game? To me, it was the run game. And you would think u with DeAndre Swift being out, you would say, well, if they just get a solid production out of Kyle Manungai, then we’ll be okay. But nope, they ran for 283 yards yesterday. Manungai had 170 yards on the ground. And even coming into the game, it was a surprise for me to see that this team had a top 10 run game because coming into the season, I can stand up and hold myself accountable. And I felt like the run game was going to be a weak spot for this offense. And I felt like maybe they should consider adding a guy to that spot or hey, next year’s draft class, they’re going to look to address the running back position. But no, they found a good quality tandem in DeAndre Swift and Kyle Manunga. And like I said yesterday, you run for, you know, 283 yards. And another another guy I want to give a shout out and some credit to is left tackle Theo Benedict because once they inserted him in the lineup, and he’s going to deal with some growing pains cuz he’s a younger guy, but once they inserted him in the lineup, you really saw their run game take a take uh the next step. So uh that was a real good uh big surprise for me. So that was a nice good surprise. You talk about how well this run game came together, but on the other side, the run defense had some holes. Was that your biggest disappointment? Yeah, and and yesterday it played the Bengals, and so the Bengals don’t particularly attempt to run the ball very much. So, it it’s going to help them statistically coming into the week, but they had been allowing 143 yards on the ground, which was 27th in the league, and then they were 30th, allowing 5.4 yards a carry coming into the game. I felt coming into this season adding a Grady Jared on the interior, a guy that’s been disruptive. Um, and adding a guy like Deo Odenbo, a physical edge setter, I thought that was going to really help shore up this defensive front and help them in the run defense, but we haven’t been able to see that throughout the consistent part of the season. Okay. Well, so hopefully they can figure that out. That’s our Ran Carthon. Thank you so much for joining, breaking down your biggest uh surprises and your disappointments for all of those. Let’s go ahead and take a look at the week 10 NFC North games. as you got the Giants taking on the Bears. Bears three and a half point favorites there after that thrilling win. Ravens, man, what a comeback they have been. They’re three and a half point favorites over the Vikings. Lions going to bounce back here. So say the oddsmakers. They’re eight and a half point favorites over the Commanders. And then the Eagles at the Packers. This one surprises me that the Pack is favored over the Eagles. That’s your Monday night game at 8:15 Eastern.

Ran Carthon joins CBS Sports HQ Spotlight to discuss the biggest surprise and disappointment for every NFC North team.

[0:00:00] NFC North Standings
[0:00:31] Packers
[0:02:43] Lions
[0:04:18] Vikings
[0:06:57] Bears
[0:09:08] NFC North Week 10 Slate

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