Pack, Vikes meet with no promise of 1st place

MINNEAPOLIS – The final weekend of November has arrived, with this Green Bay-Minnesota game predictably carrying plenty of weight toward the race for the NFC playoffs.

The twist, though, is the Packers and Vikings are stuck in the thick of the wild-card mix.

The Bears, having beaten the Vikings last week, are the team with a healthy lead in the NFC North, which has been won only by Green Bay (five) or Minnesota (two) since Chicago’s last division title in 2010.

“I definitely didn’t expect to be sitting where we’re sitting, but our record is what it is,” Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “Obviously, Minnesota has a strong team. They’re probably surprised where they’re sitting as well. So I don’t think either of us is out of the division race.”

Both the Packers (4-5-1) and Vikings (5-4-1) have one more game remaining against the Bears (8-3), but they’re each lugging that 29-all tie in Green Bay on Sept. 16 down the stretch like a back tire that’s low on air.

“Maybe it will help us, and maybe it’ll hurt us, too,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. “I don’t really know.”

The Packers will play three of their final five games at home, which is helpful because they’ve yet to win on the road this year. They’ll have a more-mobile Rodgers than in their last matchup with the Vikings, when he was grinding through a knee injury.

“He looks like his old self, unfortunately,” Zimmer said.

If the Vikings beat the Packers at home for the third straight time, they’ll at least own a tiebreaker over their biggest rival. They’d still be 1½ games behind the Bears, though, with a difficult stretch of the schedule ahead.

“We’ll definitely have to play four quarters,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said, “and maybe more than that.”