A millenia from now, when alien archeologists sift through the ruins of a long departed for the stars race on Earth, they will likely find record of the 2017 NFL season.

They will understand it no better than we do, for it is a dark and confusing place. 

The Buffalo Bills are atop the AFC East. Preseason darling New York Giants have yet to win a game. The Los Angles Rams are good.

Sure, the Bears are still awful, the AFC South is still a mess and the Colts still can't get out of their own way, but there's something off about this year.

Yes, indeed. The 2017 NFL Season is dark and full of terrors.

It has leaked into the NFC North, which has the Lions technically in first over the Packers. This is, however, something Packers fans have seen before and, assuming the Green Bay offensive line and backfield don't have more injuries, thereby neccesitating a water boy from taking up one of the positions, it's easy to believe they can overcome the situation.

Part of that comes down to this week's matchups though, and the state of the other teams in the NFC North.

Panthers at Lions

As it did last year, the division could come down to head to head play, and so until the Lions face the Packers, everything is mutable. Let's be honest though—the Lions look pretty solid and wins over the Falcons and Vikings (even a weakened Vikings) are legit. 

Matt Stafford and the offense are rolling along just fine and the defense has, for the most part, been very good. 

The Panthers offense—especially Cam Newton—began to look like themselves in their surprising win this week over the Patriots and could be a challenge for the Lions defense, but the offensive line and general playcalling don't make me confident. Defensively, the Panthers allowed 30 points and a 4th quarter comeback—that doesn't bode well for them considering it was the second game in a row 30-plus points.

It's hard to see the Lions losing this game even if the Panthers offense does well, unless the Panthers defense does its part.

Vikings at Bears

And so begins the era of Mitch Trubisky,

This is not an ideal pool to dip your feet into, but it was silly to keep plugging along with Mike Glennon. Let Trubisky take his lumps and learn. Really, it would be better if the Bears had some more playmakers for him to throw to, but he has to start playing some time and they have a solid backfield.

The big question is whether the Vikings can keep their offense going without Dalvin Cook. We were all fine letting him carry the water for Case Keenum and pretend things were OK, but Keenum is not a great quarterback. Can Latavious Murray carry the offense for the Vikings? It seems we will find out. 

Against a better team, it would be a problem. Against the hapless Bears?

I'm not sold.

Still, long term this really hurts Minnesota and I think will put them out of the race for the North. Stranger things have happened, but it seems unlikely they can overcome two (three if you count Teddy Bridgewater) major injuries.