The Vikings departed Lambeau Field on the afternoon of Oct. 29 facing an organizational crisis. Kirk Cousins' Achilles injury put the mood somewhere between doom and gloom, both for the present and future.
The only saving grace was the NFC North.
The Packers looked awful. The Bears were even worse. And the Lions were the Lions and would find some way to screw up. Or so the theory went.
The first weekend of the NFL playoffs produced an entirely different reality.
The Packers kicked the snot out of the Cowboys with the NFL's youngest roster that includes — gulp — what increasingly looks like their next great franchise quarterback in Jordan Love.