How the Lions can clinch the NFC North: Win over Packers clears the path

Every button Dan Campbell pushes works in the Detroit Lions' favor, no matter how insane it might be. Campbell was faced with a doozy of a decision late on Thursday night: The Lions had the ball and a fourth down and short on the Green Bay Packers' 21-yard line, with just 43 seconds left in a game that was tied at 31 apiece. Instead of kicking the go-ahead field goal, Campbell elected to go for it in an attempt to ice the game. It's the kind of decision that not many, if any, of the other 31 head coaches in the NFL would make. But te Lions were successful, and Jake Bates wound up kicking the winning field goal when the clock expired to earn a huge win over their divisional rival.

What makes Campbell's decision even crazier is that this wasn't just an ordinary game. This is Week 14 of the NFL season. Campbell's 11-1 Lions were hosting the 9-3 Packers. A Green Bay win would've cut Detroit's lead in the NFC North to just a single game, and erased their head-to-head tiebreaker advantage. Now, the Lions sit at 12-1 and are victors of 11 in a row, while the Packers fell to 9-4 with the loss. Detroit leads Green Bay in the NFC North by three games with four to play.

But while Detroit now has a commanding lead over Green Bay, the NFC North is far from wrapped up.

Lions win over Packers makes NFC North title easier to claim, but it's far from over

Entering the season, there was reason to believe that this game would have major NFC North division title implications with the Lions and Packers favorites to win the North. While it did to an extent, the Packers didn't even enter the game in second place in what has been the most competitive division in football (sans Chicago). That honor was and still is held by the Minnesota Vikings, who extended their lead over Green Bay with the Packers' loss.

The Vikings enter their Week 14 matchup against the Atlanta Falcons with a 10-2 record. A win against Atlanta would give them a two-game lead over Green Bay, giving them the inside track to finish ahead of the Packers in the standings while also sticking within striking distance of Detroit.

The Lions control their own destiny when it comes to winning the NFC North, but since the Vikings only have two losses, they can't afford to lose a single game as of now. The margin for error is extremely slim, which is incredibly frustrating considering how well the Lions have played all year.

In their next three games, the Lions will hope to earn wins while the Vikings lose at least once. If that happens, the Lions will clinch the division, and their Week 18 clash against Minnesota will be virtually meaningless - at least for Detroit.

The path for Detroit to clinch is simple at the end of the day. If they win more games than the Vikings to finish the year, they win the division. If they win as many games as Minnesota does down the stretch, they win the division (as long as the Vikings don't beat Detroit in Week 18). The one thing Detroit really can't afford to do is lose more games than Minnesota down the stretch. That'll make it much tougher.

The Lions control their own destiny, and the division might just be a two-horse race thanks to their win over the Packers. With the Vikings right on their tail, though, the NFC North is nowhere near being clinched.