The Vikings control their own destiny in the NFC North but the No. 1 seed is trickier

The Buffalo Bills did the Minnesota Vikings a massive favor on Sunday afternoon, as Josh Allen & Co. handed the Detroit Lions their first loss since Week 2 in a 48-42 shootout.

With Buffalo's help, the Vikings sit just a half-game back of the Lions in the NFC North heading into their Monday Night Football matchup with the Chicago Bears and now control their own destiny in the division heading into the home stretch.

A victory over Chicago would give Minnesota the same 12-2 record as Detroit. But while the Lions would still maintain the lead in the division as they currently own the head-to-head tiebreaker due to their 31-29 victory over the Vikings in Week 7, Minnesota would still take the division by winning out.

The reasoning, of course, is that the Vikings still have their second date with the Lions in Week 18, which could easily be a winner-take-all scenario.

The Vikings win the NFC North if they win out

Simple math tells us that if both teams go into that regular-season finale with identical records, the winner wins the division.

The bad news for Minnesota is that Detroit has the easier schedule between now and then.

First, the Vikings obviously need to get past the Bears on Monday night. That shouldn't be a problem, but there are certainly no guarantees at this point in the year. Minnesota then has a Week 16 date on the road with the Seattle Seahawks, who'd won four straight before losing on Sunday night to the Green Bay Packers, who the Vikings host in Week 17.

The Lions, meanwhile, have the Bears in Week 16 and then face the struggling San Francisco 49ers in Week 17. So, as you can see, they've got the easier slate.

But again, if both teams remain loss-free until Week 18 and the Vikings win the finale, Minnesota wins the division at 15-2, while Detroit would be 14-3. There are plenty of other scenarios that could play out, but this is obviously the easiest. If the Vikings just continue to take care of business, the NFC North is theirs.

The No. 1 seed in the NFC, however, could prove much trickier.

The Vikings still have the Eagles to worry about in regards to the No. 1 seed in the NFC

Even if the Vikings win out and win the NFC North, there's still no guarantee that they'd earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC, as the Philadelphia Eagles are also 12-2 heading into the final three weeks of the regular season.

Let's say that Minnesota goes undefeated the rest of the way to finish 15-2. And then let's assume that Philly takes care of the Washington Commanders, Dallas Cowboys, and New York Giants over its final three games.

As the Vikings and Eagles didn't play one another this season, there's no head-to-head tiebreaker to take into account. The second tiebreaker in this scenario would be record within the conference, which would go out the window as well as both would be 10-2. The third tiebreaker is winning percentage against common opponents, which would also be identical as both would be 5-1 in that regard.

The fourth tiebreaker is strength of victory, which doesn't come into play often but could very well decide the top seed this season. For those unfamiliar, strength of victory is the combined win-loss-tie percentage of all the teams that a club has defeated.

While the Eagles have the advantage over the Vikings in that department now (.451 to .444), that could easily change over the next few weeks depending on how all of the teams both have faced thus far fare down the stretch.

It gets a bit tricky, for sure, but all the Vikings can do to help themselves is to keep winning and hope they get a little help from others along the way.