Pressure now on Packers in competitive NFC North

As things stand, the NFC North features two teams competing for playoff spots. Then there are the Green Bay Packers, who after their second loss in a row on Sunday night, are in a bit of trouble.

One look at the schedule ahead of the season and it looked clear. The Packers would have to put wins on the board early with four of their first six games being played at Lambeau Field, and then find a way to win a couple in a tough midseason stretch.

So far Green Bay is 0-4 on the road, 3-0-1 at home. That doesn’t look like a championship team to me.

Yes, the past two defeats have been on the road to the LA Rams (8-1) at New England Patriots (7-2). There is no shame in losing to either of those teams.

But it’s the way the Packers lost that is concerning. They had opportunities to win both games, good opportunities, but either through poor discipline, sloppy mistakes or just bad play, they are 0-2 since their bye week.

While the Minnesota Vikings have been far from perfect this season, they’ve only really had one bad result, their 27-6 loss at home to Buffalo. Outside of that, they’ve lost to the Rams and Saints and tied with the Packers. Two of those games were on the road.

When the Vikings have been good, they’ve been very good. And at 5-3-1, they are in position to make a serious playoff push.

The division-leading Chicago Bears are still building under first-year head coach Matt Nagy, but they’ve emerged as NFC North contenders this season.

They’ve had some hiccups along the way. Their second-half collapse at Green Bay in Week 1. A disappointing defensive performance against Brock Osweiler and the Dolphins. But that can be expected for a young quarterback and rookie head coach.

But the sign of a good team is dominating when they are clearly better than their opponents. The Packers did this throughout the 2014 season. Chicago dominated Buffalo, 41-9, on Sunday to improve to 5-3 on the year.

The Bears enter a three-week stretch against the NFC North, twice against Detroit and once against Minnesota. Two wins would be a great result from this run and would keep them in a strong position ahead of the Packers.

The Packers can’t worry too much about the other teams in the division. Until they can build a winning run of their own, it won’t matter.

But after three defeats in their past four games, the Packers need to start winning soon before there’s a call for another “run the table” miracle.