How Aidan Hutchinson's injury impacts the NFC North title race

If someone ends up running away with the NFC North this season, Week 6 may end up being the week we all look back on as the starting point. The Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers both put up monster games in blowout wins on Sunday, but it was the Detroit Lions' game in Dallas that will probably end up making the biggest headlines.

Midway through the second half, Detroit's star pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson went down during a pass rush with what looked like a serious leg injury. Then, with a second look, it was definitely a serious leg injury. It looked like Hutchinson got rolled up on, but I do not recommend rewatching it - you can absolutely take my word for it.

After a few minutes on the ground talking with trainers, Hutchinson was eventually carted off the field and into the Lions' locker room. Twitter diagnoses should always be taken with a grain of salt, but there was a very good reason why 'broken leg' was trending on Twitter.

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Aidan Hutchinson's leg injury changes everything in the NFC North

At the risk of being a prisoner of the moment, there isn't a non-quarterback injury more impactful than Hutchinson's. The Minnesota Vikings may be 5-0, but the Lions are still the defending division champs and have pretty consistently looked like the team that was a few plays away from the Super Bowl last year.

The division is still wide open, too: if the playoffs started right now, all four teams would be in. They haven't even started playing either other, either: the Packers and Vikings have played each other once, but neither the Lions or the Bears have played a division game as of Week 6.

Now the Lions will have to (presumably) play all six of their divisional games without Hutchinson, who was the NFL's sack leader through the first six games of the year. It couldn't come at a worse time, either – he was playing the best football of his career this season, leading all edge rushers in ESPN's pass rush win rate rankings as well as being the highest-ranked edge rusher by Pro Football Focus.

Going into the Cowboys game, Hutchinson had more sacks (6.5) than everyone else on the Lions' defense combined.

The Lions are good enough to survive one or two major injuries, but the Hutchinson one is the worst-case scenario. What looked like an entertaining division title race just had its first real twist. Sorry, Lions fans.

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