GREEN BAY, Wis. – The NFC North is exactly what the NFL had in mind when it backloaded the schedule with division games.

The top three teams – the Bears, Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings – all still are very much alive in the playoff hunt. Better yet, with only two games separating the teams and four games left between them, no one is anywhere close to clinching the division title.

“They count as double,” Vikings running back Adrian Peterson said. “Everyone is a game ahead or a game behind, so each game is going to be very important.”