Every weekday, we walk you through what's going on with the Vikings.

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

— How did Teddy Bridgewater play in the first quarter of the season? Our Michael Rand took a look at the QB's numbers on his Randball blog.

— On the Access Vikings podcast last week, Randball and I broke down the Broncos game, tried to make sense of the Vikings trading linebacker Gerald Hodges and took stock of where the squad is at the bye week.

— Mark Craig says the Packers and Patriots look like the teams to beat.

AROUND THE NFC NORTH

— Speaking of the Packers, they intercepted Rams quarterback Nick Foles four times, returning one for a touchdown, to improve to 5-0 yesterday.

— Jay Cutler rallied the Bears past the Chiefs for their second straight win.

— The Lions benched their franchise quarterback in an ugly, ugly loss.

TODAY'S VIKINGS SCHEDULE

After getting some time off over the bye week, the players return to Winter Park today to get back into the swing of things. They take the field at 11 a.m.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

If the Vikings spent their final day of bye-week freedom on a sofa watching their NFL peers, they surely noticed a lot of mediocrity around the NFC. The Cowboys, Rams, Redskins and Seahawks were among the NFC teams to lose. The Giants rallied late Sunday night to improve to 3-2 and become only the fifth team in the conference with a winning record. For the second straight season, it's a down year for the NFC. And if the playoffs started today, and unfortunately they don't, the Vikings would be in at 2-2.