The way the Detroit Lions have been playing this year, it's hard to say you're completely shocked that they went to Arizona and lost.

You can absolutely be shocked in the manner with which they were beaten, though.

As bad as the Lions have played, how in the world did the Arizona Cardinals drop 38 points on the Lions?

Let's put aside the mere 10 points the Lions scored themselves for a moment.

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The Lions are stumbling to the end of the season while the Falcons seem to be powering up as we close the year down.

This is not a formula for success in Detroit.

Of course, on any given Sunday anyone can beat anyone else, but unless the Lions dig deep and find reserves of strength they haven't shown during the second half of the season, this could be ugly.

Somehow, some way, the Lions needs to find a way to contain the wide-receiver corps of the Falcons. Julio Jones, Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez are nearly unstoppable most weeks, so the Lions' secondary will have to step up its level of play.

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Adrian Peterson and Arian Foster are the showcase battle, but at the end of the day the Minnesota Vikings' success is far more tied to Peterson's success than the Houston Texans' is to Foster.

The Texans are going to have to work hard to stop him and put the ball into Christian Ponder's hands, because when Ponder has to throw the ball, bad things tend to happen.

Peterson is able to slip past stacked fronts and when he gets to the second level, finds too much open space. The Texans will have to make sure that they have someone waiting to meet Peterson if he breaks free.

Minnesota is struggling to tackle anyone, and Foster is a very good back who will kill this defense if they don't hit him in the backfield.

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Things have not been good for Jay Cutler the last few weeks.

He has thrown more interceptions (six) than touchdowns (five) and passed for under 200 yards three times as the Bears have dropped four out of their last five games..

What's happened to Cutler? Prior to the Houston game in Week 10, the Bears were 7-1 and Jay seemed to be doing well.

The truth is, nothing much changed offensively. What was already wrong had just been hidden by a combination of tremendous defense, poor play by the opposition and Cutler overcoming the deficiencies in his offense.

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There is more than a little concern about Packers kicker Mason Crosby and the fact that despite his struggles, Mike McCarthy isn't going to replace him.

Mike Woods of the Press-Gazette says that Crosby is trying to put the misses out of his mind, but it's clear he is struggling.

Here's the thing though—McCarthy is right in many ways that Crosby is the guy. You shouldn't take it as a long-term vote of confidence of course, but just an acknowledgement of the situation.

Really, who is available? Neil Rackers? Nate Kaeding? Ryan Longwell?

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The headline says it all, really. What else can you say about an ugly performance by Matt Stafford or a defense that allowed Chris "Beanie" Wells to score three touchdowns on the ground?

How about a defense that managed just one sack against one of the worst offensive lines in the league?

In my mind this was a statement game for the Lions, one to start building on as we close out the season. I'm not sure which is worse—that they couldn't show up for a statement game or that they did, and this is the statement.

As always, the one bright spot is Calvin Johnson, who had his seventh straight 100-yard game in a row. Unfortunately, he failed to score a touchdown for the second straight game in a row and, since virtually nobody else showed up to play, it was all for nothing.

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Even when they know it's coming, teams can't stop Adrian Peterson.

Led by Peterson's eighth straight 100-yard game and second 200-plus-yard game, the Vikings not only kept their playoff hopes alive but leapfrogged the Bears in the standings as Chicago dropped another game to the division-winning Packers.

Peterson was, as always, a beast and if you haven't bought in on his potential for Most Valuable Player, you've been asleep.

The key for the Vikings is locked in as "Run Peterson, keep the ball out of Christian Ponder's hands." That may be a sad commentary on Ponder's current status, but it was the right call again.

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From the beginning of the game Sunday, Jay Cutler seemed to be on a different page from the rest of the offense, even Brandon Marshall. It started rough and stayed that way for Cutler, who had his second-lowest yardage output of the season in the Bears' 21-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

Interestingly, his only lower yardage game came against the Packers as well.

Green Bay got after Cutler early and pressured him often, forcing an interception and a fumble (which the Bears recovered).

Chicago was able to stay close and slowed down the Packers on several occasions. Yes, Randall Cobb walked up and down the field almost at will, but the game was not out of reach, even though there were times it felt like it should have been.

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