The Vikings-Packers tie will probably make the NFC North race real weird

On the rare occasion a tie happens in the NFL, it’s often because two teams play a Three Stooges-esque game of incompetence that ends with neither team able to score in overtime.

We saw it in Week 1 when the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns tied, 21-21, combining for seven turnovers, a couple missed field goals in overtime, and mistakes galore.

But the 29-29 tie between the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings was a little different. Yes, it had the missed field goals that are almost a prerequisite for a tie to happen, but for the most part, it was a tightly contested game between two legitimate playoff contenders and two teams battling for the NFC North crown.

The Vikings gave Cousins a cool $84 million up front for three years because they’re a team set up to make a Super Bowl run. But if Minnesota wants to get that chance, the road to the top of the NFC North goes through Rodgers.

With Rodgers out of the picture last year due to an injury, the Vikings cruised to a pair of double-digit wins over the Packers.

But with Rodgers back in action — albeit on one leg due to a knee injury suffered in Week 1 — the pressure was on Cousins to show why he was worth his contract. And while he didn’t lead the Vikings to a win, he sure showed why the team gave him all that money.

Rodgers led the Packers to a 20-7 lead through three quarters, despite his limited mobility. He finished the game with 30 completions on 42 attempts for 281 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions.

Then Cousins made some magic happen. It wasn’t quite beat-the-Bears-on-one-leg magic, but the Vikings quarterback struck quickly with a 75-yard touchdown to Stefon Diggs that gave the team a much-needed spark in the middle of the fourth quarter.

After two more Packers field goals, Cousins came up clutch again by threading the needle on a touchdown to Adam Thielen followed by a two-point conversion to Diggs.

Cousins finished the game with 425 passing yards, four touchdowns, and one interception.

What’s an NFL game without at least one team having a gripe about officiating?

In this case, it was the Packers, who picked up a 15-yard penalty for roughing the passer when Clay Matthews hit Cousins. The penalty nullified an interception that would’ve all but sealed the deal for the Packers.

The call was questionable, at best, and extended the drive that ended with Thielen’s touchdown and Diggs’ two-point conversion that tied the game up.

According to the referee who threw the flag, Matthews wasn’t punished for dropping his body weight on Cousins. It was because “he picked the quarterback up and drove him into the ground.” Uh ... alright.

Nobody wants a tie. Rooting for the Browns to go 0-0-16 was pretty fun while it lasted, but ultimately, a tie is just frustrating for players and fans.

It wasn’t Cousins’ or Rodgers’ fault that the tie couldn’t be broken in overtime. Blame the kickers for that one.

Rodgers led the Packers 41 yards in four plays to set up a 52-yard field goal that Mason Crosby missed at the end of regulation. Crosby nailed it, but Vikings coach Mike Zimmer took a timeout just before in an attempt to ice the kicker. It worked: Crosby missed the second try.

Then in overtime, Vikings rookie kicker Daniel Carlson missed from 49 and 35 to give us the tie.

With just 16 games in an NFL season, tiebreakers are usually crucial to determine who goes to the playoffs and who owns which seeds. What’s interesting now is that the entire tiebreaker between the Vikings and Packers comes down to a Week 12 matchup in Minnesota.

Without a tie, the only way one team can get a head-to-head tiebreaker — top of the tiebreak food chain — is with a season sweep. Split the games and it gets more complicated.

But now, barring the impossibly unlikely scenario that another tie happens, the NFC North will have a very clear picture after Nov. 25. The winner between the Packers and Vikings will have the tiebreaker.

Theoretically, that could mean the difference between one team making the playoffs and the other watching from home. In the event that the Vikings and Packers have matching records that are both good enough for postseason berths, the Week 12 result would decide which team gets a home playoff game — or even a bye — and which team has the tough Wild Card road.

And no, we didn’t forget about the Chicago Bears. A 24-23 loss to the Packers means the favorites in the NFC North are Green Bay and Minnesota for now. But if Chicago climbs into the mix, the Week 2 tie means their tiebreaker situation will be easy to sort out too.

There’s the Lions too, but they’ve got bigger things to worry about after an 0-2 start that included a 48-17 smackdown at the hands of the Jets.

The NFC North was already a fascinating race between the Packers, led by arguably the best player of the last decade, and the Vikings, a juggernaut that has loaded up for a run at the Super Bowl. After Week 2, it has a little extra spice to it.