Green Bay awoke to new life Monday morning after its thorough 17-7 victory over Dallas. It’s almost a silly process to start lining up teams in potential playoff position, but that’s what the NFL already is doing on its Web site.

If you look here, you see Green Bay technically in the seventh position in the NFC’s six-team playoff race. Technically, that means they would not clinch a wild-card if the season ended this week. But in the bigger picture, it means they’re right back in the race and knocking on the door.

Why? I’ll be back in a bit with some interesting insight into their defensive game plan from ESPN’s Stats & Information. For now, let’s take a spin around the division:

• Mike Vandermause of the Green Bay Press-Gazette: “This was the kind of victory the Green Bay Packers desperately needed.”
• The Packers put additional responsibilities on quarterback Aaron Rodgers for organizing protection schemes, according to this Press-Gazette notebook.
• Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel chronicles the big day of Packers cornerback Charles Woodson.
• Rookie T.J. Lang had a solid game at right tackle, according to Jason Wilde of ESPN Milwaukee.
• Tom Powers of the St. Paul Pioneer Press compares Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre to some of the other graybeard signal-callers the Vikings have employed in recent years.
• Minnesota tight end Visanthe Shiancoe after the Vikings’ 27-10 victory over Detroit: “We're taking it one step at a time, one brick at a time to build this building, because we are building an empire here." Judd Zulgad of the Star Tribune explains.
• Despite an ugly game, Detroit saw more glimpses of franchise-caliber play from quarterback Matthew Stafford, writes Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press.
• Bob Wojnowski of the Detroit News writes that the Lions need a better offensive line.
• Tom Kowalski of Mlive.com grades the Lions’ performance.