Last week Customized Detroit Lions Jerseys , only 18 percent of Detroit Lions fans believed the team was headed in the right direction—the third lowest level of confidence among all 32 SB Nation team communities. At that point, the skepticism was warranted. Detroit looked sluggish on offense and completely lost on defense. The seats were rightfully warming underneath offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter and general manager Bob Quinn, and some were even questioning the hiring of head coach Matt Patricia just two games into his tenure.But after the Lions’ drubbing of the New England Patriots on national television, fans are singing a completely different tune. This week, we polled our FanPulse community on the NFC North. The question was simple: Who is the best team in the NFC North?The results are pretty surprising: Fans still believe the Minnesota Vikings are the best in the division, but the Lions are not far behind, garnering over 30 percent of the votes—more than the Packers and Bears combined. Of course, these poll results are also influenced by the horrible week that the rest of the division had. The Packers were handled easily by Washington. The Vikings were embarrassed by the Bills. Although the Bears came out victorious on Sunday, they were trailing in that game until the final five minutes, and people in Chicago are worried about Mitchell Trubisky. Week 3 wasn’t just about the Lions saving their season, but the entire NFC North exposing themselves as flawed. Mike Payton is buying in. A third of Lions fans are buying in. I’m not quite there yet www.authenticsdetroitlions.com , but I will admit the landscape is completely unrecognizable from the division I was looking at last week. Want to be a part of these weekly surveys? Join SB Nation’s FanPulse, a survey of fans across the NFL powered by SurveyMonkey. Each week, we send 32 polls to 100+ plugged in fans from each team. Lions fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.Monday open thread: Do you feel better, worse or the same about the Lions after their win over the Packers? Victory Monday is a beautiful thing, y’all. Victory Monday heading into a bye week is even better.Victory Monday heading into bye after beating your biggest rival is sublime.It was far from a perfect win for the Detroit Lions, but look around the league right now. Show me more than a handful of perfect teams out there. As of Monday morning, there are only four teams in the conference with more wins than the Lions. 2-3 is not an ideal record for the Lions after five games, but it is anything but a death knell for this franchise. At the very least, this Lions team has proven they can hang with some of the best teams in the league.So on this Victory Monday we ask the same thing we ask every Monday during the season:Do you feel better, worse or the same after the Lions’ win over the Packers?My answer: I feel a little better in the short term Detroit Lions T-Shirt , but the same in the long term. On the most basic level, simply the enjoyment out of this job and interacting with you all changed drastically with a win over the Packers. Had Detroit lost to Green Bay, fans would’ve checked out, cynicism would’ve reigned supreme for the next 14 days, and most people wouldn’t want to hear analysis, they’d tell us to “shut up, the season is over.” We’ve obviously been there plenty of times, and it’s not so fun. Instead, fans will continue to be interested in this team, if for no other reason than they’re completely unpredictable and therefore fascinating. All of that being said, I feel no more confident in this team’s 2018 chances than I did last week. The offense is still playing pretty well Detroit Lions Hats , but the defense is still a mess. Sure, they held Aaron Rodgers scoreless in the first half, but the Packers’ receiving corps was extremely shorthanded, and Green Bay moved the ball effortlessly for most of the game through the air. There’s still no pass rush, there’s still sketchy run defense, and the secondary comes and goes. I’m happy because the Lions won, but I am not budging from my 8-8- preseason prediction. Your turn.