It’s crazy what a difference one week makes for the Chicago Bears. At this time last week, discussion centered around cleaning house with head coach Matt Nagy, general manager Ryan Pace and president Ted Phillips.
While that’s still a hot topic of conversation, Chicago’s impressive 36-7 victory over the Houston Texans has some thinking playoffs. Well, at the very least, how the Bears could possibly sneak into a wild card spot. If all goes right.
But that’s the thing, not much has gone right for the Bears this season. After starting 5-1, Chicago lost six straight games — including five of them by one score. While the Bears were at once atop the NFC, they’re not battling to remain outside of the basement of the NFC North.
Still, with three games to go, Chicago remains “in the hunt” for a playoff spot, and it would be so Bears for them to blow a potential top-10 pick only to finish 8-8 or 9-7 and miss the playoffs or lose in the wild card round.
The one question is — would simply making the playoffs be enough to justify keeping Nagy and Pace around for another season? Especially given the Bears will likely be drafting a quarterback in the first round. Are the Bears confident in giving Pace another shot at drafting a franchise quarterback?
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. The Bears still need to essentially win out and need some help from other teams around the league. If Chicago can beat the Minnesota Vikings, that’ll leave the Arizona Cardinals as the team the Bears would need to edge out for that seventh spot. Which means they’d need to lose at least one of their last three games, which includes match-ups against the Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams.
At this point, Chicago’s playoff chances remain slim. But they’re still alive. And anytime the Bears are playing meaningful football in December, it’s something to appreciate.
What say you, Bears fans? Do you think the Bears will be able to sneak into the playoffs?
VOTE!
Do you think the Bears will be able to sneak into the playoffs?
— BearsWire (@TheBearsWire) December 14, 2020
