After an astonishing win over the Philadelphia Eagles on black friday, the Chicago Bears now sit 1st in the NFC at 9-3. For the first time since 2018, the Bears have held their position of first place in their division, the NFC North, for multiple weeks.
Since the bye week, the Chicago Bears have been one of the most explosive teams in the NFL, with wins by a blocked field goal, back-to-back 4th quarter winning drives led by quarterback Caleb Williams, defensive interceptions, and field goal kicks. The 25-24 win over the Washington Commanders completely changed the culture of the team as they solidified their win after last season’s Week 8 tragic Hail Mary loss in the last seconds of the game. This game was the chance to prove that the Bears have officially moved on from their close-quarter losing streak, and since then have proved everyone in the Bears fanbase right. No one could have predicted after Week 2 that the Bears would be in 1st of the NFC by Week 13, but here we are, heading into Week 14 with a divisional all-time rivalry, the Green Bay Packers, deciding whether or not we will continue to stay first or drop down to 9-4, losing our 1st seed position if the playoffs started.
If you have watched the Bears this season, you know that the heart attacks are still there as we come very close to losing in the 4th quarter, either trailing by two touchdowns, or having the lead and completely losing momentum. The Bears this season have made a significant difference from last year, as the year before, the Bears would come very close to winning games all season, yet they never found a way to finish or find their soul to push through and win the game officially. A lot of this has to do with the biggest improvement of all, Head Coach Ben Johnson, who, all season, has proved to be the brains of the team and has motivated the entire field to keep their energy all 60 minutes of the game. The difference shows that around the same time last year, the Chicago Bears moved on from their past head coach, Matt Eberflus, after the embarrassing loss on Thanksgiving to the Detroit Lions due to poor clock management. Their record after the loss fell to 4-8, where we fought one of the toughest teams in the league, although this year Ben Johnson has completely flipped the script as the 8-3 Bears show up on primetime for a Black Friday special against the defending Super Bowl champions, Philadelphia Eagles, almost sweeping them and keeping the lead all game causing them to switch their entire record overall compared to last year, from 4-8 to 9-3. It’s crazy to say that just one year later, the Bears would be defeating the Super Bowl champions in a regular-season game and not only solidifying a possible wild-card spot if we defeat the Green Bay Packers in week 14.
The Bears have shown everyone that they are not the same team as last year, but there is still a lot of work to do, as these games have also not been clean or properly played out. As we’ve seen, these close games we’ve been winning could also be a problem, as they could suggest the Bears are frauds, since they do not win games by multiple scores or on defensive stops in the end. A good example of this is the Bears-Bengals game, which had a lot of ups and downs. The Bears had a multiple-score possession lead in the 4th quarter with just 2 minutes remaining. The defense significantly took a step back, which ended up causing the Bengals to score on the Bears in just 22 seconds of game time. This made the score 41-35; however, they still needed another possession to have a chance to score. Therefore, the Bengals then recovered an onside kick, which allowed them to have the ball with just 1 minute and 45 seconds left. Ultimately, they ended up scoring on the Bears, making the score 41-42 with 54 seconds to give for the Bears. This is just one of many game winning drives the Bears have done this year, although this one stands out because with one mistake, the entire game could be over in a sack or fumble, yet Caleb Williams on the Bengals 38 yard line found a way and threw the ball to his rookie tight end, Colston Loveland, and ran all the way for a 58-yard touchdown. This game-winning drive was possibly the most thrilling of the season for the Bears so far, as everyone thought all hope was lost in the final minutes of the game. Although they solidified the win after this drive, the amount of points allowed to be scored with that big of a lead and the game on the line shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Since this game, they have managed to keep their leads in games and score when needed to score. Seeing as it’s an improvement, it shows the Bears are carefully changing each week instead of just watching tape and creating new plays: they find what goes wrong and how they can fix it, so that next week doesn’t end up in a possession lead.
Although the Bengals game suggests the Bears are frauds, week by week, they have been improving, and it shows now more than ever as we are approaching the end of the season and teams are trying to find a way into the playoffs. The Bears are ranked 2nd to having one of the toughest remaining schedules of the season as they play all teams over .500, except for the Cleveland Browns who at the moment sit 3-9, yet they have one of the toughest defenses in the league with their edge rusher, Myles Garret, who is on pace to breaking an all time record of 22.5 sacks in one singular season, considering he is already at 19 sacks heading into week 14. This makes the Bears once again be looked at closely to see if they are real playoff contenders heading into week 14 against their rivalry team on the road. If the Bears defeat the Packers this week, the entire league will shift over to the Bears and look at them as real contenders and perhaps even keep the number 1 seed. If the Bears lose, however, they will lose the number one spot and drop down to around the 5th slot, as every other playoff contender has higher odds of winning this week.
Overall, the Bears this season have improved an extreme amount compared to last year’s atrocity. There are 5 more weeks of the NFL, and these last 5 will decide whether the Bears can compete with real team or continue to find their own ways to win with mediocre teams. Regardless of the improvement that has been shown and finally the culture of the team has finally shifted, and the future is bright. An excessive amount of extensions will appear this offseason as the defense has been explosive as well, ranked number 1 in the NFL in turnover interceptions. As well as the offensive line, it is now ranked top 10 in the league with blocking to allow over 200+ yards against the Eagles and protecting Caleb Williams, who now has 19 sacks this year compared to last year’s record-breaking 68 sacks.
