The Chicago Bears were left for dead after their sixth-straight loss three weeks ago to the lowly Detroit Lions. Expectations were that everybody was getting fired. Ryan Pace? Matt Nagy? Everybody. A choke job of that caliber could never be forgiven. Then crazy things started happening. In spite of everything, the Bears kept playing hard. They thumped the Houston Texans 36-7 and followed that with an unexpected upset of the Vikings in Minnesota 33-27.
Just like that, they were back to 7-7. Their playoff hopes, considered long dead, had been resurrected. All they needed going into Week 16 was a little help to clear the path. Sure enough, the San Francisco 49ers provided it. The primary team in the Bears’ way was the Arizona Cardinals, clinging to the 7th seed in the NFC with an 8-6 record. A loss would allow Chicago to tie them by beating Jacksonville on Sunday and the Bears hold the tiebreaker edge.
The 49ers, despite so many injuries, stunned their rivals 20-12.
For the first time in two months, Chicago controls its own destiny. It is completely crazy they’re even in this position. The Bears have never followed a losing streak of six or more with more than two wins in a row in their history. Now they could get their third against a 1-13 Jaguars team that will be starting Mike Glennon at quarterback and benching their star rookie running back James Robinson.
It’s a game they absolutely have no business losing. If the Bears win, that sets up a ‘win and in’ scenario for Week 17 against the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field. In fact, they could get in regardless if the Cardinals end up dropping their finale to the Los Angeles Rams as well. So all things considered Chicago has every reason to be excited.
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Chicago Bears were almost sabotaged too
The score was a lot closer than it should’ve been in that game. Robbie Gould, the former Bears legend had one of the worst games of his career, missing three kicks on the afternoon including two field goals and an extra point. That gave Arizona priceless extra opportunities to steal the game back despite their poor performance.
Thankfully the 49ers defense wasn’t having that. They played outstanding all game long and smothered Kyler Murray. It was further proof that defensive coordinator Robert Saleh will probably end up a head coach somewhere in the very near future. Maybe even in his native Detroit for the Lions. That would be quite the headache for the Chicago Bears to deal with.
Safe to say fans aren’t so broken up about Robbie anymore.
Everything is in front of this team. They have to take care of their business on Sunday first. Style points don’t matter. Just beat the Jaguars. Then people should set their televisions for the Sunday night game between Green Bay and Tennessee. If the Packers win, they will clinch homefield advantage in the playoffs. That could mean they end up sitting their starters in a meaningless season finale against Chicago.
If they lose? Well, then having to go through Aaron Rodgers to reach the postseason seems rather fitting.
