Chicago Bears playoff hopes are still alive, and here’s how they make it
The Bears still have a path to the playoffs after beating the Vikings.
The Chicago Bears picked up a season-saving victory Sunday over the Minnesota Vikings to improve to 7-7 on the season. That has them sitting in the No. 8 spot in the NFC as the afternoon window of games begin.
The focus for the Bears now is jumping the Arizona Cardinals for the seventh and final seed. Let’s take a look at the scenarios for how the Bears can get back into the playoffs and save some jobs in the process.
How can Chicago Bears clinch a playoff berth this season?
Jumping ahead of the Cardinals is the easiest scenario in play. Arizona is taking on the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday afternoon and a win gets them up to 8-6 on the year. The Bears and Cardinals will not meet in 2020 so their conference record becomes the tiebreaker to analyze. The Bears are currently 6-5 and the Cardinals are at 5-4.
Basically, fans should be rooting for the Cardinals to lose each of their final three games. Chicago also finishing 9-7 is going to be necessary to have a realistic shot of getting in barring a total collapse by the Cardinals.
One fun scenario is the team actually getting ahead of both the Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tom Brady’s team improved to 9-5 with a victory, but the Bears hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. So if both teams finish 9-7, the edge goes to Chicago.
Winning the final two games of the year is a great starting point. Then comes rooting for the Cardinals to go at least 1-2 and for the Bucs to go 0-2 to finish the season.
Next. Chicago can’t be fooled into another year of Trubisky. dark
The Bears have games against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Green Bay Packers to wrap up the season. A win over the Jaguars seems like a certainty. But a Week 17 showdown against the Packers with playoff implications? That right there would be a great game to be flexed into Sunday night to wrap up the regular season.