Playoffs?! How the Chicago Bears can do the unthinkable

It feels pretty weird to say this, but it actually feels great right now to be a fan of the Chicago Bears. What are these emotions I'm processing? The Bears just won a Monday Night Football game on the road against a good team, and they didn't even play their best football. They won coming out of a bye week for just the second time in their last 12 chances. For the second week in a row, they made the clutch plays in the final minute to pull out a victory, and even better, they avenged last year's Hail Mary tragedy that sent the season into an irreversible death spiral.

Things looked bleak when the Lions annihilated the Bears in Week 2, flipping the script on former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to drop his new team to 0-2. Three games later, this feels like a totally different team. Johnson used the bye week to fix the running game, helping D'Andre Swift go off on a good Commanders run defense. The offensive line looked phenomenal across the board, and Johnson showed off his creativity with a bunch of creative play calls that actually worked.

It's cliché to complain about the refs after a loss, so I'm glad the Bears won so that I can say without any trace of sour grapes that the officiating last night was an abomination. First-year ref Alex Moore and his crew were calling phantom penalties all game, and one even erased a beautiful Caleb Williams-to-Rome Odunze touchdown that would have put the Bears back up by two possessions in the second half.

There are plenty of issues the Bears still have, and they'll need to work those out in order to keep stacking wins. Caleb missed some key throws. Olamide Zaccheaus had a killer drop. A blown coverage led to an easy touchdown. Penalties (legit ones) have been a problem every week. But by and large, this is a team moving in the right direction. The question is, how far can they go? Don't answer that question immediately after watching Ben Johnson's postgame speech, because the answer will inevitably be all the way to the Super Bowl.

What can the Bears do to make the playoffs for the first time in five years?

Oftentimes, a 10-7 record is good enough for a postseason berth, but not always. Last year, the Seahawks were on the outside looking in at 10-7, in large part because the NFC North was so strong. The Vikings and Packers were only Wild Card teams at 14-3 and 11-6, respectively, while the Commanders took the other spot with their 12-5 record. By virtue of losing the NFC West divisional tiebreaker to the Rams, the Seahawks were left out.

The season is still young, but the same kind of situation could be shaping up this year. A whopping 10 NFC teams are over .500 as of today, including the entire NFC North. Not every team will be able to keep up this pace, but it's doubtful that we're going to see a 9-8 Wild Card team, and 10-7 is no sure thing, either. With that in mind, let's look at the Bears schedule to see if they have a shot. They'd need to go 7-5 to get to 10-7, and 8-4 to get to 11-6.

Remaining home games

The Bears host the Saints next week, then they'll welcome the Giants, Steelers, Browns, Packers and Lions to Soldier Field later in the year. I'd say they need to go at least 4-2 in those games, which would likely include wins over the Saints, Giants and Browns, plus one over either the Steelers, Packers or Lions.

Very little of this will be easy. The Saints have been in every game but one, with a better-than-expected defense and competent play from Spencer Rattler at quarterback. The Giants have been rejuvenated since turning to Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo, while even the Browns, for all their faults on offense, still have an elite defense led by Myles Garrett. Dillon Gabriel could have his feet under him by time the Bears see him in mid-December.

The Steelers keep finding ways to win, and Aaron Rodgers' record against the Bears is well-documented. The Packers and Lions are two of the NFC favorites, and though there's a chance the Lions won't even need to play in Week 18, there's no way Dan Campbell is going to take it easy on Johnson in their second meeting, especially if the Bears have something on the line.

The Bears are going to have to play well to go 4-2 or better at home just to have a shot at the postseason.

Remaining road games

If the Bears go 4-2 at home, that puts their record at 7-4. To get to 11-6, they'd also need to go 4-2 on the road, but a 3-3 record might, BIG might, be enough to sneak them in at 10-7. Unfortunately, the slate is a nasty one, as they'll face the Ravens, Bengals, Vikings, Eagles, Packers and 49ers.

I'd say the two must-win games of that group are the dates in Cincinnati and Minnesota. The Bengals will still be without Joe Burrow, and their recent trade for Joe Flacco shouldn't inspire any fear in a Bears defense that just did a solid job on Jayden Daniels. The Bengals also have the worst rushing attack in the league, so it's unlikely they'll be able to take advantage of the Bears in the trenches.

As for the Vikings game, the Bears need to set things right after that abominable loss to open the season. The Vikings had no business winning that game, but the Bears have shown that they've learned from that loss in the time since. They'll be highly motivated to get revenge, whether its JJ McCarthy or Carson Wentz who's starting. Will it be easy? No it won't, but as Matthew McConaughey said in Interstellar, it's necessary.

That leaves four games, and the Bears need at least one, and possibly two of them. Going by record, the matchup with the Ravens in two weeks is a winnable one, but the bad news is that Lamar Jackson is expected back after missing time with a hamstring injury. Baltimore will be coming off of a bye, a spot in which they've traditionally been nearly unbeatable under John Harbaugh. At 1-5 and in danger of losing complete control of their season, they'll also be extremely desperate. Winning this game will take a titanic effort.

Playing a Black Friday game in Philadelphia is not going to be a picnic. The Eagles are a bit of a mess right now, with an offense that isn't making anybody happy. It's unlikely they'll still be so disjointed in about six weeks, though, and they're still the defending Super Bowl champs. The Bears are currently 2-0 against the NFC East, but this is a step up.

Theo Benedet and Darnell Wright were fantastic against the Commanders, but they'll have their hands full in slowing down Micah Parsons when they face the Packers. The Bears ended a 10-game winning streak by winning in Green Bay in the final week of the regular season last year, and that was with an interim head coach. Ben Johnson played with fire when he said in his introductory press conference that he "kinda enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year," but now he'll have the chance to put his money where his mouth is. Whether they get one at home or on the road doesn't matter, but the Bears need to at least split with the Cheeseheads.

That leaves a Week 17 Sunday Night Football matchup with the 49ers. San Fran has overcome a slew of injuries to key players to go 4-2, and they have a mostly favorable schedule the rest of the way. This game could get flexed out of primetime if something better is available, but if both teams are where we think and hope they'll be, this will be a huge matchup befitting a late-season national broadcast.

Seeing Ben Johnson and Kyle Shanahan try to one-up each other offensively is going to be pure cinema. Christian McCaffrey, if he's still healthy, is going to be a nightmare to stop, but the Niners just lost star middle linebacker Fred Warner for the year, a devastating loss that will really help Caleb Williams and company. This could be a shootout with everything on the line. The Bears need it.

Do the Bears have what it takes to make the playoffs?

Maybe the high hasn't worn off from last night's win, but I think the Bears can do this. Ben Johnson has proven himself already to be a home run hire, and there's been noticeable team-wide growth from training camp through today. The Bears are setting themselves up as a team to be reckoned with for years to come, and they look like they're ahead of schedule. Wins against the Saints, Bengals, Giants, Vikings, Steelers, Browns, Packers and Niners will get them to 11-6 and back in the playoffs. Can you imagine Johnson's postgame speech if that happens?