What the Bears’ 5-2 start says about their playoff chances in 2020

The Bears’ playoff odds took a massive dip with Monday night’s loss to the Rams. But all hope isn’t lost.

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The Chicago Bears had a chance to take sole possession of the NFC’s top seed with a win over the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football. Instead, the Bears looked more like a team that could just as easily be 2-5 rather than 5-2 at this point in the season.

The blame once again falls on a bumbling, stumbling offense that couldn’t get past themselves and was embarrassed on national television. And all Chicago did was prove everyone right. This Bears team is no contender, and they won’t be until they have a competent offense.

While one loss isn’t going to ruin the entire season, if this team continues to play like this, playoffs aren’t even going to be in the Bears’ vocabulary. But Chicago is still 5-2 through the first seven weeks, which is still not bad when looking at their playoff chances.

Over the last 10 seasons, NFL teams that have started the season 5-2 have made the playoffs 79% of the time, which is a substantial dip from the 90% odds after starting 5-1. And it’s not going to get any easier as the Bears are gearing up for games against the New Orleans Saints and Tennessee Titans over the next two weeks.

If the Bears had won on Monday, their playoff chances would’ve risen to 95%.

The odds of making the postseason do get better for teams that start 6-2 — 90 percent — as the Bears have a chance to do against the Saints on Sunday in Week 8. Although that’ll certainly be a tall order after watching how things played out on Monday night.