The Chicago Bears stand at 4-7 through the first 12 weeks of the season, where they’re still in the thick of the NFC playoff race with six games left.
Things are beginning to take shape with the playoff picture and leaders starting to put some distance between themselves and the rest of their respective divisions, but things are pretty tight in the wild-card race in the NFC.
So where do the Bears stand in the postseason hunt heading into Week 13? Here’s a look:
NFC Playoff Picture after Week 12:
- Arizona Cardinals (9-2)
- Green Bay Packers (9-3)
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-3)
- Dallas Cowboys (7-4)
- Los Angeles Rams (7-4)
- San Francisco 49ers (6-5)
- Washington Football Team (5-6)
In the hunt:
- Minnesota Vikings (5-6)
- Atlanta Falcons (5-6)
- New Orleans Saints (5-6)
- Philadelphia Eagles (5-7)
- Carolina Panthers (5-7)
- New York Giants (4-7)
- Chicago Bears (4-7)
- Seattle Seahawks (3-8)
NFC playoff matchups if the season ended today:
- No. 2 Packers vs. No. 7 Washington
- No. 3 Buccaneers vs. No. 6 49ers
- No. 4 Cowboys vs. No. 5 Rams
If the season were to end today, the Bears would be six spots out of a postseason berth. While there’s not a lot of season left, the Bears are still in the thick of the postseason race, where they’re just one game back from the 5-6 Washington team.
Things aren’t going to get easier for the Bears, who face the Cardinals and Packers — the NFC’s top seeds — in back-to-back weeks.
“The biggest thing for us was to make sure that we snapped that losing streak,” Nagy said. “When you snap that losing streak now, you come back in, you reset and now you have to start back to 1-0.
“This isn’t coach talk, but literally, we need to一 let’s win this game and then let’s get on a two-game winning streak. Let’s have a little streak here. If you go out and you play a great game and you beat a great team like the Cardinals, what that can do for your confidence and your belief. And then all of that other stuff handles itself, because there are a lot of teams in that mix, and there are a lot of things we can’t control. What we can control is winning on Sunday.”
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