The Bears are heading into the playoffs with a load of confidence and momentum. They won their fourth straight game Sunday and they did it in one of the NFL’s toughest environments U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis beating the Vikings 24-10.
The victory clinches the third seed in the NFC in the playoffs for the Bears and a home game next weekend against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Vikings miss out on the playoffs with a record of 8-7-1.
The Bears won again with dominant play by the defense. The Bears held the Vikings to 164 yards of total offense. The Bears sacked Kirk Cousins four times. Akiem Hicks led the sack-attack with 1.5 sacks. Leonard Floyd had eight tackles.
On offense the Bears established their run game early. Jordan Howard scored two short rushing touchdowns in the first half. He finished the game with 109 yards on 21 carries. The Bears added a third touchdown in the fourth quarter on a three yard touchdown run by Tarik Cohen. They followed that up with another play from Matt Nagy’s bag of tricks. Mitch Trubisky threw a two-point conversion pass to linebacker Nick Kwiatkowski putting the Bears up 21-10.
Cody Parkey added a 42 yard field goal with 4:25 remaining to closeout the scoring.
The downside for the Bears was receivers Anthony Miller and Taylor Gabriel both left the game with shoulder injuries. It’s unknown how serious those injuries are. The Bears were already without receiver Allen Robinson Jr. He sat out the game with injured ribs.
The Bears finish the regular season 12-4. That’s their best regular season record since they wen 13-3 in 2006 and wound up going to the Super Bowl.
The Bears also sweep the season series with the Vikings and they finish up 5-1 against NFC North opponents. Their only loss within the division was the season opener in Green Bay a narrow 24-23 defeat.
The Bears are heading into the playoffs with a load of confidence and momentum. They won their fourth straight game Sunday and they did it in one of the NFL’s toughest environments U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis beating the Vikings 24-10.
The victory clinches the third seed in the NFC in the playoffs for the Bears and a home game next weekend against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Vikings miss out on the playoffs with a record of 8-7-1.
The Bears won again with dominant play by the defense. The Bears held the Vikings to 164 yards of total offense. The Bears sacked Kirk Cousins four times. Akiem Hicks led the sack-attack with 1.5 sacks. Leonard Floyd had eight tackles.
On offense the Bears established their run game early. Jordan Howard scored two short rushing touchdowns in the first half. He finished the game with 109 yards on 21 carries. The Bears added a third touchdown in the fourth quarter on a three yard touchdown run by Tarik Cohen. They followed that up with another play from Matt Nagy’s bag of tricks. Mitch Trubisky threw a two-point conversion pass to linebacker Nick Kwiatkowski putting the Bears up 21-10.
Cody Parkey added a 42 yard field goal with 4:25 remaining to closeout the scoring.
The downside for the Bears was receivers Anthony Miller and Taylor Gabriel both left the game with shoulder injuries. It’s unknown how serious those injuries are. The Bears were already without receiver Allen Robinson Jr. He sat out the game with injured ribs.
The Bears finish the regular season 12-4. That’s their best regular season record since they wen 13-3 in 2006 and wound up going to the Super Bowl.
The Bears also sweep the season series with the Vikings and they finish up 5-1 against NFC North opponents. Their only loss within the division was the season opener in Green Bay a narrow 24-23 defeat.
We now know that the Bears will be in the NFL’s playoff party. They clinched their first trip to the playoffs and their first NFC North Division championship last Sunday by beating the Packers 24-17 at Soldier Field.
The next goal over these final two weeks of the regular season is to try to make a run at one of the top two playoff spots in NFC and earn a first round bye.
The Bears need to overtake the Saints and the Rams to do that. The Saints are currently in the top spot with a 12-2 record. The Rams are a game behind at 11-3 and then come the Bears at 10-4. Keep in mind if the Bears and Rams finish with the same record the Bears will have the tiebreaker because they beat the Rams head-to-head two weeks ago.
The Saints’ remaining games will be both be at home. They host the Steelers this week and then they’ll host the Panthers.
The Rams figure to have it easy in their final two games against the Cardinals and the 49ers. Those two teams have a combined record of 7-21. Both of those games will be in warm weather climates so that works to the Rams’ advantage.
For now the Bears will focus on what they can control. That’s a game this Sunday at San Francisco. The 49ers are only 4-10, but hey they have won their last two games over the Seahawks and the Broncos. The win over the Seahawks was especially impressive considering the Seahawks had won their previous four games.
49ers quarterback Nick Mullens won’t strike fear into anyone…certainly not the Bears defense, but Mullens was solid last week passing for 275 yards and a touchdown. The one player on the 49ers who might pose the biggest threat to the Bears is former Bear Robbie Gould. He’s having an outstanding season at the age of 36. He has made 29 of 30 field goal attempts including the game-winner in overtime last week.
The biggest key for the Bears this week and next week is to avoid major injuries so that they have everyone ready to go for the playoffs. By the way its interesting to note that the oddsmakers now list the Bears’ odds of advancing to and winning the Super Bowl at 16-1. At the start of the season those odds were 80-1.
In addition to their playoff birth and division championship the Bears have something else to celebrate. Five of the guys have been elected to play in the Pro Bowl. Khalil Mack makes the Pro Bowl for the fourth time in his career. Akiem Hicks makes his first Pro Bowl team. Safety Eddie Jackson lands on the Pro Bowl team for the first time and so does cornerback Kyle Fuller. Tarik Cohen makes it for the first time as a return specialist.
That’s the most Pro Bowlers the Bears have had since 2014.
The Bears are coming off only their fourth loss of the season last week, but they’re still very much in the playoff hunt at 8-4 and they’re still a game and a half up on the Vikings in the NFC North Division race.
This week they’ll likely get their biggest test of the season. They’ll host the team with the best record in the NFL the 11-1 Los Angeles Rams. The Rams have already clinched the NFC West Championship for the second straight season, but they’ll still have lots of incentive for this game. With a win over the Bears the Rams can clinch a first round bye in the playoffs and they’re trying to stay ahead of the Saints in the race for the top seed in the NFC.
The biggest question for the Bears again this week is will Mitch Trubisky play? He sat out the last two weeks and the Bears split those two games. Trubisky has been throwing and the feeling is that he’ll probably be ready to go this week, but if he’s not completely healthy you can be sure the Bears will sit him again despite the magnitude of this game and this opponent.
No matter who is quarterbacking the Bears look for Tarik Cohen to play a key role again. With Trubisky out the Bears leaned heavily on their young running back against the Giants. He’s the only reason they stayed in that game. Cohen led the NFL last week with 186 total yards from scrimmage. He also threw a touchdown pass.
When you think of the Rams you think of a high-scoring offense. This might be the best, most-balanced attack in the NFL. The Rams rank second in the NFL in scoring at slightly under 35 points per game. They rank second in yards per game. They’re fourth in the league in both rushing yards and passing yards. To top it all off they take care of the football. They’ve turned the ball over only 11 times all season.
Quarterback Jared Goff has become one of the elite players in the NFL. He has passed for more than 3700 yards with 27 touchdown passes and only seven interceptions. His passer rating is an outstanding 109.9.
When Goff isn’t dropping back to pass he’s usually handing the football off to Todd Gurley. He’s the NFL’s leading rusher with 1,175 yards. He has already scored a Rams’ franchise record 15 rushing touchdowns this season. Gurley is also an excellent receiver.
Fortunately the Bears come into this game equipped with the NFL’s fourth ranked defense to combat that offense. That defense far and away leads the NFL with 30 takeaways. Getting some takeaways against this Rams’ offense would be huge.
The key player in this game might be Rams’ defensive lineman Aaron Donald. He leads the NFL with 16.5 sacks. He was a monster last week in Detroit where he had two sacks and five tackles for loss. Can the Bears’ offensive line stop this guy?
The other big matchup in this game is the two head coaches. Matt Nagy and Sean McVay are two of the best offensive minds in football. What tricks will they have up their sleeves?
This will be a fun game to watch not only for Bears and Rams fans but for football fans everywhere. That’s why the NFL flexed this game from an afternoon kickoff to a night game. It’ll kickoff at 7:20 Sunday night.