The Chicago Bears are four quarters away from holding the #2 pick in the 2023 draft. If Houston defeats Indianapolis on the same day, it becomes the #1 pick. That is how much is at stake for this team. It’s why fans are nervous about how things might play out. One of the biggest unanswered questions was what the Minnesota Vikings, their Week 18 opponents, planned to do. They’ve already clinched the NFC North. Some worry they’ll choose to rest their starters, giving the Bears better odds of winning the game.
That doesn’t appear to be the case. Word out of Minnesota is the team will play most of their starters at Soldier Field. Two reasons were offered. One was the possibility they could still clinch the #2 seed in the NFC, assuring them an extra home game. The other is wanting to get the bad taste of last week out of their mouths when Green Bay crushed them 41-17. Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune had the details.
It sounds like Minnesota won’t hold back. They don’t have much of a choice.
Because the Vikings play at noon Sunday, and San Francisco plays at 3:25 p.m., they won’t have the luxury of checking scores and pulling starters if the No. 2 seed should be out of reach. But coach Kevin O’Connell indicated Monday they’d play their starters in Chicago and make small adjustments to playing time if possible. He continued to indicate the Vikings want the No. 2 seed if they can get it.
“I think it would probably be more subtle than [sitting starters], just knowing that the 2 seed is still available for us,” O’Connell said. “Regardless, we still have a lot to play for just from a momentum standpoint – [for] a football team that’s had some highs this year, for sure, and then one of our low moments of the season yesterday where you’d like to be able to rely on a lot of things we built here to come back together and make sure we rectify some of the issues that contributed yesterday.”
The Chicago Bears can make this process even easier.
All they have to do is bench Justin Fields. He is the only realistic player the Bears have that can engineer any kind of upset. He almost did when the teams met a few months ago before Ihmir Smith-Marsette fumbled it away. Fields is banged up. So is his offensive line. Head coach Matt Eberflus and GM Ryan Poles could decide not to risk him, handing the keys to Nathan Peterman or Tim Boyle. It really doesn’t matter. Minnesota isn’t losing to either of those guys. Not with how depleted this roster is.
Even if Fields plays, the odds aren’t favorable. The Chicago Bears defense has no veteran leadership left. Eddie Jackson is done for the year. Jaylon Johnson is done for the year. Roquan Smith was traded. Even Jack Sanborn, their promising rookie linebacker, is out too. It’s a mishmash of rookies and backups. Kirk Cousins, Justin Jefferson, and Dalvin Cook should be able to roll through them all day. This shouldn’t be a close contest unless Fields went off for 30 points.
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Then again, the Bears always seem to win when they’re not supposed to.
