The Chicago Bears haven’t been a favorite in the NFL power rankings almost all year. That’s not a huge surprise. This team hasn’t had a winning season since 2012. They’d won just eight games combined over the past two years. It’s easy to see why the national media were reluctant to buy into them. Especially with a division that had the division champion Vikings and Aaron Rodgers still in it.
As the year went on though, things steadily began to change. They climbed from the late 20s range to the late teens. Then the late teens to just outside the top 10. Before anybody knew it, they were in the top 5. Not that they believed the team would stay there long. Too many times they’d been on the cusp of changing league perception only to blow it.
Then they beat the Rams. Then they beat the Packers. Now they’ve taken down a tough 49ers team in San Francisco to completely flip their 5-11 record last year to 11-4 with a chance to do even better in the finale. This monumental turnaround seems to have finally made believers out of even their most stubborn critics.
Chicago Bears sit at #2 in the latest NFL power rankings
Eliot Harrison has usually been lukewarm on the Bears for a long time. However, their recent run that includes winning eight of their last nine games seems to have him finally buying in. In his NFL power rankings going into the finale, he slotted them right behind the Saints who sat at #1.
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“The pundits (whoever they are) will no doubt question ranking the Bears this high, especially after they narrowly defeated the 49ers. That win revealed more about the strengths of this Chicago team than it did its weaknesses. Putting aside the fact that San Francisco has been playing everyone tough ( ask the Broncos, who will be home in mid-January, or the Seahawks), the Bears held off the 49ers’ offense when it mattered most, and they did so without their best playmaker outside of Khalil Mack … safety Eddie Jackson.
They held the 49ers’ offense to a paltry 279 total yards; Kyle Shanahan’s attack had averaged 100 yards more than that during Nick Mullens’ improbable six-game run as a starting QB (385.5) entering the matchup with Chicago. San Francisco’s ground game ground to a halt versus the Bears’ front seven, with a season-low 47 yards. Then there’s Mitch TruBearsky, who played within himself, taking what the 49ers gave him while not making the mistakes that would force his All-World defense to defend short fields.”
It’s clear enough that this Bears team may not be perfect but all of its flaws are minor. They have a defense that can compete with anybody. Their offense, while a work in progress has plenty of talent at its disposal, and a young quarterback who’s coming into his own. Nobody knows for sure what will happen come playoff time, but if this team plays up to their potential, there isn’t anyone they can’t beat.
