Is this the end? It doesn\u2019t feel like it, right? No sounds of Boyz II Men in the distant backdrop. No \u2018\u2018The White Lotus\u2019\u2019 season-ending-like montage. Mid-January football. Not. Done. Yet. Better. Best. Great. Next? Week or season is the answer.<\/p>\n
As the Rams enter into our deep-freeze terrordome called Soldier Field \u2014 a place where the new \u2018\u2018Iceman\u2019\u2019 has cometh and called hometh \u2014 the overarching, omnipresent, inescapable and everlasting vibe and conviction is that it will be the Bears who live for another day. For \u2014 at the least \u2014 one more game. Then there\u2019s that gotdamn thing called obviousness that makes you face beliefs you do everything in your human power to avoid or act as though doesn\u2019t exist. It\u2019s encouraging. It\u2019s exhausting. It\u2019s the biggest lie the Bears and the city will have to tell ourselves this entire season \u2014 that, for us, there will be a next week.<\/p>\n
No Case Keenum speech will save them. No Bears player telling teammates, \u2018\u2018Play for your brother, play for the name on the back of it, play for the name of the Chicago Bears, bro. Hey, we destine for this,\u2019\u2019 will act as first responder. No spotting teams two- to three-touchdown leads as time and quarters disappear can act as the \u2018\u2018right where we want to be\u2019\u2019 part of the plan. No Chance the Rapper or Common supplying rhythmic words of empowerment will help. All with the hope that no Matthew Stafford-to-Davante Adams final-drive, \u2018\u2018Let\u2019s go snatch these guys hearts\u2019\u2019 motivational harangue will come true.<\/p>\n
With this whole season\u2019s run aligning so perfectly with the 40th anniversary of Bears OGs shoulder-walking Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan off of the Super Bowl Field in New Orleans, it feels way too similar to not think that another Super Bowl, in three weeks, isn\u2019t how this season is supposed to end. Until it won\u2019t. Until now. Again, obviousness. Too many times, the Bears have dodged facing a team\u2019s best quarterback. They didn\u2019t see Joe Burrow. They didn\u2019t see Lamar Jackson, didn\u2019t see Aaron Rodgers. They only saw Jordan Love in Week 16 for a little over a quarter, faced Shedeur Sanders in only his fourth start, faced Jaxson Dart in only his seventh start. But when they saw Brock Purdy, when they saw Jared Goff, when they saw a healthy Love last week despite the victory, we were given direct insight to the Bears\u2019 Achilles\u2019 heel with the performances they all put on.<\/p>\n
This time, even with an index-finger injury on his passing hand, Stafford, the NFL\u2019s presumptive MVP who has played better than Purdy, Goff and Love against better defenses, will be on the field \u2014 under center and in the shotgun, staring the Bears\u2019 defense in the face, possibly tearing the defense apart \u2014 for at least 60 or 65 snaps. Barring injury or Dennis Allen-schemed miracles. Because the Bears finally will be facing a team better than they are (13-5 record to their 12-6), one at full strength (not missing a major\/key\/Pro Bowl-level player), one that won\u2019t take them for granted halfway or three-quarters of the way through a game because they know exactly what they\u2019re capable of. This NFL version of survive and advance by the Bears stops here. Cue G.C. Cameron.<\/p>\n
The reals this game will force the Bears to finally have to face:<\/p>\n
Tom Waddle\u2019s analysis of a Bears victory Sunday will go down as one of the greatest logical reasons in the history of Bears football: \u2018\u2018The Rams are the best team in the NFC. They, on paper, are a better team than the Bears. You don\u2019t play the game on paper…. I\u2019m picking the Bears to win this game because. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s my analysis. I\u2019m picking the Bears to win this game against a team I feel is better than them because.\u2019\u2019 It gets no more perfect than that. It\u2019s impostor syndrome at its finest.<\/p>\n
If there are football gods \u2014 and best believe there are, or why would this particular season just so happen be the one where the Bears and Packers were scheduled to play each other three times in a six-week span? \u2014 they\u2019ve at this point done more for the Bears than any other team in the NFL. At some point, it\u2019s only smart to believe that it\u2019s time for other teams\u2019 prayers to be answered. Not that the Rams will need the football gods Sunday, but it probably is time for us to face this mortal coil that the answered prayers the Bears have \u2018\u2018found a way\u2019\u2019 to create for themselves have run their course. Season got next, not week. So… is this the end? Unfortunately, it kinda, sorta, damn sure feels like it.<\/p>\n
Q: What is the current record of the Bears?
\nA: The Bears have a 12-6 record.
\nQ: Who will the Bears be facing in their next game?
\nA: The Bears will be facing the Rams.
\nQ: What are the odds of the Bears winning the Super Bowl?
\nA: The Bears have +1400 odds to win the SB.
\nQ: Who is the presumptive MVP of the NFL?
\nA: Matthew Stafford is the presumptive MVP of the NFL.
\nQ: What is the final analysis of the Bears’ chances?
\nA: The Bears’ chances of winning are slim, and it feels like the end of their season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
End of the Line for Bears Introduction to the Inevitable Is this the end? It doesn\u2019t feel like it, right? No sounds of Boyz II Men in the distant backdrop. No \u2018\u2018The White Lotus\u2019\u2019 season-ending-like montage. Mid-January football. Not. Done. Yet. Better. Best. Great. Next? Week or season is the answer. The Reality Check As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/cffa336\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/637x364+0+33\/resize\/1461x834!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F76%2F54%2F19cdaed44d449360b23ea13ee7d4%2Fscreenshot-2026-01-16-at-6-20-47-pm.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35770,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35767\/revisions\/35770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}