Bear Digest

Bears Drop More Spots in On SI Poll Than All But One Other Team

The Bears might rank in the top 10 on defense but one side of the football doesn't carry enough weight with On SI poll voters.

Gene Chamberlain

Taven Bryan sacks Bears QB Caleb Williams in last week's 21-16 Bears loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
Taven Bryan sacks Bears QB Caleb Williams in last week's 21-16 Bears loss to the Indianapolis Colts. / Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images
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The Bears are right back where they were at the middle of last season, in the eyes of the weekly On SI power rankings.

Forget the improvement of their defense to rank in the league's top 10 for yards and points allowed, or that their passing game and Caleb Williams showed signs of life for the first time. They're now among the league's worst teams.

The weekly poll from On SI has them 29th overall, a drop of seven spots after their 21-16 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

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The only team in this week's poll to drop more places  than the Bears was the Dallas Cowboys, who fell eight spots to 17th overall after their 28-25 loss at home to the Baltimore Ravens.

By losing the game to the Colts, the Bears fell behind the Colts (26th) in the rankings and are well behind this week's opponent at Soldier Field, the 1-2 Los Angeles Rams (22nd).

Their prospects for moving up in the NFC North apparently are not good compared to the rest of the division. Every single NFC North team ranks in the top seven in the league. The Packers (2-1) are seventh, the Vikings (3-0) are sixth and Lions fourth (2-1).

The Chiefs and Bills remain 1-2 in this week's poll.

The difference for the Bears between now and last year, when they started out 0-4, is they at least had a running game then. Now they have none and rank 31st in rushing, 25th in passing.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.