Bear Digest

Wasteful Bears Forced to Sweat It Out Now in NFC North Race

Around the NFC North: The Bears get Montez Sweat back this week and possibly DB Kyler Gordon but squandered a chance for good positioning in the NFC North despite relative good health.

Gene Chamberlain

Montez Sweat tracks down Jayden Daniels. The Bears have Sweat back this week after a game away with a shin injury.
Montez Sweat tracks down Jayden Daniels. The Bears have Sweat back this week after a game away with a shin injury. / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
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Montez Sweat laid it all out for the Bears fairly well heading into Sunday's game with the New England Patriots.


"We just wanna win," Sweat said. "We understand how stacked the division is and we understand how much these wins mean in November and coming into the back end of the season."

Sweat at least acknowledges what everyone has said since the NFL schedule came out in May.

The Bears have squandered any advantage the schedule makers gave them in the season's first half.

After the game against the 2-7 Patriots, they'll be facing the NFC North and none of those teams have wasted their first half of 2024 by losing games they easily could have won to teams like the Colts, Cardinals and Commanders.

What the Bears have done is make it hard on themselves.

They'll have no choice now but to prove they're better by beating NFC North teams and also San Francisco and Seattle, if they expect to make a playoff run.

While they've made it harder on themselves, if they do get hot and reach the playoffs at least they'll know they belong.

If they had gone 6-2 to this point or 7-1 and then limped into the playoffs after fattening up on cupcakes, no one would have expected anything of them.

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It still doesn't say anything positive about their chances of making any type of statement in the NFC North, where everything now runs through Detroit.

Here's how the NFC North shapes up at the season's midpoint.

NFC North Rankings


1. Lions 7-1, 2. Vikings 6-2, 3. Packers 6-3, 4. BEARS 4-4

Detroit Lions

Jon Maakaron, Detroit Lions On SI

This Week: At Texans (Sunday, 7:20 p.m.)

Midseason assessment: The Lions are Super Bowl contenders. On a six-game winning streak, the Lions have proven to have very few holes. Their biggest weakness, pass rush, was addressed at the trade deadline with the addition of Za'Darius Smith. Now, the responsibility falls on the Lions to ultimately make good on the situation they've created and continue building momentum.

Keys to Week 10 Win: Win the turnover battle. This strategy has proven to be golden for the Lions across their winning streak. With quarterback Jared Goff avoiding interceptions and the defense creating them, the Lions have created fortuitous situations for themselves across the last several weeks. This formula should remain key against the Texans in the primetime showdown.

Green Bay Packers

Bill Huber, Green Bay Packers On SI

This Week: Bye Week (Next game at Bears Nov. 17)

Midseason Evaluation: It’s amazing how a bad performance can skew things. Green Bay is 6-3 and on its way to returning to the playoffs. But a 24-14 loss to Detroit in which the Packers utterly failed to handle the elements and repeatedly shot themselves in the foot was a kick in the gut for a team that’s supposed to be a Super Bowl contender. Unless Jordan Love stops throwing stupid interceptions and the Packers find a red-zone offense and a pass rush, this team looks like a one-and-done playoff team.

Keys to Week 10 Win: The Packers are off this week but the keys for the rest of the season are obvious. Last year, after a 3-6 start, the Packers went 6-2 down the stretch to get into the playoffs, then crushed the Cowboys in the wild-card round. What, if anything, can be taken away from that experience to build off this year’s 6-3 start? As coach Matt LaFleur said on Monday: “I think a lot of it just started with our approach to practice, how much competition we had in practice. I thought it made practices have more energy and I thought it reflected in our play, quite frankly.”

Minnesota Vikings

Joe Nelson, Minnesota Vikings On SI

This Week: At Jaguars (Sunday, noon)

Midseason Evaluation: The Vikings are 6-2 and hitting the road for three straight against the Jaguars, Titans and Bears. They could be 9-2 headed into December, which should keep them in contention not only in the NFC North but also for the top seed in the conference. Blake Cashman is going to return from a toe sprain and so long as Sam Darnold doesn't throw games away, the future is bright. 

Keys to Week 10 Win: Honestly, it's all about Darnold not throwing the game away. If he takes what the defense gives him and doesn't force footballs like he did last week against the Colts, he's destined to have a monster game against a Jags defense that is one of the worst against the pass in the NFL. Jacksonville is banged up and if Trevor Lawrence doesn't play, it'll be Mac Jones. That should make Brian Flores and the Vikings defense drool. 

Chicago Bears

Gene Chamberlain, Chicago Bears On SI

This Week: Hosting Patriots (Noon, Sunday)

Midseason Evaluation: The Bears appear to have squandered an opportunity to compete in the second half of the season in the NFC North by failing to beat the Colts, Commanders and Cardinals on the road. They have the NFL's toughest remaining schedule based on winning percentage and really needed to be 6-2 or 5-3 at this point to have a realistic playoff chance. Matt Eberflus' 3-18 record in road games is dragging them down and no team with this deficiency can be considered a contender for anything other than coaching regime change, even if they have won nine straight as the home team.

Keys to Week 10 Win: Two basics of football can put the Bears back above .500. They need to run it and stop the run. Stopping Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson is a real problem with defensive tackle Andrew Billings out for the season (pec muscle tear), especially after they allowed Arizona 213 yards rushing last week. Running it themselves has been hit or miss all year and their offensive line could be missing tackle Darnell Wright, but running it can allow Caleb Williams to execute play-action passes and avoid being a tackling dummy again.

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.