Bear Digest

Weekend Without Game Shows Bears How Daunting Their Task Is

The Bears got closer to first in the NFC North but saw how competitive they'll need to become in order to find a way to win in the NFC North.

Gene Chamberlain

Amon-Ra St. Brown catches a pass for a touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings in Sunday's Detroit win.
Amon-Ra St. Brown catches a pass for a touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings in Sunday's Detroit win. / Matt Krohn-Imagn Images
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The Bears couldn't escape last place in the NFC North during their week off.

They did get a little closer to the NFC North lead, however. And they found out something else valuable during Week 7.

The Detroit Lions handed the Minnesota Vikings their first loss, 31-29, while the Green Bay Packers rallied to beat Houston 23-22 on a 45-yard Brandon McManus field goal as time expired. The end result was the Lions and Vikings stand 5-1, one game ahead of the Bears. Green Bay is half a game back at 5-2. The Bears would have been two behind had the Vikings won.

The Lions win came despite losing Aidan Hutchinson for the season last week, but they outscored the Vikings in an offensive free-for-all and won on a 44-yard Jake Bates field goal.

A Packers loss would have lifted the Bears out of last place and left Green Bay in last.

The bottom line from the weekend without the Bears playing in the NFC North from the Bears' standpoint is they saw the type of football they'll need to play to have a chance against three strong opponents in a division where  the combined record of all the teams is 19-6 and a .667 winning percentage is last place.

They'll have to be able to go toe to toe and beat another team with a high-level offense. Defense alone isn't going to be enough against these teams and they'll need an offense clicking like they've had the last two games against two weaker opponents. But it will need to be against defenses capable of shutting teams down.

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There were three lead changes in the Vikings-Lions game, two in the last 5:50. The Lions had 391 yards of offense and the Vikings 383.

The Packers beat a top-3 defense in a game that had seven lead changes, a game dominated by defenses even if the lead changed hands so many times. The Packers held the Texans to 197 yards and they won with 277 yards.

Green Bay's defense held C.J. Stroud to a 58.8 passer rating and Jordan Love threw for 220 yards with a 95.5 rating and three touchdowns.

After the early games on Sunday, in the entire NFL only Tennessee (.550), Detroit (.574) and Green Bay (.547) face tougher schedules than the Bears (.537) based on teams' winning percentage.

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.