Bears would face bleak 0-2 history and ghosts of 1932 with loss to Lions Sunday

Not to put too much pressure on Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams Sunday in Detroit, but the last time the Chicago Bears failed to win at least one of their first two games and still make the playoffs was a season capped by a touchdown pass from Bronko Nagurski to Red Grange. Seriously, almost 100 years ago.

But if avoiding a loss to the Lions at Ford Field just to sidestepthe ghosts of 1932 sounds daunting, consider that no team in the history of the franchise has started 0-2 and recovered to make the postseason. That's right, 27 Bears teams have made the playoffs and 0 of them began the season with two losses.

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The Bears are 0-1 after last Sunday night's Minnesota meltdown, and are 6-point underdogs to the Lions.

There have been obvious hot starts by great Bears through the years. They began 2-0 in the last season that ended in a playoff win in 2010. In 2006 they started 7-0 and made it to the Super Bowl. The legendary 1985 Bears jumped out of the gate 12-0. The 1941 squad coached by George Halas himself and quarterbacked by Hall of Famer Sid Luckman raced out to a 5-0 start on its way to the NFL Championship.

There are many motivations for the Bears against the Lions. The homecoming of Johnson to Detroit. Beating the defending NFC North champs. Not starting 0-2 in the division. But, mostly, NFL teams starting 0-2 since 1990 make the playoffs only 12 percent of the time.

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A loss Sunday would mean having to do something that's never been done in Bears' history, and forever being linked to the 1932 squad that began its season a wonky 0-0-3 with three scoreless ties. It was so long ago that the players wore - optional - leather helmets, quarterback Keith Molesworth completed 25 passes the entire season, the defense allowed only 44 points in 14 games and the championship game was played on a makeshift, 80-yard, dirt "field" inside old Chicago Stadium.

A look at the two-game starts of the Bears' 27 playoff teams:

2020: 2-0

2018: 1-1

2010: 2-0

2006: 2-0

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2005: 1-1

2001: 1-1

1994: 1-1