Bears Take Bye-Week Tumble from First Place in NFC North Standings

In case you haven't heard, the NFC North is the best division in football this year. By the end of the season, it may even be the best division in NFL history. The Chicago Bears stood alone atop their rivals as they entered their Week 10 bye, but even without playing a game, they've now tumbled down into third place.

Yes, you read that right. Despite a 7-2 record, the Bears' best start to a season since 2012, they sit in third place, only above the Green Bay Packers, who are 6-4 after today's loss to the Minnesota Vikings. As for the Detroit Lions and Vikings, they are both 7-2 but own tiebreakers over the Bears with a better division record. The Bears won't get a chance to turn the tables until Week 12 when they head to Ford Field for a Thanksgiving showdown with the Lions.

There was a chance that the Bears could have maintained first place in the NFC North through their bye week. They needed the New England Patriots to down the Lions in Germany and the Packers to defend Lambeau Field. But the Lions secured a 35-10 victory, and the Vikings sacked Jordan Love eight times en route to a dominant 30-10 win of their own.

The Bears have a clear path to a second straight division title

There's no need for Bears fans to fret just yet. Plenty of football remains to be played, and the Bears have already proven to be one of the best, most complete teams in the NFL this year. Losing to the Vikings in Week 2 and the Packers in Week 5 hurts them, but nothing about those losses can be used to predict how the Bears will fare in the coming rematches.

For one thing, that Week 2 loss to the Vikings was played in monsoon-like conditions at Soldier Field and Caleb Williams injured himself on what would have been walk-in touchdown scramble late in the fourth quarter of a one-score game. As for the Week 5 loss to Green Bay, Williams was still sidelined by his torn hamstring and Tyson Bagent quite literally threw that game away. If it weren't for that freak injury to Williams, there's a very real chance that the Bears would be 9-0 right now.

That leaves a clear path for the Bears to follow to a second straight NFC North championship. When I predicted the Bears' final games of the season, I had them winning their last three games against the Packers, Lions, and Vikings, respectively, to finish with a 13-4 record, which should be enough to win the division. That would also take the Bears from 0-2 to 3-3 in the NFC North.

Predicting the Bears' biggest threat in the NFC North

Nothing about the NFC North is easy to predict right now, especially when it comes to division standings. The Lions seem to have hit their stride, though losing Aiden Hutchinson for the season will hurt. The Packers have at times looked like the most explosive offense in the NFL with Jordan Love putting up eye-popping numbers. And since acquiring old friend Kirk Cousins in a trade at the deadline, the Vikings have now seemingly added a competent offense to an unstoppable defense.

If one of these three teams is going to dethrone the Bears, something that may not even happen, it's most likely going to be the Vikings, in my opinion. The Packers' historically bad run game is already starting to haunt them, and the loss of Hutchinson leaves Detroit's defense even more vulnerable than it already was. But the Vikings now appear to be the real deal. Their Week 18 rematch with the Bears could very well decide the division champion.

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