Playoff Dream Nearly Done for Bears

There will be no drop off in their intensity insist the Bears, even with the playoffs now about as likely as a 90-degree day this weekend on the lakefront for a game with the Cardinals.

It's just their pain is a greater moving forward from Sunday's 20-17 loss to Cleveland.

"I think it stings more because, well I talked about it for the past couple weeks, the mindset of making a playoff push," tight end Cole Kmet said. "I know we weren't in, and we're still not out of it, but not necessarily in full control. Had to have some things happen, but felt pretty good that if you win out that we could do something here. I thought things were kinda coming together for us as a team.

"And yeah, just disappointing to fall short there and especially feeling like we built some momentum in previous weeks and, yeah, obviously defense I thought was outstanding yesterday."

The Bears didn't have a good shot before but at least some playoff scenarios were realistic. And now? Not so much. The New York Times dropped their mathematical chance from 8% to 3% after their loss.

They could still get in by winning all three remaining games against the Cardinals, Falcons and Packers but a bunch of other things must happen besides:

The Vikings must lose every game (twice to Detroit and to Green Bay).

The Saints must lose every game (Rams, Buccaneers and Falcons).

The Giants lose at least one of two meetings with the Eagles.

The Rams lose to the 49ers and Giants

So we're saying there's a chance.

There are more complicated ways, like if games end ties, but don't bother going there.

The real challenge might be emotionally picking themselves back up after seeing a third double-digit lead blown in the fourth quarter.

"You take a couple days," Kmet said. "You move on from it today after watching the film and stuff and you've gotta kinda set your sights now to Arizona. That's the natural process of the week.

"That being said, usually when you get to Wednesday and guys come back in, the feeling I've always had is you've moved on from it and you get going on it. There's always a lot of stake in every game that you're playing in no matter what the ramifications are for the team. I can even go back to last year when we were out of it much earlier than we were this year, there's still a lot to play for for guys in terms of putting good stuff on film, whether that's being on this team next year or being on a different team the following year, there's always a lot to play for. You're never going to get the short end of the stick from guys in that regard."

Defensive leader Tremaine Edmunds has equated the tough times with riding out a storm in the past. So obviously some Dramamine wouldn't hurt. The clouds are pretty dark this week for the Bears.

"You know, adversity, it brings out the character in a person and the character in a team," Edmunds said. "You know, I look at it as a prerequisite of advancement.

"As long as we take it like that, as long as that's our mentality, you know nothing can stop us."

It just might be until next season when they can't be stopped.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven