Bear Digest

The Longshot Bears Playoff Scenarios

Here's who Bears fans need to root for Sunday and next week besides two Bears victories.
Gene Chamberlain|
The Longshot Bears Playoff Scenarios
The Longshot Bears Playoff Scenarios

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Chicago Bears

To refresh everyone's memories about who to root for if they're hoping for a Bears miracle playoff spot.

Here's what the picture looks like:

  • First, the Bears must beat the Falcons.
  • They also need the Rams to lose to the Giants and the Seahawks to lose to the Steelers in games today. If the Rams or Seahawks win today or next week, the Bears are eliminated even if they manage to beat the Falcons and beat the Packers next week. The Rams play the 49ers next week and the Seahawks play the Cardinals in the finale.
  • The Bears today also need the Saints to lose to Tampa Bay and then lose their season finale to Atlanta. The Bears can't win any tie involving the Saints. They can't win a tie with Tampa Bay, either, because they lost to both of those teams. So they need the Saints to lose out and Tampa Bay, which is already 8-7, to win the NFC South.

There are other games of interest that can help if all those things break the right way.

  • If the Bears win out and those other things happen, they can win a wild card no matter who wins the game between Green Bay and Minnesota but their chances would improve greatly if the teams tie. That never happens, of course. If the Packers beat the Vikings, the Rams lose their last two games, the Seahawks lose their last two and Saints lose their last two, then the Packers and Bears both go in as wild cards as long as the Vikings also lose their finale with the Lions.
  • The Bears also can get in with two wins if the Rams and Seahawks lose their remaining games and the Vikings beat the Packers and the Lions next week and the Saints lose their last two games to finish 7-10 and out of the playoffs.  In this case the sixth wild card goes to the Vikings and the Bears would get in as seventh seed based on a better conference record (7-5) than the Rams (6-6), who would eliminate the Seahawks in the four-team tiebreaker formula.

Oh, and there's one other team the Bears want to win on Sunday. 

That would be Jacksonville because the Jaguars play Carolina and the Bears are on the verge of clinching the first pick in the draft if the Panthers lose again.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

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.

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