Chicago Bears Question of the Day: Why Not Us?

Despite my meatball-ish given name, Mongo Peanut, I’d consider myself a fairly level-headed fan of the Chicago Bears. Context is important. Never too high. Never too low.

That’s why I am here to say that Bears fans need to recognize the opportunity in front of them.

The Bears can win the Super Bowl this year.

I’m not saying that in the same way that every franchise can win the Super Bowl every year. I mean that they have a real chance to win it all.

And before a bunch of naysayers and Packers fans get all silly in the comments section — I am not saying that the Bears should be favored or are likely to win the Super Bowl. Instead, that they have a realistic shot at it.

Let’s go ahead and break down the case as to why.

Reason #1: The Bears are good, and getting better.

Think back to September. The Bears were 0-2 after two gut punches to division rivals. It looked like this team was a full season away from clicking. But here we are, 10-2 in our last 12 games, and things look considerably different.

The Bears have progressively shifted from a team that eeks out wins against the Raiders and Bengals, to a team that puts on clinics against the Eagles and Browns. While they lost to a good Packers team by a TD, it’s a far cry from their blowout loss against a good Detroit team in week 2.

The Bears defense has been viewed as limiting their ceiling this season. However, in their last five games they have limited their opponents to 18.2 ppg, which is a vast improvement over their 27.4 ppg allowed in their first nine contests.

Meanwhile, their offense has remained consistent across that same span, averaging 25.2 points in their last five games, and 26.5 ppg in their previous nine. However, the Bears have improved greatly in the margins recently. Across the last five games, the Bears are averaging 5 penalties and 40 penalty yards, compared to 8.3 penalties and 67 penalty yards per game in the previous nine. A sign of the team finding a real groove.

Reason #2: The NFL is wide open.

This season is proving to be one of the more volatile in recent memory.

Recent legacy franchises are struggling:

• The Chiefs have been eliminated from the playoffs and are facing their first losing season since 2012.
• The Bengals have been eliminated and the Ravens have a difficult path to the playoffs.
• The Eagles have been wildly inconsistent and will make the playoffs only because the NFC East is so bad.
• The Buccaneers are on a slide and are hanging by a thread at 7-7.
• The Lions have had their worst season at least 2022, and are at risk of missing the postseason.
• The Packers have lost to bad teams and are decimated by injuries.

The only teams that seem to have matched expectations this...