Windy City Gridiron
The final week of the NFL regular season and the Chicago Bears are playing for playoff seeding.
This seemed impossible one year ago, when they limped into week 18 against the Green Bay Packers on a 10-game losing streak.
But that upset left a good taste in fans’ mouths. Caleb Williams said, “And there’s a lot more coming.” He wasn’t wrong.
The calendar year 2025 was good to the Bears, and now it’s about continuing that momentum into 2026.
Chicago won 14 games under Matt Eberflus, 15 if you throw Thomas Brown’s interim tenure on there. Ben Johnson has a chance to win 12 regular-season games in his first 17 games as coach. He’s already won 73 percent of the games won by the prior regime.
And Caleb Williams is on the cusp of setting Bears records of his own. He’s finishing off consecutive seasons starting every game for the Bears since the 1970s.
One thing is clear, though. Johnson and Williams don’t care about records. They want wins. And seeding.
They must beat the Lions to achieve that.
Detroit Lions
SB Nation site: Pride of Detroit
Record: 8-8
Last week: 23-1 loss to the Vikings
Game day, time, TV: Sunday, 3:25 p.m. CT, FOX
Spread: Bears -3
Bears all-time record against: 105-81-5
Historical meetings: In week 17 of the 2012 season, the 9-6 Bears were looking to get into the postseason in Detroit against the Lions.
Chicago took a 20-3 lead with a 60-yard pass from Jay Cutler to Earl Bennett, a 1-yard rush from Matt Forte and two Olindo Mare field goals.
Detroit made it 20-10 in the closing seconds of the first half as Matthew Stafford hit Kris Durham for a 25-yard score.
Mare added two field goals in the second half, while Stafford threw touchdowns to Will Heller and Brian Robiske. But it wasn’t enough and the Bears finished 10-6, but out of the postseason with a 26-24 win.
Lovie Smith was fired the next day.
Last meeting: Back in week two, the Lions took out their frustrations on a Bears team still finding their way under their new head coach.
Amon-Ra St. Brown caught three touchdowns, and Jameson Williams caught one. Both went over 100-yards. Jared Goff threw five touchdowns and had 334 yards.
The Lions throttled Chicago 52-21, at one point leading 45-14.
Injury report: The Lions held three players from Thursday’s practice and had seven others limited
Did not participate
Limited participation
Offense: The Lions come in ranked third in points and sixth in yards.
Detroit’s passing offense ranks fifth and their rushing offense ranks 15th.
Jared Goff (68.3 pct cmp/4,233 yds/33 TD/7 INT) has played well for most of the season, but...
