Before the season started, I gave the Chicago Bears a chance to win eleven games. If all went according to how I envisioned, I thought this team had just enough talent to win the games they were supposed to and steal a couple they should have lost.
This vision went off the rails in the first seven weeks of the season. Still, Chicago's performance in a dominant win on Monday Night Football is precisely how I saw them playing this season: a defense that takes the ball away, gives the offense short fields to run the ball, and sets Fields up for success with play-action and rolling him out.
So have the Bears turned the corner? I want to say 'yes.' It took longer than I thought (I expected Chicago to start the season strong and then struggle in November and December), but I think what the Bears did in Week 7 is exactly who they could and should be for the rest of the season. But, as the saying goes, do it twice to prove it wasn't luck.
The Bears need to show more of the same next week on the road against the Dallas Cowboys. They don't have to beat Dallas by nearly 20 points, but we need to see that same cohesion and competence we saw in Foxboro. Prove that the Bears are a team who could upend a contender's season if they're not taken seriously.
And the Bears should be taken seriously. This team is one dropped touchdown on Thursday Night Football away from being 4-3 and ahead of the Green Bay Packers in the division; a dropped touchdown and a fumble against Minnesota away from potentially being 5-2 and leading the division by half a game! Even at 3-4 with some heartbreaking losses, the Bears are tied in the Wild Card race with teams like the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, and Green Bay Packers, among others.
A playoff spot is still in play for this Chicago Bears team.
The Bears still have a lot of work to do and many improvements to make across the board. But their victory over the Patriots gave us a glimpse of how the rest of 2022 could play out, and Bears fans should be extremely excited about that.