Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson isn’t ready to say that his team deserves to be in the playoffs just yet.

The Bears lost 28-21 to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, dropping to second place in the NFC North and the No. 7 seed in the NFC playoff race. The Packers moved up to the No. 2 seed in the conference with the win.

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While it’s easy to look at things from a pessimistic angle after Sunday’s loss, the Bears are still in a good position to make the playoffs.

Johnson stated that he didn’t believe nine wins were enough to make the playoffs. That may sound like he’s being negative, but quite the opposite. He knows his team will need to lock in down the stretch.

“We will be a playoff team once we earn enough wins to become a playoff team,” Johnson said. “Right now, we are a 9-win team, and I don’t think 9 wins is going to get you in this year, so we have to do what we can to get enough wins to find a way to get into the tournament.”

The Bears have one more game against an AFC opponent, facing the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. Every game from there on is versus an NFC team.

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Chicago has another matchup with the Green Bay Packers in two weeks, followed by the San Francisco 49ers and then it ends the regular season with the Detroit Lions.

The Bears will have a winning record this season regardless of what happens. The franchise secured its first winning season since 2018 with a 24-15 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.

However, that doesn’t guarantee a playoff spot for Chicago, given how tight the NFC playoff race is.

The seeding so far is led by the Los Angeles Rams (10-3), Packers (9-3-1), Eagles (8-5), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-6), Seattle Seahawks (10-3), 49ers (9-4) and Bears (9-4) in that order.

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The Bears may need to win out to have a chance of getting back into the top four. Luckily, Chicago gets another shot at Green Bay before the regular season ends. The Bears will still need their rival to slip up along the way.

For now, the Bears’ focus will be on taking down the Browns on Sunday before thinking about round 2 against the Packers.

Sunday’s game will kick off Soldier Field at noon CT on Fox.