6. Chicago Bears (6) With Saturday night’s thrilling OT victory over rival Green Bay, Chicago now has 11 wins — with six of them coming after the Bears trailed in the final two minutes of regulation. They needed a face-mask penalty on third-and-20 and a recovered onside kick, among other things, in order to pull out that miracle against the Packers, which demonstrates both their extraordinary resilience and their propensity to make things harder than they need to be. The reward for those late-game heroics is that the Bears have clinched a playoff spot, they are the overwhelming favorites to win the NFC North, and the No. 1 seed remains possible. Simply beating the 49ers and Lions might not get it done, however, and as Ben Johnson said in the locker room after Saturday’s win: “We need to get better.” If the Bears do, Chicago might not know what to do with itself.
