If every contender has stumbled and every team has flaws, then the only thing that matters is who keeps finding ways to win — and that’s the 8-3 Chicago Bears.
The world still doesn’t know what to make of the Chicago Bears this season.
They’re 8–3, sitting atop the NFC North, winners of eight of their last nine. This is the same franchise that went six straight years without a four-game winning streak — and now they’ve already stacked two of them in 2025, the first year under head coach Ben Johnson.
When the Bears were 6–3, the doubters were lined up to call their shot. The talking heads pointed to strength of schedule, which was rich considering Chicago was projected to have one of the hardest slates in the league before the season started.
But all the Bears have done is respond. A game-winning field goal against the Vikings. Two clutch fourth-quarter defensive stops to beat the Steelers on Sunday. They’ve found ways to win — even when they shouldn’t have had the bodies to do it.
And here they are. 8–3. With a quarterback who’s Top 10 in passing yards, has elite sack avoidance, and has thrown 16 touchdowns to only four interceptions.
Caleb Williams has an interception rate of 1.1 percent — the same as his rookie year. That’s the lowest interception rate in Bears history among quarterbacks with at least six starts.
And they’re winning while missing, at one point Sunday, their top four cornerbacks (Jaylon Johnson, Kyler Gordon, Nahshon Wright, Tyrique Stevenson) and their top five linebackers (T.J. Edwards, Tremaine Edmunds, Noah Sewell, Ruben Hyppolite II, Amen Ogbongbemiga).
And still, somehow, the Bears can’t escape the schedule narrative. People keep trying to discredit them based on who they’ve beaten.
So — does the Bears’ schedule matter? The simple answer: No. It does not.
I won’t even trot out the cliché, “you play who’s on your schedule.” I’ll just point out the obvious: there isn’t a flawless team in the NFL. If we’re going to judge contenders exclusively by who they’ve beaten or lost to, then nobody qualifies as a contender at all.
Everyone has stumbled. There are no juggernauts this year.
How can the Bears’ schedule be held against them when the supposed NFC heavyweights have struggled just as often — and sometimes against worse teams?
- The Eagles lost to the Giants and Cowboys. The Bears beat New York, and beat Dallas handily.
- The Packers lost to the Browns and Panthers — two likely non-playoff teams — and tied the Cowboys, who the Bears blew out.
- The Lions lost to the Eagles (see above) and are 0–1 against the Vikings. The Bears just beat J.J. McCarthy and Minnesota.
- The 49ers lost to the Jaguars and Texans, and struggled with the Cardinals and Saints — bottom-tier NFC teams.
- The Rams lost to the Eagles, the Seahawks lost to the Rams, and the Bucs got destroyed by the Rams in primetime.
Are all those teams frauds too? And if so — who exactly is taking their playoff spots?
Surely not the Panthers, who lost to the Saints and got blasted 40–9 by Buffalo.
Welcome to the NFL! Where anybody can lose to anybody and you can transitive-property your way into any ridiculous conclusion you want.
The point of 17 regular-season games isn’t perfection — it’s proving you can consistently outplay your opponent more often than not. The Bears have done that. That’s why they’re sitting in the top tier of the NFC playoff picture.
Do they still need statement wins against top teams? Yes. Do they have the talent to beat anyone in the field? Absolutely — especially when every so-called contender has already lost to someone worse than Chicago.
So no, I’m not entertaining the schedule slander. Not after watching the same narrative lazily slapped on Washington last season — when nine of their 12 wins came against Deshaun Watson, Andy Dalton, Daniel Jones, Will Levis, Spencer Rattler, Kenny Pickett, Michael Penix Jr., and Trey Lance. Everyone screamed “fraud”… right up until Washington rode that momentum into the postseason and beat both the Bucs and Lions.
Were they frauds then?
Sometimes you just beat who you beat — and the real teams do it consistently.
The Bears could go 3–3 down the stretch and finish 11–6. That still might not guarantee a playoff berth in a crowded NFC, but if they get in, it will be because they earned it — by finishing games, showing up in the fourth quarter, and taking down other contenders when it mattered.
The narrative needs to die. And the Bears look ready to be the ones to bury it.