Bears: Bad News, Good News, Bad News

The bad news is that the Bears lost at home to an inferior team that's been particularly bad on the road.  And the offense didn't look good at all.  Honestly the offensive line is going to have to step up and give Cutler some time.  If they can't run and can't pass, they can't win long term.  Hopefully Garza and Briggs are back soon because they team doesn't have enough depth to play hurt.  And 0-12 on 3rd down conversions should clue them in whatever they're doing isn't working.

The good news is that after 6 weeks, the number of NFC team with a better record than the Bears is 0.  There are 4 other teams at 4-2.  And the Bears are one of only 8 teams fighting for 5 playoff spots.  This assumes that only the NFC West champion will make the playoffs (likely but not a guarantee),  the Cowboys at 1-4 are done (hard to see them going 8-3 and 9-7 probably isn't a playoff team anyway), and the Bucs 3-2 is simply an artifact of an easy first two games.  And the 8 includes Washington and Minnesota, neither of whom are necessarily good.

Unfortunately there's a bad, bad side.  The Bears next three weeks are Washington at home, bye, and at Buffalo.  They should be 6-2 after that but the Redskins have shown some flashes; we can re-assess in another two hours.  However the second half of the season is a nightmare.  Except for one game at Detroit, they play potential playoff team every week.  By the time they play the Vikings in week 15, Minnesota's goose may have been cooked but that still looks to be team you won't walk over.  The good news is the Jets, Patriots, and Eagles all come to Soldier Field which means they're likely to win one of those. Still 3-5 or even 2-6 isn't out of the question.

You play the games one at a time, but basically the Bears have to beat Washington and Buffalo then home they can manage to go 4-4 the rest of the way and finish at 10-6, which almost certainly gets them in the playoffs.  Or it's going to be a disappointing season that started 4-1 and didn't finish with a playoff berth, which would sadly mean the end for Lovie Smith.