No reason the Bears shouldn't win the NFCN this year

Look, I understand the offense wasn't "great" again, but for the love of god, the team put up 51 points against a terrible opponent. That's what you want, right? Don't simply defeat bad teams, but destroy them. We deserve caveats for the Detroit game, as Cutler was really banged up there, and Carolina is not as bad as their record would indicate. With that said, the vikings are continuing to fall back into fail mode. Ponder averaged 2.9 yards a pass, and the team is losers of 3 of 4. People are still worried about Green Bay, and seeing who their QB is, that's not illogical. HOWEVER, they are injured all over the place: Jordy Nelson, Clay Matthews, Bryan Bulaga along with those from previous weeks. Houston, on paper, is going to be a tough matchup, but let's get over our sudden switch from "Screw ESPN, we're a good team" to "Jay Cutler is our downfall" pity party when we outscore the other team by crazy amounts, and realize we're the favorites over Houston, and there's no reason we can't beat them or San Fran. If we do beat one or both of them, and suffer no more serious injuries along the way, we have this division. Don't be fooled by the Seahawks, we stopped a better RB today, and I'd take Hasselback over Russell Wilson any day of the week. Detroit is the only scary team because they have players with bad attitudes that like to inflict injury.

I agree Henry, but they do need to bring their "A" game every game. I'm sure looking forward to Alshon Jeffery coming back. I think that will be a huge help to Cutler. And maybe I'm in total denial, but I keep hoping the oline can get better this year. That this isn't "as good as it gets" this year.

It's a typical Bears team. We'll ride the defense.......ride that bubble until it bursts.

hopefully it bursts in the Superbowl when we're up 30+ points again, and the backups are just killing the clock.

But going back to it, the Vikes are treading water, and the Lions MAY just get a little better, but they are not anywhere in the discussion of NFCN champs with the Bears and Pack involved. The Pack aren't, because their defense, unlike our offense, is ineffective and not a compliment to their offense. Those injuries are killing them, but we all remember 2010, don't we?

The last time I looked, we are in first place by two full games over the Packers in our division. True, we have a tough road to the finish line of this season to go, but we aren't mince meat or chopped liver. We have the best damn defense in the National Football League, and our offense is capable of scoring points in bunches when it actually shows up. Right now, we're down our second best receiver in Alshon Jeffery, but I suspect that when he gets back, the passing game will improve dramatically.

Look, the next two weeks are against the Texans and 49ers, both of whom are in first place in their respective divisions. San Francisco has been more than a little fickle this year offensively, relying mostly on the running game to put up huge numbers in order for anything to get done with Alex Smith as their quarterback. Smith merely manages the games for San Francisco despite what Jim Harbaugh wants you to believe. He alone won't beat you. I think the Bears win in a low scoring affair. Bears 17, 49ers 13.

The Texans struggled today to put away a woeful Bills squad. The Bills led in the second half 9-7 before Schaub finally threw a touchdown pass in the third quarter. The final score of that game was 21-9 Texans, and that makes me think that our defense can have its way with their offense. Keep in mind that Schaub is not having his best year statistically considering that he's not had a single 300 yard passing game yet. Our biggest tasks will be to stop Arian Foster (Go Vols! VFL) and Andre Johnson. Offensively, we will struggle against J.J. Watt unless we have max protection in at all times. The offense will have to play it conservatively and run a lot to take the pressure off of Cutler. I think the Bears win this game 27-17, with Peanut blanketing Andre Johnson and our defensive front seven holding Foster to a minimum of 60-70 yards on the ground.

I do get tired of the naysayers who always claim that the Bears just don't have "it." We do have "it." We have "it" in bunches. We have the best damn defense in the league, and an offense that is more than capable of getting the job done if the blocking is right. Do I think the Bears will go undefeated the rest of the way? Hell no. I think we'll lose 2-4 more games and finish 11-5 to 13-3. That being said, I think we'll win the division championship and do no worse than the Divisional Playoff game.

You never know what's going to happen (as we saw last year with Cutler's injury), but the Bears are sitting pretty with a 1.5 game lead over the Packers. That being said, barring any crazy outcomes, the Packers are going to win at least 10 games this year. Their remaining schedule is @Det, @NY, Minn, Det, @Bears, Tenn, @Minn. The only games I see them with legitimate shots of losing are @Det, @NY, and @Bears. Even if they lose all three, that's a 10-6 record. However, the Bears would only have to go 3-5 to tie them in that scenario.

As we know, the Bears schedule gets tough from here on out. Hou, @SF, Minn, Sea, @Min, GB, @Arz, @Det. Going by the standard I applied to the Packers, the only potential losses are Hou, @SF, GB, and @Det. If the Bears only lose those 4, they finish 11-5.

Realistically, the Bears have a good shot at winning in each of those games. The Texans are a very good team, but nobody is going to confuse them for the 85 Bears. Considering the infuriating lay-down they did against the Packers, I want the Bears to punish them even more. SF is a good team, but if the Bears get a couple big ST plays or turnovers, Smith is not going to be able to lead the team back. We all know how the Bears have done against the Packers of late. This is all on Tice. If he can watch game tape to see what other teams are doing to shred the Packers' D, the Bears can succeed there. The Packers are beatable.

I generally care nothing for the media's rankings or what they think of us, but It is a little grating to hear them talk about how we haven't played anyone yet. I would understand that argument if we were the Colts, who went 2-14 last year. However, the Bears hosted the NFC title game in 2010, and were 7-3 in 2011, playing well and rolling with Cutler looking like a franchise QB when he got injured. Since then, they added one of the top 3 receivers in football, drafted a rookie standout WR, and have Briggs and Tillman playing the best ball of their lives. Had Cutler not gotten injured, we would have made the playoffs the last two years. We were a good team which got better. Nobody should be surprised we are 7-1. I think it's okay for people to say "the Bears look like the best team in football" without having the disclaimer that they haven't played anyone yet.

it all comes down to the CHI - GB game. Need to win this and we should have won our Division

I think we need that win, but i don't see us being in a neck and neck, due to their massive injuries

they still have Rodgers. He is always good enough to win a game.

The bottom line is this --

The Bears, 49ers and Texans are all good teams. The Bears should be worried about playing the Texans and the 49ers given that they have not played any really successful teams other than GB and we lost to them. Additionally, we have struggled against some teams that we should have beaten easily - but we still beat them.

The flip side of the coin is that even with all of that on the table, the Texans and the 49ers should also be worried about the Bears. Our D is probably the best in the league. They also know that we have a potentially explosive offense. They need to worry just as much as we need to worry.

Can the Bears be shut down offensively? Sure - as a matter of fact we usually help in that respect just as much as the other team is responsible for shutting us down. But we could lose both of these, win both of these or split. It's not like we can't win these games. We are a good team.

However, I think offensively we are easier to stop than to stop the Texans or the 49ers. Just because they can get to our QB easier, our QB gets rattled and we don't have great offensive game plans. On the other hand, offensively neither one of those teams will be able to do what they want against our defense.

They are going to be very good games and how we play will determine for me if we have a chance to advance to the SB or just get stuck in the playoffs and then go away. We've all said it before, we will know much more after these two games and we have less than a week for the first volley.