Chicago Bears: Change the narrative in 2021 with a big win

The Chicago Bears have a chance to change the narrative about themselves in 2021.

The Chicago Bears spent all of 2020 as a team that we are clueless about. They literally had three seasons in one if you think about it. After starting 5-1, it looked like they were a shoo-in for the playoffs. They decided to lose six straight games from that point on though and put themselves at 5-7. Now, they haven’t lost since and are 8-7 going into the final week of the season. It is a playoff-clinching scenario against the Green Bay Packers who have owned them forever.

The Bears have a chance to change that narrative in 2021. They control their own destiny so it would be nice to see them shock the world by defeating the Packers in a game like this. Of course, they can still make it if they lose if the Arizona Cardinals lose to the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams don’t have Jared Goff for this week so it might get ugly if the Bears rely on them to win. Those two games start at the same time so we won’t know one result before the other.

Of course, Mitchell Trubisky could be playing in his last game as a Chicago Bear. They didn’t pick up his fifth-year option and franchise tagging him would cost a lot of money. It isn’t impossible for them to bring him back but it is by no means a guarantee. If he beats the Green Bay Packers and gets them into the playoffs, however, it would make plenty of teams (including the Bears) consider him for 2021.

The Green Bay Packers are going to have all of their starters in for this game. They have a chance at the one seed but they are going to try and win and not rely on anybody else to earn it. We will see plenty of Aaron Rodgers, Davante Adams, and Aaron Jones amongst others try and bury the Bears right out of the playoffs. Hopefully, the Bears are able to contain them just enough to win the game. It would be the perfect way to start 2021 on a good note and change the narrative a little bit.

We know that the Bears have a defense capable of shutting down the opposition. The issue for two straight years (you can even argue three years) has been the offense. Well, they have looked good for a few straight weeks now. It has mostly been good against bad teams but it does seem like Matt Nagy is allowing Mitchell Trubisky to do what makes him better. That needs to continue in this game or they are toast.

Going into this game, we know that David Bakhtiari is going to be out. He is out for the season with a knee injury. That is a devastating loss for the Packers as he is one of the best-left tackles in the entire National Football League. He will surely be missed by Green Bay because he is so good but this is something the Bears need to take advantage of. No Bakhtiari for Green Bay should make it a little bit easier for Khalil Mack (and others) to create pressure on Rodgers.

If the Bears win, we don’t know if they will be the sixth seed or the seventh seed but they will be in. It has been a crazy year where we were talking about firing everyone just a few weeks ago and now we’re talking about them potentially not even being the lowest-seeded playoff team. We can evaluate what to do for the season after this week or later depending on what happens. For now, just go out there and win a football game.