The Chicago Bears were fifth in the NFC coming into Week 8, they fell behind the Detroit Lions on Sunday with their win, and now the Bears are back in the top Wild Card spot after Chicago’s Monday night win.
A great development for the Bears is the first loss of the season by the Minnesota Vikings. With Minnesota at 6-1 and the Bears at 6-2, Chicago likely controls their own destiny in the division. A Bears win over the Vikings would give both team two losses and two NFC North losses as well as two NFC losses.
It would move the tiebreaker to the Strength of Victory tiebreaker until the Common Games opponents gets to four games, and Chicago would move ahead of Minnesota on the SOV.
In addition to those two NFC North teams winning, the Green Bay Packers won on Thursday night to stick in the seventh and final Wild Card slot. All four NFC North teams are in a playoff spot.
With this win over the Seahawks, the Bears have a stranglehold on a playoff spot. The Seahawks drop to 4-4, two games plus a tiebreaker behind Chicago.
NFC playoff standings with Bears win
1. San Francisco 49ers (6-1, strength of victory .456)
2. Minnesota Vikings (6-1, strength of victory .400)
3. New York Giants (4-2-1)
4. Carolina Panthers (3-4)
5. Chicago Bears (6-2)
6. Detroit Lions (5-2)
7. Green Bay Packers (5-3)
8. Seattle Seahawks (4-4, 1-1 NFCW)
9. Los Angeles Rams (4-4, 0-2 NFCW)
10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-5, win over ATL, 1-0 vs DAL+ARZ, 3-2 NFC)
11. Atlanta Falcons (3-5, loss to TB, 3-3 NFC record)
12. Arizona Cardinals (3-5, 1-0 vs DAL+ARZ, 2-4 NFC)
13. Dallas Cowboys (3-5, 0-2 vs TB+ARZ, loss to ARZ)
14. Washington Commanders (2-4-1)
15. New Orleans Saints (2-5, 1-3 NFC)
16. Philadelphia Eagles (2-6)
Explaining the 3-5 cluster in the NFC
First, you get to one team per division so the Falcons and Buccaneers are against each other. Tampa has a win over Atlanta, so they have the tiebreaker.
Tampa vs Arizona vs Dallas is a head-to-head tiebreaker where Atlanta and Arizona move on since they both have wins over Dallas. The Bucs are 3-2 in the NFC vs the Cardinals at 2-4, so Tampa is the 10 seed.
Then the Falcons go into a three-way tiebreaker with the Cardinals and Cowboys. It goes straight to NFC record where the Falcons are 3-3 and the Cardinals and Cowboys are 2-4. Atlanta is the 11 seed.
The Arizona Cardinals beat the Cowboys so they win the head-to-head tiebreaker in the two-way decision. Arizona is 12th and the Cowboys are 13th.
