If you totally forgot that football existed today, I wouldn't blame you. The NFL season is a lonnnnngggg 18 weeks, and bye weeks – especially later in the season – are a godsend. For one Sunday only, football doesn't matter. The Packers didn't lose this week, which is more than 15 teams across the NFL can say. It's the easiest victory Monday you'll get all season.
But just because the Packers didn't play, it doesn't mean things didn't go well for them. In fact, I'd argue that this bye week was especially rewarding, because reader, the Bears are COOKED. It couldn't have come at a better time, either: thanks to almost three straight game's worth of abysmal offensive production, the Bears are realistically one loss away from calling this season a wash.
You read that correctly; the Packers have a chance to do the absolute funniest thing at Soldier Field next week.
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The Bears' season is turning into a disaster right in front of everyone's eyes
#Patriots sacks entering today: 16#Patriots sacks on Caleb Williams today: 9 pic.twitter.com/TVkuf8rLKy
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) November 10, 2024
After a strong month to start his career, Williams' regression has been alarming. His box score stats (16/30, 120 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 63.2 RTG) were comically bad on Sunday, though it's not like he ever had much of a chance behind that offensive line.
He hasn't thrown for 300 yards since early October, and has thrown for under 200 yards twice in the last three weeks alone. The Bears' offense as a whole hasn't scored a touchdown since Week 6's win over the Jaguars in London. If there was any historical precedent for the team to fire their head coach midway through the season, Matt Eberflus would be gone tomorrow. And things are so bad that the Bears may not even care about precedent anymore.
All this is just to say that the Packers have the *ultimate* opportunity in front of them next week. NFC North games haven't, uh, gone super well for them so far, and there was a time not long ago where it looked like the division had the best four teams in the NFL.
Now the Bears look increasingly pedestrian exactly when the Packers needed a get-right win. Usually it's Green Bay ruins the Bears' dreams during the last week of the season, but the way things are going right now, they may not have to wait that long. That, as they say, is how you win your bye week. (They say that right?)