Three things I think I know about the Bears, who are in a sweet, 11-day break between games during which they can nurse various bruises, catch up on errands, ponder existential issues, call their mothers and throw things at the TV while watching their division rivals:
1. They are good and lucky: The Bears are 5-2 after holding on to beat the Patriots 30-24. Angels are singing. Heaven is ringing. Cats are purring. Contented fans still are licking au jus from their fake mustaches.
But does everybody realize how wildly different the tone and feeling toward this team could have been?
Imagine an alternate world in which (a) the completely unnecessary, bungled second-quarter handoff to offensive lineman Joe Thuney, (b) the absurd defensive breakdown on the Patriots’ 48-yard touchdown on the last play of the first half and (c) the very bad, late-fourth-quarter sack taken by quarterback Caleb Williams had led to (d) a missed Cairo Santos kick on a career-long 58-yard attempt and (e) the Patriots driving down the field and winning.
The Bears would be in last place in the division. There wouldn’t be enough hours in the day to criticize and complain.
This team really is good, but it almost seems to need danger in its life. The illegal forward handoff to Thuney — if Williams didn’t know the rule, his play-calling head coach must not have, either — came as the Bears were knifing toward the goal line like it was nothing. Instead, it snuffed out their momentum and they settled for a short field goal. This is not such a big deal; it’s fun for the whole team when self-indulgent calls are mixed in once in a while.
But these Bears scored 59 points in the opener and still had a win in doubt well into the second half, then came back in Week 2 and allowed only nine points but lost anyway. It’s still almost never easy for them. After all the slow starts necessitating comebacks last season, the 2026 Bears — better than they were last year on the whole, I think — won’t stop playing chicken.
2. They’ll miss tight end Cole Kmet: The best little thing about the Bears is how well and willfully their tight ends and wide receivers block, which, of course, isn’t a little thing at all. In fact, it’s one of the litmus tests of a team. No one took more pride in this area than Kmet, who’s out for the season after injuring his right knee. He helped create big holes, and his absence will leave one.
3. They’re still a playoff team: I know it’s true because I fumbled around online looking at various “simulators,” “probability tables” and the like and found every geek with tape on the bridge of his glasses is giving the Bears at least a 75% chance to get into the postseason dance. Then again, some of them also give the Vikings a healthy shot to win the Super Bowl, and we know that’s not happening.
Caleb-o-meter: 9 out of 10
He has improved by leaps and bounds from last season and put that on display the last two weeks, and just wait until he fully redeploys his legs. Look, you try running 21 mph.
Look who’s coming: the Seahawks
Don’t get too encouraged by the champs’ 3-3 record. They committed four turnovers against the 49ers and still lost by only three. They fell in overtime in Denver. They beat the Patriots with Drew Lock at quarterback. They have the top-ranked defense in the NFL. They’ll be more than a handful.
Fascinatingly, all the talk in Seattle at the moment is about whether or not coach Mike Macdonald should bench Super Bowl-winning QB Sam Darnold in favor of Lock, who played very well in the first two games of the season while Darnold was injured. In four games since getting back out there, Darnold has thrown seven interceptions and taken 13 sacks. OK, so you can be a little encouraged.
Take the North
Lions fan Cody DeLorenzo has averaged about three hours of sleep over the last week-plus, which doesn’t make things any easier when you’re amid a 313-mile run from Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Ford Field in Detroit.
DeLorenzo, an ultramarathoner who says he runs 60 to 100 miles a week — “It’s just where I find peace,” he said — has been on a nine-day run to raise awareness for breast cancer while his wife, Shannon, is an active patient at the City of Hope treatment center in Zion. Both are 32.
Carrying a Lions game ball en route, DeLorenzo was scheduled to arrive at Ford Field in time for Sunday’s game against the Packers. Donations were being made at gameballrun.com as his run raised funds for the Game On Cancer initiative at Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital.
“I’m really sore and really tired, slowing down. My legs are really beat up,” he told me Friday morning before pounding the pavement again, hoping to cover 70 more miles by the end of Saturday.
“I might be covering all the miles, but my wife is working her butt off. … She’s the strongest person I know.”