Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson doesn’t seem to feel too secure about his team’s spot in the 2025 NFL playoffs after their loss to the Green Bay Packers.
The Bears had their five-game winning streak snapped in Week 14 when they fell short of their sixth fourth-quarter comeback of the season and lost 28-21 to the Packers on the road at the historic Lambeau Field, ceding first place in the division to Green Bay.
With the loss, the Bears slipped all the way from the No. 1 seed in the NFC to the No. 7 seed behind the Seattle Seahawks (10-3) and San Francisco 49ers (9-4) in the bracket.
That’s far too close to the edge for Johnson to start talking about his Bears as though they are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs with four games left in the regular season.
“We’ll be a playoff team once we earn enough wins to become a playoff team,” Johnson said in December 7’s postgame about his team’s NFL playoff chances. “Right now, we’re a nine-win team and I don’t think nine wins is going to get you in this year, so we’ve got to do what we can to get enough wins to get into the tournament.”
What is Bears’ Playoff Outlook After Loss to Packers?
The Bears might have technically moved into the No. 1 seed last weekend when the Los Angeles Rams suffered an upset defeat at the hands of the Carolina Panthers, but they entered the week with the lowest playoff odds (70%) of the NFC’s top seven teams.
So, where does that leave them after giving up first place in the divison to the Packers?
The Bears are still largely in control of their own playoff destiny, even though they now would need some help to reclaim the top seed in the NFC. Three of the final four games on their schedule are against NFC playoff contenders, including rematchs with both the Packers (Week 16) and Detroit Lions (Week 18) and a road game at the Niners (9-4).
If Chicago manages to clear that slate with a 4-0 finish, it could not only reclaim the division but also put itslef back in the conversatsion for the first-round playoff bye.
Losses to any of the four remaining teams — including to the Cleveland Browns next week (3-10) — has the chance to start deflating the Bears’ playoff chances, though.
According to Playoff Status, they have just an 18% chance to miss the 2025 playoffs after Week 14’s loss to the Packers, but they also have a chance to sneak in without winning another game — though it would require quite a bit of luck elsewhere.
Bears Have ‘Damn Good’ Browns Defense Next Up
Despite the high stakes and emotions involved in the Bears’ matchups with the Packers, Johnson remained even keel when talking in the postgame about how they will go about recovering from a tough divisional loss and getting back on track heading into Week 15.
“Our guys do a good job of taking our lumps from this,” Johnson said. “We’ll learn from it, we’ll make our corrections and we’ll move on. We’ll go right back to work.”
Part of that perspective is the philosophy that Johnson and his staff have tried to instill in the 2025 Bears, taking each game as it comes and flushing last week from their minds as they face each new challenge. Some of it, though, is that Johnson has already peeked ahead to the “damn good defense” Cleveland is bringing to town in Week 15.
The Browns are giving up the fewest passing yards (165.2) and second-fewest total yards (272.8) per game through their first 13 games and have quarterback terrorizer Myles Garrett — who has 20 sacks in 2025 — coming off the edge of their defensive line.
“We’ve got another good team coming in in Cleveland,” Johnson said. “I don’t care what their record says. They’ve got a damn good defense. That’s kind of the strech that ‘were in here this back half of the seoasn. It’s good defense after good defense after good defense, so we’re going to have step up to the plate and respond the right way.”
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