It's already a success, but it could be so much more

When the Bears and Packers get after it for the 213th time tonight in the third playoff game between the two in the 105 years of the NFL more will be on the line than in any other game since the 2010 NFC Championship.

That's why we're supposed to be drooling messes today. That's why we're supposed to determine the success or failure of this entire season by the outcome of this game. That's why if the Packers win, again, all is supposedly lost.

All of that is bullshit.

But none of that will make an ass-kicking of the Packers feel any less great.

The NFL doesn't operate on the timelines of other sports. When we watched the most successful run of our favorite baseball team we saw them start to stir to life in 2014, then roar past all expectations in 2015 and then kick everybody's asses in 2016. The Cubs arrived early, and right on time all at once.

And when you look at these 2025 (the NFL season crossing over into the next calendar year just confuses me) Bears you are just and right to draw immediate comparisons to those 2015 Cubs.

Theo Epstein put the right manager in place at the right time and his talented young players ran with it and never looked back.

The Bears brought in Ben Johnson to take over a talented but rudderless roster and after a slow start it all clicked together and this team figured out how the NFL is really built. Most games come down to one possession, or at the very least the second half of the fourth quarter, and the teams who find a way through get rewarded. Hang in as long as you can and make a few plays and leave the other team wondering "How the fuck did we lose that?"

Heading into this season all of the "experts" agreed that this would be a successful season if at the end of it Johnson had proven that the promise of him being a next great NFL head coach was real, and if he and his prodigal quarterback Caleb Williams could get their shit together...together.

The answer to both of those questions was long ago determined to be "fuck yes."

Johnson is every bit as good as advertised. A hard ass with a heart of gold, who possesses the rare ability to demand perfection from his players, ride them mercilessly when they fall short, and not lose them because they know he's right.

The player Johnson has been the hardest on is Williams. And for good reason. Caleb is the rare number one overall pick whose talents are not exaggerated. In his rookie season he was coached poorly and sometimes not at all, and he drifted. The one thing he's always done as a Bear is show up in the fourth quarter, but most of his rookie season was pretty ugly, even if most of that wasn't any fault of his own. He said after the season he wanted the Bears to hire somebody who would "coach him hard."

He got it. And for most of training camp and the early season he had to wonder what the fuck he'd asked for that for. But this is a partnership of coach and quarterback with the potential to be incredible.

And while it hasn't always met that standard, it's well on the way. Caleb will still drive Ben nuts from time to time because he's still testing his limits. After his lighting bolt strike to DJ Moore (no, not that one) in the Cleveland game he said, "I can make any throw."

He really believes that. He's not right. But he's pretty goddamned close.

As evidenced by the other lighting bolt strike to DJ that walked off the Packers on a Saturday night the very next week. Given the wind and the situation, how many other QBs would even be asked to make that throw, much less pull it off?

These Bears are young, tough and just naive enough to think they can win it all.

Does that remind you of the 2015 Cubs? It should.

They have issues, of course. For all of their offensive production they can go long stretches without any. Their defense has never been fully healthy and has to resort to trying to steal the ball since they can often not just stop the other team.

It's easy to see how all of this could end in a puff of disappointment tonight, or next week.

And that's how we get back to the part about how the NFL doesn't operate on the timeframes of other sports. Sometimes, teams do build year over year into something great. Usually it happens quickly. One year of great promise, then a title and then back to normal. But often it happens not at all. A young team impresses and is expected to take the next big step the next season and it just doesn't happen.

The greatest Bears team of all-time showed up in a hurry. The 1984 Bears went into Washington and shocked everyone by physically beating the hell out of the Redskins and winning, then going on to San Francisco to get put back in their place. But the next year was a reckoning so complete that not only did the Bears erase all doubts they are still the standard by which dominance is measured.

And then...the core of that team won just one more playoff game, in the fog at Soldier(s) Field against their old defensive coordinator.

The Bears are a franchise that rests on its glorious past. And honestly, there is a lot there. They have had some of the sport's greatest players. The best all-around football player that anyone will ever see played 13 seasons for this bunch. I'm on the young side of the generation who got to see Walter Payton play. I just thought that's what great running backs looked like. I had no idea there'd never be another one like him. Not just for the Bears. For anyone. There was nothing on the football field that Walter couldn't do better than anybody else. The greatest linebacker in the history of the sport played for the Bears. And he was preceded and followed by other greats at the position. The Bears have won 10 NFL titles, they have more Hall of Famers than any other franchise. They have always had the best uniforms (well, except for those two years in the 70s when they went to block numbers for no reason), and on and on.

But for most of us all of that is just a history lesson. It's neat, but we want to see some shit. How about some championship footage that's in HD?

The biggest problem the Bears have had since the glory days of Sid Luckman was that they never got quarterback right. Jim McMahon was a very good player, but he was more often than not hurt. Jay Cutler was the most talented thrower we'd ever seen, but something was always in the way. When he had weapons he had no line, when he had a line, he had no weapons, when he for a brief time had both he had Marc Trestman and no defense, and Jay couldn't ever be bothered to...well, we never quite knew, but whatever they needed he could not provide.

You cannot win in the NFL without getting quarterback right. On occasion a team will overcome a middling passer to win (Jeff Hostetler, Trent Dilfer, etc.) but nothing sustained can occur without a dude taking the snaps.

Every child born in the 312, 708 or 815 area codes is born with the knowledge that the Bears have never had a quarterback pass for 4,000 yards. And it didn't happen, yet again, this year. But it didn't happen for the best possible reason. It wasn't an indication that the Bears couldn't throw the ball (as it had been in every other season, ever). It was an indication that the Bears could throw the ball and run the ball.

The no 4,000 yard passer thing was short hand for the Bears never having a good offense. But that doesn't apply here. They don't just finally play modern offensive football, they run stuff that is the envy of everybody else. And, they're still just figuring it out. It gets better from here.

In some ways, we're already spoiled. I watch other guys play quarterback and see them try to avoid a sack and crumple to the ground and I'm shocked. I'm shocked because we routinely see Caleb escape the impossible. For all of the glory that he holds in his right arm, his uncanny ability to turn a sure sack into a very large man angrily pawing at the ground in frustration is just as impressive. Granted, more often than not what happens after the Houdini escape is not particularly productive, but that's coming.

Maybe tonight.

We had measured expectations coming into this season. Eight or nine wins, staying in the playoff hunt until the final Sunday, show the promise to get us excited about 2026, all that stuff.

But these Bears had no desire to operate on our timetable.

Division championships in the NFL are mostly useless. The Bears won theirs by going 2-4 in the NFC North. But they are symbol of something. Before you conquer the league, you have to master the little geographically assigned pod of teams around you. Take the North and never give it back and all that stuff.

A loss tonight will hurt because the season's been too fun to end so abruptly, and because we hate the fucking Packers. But it won't undo the progress that this franchise so desperately needed.

The Bears have a coach and they have a quarterback, and nothing can be won without either. This might be the NFC's last best chance to avoid being on the business end of the Bears for a while. If you're in Seattke or LA or Philly, you would be advised to win it this year.

Then again, it's the NFL. Nothing can truly be promised from year to year.

Can the Bears power their way through Green Bay and probably Philly relying on the most un-Bears like thing ever (their offense), and either head to Seattke or host the Rams for a chance to get to the Super Bowl?

It seems unlikely.

But all of this has seemed unlikely.

And they just keep showing up.

Playoff football games almost always come down to the very end. And nobody is better practiced at it than our Chicago Bears.

Let's take a very un-Chicago sports fan position here. Let's be optimists. These Bears have earned at least that much.

Its feels impossible that this Bears team can make a run to the Super Bowl. But they haven't let the concept of possible slow them down yet.

And, let's embrace the idea that this is just the beginning. That a year from now they'll be back as the favorites to win the whole thing. That's when the pressure really starts.

This year has been a bonus. Let's enjoy the ride as long as it lasts.

Bears 61, Packers 7