The Bears' Second Quarter: Now it gets hard

Barring a scare from an unlikely Panthers squad, the Bears arrived at the midway point with the 7-1 record that it was supposed to have. The pic used for the graphic (taken from this Tribune gallery) is a pretty indicative reason why, as the team's defense has consistently manufactured turnovers and points. This past Sunday's "contest" with the Titans became a laugh-out-loud affair rather quickly.

So is this team really the Super Bowl contender that I had pegged them to be at the beginning of this season? Well, not so fast.

After a pretty weak list of relatively sub-.500 competition in the first eight games, the final eight will prove just how seriously Chicago deserves to be taken. The 7-1 Texans I picked to win that Super Bowl will come to town this weekend, and then the Bears head out west to play 6-2 San Francisco. Then Minnesota and Seattle both come to town with 5-4 records at the moment. That's just the next quarter. The final four games involve all three division rivals and a trip to Arizona with what is the only club below .500 right now.

With Atlanta still undefeated after its first eight games and playing in the far less intimidating NFC South, home field advantage throughout seems like a stretch, but a first round bye could still be a possibility. Still, for what it's worth, with my best man and my mother-in-law both being Packer fans, I could not help but openly speculate that the Bears could very well lose both games to Green Bay this season and still win the division—or better still if one loss in particular cost them the North.
 

I would only hope that Chicago can stay healthy. Assuming there are no significant injuries in these next four games, I'm guessing the Bears will be 10-2 at the point of my next quarterly post, and on pace to finish the season 13-3 (losses to San Francisco and Green Bay, I would assume). I'll fully admit that's incredibly optimistic. Neither the Cardinals or the Seahawks deserve to be overlooked, and crazy shit always seems to happen in Detroit. We could very well be talking about a 10-6 club at year's end. 

I still feel confident that there will be at least one postseason game for the Bears this year, but these next two upcoming games specifically are going to go a long way in determining about how true I will hold to my preseason picks when it comes to playoffs expectations.