Bears can't win sizzling NFC North unless they do their own dirty work and beat their rivals themselves

The Bears’ NFL brethren didn’t do them any favors Sunday.

Certainly not the amateur-hour Dolphins, who held down Jared Goff, Jahmyr Gibbs and the Lions’ No. 1-ranked offense admirably enough but never really threatened in a 19-9 loss in Miami Gardens, Florida.

And — in surprisingly feckless fashion — not the defending AFC champion Patriots, either. Hosting the Packers, the Pats were total no-shows in an embarrassing 45-27 defeat, with Fox analyst Tom Brady in the house to binge-watch long Jordan Love completions and wince-worthy Drake Maye interceptions in his return to Foxborough, Massachusetts.

What ever happened to doing the Bears a solid? Well, it so happens that’s not the rest of the league’s job.

The day’s events leading into the Bears’ kickoff against the Buccaneers at Soldier Field were good reminders of a couple of important things.

One, the NFC North is ridiculously good.

It is, of course, unique among the league’s divisions in that all its teams have winning records; each had six wins, in fact, heading into Bears-Bucs and the Vikings’ Monday-nighter at home against the AFC-favorite Bills. The table is set for the best, most compelling division race in the NFL the rest of the regular season.

Underscoring just how much better the Bears’ division is than the competition: The Packers’ big win raised the North’s aggregate record against outside foes this season to a dizzyingly good 19-3. The Bears were already 6-0 in that department before taking on the Bucs — and a truly hard-to-believe 15-2 in a season and a half under Ben Johnson — but that was merely allowing them to keep pace with their rivals after a pair of early, ugly division losses to the Vikings and the Packers. The Bears might be the betting favorites in the North these days, but any advantage is paper-thin.

The second, bigger thing: It might be the last major step separating them from the top of the NFL food chain, but the 2026 Bears are simply going to have to learn to do their own dirty work. Unlike last season, when crushing it outside the division enabled the Bears to finish in first place despite going 2-4 against the Lions, Vikings and Packers, there will be no division-title repeat unless the Bears stand up to the rivals who have bullied them without mercy since 2019, the last year the Bears managed a winning record against the North.

The Bears have lost seven of their last eight games against the Lions and nine of their last 11 against the Vikings. Nobody needs to be reminded of how lopsided things long have been against the Packers. Starting in 2020, the Bears have been in an overall 9-29 mega-slide in the North.

A Thanksgiving game in Detroit will be a major challenge. The three game gauntlet to end the regular season — Packers, Lions and Vikings, in that order — will tell all. The Bears won’t be able to juke their way through it or fake their way around it.

And what happens to the Bears' chances if all four North teams make the playoffs? It would be a first for any division, but it could happen.

No matter how strong the Bears end up being outside the North, the bigger reveal will be what lies for them within it.