If They Win These The Bear Claw Is Definitely Becoming A Thing
5. Green Bay Packers (Home)
There are harder games on the schedule, but this is the one that'll decide whether or not the Bears have arrived. The need to beat Green Bay is getting out of hand – it's going happen at some point, but it realllllllllly probably needs to be this year, just for everyone's sanity. A home win over the Packers would make just missing the playoffs slightly more tolerable. Also, this is the Bears' first divisional game, and it comes in Week 11. Weird!
4. Houston Texans (Away)
Caleb Williams' first road game, against last year's AFC South champ and a team with Super Bowl aspirations? Coming off a game against a suspect defense? This has disaster potentital written all over it. But a fun QB battle, at least.
3. Detroit Lions (Away)
The break from playing on Thanksgiving was nice while it lasted.
2. San Francisco 49ers (Away)
Any road game against last year's NFC champ is tough, especially against a defense like SF's. It's also a West Coast game, seven weeks after their bye, in the middle of a three-week road trip. Maybe they'll cover!
1. Green Bay Packers (Away)
Their great white whale. The last game of the season. Very possibly with playoff implications. This is the game of the year for them, and it comes on the last week of the season. So you have four months to really build up a nice base layer of anxiety.