Bears' Rooting Guide for NFL Playoff Bracket Implications of Week 11

For better or worse, Week 11 could be a tipping point for the Chicago Bears 2024 season.

At 4-5, the Bears' playoff hopes are hanging by a thread. After winning four of their first six games they find themselves on a three-game losing streak and a brutal upcoming schedule.

According to The Athletic's playoff projections, the Bears should be an underdog in every game moving forward and only have a two percent chance to make the playoffs.

Still, they are ninth in the NFC right now. If they can get a win over the sixth-place Packers at home this week, there could be renewed hope that they can push for the playoffs.

Unfortunately, the reality is that it will take more than springing a few upsets to make the playoffs. They're also going to need some help.

With that in mind, here are three matchups that need to go their way to bolster those dwindling playoff odds.

Chicago faithful should have their eye on NFC West scores this weekend. The 49ers (5-4), Seahawks (4-5) and Rams (4-5) are all packed together.

Unfortunately for the Bears, at least one of those teams will pick up a win this weekend. The Seahawks are set to head to San Francisco in hopes of reversing their fortunes in a divisional rivalry.

Seattle has lost five straight to the Niners since 2022, but a win would increase their own playoff odds and even things up for second place in the division at 5-5.

From the Bears perspective, it would be nice if both teams could lose. Since that's not an option it would be better for the four-win Seahawks to win because it could make them even with all three teams on the fringe of the NFC wildcard race.

If you're looking for a reason that Seattle can win on the road despite San Franciso winning their Week 6 meeting 36-24 it's the fact that the Seahawks are much healthier this time around. Abraham Lucas, Tariq Woolen and Byron Murphy II will be in action after missing the first meeting.

The Seahawks are coming off a desperately needed bye week. They are 1-5 in their last six games. Hopefully the time off gave them an opportunity to figure out a few things and pull off the upset.

This one's a no-brainer. The Patriots have no direct impact on the NFC wildcard race and the Rams are another NFC West team lurking with the Bears.

At 4-5, the Rams are in a similar boat as Chicago. Every game matters for them at this point. They also have an easier schedule moving forward than the Bears, including their Week 11 matchup against a three-win Patriots team.

As the Bears learned last week, it wouldn't be wise to count out the Patriots, though. Drake Maye seems to have brought new life to New England and they have won two of their last three, including the 19-3 win over the Bears last week.

The Patriots defense has been playing much better recently. They also added Yannick Ngakoue who will be making his debut against the Rams this week.

Los Angeles will be the favorite, but Matthew Stafford has not done a good job of taking care of the ball this season. He has a 9:7 touchdown to interception ratio and only led the offense to 15 points last week.

If the Patriots defense can build off their success last week and the Rams don't get things on track quickly, this one could go Chicago's way.

Here's your absolute longshot of the week. There aren't many other games out there that could directly help the Bears in a meaningful way so watching the Vikings lose to a bad Titans team could be the perfect combination of schadenfreude and tangential help.

The Bears have very little chance of catching the 7-2 Vikings. It's just a lot of ground to make up.

However, a stunning Vikings loss on the road against the Titans would provide some hope. The Bears will see Minnesota in Week 12 and will get them again in Week 15 on Monday Night Football.

If the Vikes lose to the Titans and follow it up with losses to the Bears in two of the next four weeks, the lead could evaporate pretty quickly.

The silver lining here is that Sam Darnold is starting to look more like the quarterback that flamed out with the Jets. He's had three turnovers in each of his last two games and the Titans defense is not as bad as their record indicates.

The problem is that Will Levis still has to face a scary Vikings defense on the other side of the ball. Last week, the Vikings still won 12-7 despite Darnold's transgressions with the ball.

Perhaps the Titans ground game can eke out just enough points to help out the Bears this week.