The Bears couldn't escape last place in the NFC North during their week off.
They did get a little closer to the NFC North lead, however. And they found out something else valuable during Week 7.
The Detroit Lions handed the Minnesota Vikings their first loss, 31-29, while the Green Bay Packers rallied to beat Houston 23-22 on a 45-yard Brandon McManus field goal as time expired. The end result was the Lions and Vikings stand 5-1, one game ahead of the Bears. Green Bay is half a game back at 5-2. The Bears would have been two behind had the Vikings won.
The Lions win came despite losing Aidan Hutchinson for the season last week, but they outscored the Vikings in an offensive free-for-all and won on a 44-yard Jake Bates field goal.
A Packers loss would have lifted the Bears out of last place and left Green Bay in last.
The bottom line from the weekend without the Bears playing in the NFC North from the Bears' standpoint is they saw the type of football they'll need to play to have a chance against three strong opponents in a division where the combined record of all the teams is 19-6 and a .667 winning percentage is last place.
They'll have to be able to go toe to toe and beat another team with a high-level offense. Defense alone isn't going to be enough against these teams and they'll need an offense clicking like they've had the last two games against two weaker opponents. But it will need to be against defenses capable of shutting teams down.
There were three lead changes in the Vikings-Lions game, two in the last 5:50. The Lions had 391 yards of offense and the Vikings 383.
The Packers beat a top-3 defense in a game that had seven lead changes, a game dominated by defenses even if the lead changed hands so many times. The Packers held the Texans to 197 yards and they won with 277 yards.
Green Bay's defense held C.J. Stroud to a 58.8 passer rating and Jordan Love threw for 220 yards with a 95.5 rating and three touchdowns.
After the early games on Sunday, in the entire NFL only Tennessee (.550), Detroit (.574) and Green Bay (.547) face tougher schedules than the Bears (.537) based on teams' winning percentage.
