This week's rankings from the mothership, SBNation.com, show the Bears dropping from No. 17 to No. 18 despite a victory on Sunday in Toronto against the Bills.
Save your torches and pitchforks and nasty letters to me or to the editors at SBNation.com. Honestly, the Bears probably don't deserve to rank any higher and could easily be lower; the game was saved on Tim Jennings' interception. Otherwise, the Bills, nursing a 19-14 lead early in the fourth quarter, would have had a touchdown completion and a 12-point lead. Instead, the Bears worked the ball in for the winning score and a two-point conversion that gave them their three-point victory.
The Bears also don't show in SI.com writer Peter King's "The Fine Fifteen." Realistically, the 5-3 Bears are lucky to not be 3-5 or worse; they could easily have lost to the Bills on Sunday, they got off with a win against the Packers when Green Bay committed 18 penalties, and they should have lost to the Lions on opening day.
SBNation.com's rankings show the Bears' next opponent, the Minnesota Vikings, ranking 24th. They're the best 3-5 team I've seen. The Bears will have their hands full on Sunday if the old man, Brett Favre, is on.