With the Bears' win over the Lions Sunday, SI.com's Peter King officially termed them "dangerous" -- actually, using that term to describe Jay Cutler. If this had been said weeks ago about Cutler, Bears fans would have cringed. But the Pouty QB has actually backed up the Bears' confidence in him with performance, and he'll be subject to his toughest test of the season next week against the Patriots. The Bears rank seventh in King's "Fine Fifteen", just behind the Steelers and Ravens, about whom King says "I don't know how you separate these two teams."
The bad news, potentially, for Bears fans is that King ranks the 8-4 Packers three spots ahead of the Bears in fourth place overall, behind the Falcons, Patriots and Jets, although the Jets' ranking is likely to plummet after last night's blowout at the hands of New England.
That ranking is somewhat confirmed by one of our favorite ranking systems, SB Nation Atlanta's Unbiased Power Rankings, which have the Packers eighth and the Bears ninth. They also give the Packers the division title and put the Bears in the playoffs as the No. 6 seed. That's possible, of course; if the Bears win out they are division champs, but if they lose to the Patriots on Sunday, they'd likely have to win in Green Bay on Jan. 2 to win the division.