The Chicago Bears have won the NFC North and have earned the NFC's number 2 seed, thanks in part to the Philadelphia Eagles losing in the final week of the year.
That's allowed the Bears to get a match-up against the Green Bay Packers instead of the San Francisco 49ers. While the Packers are no easy game, it's a better matchup for the Bears than the 49ers.
However, ESPN analyst Bill Barnwell predicts that this matchup won't be a cakewalk for Chicago. Instead, his prediction would be a nightmare scenario for Bears fans.
Bears predicted to have nightmare playoff scenario
Barnwell predicts that this weekend's Saturday night matchup will end up as, "Packers 31, Bears 24."
This would be a disaster of epic proportions for the Bears. Not only would they be one-and-done in the playoffs, but they would lose to a division rival.
What would make things so much worse is that the Packers would beat the Bears without Micah Parsons, by far their best defensive player.
While this matchup won't be an easy one for the Bears, seeing Barnwell predict them to lose to the Packers makes the fear of a nightmare scenario a little more real.
Chicago has the advantage, playing at home, with a healthy offense now that Rome Odunze is set to come back. The Bears' offense is back together, but the other side of the ball is an issue even with Kyler Gordon returning.
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"He (Williams) should have something close to a full complement of playmakers," Barnwell writes, "but I don't know if the Bears can stop the Packers on defense."
Jordan Love and the Packers offense are predicted to score 31 points against the Bears defense, which has been very leaky as of late.
Despite drawing a "better" matchup than the 49ers in round one, the Bears are predicted to lose to the Packers, the 7th seed, by Barnwell.
Fans will have to hope that Barnwell's prediction is off-base, and the Bears can play better defense than they did in Weeks 17 and 18.
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