Bears Advance To NFC Championship Game, But Will They Be Super Bowl Winners?

There’s a lot to like about the Bears, who advanced to the NFC Championship Game with a win over the Seahawks on Sunday. But is there enough to like their chances of becoming Super Bowl winners?

The Bears might not want to admit it, but their 35-24 win over the Seahawks speaks to the team’s offensive prowess, not the “Monsters of the Midway” mystique they’ve cultivated over the years. Today’s win was just the second time the Bears have allowed at least 24 points in a playoff game and won (they also topped the Seahawks, 27-24, in overtime in 2006), and if they’re giving up 24 points to the Seahawks’ anemic offense, even with substantial garbage time, it doesn’t bode well for their hopes of shutting down the dynamic Packers offense.

Of course, in 2006, the only year in which the Bears and Seahawks met in the NFL playoffs, the Bears made the Super Bowl after thumping a “hot” NFC wild card team: Chicago defeated the Saints, 39-14, in that season’s NFC Championship Game. Those Bears went on to lose in the Super Bowl to the Colts.

The Bears have just one prior Super Bowl victory, but it came over one of the three teams still alive in the AFC, the Patriots. In that magical 1985 season, though, the Bears made sure they would get to do their Super Bowl Shuffle at the big game by allowing zero points in two games against NFC teams before the playoffs.

More stunningly, those Bears allowed fewer points in the entire playoffs than these Bears allowed in the fourth quarter against the 8-9 Seattle Seahawks.