Things To Take Note Of Ahead Of Atlanta Falcons And Bears Game..
Prepare yourselves, Chicago Bears fans: the end of the season is nearly upon us.
The 2023 season has been more of a roller coaster than any other year in recent memory, with many twists and turns in Chicago’s track. From a coaching meltdown to begin the year, dominant wins, heartbreaking losses, defeating divisional opponents and the rise of one of the more dominant Bears defenses of the modern era, we’ve been through alot as a collective fanbase.
Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons will be the penultimate contest of the season, with an early 2024 showdown with the loathed Packers coming after.
Before Week 17’s game, let’s break down everything you need to know for Bears vs. Falcons.
The Bears are 15-14 all-time against the Falcons.
Chicago and Atlanta tend to be evenly matched in the rare instances they do come to blows, with the Bears holding a one game lead over the Falcons in series history.
That advantage comes courtesy of the team’s recent success against the red-and-black, as the Bears have won the last three out of five contests since 2011.
Chicago is 6-4 since 2000, and the club has a 8-6 record when hosting the Falcons at Soldier Field.
The Bears suffered a close loss in last year’s meeting vs. Falcons
The Bears of today demonstrate a night and day difference when compared to the 2022 version of the team, who only managed to notch three wins on the year.
That wasn’t because of Justin Fields’ lack of trying, however, as the dual-threat QB put the league on notice in the latter half of last season. The team’s last game against the Falcons is evidence of that, even though his tremendous play didn’t culminate in a victory.
Both teams competed at a high level throughout the Week 11 matchup, with the two contestants trading touchdowns to begin the game.
History repeated itself well into the second half when Atlanta broke a 17-point deadlock with a 10-yard rushing score courtesy of former Falcons quarterback Marcus Mariota, only for former Bears running back David Montgomery to answer with a short rushing touchdown of his own after a lengthy drive by the offense.
Fields accounted for over 230 yards of total offense and two touchdowns on the day, but his late-game heroics ended in tragedy.
Six of the last nine Bears-Falcons matchups have been one-score games.
Rest assured, when you see that Bears-Falcons matchup come across the ticker, it will be a good game.
Fifteen of the last 29 games played against each other have been decided by one score. Atlanta has had Chicago’s number in those 15 games, going 9-6 in that span.
The Bears last scored a hotly contested victory over the Falcons in Week 3 of the 2020 season, a game that saw Nick Foles replace Mitch Trubisky and lead Chicago to a come-from-behind 30-26 win.
Foles tallied a hat trick of touchdown throws, and receiver Allen Robinson topped 100 yards and caught a touchdown.
Bears firmly out of playoff race; Falcons looking to win the division.
The NFL is an odd league, to be sure. The Bears find themselves at the bottom of the NFC North with a 6-9 record, while the Falcons are only one win better at 7-8 but are only one game out of being tied with the Buccaneers for the top spot of the NFC South.
For Chicago, they have all but squandered their last chance at making a legitimate run for the last NFC wild card spot.
The team’s harrowing defeat at the hands of the defiant Joe Flacco-led Browns a couple weeks back have catapulted them toward the bottom of the NFC standings.
While it’s not a 0 percent chance that the Bears make the postseason — NFL.com notes that Chicago does have less than a one percent chance at getting in — most of the fanbase has already turned their excitement toward the 2024 NFL draft.
For the Falcons, the road to playoffs encompasses multiple paths. The most direct route there would feature both Atlanta winning and Tampa Bay losing more than one game to close the year, ensuring that the Falcons glide above the heads of the Buccaneers into the top spot in the division.
The winding, more troublesome trail to the postseason will require Atlanta to win their last two games and the Vikings to lose their last two contests.
Minnesota’s Week 9 victory over the Falcons gives Minnesota the edge in a head-to-head tiebreaker, meaning Atlanta will be the odd man out should the two NFC teams finish with a 9-7 record.
What does this talk of playoff jargon mean? It means the Falcons have everything to play for this Sunday, while the Bears have nothing to play for.