Why Ben Johnson, Bears pushing hard to beat Lions, earn No. 2 seed

LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Bears head coach Ben Johnson made his intentions clear with six simple words.

“We’re playing to win this week.”

Even with the NFC North already clinched, the Bears are hellbent on beating the Detroit Lions on Sunday at Soldier Field. There’s seeding left to play for, with a win securing the No. 2 spot in the NFC playoff bracket, following a 42-38 loss to San Francisco.

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That would lock down a third matchup with the Green Bay Packers, who are set at No. 7. Then there’s a guaranteed home game if they can get past the NFC wild-card round.

[MORE: NFL playoff picture: Bears seeding scenarios entering Week 18 schedule]

The Bears will push for that No. 2 slot, which can be earned with a Bears win or a Philadelphia loss.

The Eagles, by contrast, aren’t as motivated to fight for it. Per the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni plans to sit quarterback Jalen Hurts and other starters on Sunday against the Washington Commanders.

The Bears don’t plan to do that, even when playing a Detroit Lions team no longer in playoff contention. Seeding is the headline of this effort, but there’s more to it than that. Week 18 is part of an ongoing process, and Johnson won’t take his foot off the gas.

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[READ: Bears mailbag: How does Ben Johnson cater offense to Caleb Williams?]

“We’re constantly improving. That’s the goal, at least. We want to continue to get better,” Johnson said. “We’ve got a lot of young players where each week you do see growth. We’re going to stay true to our process throughout this thing. This is the next one. Certainly, coming off a loss like that, too, you don’t want to go into the postseason with two losses in a row. You want to have a little momentum behind you to get you going. That’s part of the thought process.”

There is no revenge factor here, despite the fact Detroit walloped Chicago 52-21 back in Week 2, which feels like a lifetime ago now. The Bears are 11-3 since then, with just one multiple-score loss in that span.

The Bears haven’t lost two in a row since then, a point of pride within the locker room. Losing consecutive games is unacceptable.

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“I would credit our veteran leadership for that,” Johnson said. “I think usually when you have a young team, a really young team, they tend to ride the wave a little bit more of going up and down. I think we’ve got a really good core of veteran leaders that keep the main thing the main thing in the locker room and make sure everybody’s focused on the goal at hand.”

[READ: Ben Johnson clearly states Bears’ approach vs Lions in NFL Week 18 game]

Johnson vowed that the Bears would be playing their best football in December (and beyond) and that has happened. There’s injury risk in every game, and that won’t stop the Bears from trying to finish strong, earn the best seed possible and find ways to improve heading into the postseason.

“The goal since Ben’s kind of got here was to be playing our best ball around this time,” linebacker T.J. Edwards said. “And I still think that’s the goal. I think, you know, we’re always wanting to be critical of ourselves and figure out what kind of happened the previous week and what we can do to be better because all these games are must-win games, obviously. So, for us, I think that’s where our focus is, playing our best ball. Kind of doing what we’ve been doing all year, kind of sticking together in that way and those results will come when that belief is strong.”

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