If you had Week 5 as the week where the Bears would be mentioned in the same breath as "playoff berth", come down and collect your prize.
And even if you're a Clint-Eastwood-In-Gran-Torino-level crumudgeon about advanced analytics, one recent model's predictions will have you revisiting whether those kids need to get of your lawn.
Cynthia Frelund, an analytics expert for NFL media, released her latest model this morning, and in it, a prediction that will please a whole bunch of people in the greater Chicagoland area.
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In it, Frelund projects the Bears to grab the 6th and final NFC playoff spot, sending them on the road during Wild Card weekend. Her reasoning? The defense, if you can believe it:
"The Bears currently generate 6.25 more first downs per game than they're allowing (the fourth-best rate in the NFL) and give up the fourth fewest points per play (0.28; the average is 0.37) and the third-fewest total points per game," she wrote. "It's an ideal defense to be paired with a second-year QB in a first-year head coach's system. Through four games, the Bears now project to finish sixth in the NFC -- and their arrow is trending up."
You can read her entire write up right here, if putting the cart ahead of the horse is a hobby of yours. Still, what started as another development year is quickly turning into much more, and that's an exciting place to be for the Bears.