CHICAGO — One win from reaching the NFC championship game and two shy of the third Super Bowl appearance in franchise history, the Chicago Bears have shattered expectations at seemingly every turn.

The NFC North champions host the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs Sunday at Soldier Field (5:30 p.m., Fox-32). The Rams are a four-point favorite, but the Bears have been an underdog 10 times already this season — including in the wild-card round against the Green Bay Packers — and they’ve won six times in that role.

The Bears have won in dramatic fashion over and over again, and their seventh comeback victory last weekend to edge the Packers, 31-27, was the greatest to date. They aren’t shaken by fourth-quarter deficits. Really, they haven’t been shaken by anything this season, a testament to the belief in coach Ben Johnson and the resolve in the locker room.

The cardiac Bears, as some like to call them, have been myth busters, defying odds, answering fair questions with resounding answers and destroying some public sentiments along the way. Here are 10 myths they’ve busted … so far.

1. They shouldn’t have drafted a tight end at No. 10 with a more pressing need for a left tackle or edge rusher.

Forget the conversation at the time of which tight end was a better option — Colston Loveland or Tyler Warren — some were dismayed they took a tight end, period. Three offensive tackles came off the board in the six picks before the Bears were on the clock, which meant they would have to reach for a left tackle or grab the second edge rusher after Abdul Carter, who went No. 2.

James Pearce (26th overall) had 10 1/2 sacks for the Atlanta Falcons, and teammate Jalon Walker (15th) had 5 1/2. But Loveland has emerged as a star — he had 137 receiving yards against the Packers — and he’s just getting started. His production in the passing game in the second half of the season has been huge, but don’t overlook the solid work he also has done as a blocker. Loveland is a chess piece Johnson knows how to maximize.

2. They need to trade for a running back — or sign one.

How many times a week did you hear that from the end of the draft — after the Bears selected Kyle Monangai in the seventh round — to the start of the season? D’Andre Swift isn’t a fit for the offense. What were the Bears possibly thinking with Johnson’s offense so rooted in the ground game?

Turns out the straight-talking Johnson, who was effusive in his praise of Swift all offseason, meant what he said. Swift (1,087 yards) and Monangai (783) became the first pair of Bears running backs to top 700 yards since Walter Payton and Roland Harper in 1978. Swift’s effectiveness in the passing game should not be overlooked either. The Bears had everything they needed in the backfield.

3. Caleb Williams is maybe the third-best quarterback in the division.

After a dysfunctional 2024 season, a franchise problem more than a Williams issue, it would have been impossible for any objective analysis to rank him anywhere above third entering the season. Was there room for growth? A ton. Would it click under a new coaching staff? Wait and see.

In June, NFL.com ranked quarterbacks around the league with the Detroit Lions’ Jared Goff fourth, Packers’ Jordan Love 10th, Williams 28th and Minnesota Vikings’ J.J. McCarthy 29th.

Williams’ penchant for late-game heroics and his unique ability to produce jaw-dropping highlight plays on a weekly basis will land him in more exclusive company for whatever 2026 rankings there are. The Bears have a legitimate quarterback, a first in the lifetime for most of the franchise’s fans, and the strength of the position in the division is going to make the NFC North a force for seasons to come. You could be looking at what the NFC East was for much of the 1980s. The Bears can no longer be knocked for having a QB deficiency.

4. They’ll probably finish around .500.

The season win total for the Bears hovered at 8 1/2 for the majority of the spring and summer, and before things got going in September, the line was juiced to the under.

Prevailing thought was that a difficult schedule — it was tied for second-most difficult based on 2024 standings and wound up ranking 19th at the end of the season — and a rough-and-tumble division would make an improvement of three or four wins reasonable after a 5-12 campaign. That was the sweet spot that oddsmakers identified for the Bears.

The Bears went over 8 1/2 with their ninth win on Nov. 28 in Philadelphia, the ninth victory in a 10-game stretch, and added wins over the Packers and Cleveland Browns down the stretch to reach 11, a six-game improvement in Johnson’s first season.

5. They’ll finish third in the division — if all goes well.

After the Lions (15-2), Vikings (14-3) and Packers (11-6) all went to the postseason in 2024, wagering odds for the Bears were at the bottom of the circuit. The Packers (+165) shifted to the preseason favorite after the August trade for Micah Parsons, with the Lions (+200) close behind and Vikings (+350) ahead of the Bears (+600).

The Packers were hit with a slew of injuries — most notably tight end Tucker Kraft followed by defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt and then Parsons. The Lions’ high-powered offense (28.3 points per game) missed Johnson at the controls in a big way, and their defense, for the second straight year, lost players to injury. In Minnesota, coach Kevin O’Connell’s magic tough with quarterbacks never clicked with McCarthy.

The Bears, despite a 2-4 record against division foes, kept finding ways to overcome obstacles in their path with the miraculous Week 16 comeback against the Packers at Soldier Field keying their ascent to the top.

6. They won’t recover from an 0-2 start, especially coming out of the gate with two division losses.

Twenty-two times before, the Bears had started a season 0-2. This is the first time they’ve recovered from such a beginning to reach the playoffs. The 52-21 thumping in Detroit in Week 2 was stunning.

“It’s tragic,” defensive end Montez Sweat said afterward. “It’s very stunning.”

Leaving Ford Field that day, the Bears looked seasons away from being able to compete in the division. They had blown the opener against the Vikings and then got their doors blown by the Lions.

“We are not going to hang our heads and get down on this,” Johnson said. “It’s one game. We’re going to be just fine.”

That the 0-2 start wasn’t the beginning of an unescapable spiral is a credit to Johnson, his staff and the roster. It was a matter of weeks until it looked like, hey, maybe this team can compete in the NFC North.

7. A rebuilt offensive line will be better, but major question marks at left tackle make the unit potentially suspect.

The adage is when a team has two quarterbacks, it actually has none. I’m not sure what the saying is when a team rolls out four left tackles in a preseason competition for the job, but suboptimal comes to mind.

Offensive line coach Dan Roushar stayed true to his process rolling veteran Braxton Jones, rookie Ozzy Trapilo, Theo Benedet and Kiran Amegadjie through with the first unit in training camp and into preseason.

Roushar was blunt in saying it wasn’t where the team needed it to be, but the additions of left guard Joe Thuney, center Drew Dalman and right guard Jonah Jackson, along with Darnell Wright flipping the switch to being more consistent down in and down out at right tackle, transformed the weakest position on the roster into arguably its greatest strength.

Johnson’s game-planning and help from the tight ends allowed the Bears to help the left tackle — Jones, Benedet and Trapilo all took turns starting — and they met challenges weekly. Williams’ sack total plummeted, and the Bears had the league’s third-best rushing attack.

8. It will be very difficult to play without top cornerback Jaylon Johnson for the majority of the season.

After missing the opener with groin and calf injuries that sidelined him before the start of training camp, Johnson left the Week 2 loss in Detroit after only 20 snaps with a core muscle injury that required surgery.

The hope was Johnson might be able to return late in the season, maybe if the Bears were in the mix. All the time Johnson missed during the summer gave the coaching staff an extra lookat Nahshon Wright, and paired with Tyrique Stevenson, the Bears made it work.

Secondary coach Al Harris got the most out of defensive backs, who combined for 17 of the defense’s league-high 23 interceptions. Wright had five picks, and the Bears weathered 10 games without Johnson, who before his contract was restructured to create some operating room carried a $21 million cap hit this year, tied with Sweat for the highest on the roster. It’s tough to play without your highest-paid players, but the Bears managed.

9. Luther Burden III was a luxury pick.

With wide receivers DJ Moore and Rome Odunze already in place — and after choosing Loveland in the first round — general manager Ryan Poles used the first of three Round 2 picks on Burden at No. 39. It came one pick after the New England Patriots chose running back TreVeyon Henderson, whom the Bears were eyeing, and added to an already crowded receivers room as Olamide Zaccheaus had been signed in free agency.

Maybe Burden would have been a luxury pick for previous coaching staffs, but Johnson had a vision for how to use the Missouri product, one he executed. It’s a good example of how grades and the best player available should often trump need.

Burden has been explosive and looks to be a building block for the roster moving forward, one of the reasons the team enjoyed its most productive rookie class in quite a while.

10. They need an edge rusher.

This item needs an asterisk because it’s impossible to look at the roster right now and not identify pass-rush help as a top need for 2026. But defensive coordinator Dennis Allen has managed to make it work, and the Bears led the league in takeaways without a fearsome rush.

Sweat has five quarterback hits in the last two games, and Austin Booker has come to life in the last two months. Don’t overlook what healthier defensive tackle Grady Jarrett has done on the interior.

Poles made a deadline trade to add Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, a modest move that cost a 2026 sixth-round pick with the Bears receiving a seventh-rounder back from the Browns. In weighing need at the time versus cost and how the future would be shaped, Poles didn’t swing big for the kind of trade that can generate more in the way of headlines than production.

In the big picture, the Bears have gotten by with a defense that has flaws, ones that will be top priorities moving forward.

Next challenge

The Rams represent the biggest challenge ahead for the Bears, an opponent with an MVP-level quarterback in Matthew Stafford, a high-powered offense, a sometimes dominant defensive line and a coach in Sean McVay who has won a Super Bowl and is 9-5 in the postseason.

The Rams struggled for about half of last Saturday’s wild-card win at Carolina. The Rams lost three of their final six regular-season games — all on the road against the Panthers, Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons. They don’t look infallible like the team that was cruising through November.

The next myth for the Bears to bust is winning on Sunday night. They’ve lost nine consecutive in the NBC prime-time slot, although eight have been on the road. Maybe a 5:30 p.m. kickoff doesn’t quite qualify as prime time.

For what it’s worth, their last Sunday night win came against the Rams — 15-6 on Dec. 9, 2018, at Soldier Field.

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