LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Although their playoff chances appear bleak, the Bears aren’t giving up hope.

One day after Minnesota’s 35-14 demolition of Arizona put the Vikings on the brink of winning the NFC North title, Chicago players sounded like they were quoting John Belushi’s “nothing is over until we decide it is” speech in the classic movie “Animal House.”

Because the Vikings (9-5) own the tiebreaker, they can clinch the division title with a victory over Atlanta Sunday at the Metrodome, a full day before the Bears (8-6) host Green Bay on Monday Night Football. The only way Chicago can capture the NFC North crown is with victories over the Packers and Texans coupled with Minnesota losses to the Falcons and Giants.

Tight end Desmond Clark and the Bears face a must-win game against Green Bay.

“It’s not over,” defensive lineman Israel Idonije said Monday at Halas Hall. “We have two games left. Our reality is we have to win those games to give ourselves a chance.”

“We wanted Minnesota to slip up a little bit [and] give us a chance,” said tight end Greg Olsen. “But we can’t worry about what they do. We’ve just got to take care of ourselves and hopefully at the end we’ll get a break somewhere.”

Chicago’s wildcard hopes also dwindled significantly Sunday with victories by the Cowboys over the Giants and the Falcons over the Buccaneers. To earn the NFC’s second and final wildcard berth, the Bears would have to leapfrog three of the four teams ahead of them.

The only way the Bears would finish ahead of the Buccaneers (9-5) and Falcons (9-5) is if Tampa Bay loses at home to San Diego and Oakland and Atlanta loses at Minnesota and at home to St. Louis. 

It’s still mathematically possible for the Bears to win a tiebreaker with the Cowboys (9-5) should Dallas beat the Ravens and lose to the Eagles. But Chicago would have to make up significant ground in the “strength of victory” tiebreaker. The Bears can finish ahead of the Eagles (7-5-1) if Philadelphia drops one of its three remaining games.

Since the NFL realigned into eight four-team divisions in 2002, 19 of 22 teams that have finished 10-6 have made the playoffs. The only exceptions have been the Dolphins in 2003, the Chiefs in 2005 and the Browns in 2007.

While the scenarios are confusing, the one simple fact is that the Bears must win out.

“Right now we basically just have to worry about ourselves,” said wide receiver Devin Hester. “We can’t keep looking forward to someone else losing or whatever. We just have to worry about ourselves and make sure we do our part and win the rest of the games this season.”

“There is some hope,” said tight end Desmond Clark. “We need a lot of help, to say the least. But it is still out there. We’re not going to quit playing until we get down there in Houston Dec. 28 and the clock reads three zeroes.”

The Bears have additional motivation in preparing for their rematch with Green Bay after getting pummeled by the Packers Nov. 16 at Lambeau Field. The embarrassing 37-3 loss was the most lopsided defeat in Lovie Smith’s five seasons as coach.

“They did whup up on us pretty good the last time we met,” Hester said. “We still have it in the back of our heads. We have a long week to prepare—a couple extra days—and we’ll prepare for them and hopefully this week we come out ready to play for them.”

The Bears defense got gashed on the ground and shredded in the air in the first meeting. The unit yielded a season-high 200 yards on 38 rushes and permitted Aaron Rodgers to complete 23 of 30 passes for 227 yards with 2 touchdowns, 1 interception and a 105.8 passer rating.

“Getting more pressure, that’s been a topic of discussion, [so has] being strong against the run,” Idonije said. “All those little things that we didn’t do that last game, we have to really execute and make a statement.”

Since beating the Bears to forge a three-way tie atop the NFC North with Chicago and Minnesota at 5-5, Green Bay has yielded an average of 32.5 points while losing four straight games. The Packers (5-9) have dropped nine of 12 since a 2-0 start with six of their last seven losses coming by four points or less. 

Green Bay was eliminated from the playoffs Sunday with a 20-16 loss in Jacksonville.

“It’s crazy,” Hester said. “They have a great offensive team as well as defense. For them to lose four straight seems like it’s very impossible. But at the end of the day, every team has their ups and downs. We’ve just got to look forward and concentrate on ourselves and make sure we do what we have to do to handle the situation.”

In their current predicament with no margin for error, the Bears can’t help but look back at games they blew against NFC South opponents Carolina, Atlanta and Tampa Bay, and wonder what might have been.

The Bears led the Panthers 17-3 in the third quarter before losing 20-17, led the Buccaneers 24-14 with 6:38 remaining in the fourth quarter before falling 27-24 in overtime, and scored a touchdown to take a 20-19 lead over the Falcons with just :11 left before losing 22-20.

“I know that it’s a game of inches and winning or losing is measured by a narrow margin,” Idonije said. “There are a lot of games that we should have walked away with ‘W’s this year and we didn’t put ourselves in position to win. We lost a lot of close ones and when you look back at our season, that makes it a little bit harder to swallow the position we put ourselves in.”