Coach Ben Johnson reiterated Wednesday that the Bears have no plans to rest their starters in Sunday's regular-season finale against the Lions despite having clinched the NFC North title.
"We're constantly improving; that's the goal at least," Johnson said. "We want to continue to get better. 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."
There are other reasons the Bears will be "playing to win this week" as Johnson told reporters Monday during a virtual press conference. They are currently the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs and can secure that spot with a win (or an Eagles home loss to the Commanders). If the second and third seeds both win their wild card games, the No. 2 seed would host the No. 3 seed in the divisional round.
In addition, the Bears are looking to rebound from last Sunday night's 42-38 shootout loss to the 49ers and don't want to begin the playoffs having dropped their final two regular-season games.
"Certainly, coming off a loss like that too [in San Francisco], you don't want to go into the postseason with two losses in a row," Johnson said. "You want to have a little momentum behind you to get going. That's part of the thought process."
The Bears could also exact some revenge against the Lions following a 52-21 loss in Detroit in Week 2.
Asked to reflect on that defeat, Johnson said: "It's early in the season and you're still getting to know your team a little bit. Being in that locker room after that game and how that felt, you don't always remember exactly what was said or anything like that, but you always remember how you felt in those moments. I know our players do too … It's never a good taste when you get beat so handily."
The Bears have shown resiliency throughout the season. They followed their loss in Detroit with four straight wins, their next defeat in Baltimore with five consecutive victories and a setback in Green Bay with back-to-back wins.
"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. 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. They've made my life a lot easier with this transition. That, along with some veteran coaches, it takes a lot of people to get it done like that. They've done a great job of staying focused on each week and each particular game."
