Recently the Chicago Bears were facing a patch of games that looked to be wins, such that everyone believed winning those games set them up to be in a better place when they’d face the tougher section of their schedule. Most everyone had some sort of equation that would result in the Bears finally making the postseason.

Even with the addition of a seventeenth regular season game, fans and the media have formulas for what it will take for a given team to make the playoffs. It’s no different in the other sports, but the 17-game, NFL schedule is more manageable.

Aside from the fact that the Bears lost two winnable games to Washington and Arizona in successive weeks and makes winning NFC North games more important, it’s eerily reminiscent of what happened with the Cubs this past season.

For the better part of two months this summer, Cub fans were under the impression that the Cubs had the easiest stretch of games in baseball. The stretch guaranteed the postseason berth for the Cubs. Only the Cubs didn’t master this part of the schedule and they fell short again. Too often, we buy what the media is selling, and in this case the Cubs fed into this, I’m not sure if the players believed just showing up was good enough and that their inferior opponents would just cave at the mere sight of the mighty Cubs. It sure feels like the Bears had such little respect for the Commanders and Cardinals and believed the hype surrounding their 3-gamd winning streak.

I’m coming down hard on the two local franchises because they’re screaming at me, I know that every fan base suffers this same fate, and that it’s Chicago’s turn. For example, what NY is enduring right now might be more ridiculous. Back in 1969, NY was at the top of the professional sports universe. I’m not so sure what they’re experiencing with the Jets and Yankees (and Mets and Giants) is better than what’s happening in Chicago.