Cliché’ly speaking, there are no unimportant NFL regular-season games, short of ones after playoff positions are either clinched or mathematically eliminated. The simple math is that one NFL game equates to a 10-game win-or-loss streak in Major League Baseball, or about five in the NBA or NHL.
But the upcoming three games against Detroit-Minnesota-Detroit take on added significance for considerably deeper reasons than just the obvious of being division games.
For incoming Bears head coaches, division games have too often been early indicators of what the future held for them and the organization. Coaches who fail to control the Bears’ division don’t last.