The Bears still need to take care of business on Sunday night against the Rams, but their potential opponent in the NFC Championship is finalized.

An exacta is a wager on the exact finish of two competitors. For example, a Super Bowl exacta of the Bills defeating the Rams (+8500 odds during the summer) is essentially a two-leg parlay of the Bills winning the championship and the Rams winning the NFC.

The New England Patriots will not enter the NFL playoffs until Sunday night, but they already played a role on Saturday as well — at least indirectly. As Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson said after his team’s come-from-behind win over the Green Bay Packers, the Patriots served as inspiration.

According to ESPN, the best LX matchup involving the Bears would be a rematch of XX against the New England Patriots. Of the 16 possible LX matchups - in terms of competition, intrigue and entertainment - they rank Bears-Pats third.

The belief traces to training camp, when coach Ben Johnson showed the team Super Bowl LI. That was the game that saw the Patriots down 28-3 in the third quarter. Before they turned it around and won the game.

Patriots crush Chargers in NFL Playoffs Wild Card, joining the 1985 Bears with a historic defensive night that set a fierce tone.

The New England Patriots and Chicago Bears both went from worst to first in their divisions in 2025, proving anew to NFL fans already looking ahead to next season that a quick fix to that fixer-upper is possible.

The 2024 quarterback draft class is looking like a special group with their collective quick NFL team and individual success.

The NFL playoffs resumed Saturday afternoon with a thrilling, down-to-the-wire battle between the top-seeded Denver Broncos and the No. 6 seed Buffalo Bills at Empower Field at Mile High in Colorado.