Bears blown out, but can reach playoffs by beating Packers

Week 16 photos: Bears vs. Eagles

Bears-Eagles: Box score, stats and more

Bears must disrupt Eagles with 5-man pressure Briggs active for Sunday night's game against Eagles Bears-Eagles: Matchups, picks, what to watch Bears' Melton arrested after bar altercation VOTE: Should Bears cut ties with Melton? See more stories ' Maps Soldier Field, 1410 Museum Campus Dr, Chicago, IL 60605 Lincoln Financial Field, 1 Lincoln Financial Field Way, Philadelphia, PA 19147, USA

PHILADELPHIA - Sunday night's game between the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles took on wildly different meanings as the results trickled in from the NFC's other aspiring playoff teams.For the Bears, the game was huge. A 23-20 overtime loss by the Lions to the Giants and a 38-31 defeat of the Packers by the Steelers left the Bears in position to capture the NFC North with a victory over the Eagles.For the Eagles, the game means nothing. The Cowboys' late victory over the Redskins Sunday afternoon took much of the air out of the Eagles to go all-in against the Bears. Regardless of the outcome of this game, the Eagles would need to defeat the Cowboys in their regular-season finale to capture the NFC East title and make the postseason.

Yet it was the Eagles who struck first. They took advantage of excellent early field position following a 25-yard punt by the Bears' Adam Podlesh. The Eagles drove 43 yards before Nick Foles hit Riley Cooper on a 5-yard TD pass. The drive took six plays as the Eagles took a 7-0 lead with 9:54 left in the first quarter.

All week long, Bears coach Marc Trestman was asked how he would respond to various playoff scenarios on Sunday afternoon that would affect his team playing against the Eagles. Trestman dismissed all of the questions as hypothetical and insisted his team would be prepared to give its best effort.'Each and every week I come in here and we talk to our team about this is the most important game. It's the only one we get a chance to play, the only game we get to celebrate,' Trestman said earlier this week. 'And so that's how we are approaching it. Because we treat every game as the most important game, the next one becomes the most important game. Hopefully we've built some toughness and some resiliency to be able to play at the level we need to play, because that is what we've tried to do each and every week.'With veteran Pro Bowl linebacker Lance Briggs back in the lineup for the first time since injuring his shoulder on Oct. 10 at Washington, the Bears defense figured to be tested by Eagles playmakers LeSean McCoy and Nick Foles.fmitchell@tribune.comTwitter@kicker34

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Bears blown out, but can reach playoffs by beating Packers

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