3 ways Los Angeles Rams can be winners of Thanksgiving without even playing

2. Bears lose, fall behind more in NFC standings

As if Mitch Trubisky being banged up wasn’t already frustrating enough for the Chicago Bears to deal with, Matt Nagy’s team also knows the work they have cut out being two games behind the New Orleans Saints at the moment for the No. 2 seed.

In other words, Chicago is going to need some help over the next couple of weeks from other teams defeating Los Angeles or New Orleans to give them a fighting chance of earning a first-round bye come January. But first, the Bears realize they need to figure out a way to get by the Detroit Lions, who are battling for their playoff lives, on Thanksgiving when these NFC North rivals face each other again for the second time in a few weeks.

The Lions are all too familiar with these Thanksgiving games since they participate in this tradition every year, and Matthew Stafford will be most likely be motivated more than ever to finish with a stellar performance. Chicago’s defense isn’t going to make it easy when seeing how well the unit has looked as of late, but at least if they do fall to Detroit it will give Los Angeles more of a cushion on top of the standings in the NFC.