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Ten Thoughts on the NFL: Chicago Bears and beyond

After 12 weeks of NFL action the playoff picture is beginning to get clearer, the haves and have nots are starting to separate themselves, and the phenomenal individual performances continue to pile up. Here are my Thoughts on the NFL this week, and be sure to add some of your own...

Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

1) After last night, I think it's clear the Seattle Seahawks are the best team in the NFL. They have talent at every position, and with home field all but locked up in the NFC, it's safe to say the road to the Super Bowl will travel through Seattle.

2) The Denver Broncos knocked off the Kansas City Chiefs for the 2nd time in three weeks, and once again the Chiefs fail to register a sack on Peyton Manning. On Sunday Manning went off for five touchdown passes, which makes it six TDs in those two games to go along with 726 yards passing.

3) The New York Jets, who had been alternating wins and losses before their bye, have now dropped three in a row after their week off. This is the Jets team that I think we all expected, and at 5-7, it looks like the third consecutive season with no playoffs. Seat getting hotter for Rex Ryan...

4) Back on Thanksgiving Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin did this.

Tomlinhop2

And now the chatter is that it may cost the Steelers a draft pick, along with some fines.

Tomlin knew what he was doing, and what he was doing was being a dumbass.

5) I can't believe Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly is still answering questions about his starting quarterback. In nine games, with six starts, Nick Foles has a QB rating of 125.2, he has 19 TDs to zero picks, and the team has won four straight. Kelly did go on record with the Philly media, and say Foles is his starter til 3013.

6) After hearing for years how great at amassing talent and quality depth Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson was, I find it odd that his team hasn't won a game since they lost Aaron Rodgers. You would think a team with such a great talent evaluator, like Thompson, and a team with a proven winning system, like the Packers have, that they would have been able to find a way to win one of the last five games.

Maybe the Packers' record was just elevated all these years because of the greatness of quarterbacks Brett Favre and now Aaron Rodgers, and the reality is those two players were the only difference between those teams being great and bad.

7) Chicago wide out Alshon Jeffery wasn't the only receiver going nuts in week 13. He went 12 for 249 and two TDs, Josh Gordon of the Cleveland Browns had a slash line of 10/261/2, and Eric Decker of the Denver Broncos went 8/174/4.

Interesting to note that only Decker's team won, and even more interesting to note that each time Jeffery went over 100 this season, the Bears lost (0-5).

Also interesting to note, that each time Chicago QBs went over 300 passing the Bears are also winless (0-5).

One more interesting tidbit, but probably only for me, I won my fantasy match-up this week even though one of my starting WRs, Percy Harvin, was a late scratch. That was thanks to Decker getting me 41.4 points!

8) Is it just me, or has the overall refereeing been unusually bad this NFL season? I'm not even talking about the Chicago Bears getting hosed, because as their fan, I'm probably a bit biased, but each week there's a fanbase or two that has a legitimate gripe about the officials.

9) I understood the reasoning Marc Trestman gave for trying to win the game in overtime on 2nd down, but I didn't like the call. An equally as bad call in my opinion was trying the 66 yard field goal at the end of regulation. The chances Robbie Gould makes that kick are outweighed by the chances Cordarrelle Patterson runs the miss back for a TD.

10) In case you're wondering, and with the Bears at 6-6, you just may be, but the Bears are currently sitting in the 17th slot for the 2014 NFL Draft.

I never thought we'd be discussing draft positioning at this point in the season...

What are some of your thoughts this week?