In Week 1 of this young season, my expectations for the Bears were pretty low. The Bears coming off a 5-11 season where half of the roster was cut and a brand new coaching staff was brought in, it’s hard to anticipate a 12-4 campaign with a trip to the NFC championship game. I thought the worst case scenario for the Packers game was losing. But I was wrong, it wasn’t. It was that they teased us.

The game itself was not a beating by any stretch. At halftime, the score was 13-10 Bears. WE WERE WINNING THE GAME. It’s a heck of a lot better than last time the 2nd quarter ended when playing the Packers, losing 42-0. I thought hey, maybe this’ll turn out okay and this year won’t be so bad.

But, the second half didn’t go as well as the first. A key interception in Packer territory, down only a touchdown, sealed the deal. But hey, it’s the Packers right? They’re practically unbeatable. We put up a good fight and we’ll see how well they do next week, or so I thought.

“Reality hits you hard, bro,”as a viral video a few years back says. The former Chicago Cardinals (yeah, Chicago used to have two teams), now based in the hot Phoenix desert came to town. The opening kickoff was placed in the back of the endzone. Surely, the receiver would take a knee. But this didn’t happen.

First play of the game, my Bears heart filled with hope, David Johnson of the Cardinals takes the opening kickoff 108 yards for the touchdown: 7-0 Cardinals in an instant. Needless to say, the game turned out horribly. 48-23 Cardinals in a blowout win with the loss of Jay Cutler.

Now almost everyone in town is thinking, yes! Cutler is hurt! Now our quarterback woes are solved! Wrong. Dead wrong.

By the numbers in Sunday’s game, he completed 8 of 9 passes with a 116.2 “passer rating,” which is pretty good. It’s not elite, but it’s good. Jimmy Clausen, our “beloved” backup, frankly was not good. He registered a 56.6 passer rating. There is a reason why Cutler starts and Clausen doesn’t. In his first start against Seattle, he did little to distinguish himself. He threw more incompletions than completions, in a game where the Bears were shut out for the first time since 2002.

Now the Bears are stuck. With an 0-3 start, they could only realistically lose three more games to make the playoffs. Even 10-6 isn’t good enough sometimes to get in. Plus, a schedule that includes many better teams better (which is almost any team), it seems like a longshot. Mounting a 10-3 campaign to finish would need a completely healthy roster and a stamped letter from God.  I don’t see it happening. Best case scenario in my opinion is a 7-9 finish.

You may think that this is the best option. Hey, 7-9 isn’t that bad, right? But you have to look at the big picture here. The Bears are rebuilding and need talent. In the 2015 draft, teams with 7-9 seasons got the 11th through 13th pick. By then, the “big names” are off the board, and you have to start taking gambles on who is good and who isn’t. If a team had an 0-16 record, they would have been awarded the first pick.

Not only can you draft the best player available, you can trade it to get better things for it. It gives you more options and incites change. That is why I want the Bears to lose as much as possible this year.

Let’s see a case study. In the NBA, the Philadelphia 76ers were close to making the playoffs (like the Bears) in 2011. They just came up short during the first round, and they started to lose their talent. Instead of trying to keep the false hope of fans alive by signing aging players and wasting our time, they got real. They “tanked.”

Tanking is a controversial practice in sports. Some call it a strategy; others call it unethical. But, it can be used effectively to rebuild a franchise. Philadelphia has lost  ridiculous amounts of games, but they have gathered IMMENSE talent in the process. They have had top picks in all of past three drafts, and have tons more stockpiled in upcoming years. Within the next season or two, they will be poised as a team to be reckoned with in the NBA, all at the expense of a few bad years.

If the Bears try to keep their image alive, they’ll destroy it. Taking a year off to fix these problems isn’t bad. Look at the Cubs. They “tanked.” Now, we get to enjoy a new group of guys grow together into a team that is capable of competing for championships. This is exactly what the Bears need to do. Remember, the Bears aren’t the only game in town. The Cubs are still rolling and the Blackhawks will begin their exciting season next Wednesday, so there are plenty of opportunities to root on Chicago this fall.