The Bears had visions of crashing the NFC playoff party three weeks ago after their upset win in Green Bay on Thanksgiving brought them to 5-6, with a couple of winnable home games on the docket.
The Buccaneers had won three of four themselves and had to be thinking the same thing, sitting at 6-6 with a couple of sub-.500 foes next - the Saints at home and the Rams on the road.
Both teams have come up empty since. Both John Fox and Lovie Smith have a lot of young guys who've learned the difficult way that nothing's given, and square off Sunday trying to regain their balance after some rude body blows that punched them out of the post-season.