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Bears, Packers, Rams All Home Sunday

>>Bears Host Redskins Sunday

With still an outside shot at the postseason, the Chicago Bears host the Washington Redskins on Sunday at Soldier Field in a battle of teams still holding on to hopes of a playoff appearance.

 width=Last week's 26-20 overtime loss came at home to lowly San Francisco and only needed extra time after Bears all-time point leader Robbie Gould hooked a 36-yard field goal left at the end of regulation.

The Bears had surprisingly crept back into the playoff picture with a 17-13 win at Green Bay on Thanksgiving, but reality hit with their fourth consecutive loss by less than seven points.

Chicago will finish the season without tight end Martellus Bennett as he was placed on injured reserve Tuesday with a fractured rib. Bennett leads the Bears with 53 catches despite missing the win over the Packers and playing in a limited role against the 49ers.

They might soon get a boost on the receiving corps, though, as Eddie Royal (knee) practiced for the first time in five weeks and No. 7 overall pick Kevin White (leg stress fracture) participated in 11-on-11 drills. Royal hasn't played since Nov. 1, and the Bears have until Tuesday to activate White from the physically unable to perform list.

After coughing up a chance to separate themselves in the cramped NFC East, the Washington Redskins are still in the driver's seat. The road to the playoffs, though, is a bumpy path away from home.

Washington (5-7) is winless in five games away from FedEx Field and is 0-9 on the road since a 20-17 overtime victory at Dallas on Oct. 27, 2014 - the longest current skid in the NFL.

>>Packers Host Cowboys Sunday

There's not much talk this week about how the Green Bay Packers eliminated the Dallas Cowboys from the playoffs last season thanks in part to a controversial call involving Dez Bryant.

These teams are instead concerned about repeating as division champions as they meet Sunday at Lambeau Field.

 width=Green Bay (8-4) advanced to the NFC championship last season by beating Dallas 26-21 behind two second-half touchdown passes from Aaron Rodgers. The key play was when Bryant's leaping, bobbling 31-yard catch with 4:06 left on a fourth-and-2 play was challenged by coach Mike McCarthy and reversed as an incomplete pass.

With that Jan. 11 contest so long ago and Dallas (4-8) without an injured Tony Romo, there's little reminiscing about it.

These teams are in better positions in their division races than they would have expected for different reasons.

The Packers enter off a 27-23 win at Detroit last Thursday on Rodgers' 61-yard Hail Mary TD pass to Richard Rodgers on the last play of the game that capped a rally from 20 points down. Green Bay got an untimed down after Aaron Rodgers was tackled by the face mask on the previous play as time expired.

Green Bay is now tied with Minnesota atop the North after the Vikings lost 38-7 to Seattle on Sunday. The Packers avoided a fifth loss in six games.

Dallas won 19-16 at Washington on Monday on Dan Bailey's 54-yard field goal with 9 seconds left. The Cowboys prevailed for the first time in eight games without Romo and moved within a game of the East lead - with the mediocre division's other teams tied for first.

The Packers are seeking to avoid losing three straight at home for the first time since 2006.

>>Rams Host Lions

Jim Caldwell and Jeff Fisher sound like defeated men, and who can blame them?

Caldwell brings his Detroit Lions into St. Louis on Sunday to face Fisher's Rams with both clubs sitting at 4-8 and staring down an offseason during which their jobs could be in jeopardy.

 width=Detroit had a glimmer of hope with a three-game winning streak that followed the firings of team president Tom Lewand and general manager Martin Mayhew and appointment of new offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter.

But Caldwell couldn't even bring himself to talk about how that run ended. Aaron Rodgers heaved a 61-yard Hail Mary pass that was caught in the end zone to give Green Bay a 27-23 win last Thursday at Ford Field, erasing the Lions' 20-0 second-half lead.

Fisher turned the page that day, too. Sunday's 27-3 loss to Arizona was the Rams' fifth straight after a promising start that had them thinking about their first playoff appearance in four seasons under Fisher.

St. Louis has been outscored 58-10 the last two weeks and ranks last in the NFL with 178.0 passing yards per game and a 24.5 percent conversion rate on third downs. All of that led to Fisher firing offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti and replacing him with Rob Boras, who was a finalist for the job in the offseason.

>>Cardinals Beat Vikings, Clinch Playoff Birth

Dwight Freeney stripped the ball from Teddy Bridgewater with 5 seconds remaining to deprive the Vikings a chance at the tying field goal, and the Cardinals clinched a playoff berth with a 23-20 victory over Minnesota.

 width=Bridgewater moved the Vikings to the Arizona 31-yard line, well within the range of Blair Walsh. But Freeney hit the quarterback's arm as Bridgewater tried to pass. The ball came loose and Calais Campbell recovered for Arizona.

Chandler Catanzaro's 47-yard field goal with 1:23 to go was the winning score as Arizona (11-2) won its seventh in a row.

Bridgewater passed for 335 yards and a touchdown for the Vikings (8-5), who were playing without four defensive starters but made it close after being embarrassed at home by Seattle 38-7 on Sunday.

Carson Palmer threw for 310 yards and two touchdowns for the Cardinals, who will win the NFC West if Seattle loses Sunday at Baltimore.

Minnesota's Adrian Peterson wanted more carries than the eight he got (for 9 yards) against the Seahawks. He got them, carrying 23 times for 69 yards, but had only 31 yards on 19 attempts after his 9-yard touchdown run on the Vikings' first possession of the night.

Palmer connected on scoring plays of 65 yards to John Brown and 42 to Michael Floyd. His 30th and 31st touchdown passes broke the franchise record of 30 set by Kurt Warner in Arizona's 2008 Super Bowl season.

Floyd caught five passes for 102 yards. David Johnson, the rookie who stepped in when the Cardinals' top two backs were hurt, rushed for 92 yards in 19 attempts.

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