Lake Forest, Ill. ? Even as their prospects dwindled the past few weeks, the Chicago Bears insisted 10 wins would be enough to get to the playoffs.

Well, they still have a shot at 10 wins. And they’re not out of the postseason race, either.

So the Bears (8-6) will be playing for more than just pride when Green Bay visits Soldier Field tonight, thanks to some huge breaks over the weekend.

The biggest was this: NFC North leader Minnesota losing to Atlanta. That kept the Bears in contention for the division title, although the Vikings hold the tiebreaker. And the wild card remains a possibility after Dallas, Tampa Bay and Philadelphia lost.

Even so, Chicago could win its last two games and still miss the playoffs, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“I’d consider it that we finished up pretty good,” tight end Desmond Clark said. “I’ll probably look back on it if we don’t make the playoffs, like everybody else is going to do, and say, ‘Woulda, coulda won that Atlanta game; woulda, coulda won that Tampa Bay game. Would have been in the playoffs.’ But at this point right now, my mind frame is the best we can do is 10-6. That would be good enough for me right now.”

Usually, that’s good enough to make the playoffs. Only five 10-win teams have missed the postseason since the league instituted the current format in 1990, but to hit that number, the Bears would have to do something they haven’t accomplished since the 2006 Super Bowl season: win more than two in a row.