A strange day indeed might be on tap for Matt Nagy and the Bears

The Vikings clearly have something to play for Sunday. The Bears kinda, sorta do, if they squint hard enough. That’s the story of the game, even before it has been played.

The playoff possibilities have given Vikings coach Mike Zimmer an obvious assignment: Beat the Bears, and your team is in. As for how the playoff-bound Bears should approach the game, the postseason landscape basically has told coach Matt Nagy: ‘‘I don’t know what the heck to tell you. You’re on your own here.’’

It’s why the Vikings are favored by 4½ points and why four of five Sun-Times writers have picked the Bears to lose in the regular-season finale. Any other time during the season, it would have been a different story.

The 11-4 Bears already have clinched a home playoff game. If they beat the Vikings and the 12-3 Rams somehow lose at home to the 4-11 49ers on Sunday, the Bears will get the second seed in the NFC and a first-round bye. The Bears and Rams would finish with the same record, and the Bears’ 15-6 head-to-head victory Dec. 9 would serve as the tiebreaker.

According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, there’s a 5 percent chance of the Bears winning and the Rams losing. Nagy is playing a card that says, ‘‘So you’re telling me there’s a chance.’’ What else can he do?

The Rams should squash the 49ers, meaning there figures to be very little drama as far as playoff position goes, but you never know. That you-never-know element is why the NFL flexed the Bears-Vikings game to 3:25 p.m., so it would be played at the same time as the 49ers-Rams game.

And it’s why the Bears are in a strange in-between world of playing hard against the Vikings until they don’t have to. Whether that’s by halftime (should the Rams have a big lead at that point) or later, no one can be sure. Or maybe it’s never.

NFL coaches don’t do well with gray areas. They want plain, unambiguous goals. So it was interesting to listen to Nagy talk during the week about how to approach a big, old swamp of gray. He wants his players to look at this game like any other game, but human nature being what it is, good luck with that.

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That’s what Nagy is fighting against. Conventional wisdom says players are more likely to get hurt when they’re not playing at full speed. I don’t think the theory is based on actual science, but it’s what lots of people believe. It’s one of the things Nagy is trying to guard against in the murky waters he’s attempting to navigate. He wants all-out effort.

But what about Bears players who are dealing with injuries heading into the game? Should Nagy err on the side of caution with them? Receiver Allen Robinson hurt his ribs last Sunday against the 49ers but later returned and finished the game. Should the Bears play him because there’s an outside chance of the Rams losing? Or should they sit him out of concern he’ll get hurt and be unavailable for the postseason?

‘‘We’re in that weird position of we’ve got to win,’’ Nagy said Wednesday. ‘‘We’ve got to win, we need to win, and that’s what we’re talking about. But [any injured player] who is in these situations that they’re in, we want to make sure we’re doing the right thing for them, for us and for our future.’’

A day later, Nagy said of Robinson: ‘‘If he can help us in any way, let’s go. If he can’t, it’s the next guy up.’’

The Bears don’t have to win. That’s the problem and the challenge of the day, no matter what Nagy’s message is to his players. It would be very nice if they won and extremely nice if the Rams lost. The Bears with a second-round game at Soldier Field would be huge. But a must-win game Sunday? No. They’re already guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, which

is the goal of most teams before the season starts.

Nagy might have tipped his hand a bit when he said Wednesday the Bears’ focus would be on winning, no matter which of his players were on the field.

‘‘Regardless of who is in the game, we’re going there to win the game,’’ he said. ‘‘None of that is going to change for any of the players, any of the coaches. That’s just not where we’re at right now. And I feel like if we stay mentally focused on that, then everything else will just kind of take care of itself.’’

So don’t be surprised if some of your favorite Bears are pulled from the game. Unless they’re not. Possibly. A strange day, indeed.