2001 Bears - the most improbable season in recent history?

In 1991 the Bears made the playoffs. This season marked the end of the Bear’s successful reign over the NFC that was capitalized by a Super Bowl win in the 1985 season and arguably the greatest defense ever.

Ditka would leave as head coach after the next season when the Bears only managed to go 5-11 and the team would only make the playoffs once during their next 9 seasons (when they just barely made the wildcard round in ‘94). Nothing was really changing in Chicago. They were consistently a 4 to 6 win team in the 90s and due to multiple weak drafts they were never really able to climb out of the whole.

1997: 4-12
1998: 4-12
1999: 6-10
2000: 5-12
2001: 13-3???
2002: 4-12
2003: 7-9
2004: 5-11

Then something happened in 2001...

So after being dead last in their division for the past 4 years, the Bears were now tied with the 2nd best record in the entire NFL. What’s even crazier is that they went back to the bottom of the division right after this season. This makes the 2001 Bears’ season one of the greatest flukes in sports history.