The Chicago Bears will try to keep their magical season alive Sunday night. They’ll host the Los Angeles Rams at Soldier Field in their NFC divisional matchup.

Chicago is riding high after it pulled off its best playoff win in recent memory. The Bears came back from an 18-point halftime deficit to beat the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Wild Card. The comeback marked the Bears’ seventh fourth-quarter comeback this season and their first playoff win in 15 years.

Now they’ll face their toughest test of the season going against the Rams.

Los Angeles spent most of the season as a Super Bowl favorite with one of the best offenses in the NFL. Quarterback Matthew Stafford is a contender for Most Valuable Player with star targets like Puka Nacua and Davante Adams. Meanwhile, the Rams have one of the best defensive lines in the league.

But the Rams aren’t invulnerable. They lost two of their last three games in the regular season and needed a last-minute comeback to get past the Carolina Panthers in their Wild Card game.

Sunday’s game kicks off at 5:30 p.m. on NBC. Here are the top five storylines to watch.

Limiting Puka Nacua, Davante Adams

Chicago will try to stop one of the best wide receiver duos it’s faced all season.

Both Nacua and Adams have seemed unstoppable. Nacua had a career regular season, catching 129 passes for 1,715 yards. Meanwhile, Adams has looked like his old self with the Rams. He caught 60 passes for 789 yards and led the team with 14 touchdown receptions.

The Bears secondary has struggled to keep up in the passing game in recent weeks. Chicago allowed Packers quarterback Jordan Love to throw for 323 yards Saturday, while Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff threw for 331 yards in Week 18 and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy threw for 303 yards in Week 17.

It’ll be interesting to see how Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen tries to disrupt Stafford and his targets. With cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson back, it’ll be the first time this season Allen will have his starting secondary. Regardless, it’ll be a tough challenge.

“Two-headed monster out there,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “But at the end of the day ... you can see it on film where and when they like to get the guys the ball and what routes they like to run when they get it to them. So for us it’s really being in tune and on that.”

Avoiding Groundhog Day offensively

The late-game heroics have been fun this season. But that likely won’t be sustainable against the Rams.

Chicago put itself into an 18-point hole at halftime against the Packers because of another slow offensive start. The Bears put up three points against the Packers in the first half Saturday. They’ve now scored 17 points in the first half over the last four games, with 14 coming against the 49ers.

A key to getting off to a quick start is for Bears quarterback Caleb Williams to show that fourth-quarter clutch play earlier in the game. The Rams have one of the better pass rushes in the league. But Williams could pick on the secondary, which allowed 216.7 passing yards per game during the season, the 14th-most in the NFL.

Don’t expect much to look different, though. The Bears didn’t feel they needed a revamp to get quicker starts.

“I believe in the process that we put in place, so we’re not going to change that at all,” Bears head coach Ben Johnson said. “I’ve been saying it all year long, whenever something pops up and you want it to improve, you just make it a point of emphasis, and these guys do a great job of finding ways to help correct it. So we’ll do that as a coaching staff and as players.”

Fixing the run

Given the weather forecast [more on that later], a good way to get the offense going would be to jump-start the running attack.

Chicago developed one of the best running games in the NFL. The unit rushed for 200 yards three times in a game. D’Andre Swift ran for a career-high 1,087 yards this year, and rookie Kyle Monangai finished fifth amongst all rookies with 783 yards.

It’s been a struggle for the Bears over the past month despite finishing the regular season with the third-best rushing game in the league. They rushed for 110 yards against the 49ers before running for a season-low 65 yards against the Lions. The unit regrouped a little against the Packers on Saturday, but still finished with 93 yards.

The Bears will need that quick start to keep up with the Rams’ potent offense.

“In games like that, you’ve got to run the ball and be efficient in the run game,” Swift said. “If you’re not efficient coming out of it, you’re always looking at different ways to – it was good that we got the win so we can correct those things this week and get back on track."

Protecting Caleb Williams’ blindside

The Bears took a major step this season because of a dramatic improvement in protecting Williams. That’ll be tested Sunday.

The Rams have one of the better pass rushes in the NFL. They were tied for seventh in the NFL with 47 sacks and showed they can rush from different points. Linebacker Byron Young led the team with 12 sacks while linebacker Jared Verse added 7.5 sacks. Defensive end Kobie Turner also added seven sacks.

Chicago’s offensive line will miss starting left tackle Ozzy Trapilo, who suffered a season-ending injury against the Packers on Saturday. Theo Benedet, who made eight starts this season, will likely get the start against the Rams.

The Bears were confident in Benedet’s ability to step in. But it’ll be a tough test for the line to quickly get in rhythm against the Rams’ pass rush.

“They’re outstanding,” Bears offensive line coach Dan Roushar said. “They’re powerful. They can compress the pocket from the edge quickly. The guys inside are really good. I think collectively, this front five is as good as we’ve seen in its entirety and we’ll have to play really well.”

Bear weather?

Sunday night will be frigid on the lakefront. The forecast as of Friday predicts that Sunday will have a high of 18 degrees Fahrenheit, with the temperature dropping to as low as 1 degree. The wind chill will make it feel like it’s around or below zero during the game.

It will be one of the coldest playoff games in Bears history. The Bears’ coldest playoff game was in 1988 when they hosted Washington and the temperature was 4 degrees, according to Stathead. The Rams’ coldest playoff game came in 1969 when it was 11 degrees in Minnesota.

“Two-headed monster out there. But at the end of the day, too, everybody – I mean not everybody – but you can see it on film where and when they like to get the guys the ball and what routes they like to run when they get it to them. So for us it’s really being in tune and on that."

—  Jaylon Johnson, Bears cornerback

It’s been a while since the Rams played in those types of temperatures. Los Angeles’ coldest game of the season was 45 degrees when it played at the Carolina Panthers in November. The Rams are 3-3 in games below freezing since head coach Sean McVay took over in 2017, including a loss against the Bears in 2018.

Chicago will play in its fourth game below freezing this season, having gone 2-1, and has practiced in the cold without heaters to get acclimated. It will be interesting to see whether it makes much of a difference Sunday.

“I think that is a good question for them, how they feel about that,” Ben Johnson said. “I do know this will be the coldest game that they have played this year. That’s something that I recognized when we found out who the opponent was. But I think that the fact that Matthew Stafford has played well in cold games in his past, you know, I don’t know how much of an advantage that gives you over their passing game necessarily, but there are a lot of elements that go into a game like this.”