It used to be a thing, when this was a rivalry, which was almost never. The Packers have absolutely OWNED the Bears since Brett Favre’s arrival on the scene in 1992, the Bears owned it prior to that, then Packers, so on and so forth. However, from the trash talk out of Chicago (which is always because they have zero awareness), you’d think this is a huge matchup, akin to 2010, which the Packers won both big ones.

What’s At Stake?

Chicago~ their annual tradition carries on of playing Spoiler. The Bears have a chance to knock the Packers out of the playoffs, much like Detroit did last year. The Bears have won 5 of their last 7, however, not against impressive competition. One of those wins was vs. Detroit, but they’ve been inconsistent the last 8 games, or so. Relatively, Chicago has improved – considering they couldn’t get any worse than starting the year 0-4 and in that fashion, their delusional fanbase (redundant) thinks they’re on the cusp of something, yet they’re torn on whether Fields is the future or not…hopefully for us Packer fans they decide HE IS!

Green Bay~ the Packers are in the exact same scenario as last season…win and you’re in! Coming into the season, the majority of Packer nation wanted to see if Jordan Love was the answer at QB moving forward – he is. The 2nd priority was to get all the youth as many snaps and experience as possible; mission accomplished. Should Green Bay find themselves in the playoffs, they’d be a full year ahead of schedule. Think about Detroit’s rebuild, they traded away Stafford for a King’s Ransom and have built their roster properly. Even then, they missed out on the postseason a year ago and then won the division fairly easily this year – and in Milwaukee Brewer fashion, hung a banner…

Matchup

What stands out is the Bears’ rushing attack vs. the Packers well-known awful rush defense. Green Bay has improved in recent weeks as they’ve jumped out to large leads in their last 2, so both Carolina and Minnesota avoided the rush, but the Packers still were gouged… Look for Chicago to stick with the run to open the pass game, hopefully the Packers carry on their man coverage with blitz looks to generate pressure on Fields, who’s already inaccurate when not under duress. If Green Bay can win the turnover battle, Chicago turns it over quite a bit, but they take it away a ton as well (tied for 3rd in the NFL).

To recap, Chicago runs the ball effectively (even if that’s Fields), which means they hold the ball (2nd in Time of Possession), and they generate a ton of turnovers, which makes up for a below avg. pass defense and scoring defense…this is how they’ve gone 7-9 instead of continuing on in the bottom of the league…

Prediction

To keep up with, when I pick against the Packers they win, theme….

Bears 27 (+3)
Packers 24

Season: 4-12
Overall: 91-64