Chicago Bears vs Green Bay Packers as a de facto, but not de jure playoff game. Somewhere around Waukegan (Jereme Richmond territory!), Racine or Beloit or somewhere the battle line is drawn. This week the game is so big that I deferred brutally honest preview to my Packers writer Nick Grays. I delegated the history lessons and wonkishness to Jeremy Harris. So this is my random Chicago Bears musings, nuggets, tidbits and prediction.
A couple of these pics come from drunkbearfans.blogspot.com which is as real and as spectacular as it sounds. And I included some glorious pics of Packer fans too to keep things fair and balanced.
-Is this the last game as a member of the Chicago Bears for Jay Cutler? In order to win the NFC North these past few years, you just have to beat Green Bay. If you do that, you probably win it and get in it. If you don’t, well that’s a problem. A big problem for the Chicago Bears franchise and Chicago Bears fans. Since he arrived in Chicago, Cutler is 1-7 with a 54.8 passer rating versus the Pack. Ouch! He has thrown for 8 TDs and 17 INTs. Double ouch!
-On paper, this game could see 400+ combined yards of rushing. Then again, this is the 2013 NFL where rules dictate you live and die by the forward pass. So that won’t happen. The Chicago Bears are dead last in the NFL in rush defense, and the Packers are quite close to the bottom themselves. Also, both rushing attacks are fierce. However, like the mindless cliches tell us “it’s a quarterback driven league,” “it’s a passing league,” “it all starts with the quarterback.”
-We just find out today (Happy Boxing Day!) that Aaron Rodgers will play, and start. So Green Bay’s team physician will decide the NFC North, probably. All bets are off; literally. As there is no betting line on this game yet. But that will change when Mike McCarthy make the Rodgers official. Eddie Lacy will be a game time decision. He’s not likely. Clay Matthews is out. So there are still two things lining up for the Chicago Bears.
-then again “everything’s coming up Milhouse!” happened for the Chicago Bears last Sunday…during the day. And you saw what Chip Kelly and the Eagles did to the Bears with that.
Brutally honest record: 77-34
Brutally honest pick PACK 37, Chicago Bears 31
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS Catch him Tuesdays talking Illini and Northwestern for KOZN 1620 The Zone, Fridays talking Chicago Bears for WAOR 95.7 The Fan