Chicago Bears feeling the rivalry with the Green Bay Packers
The 2010-11 season playoffs have been rife with division rivalries. We were treated to the New England Patriots against the New York Jets, and the Baltimore Ravens against the Pittsburgh Steelers games in the divisional round. This Sunday will feature one
of the oldest rivalries in the most important National Football Conference (NFC) game of the season.
The Chicago Bears will face division rivals, the Green Bay Packers, in the NFC Conference Championship game at Soldier Field on 23 January.
Chicago Coach Lovie Smith said he understands what the Rivalry means for the teams and the fans. He said, “The first thing (chairman) Michael McCaskey went over with when I came here to interview for the job was to make sure I knew about the rivalry. He
let me know a little bit about it then, too. Believe me; we know exactly how we're supposed to feel about that rivalry.”
The Chicago Bears won the NFC North title with an 11-5 record in the regular season. The Packers made it to the wild card round with a 10-6 record. Green Bay first travelled to Philadelphia to beat the Eagles 21-16, earning quarterback Aaron Rodgers the
first playoff win of his career. A week later, the Packers crushed the Atlanta Falcons at Georgia Dome courtesy of Rodgers’ solitary rushing touchdown, and three passing touchdowns.
Now the Packers and Bears will meet in the Conference Championship. The two sides have played each other twice in the regular season. The Bears won the first game while the Packers won the second. Their third game is the tie-breaker and both sides want to
win it more than anything else.
“I don't think we really need a lot of motivation for this team,” Smith said. “We know ... how important this football game is to our fans. Of course, it's big for us. It's a game where everyone wants to talk about all the (history). 1941 is the last time,
the only time, we played for the championship.”
In the regular season the Bears had already secured the playoffs and a bye-week before their last game. Coach Smith could have let his starters rest and prepare for the playoffs and he would have too, if their final opponents hadn’t been the Green Bay Packers.
Smith sent out his starters despite the risk of injury to knock the Packers out of the playoffs, but Green Bay won that game. Smith said about the Bears earlier performances, “You want to beat the Packers whenever you get an opportunity. Then, it was just
about us playing to improve as a football team, that as much as anything.”
Two weeks later the Packers are challenging the Bears again. The feeling of rivalry is mutual. Packers’ cornerback Charles Woodson said, “I just look at it that it was a rivalry game. They wanted to beat the Packers and we wanted to beat the Bears”.
Chicago’s tight end Greg Olsen said that the rivalry between the Bears and the Packers wasn’t personal. He added that they want to beat the Packers and not Aaron Rodgers. Coach Smith concurred but admitted that neither team likes the other. He said, “Believe
me, there is not a whole lot of love for us coming up north.”
The Bears are going to have their hands full with the Packers. Green Bay’s Quarterback has been playing impressively and has helped his side maintain a four-game winning streak. The Packers defeat in week 3 of the regular season had as much to do with how
well the Bears played, as it did with how undisciplined the Packers were. Green Bay incurred 18 penalties in that game and helped the Bears to victory.
Since then the Packers have clamped down on discipline, and with 78 total penalties in the regular season, they are tied for third place as the most disciplined team in the league. In the season finale the Packers showed that they have what it takes to beat
the Bears.
“If you're beating your rivals and you're winning your division, you have a chance to achieve your ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl,” Smith said. “Those are the three goals that we'll have every year. Guys have bought into that. We still have an opportunity
to achieve all of those goals.”
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