Green Bay Packers ready for Chicago Bears
The Green Bay Packers have good reason to be pleased with their playoff run. While they didn’t have a division title themselves, they were able to knock out the NFC East champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, in the first week of the playoffs.
If that wasn’t enough, in the following week they crushed the top seeded NFC team, the Atlanta Falcons. The Packers are on a roll.
Until the second of January, Green Bay’s quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, didn’t have any playoff wins to boast of. Now he has two and will lead the Packers in the NFC Conference Championship game against the Chicago Bears.
Any team that makes it to the conference championship game has reason to be fired up but what makes the Packers vs. Bears game special is the fact that both teams are division rivals. That rivalry is just as strong on the field as it is off the field.
The Bears have been in the spotlight after they defeated the Seattle Seahawks 24-34. Chicago’s quarterback Jay Cutler played a particularly impressive game and earned his first playoff victory.
“They've had some guys there for a while that have really been producing, playing well”, Green Bay’s linebacker, A.J. Hawk, said of the Bears. “So if they're getting more national attention, whatever, that's fine. That's OK with us. They can have it. We'll
be fine with the guys we have here”.
The Packers have always had a strong defence. Their pass rush ranks fifth in the league. They have on average allowed just 15 points per game. But unlike the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Baltimore Ravens and the Chicago Bears, they don’t primarily depend on
the strength of their defence.
The Packers have the 5th best passing attack in the league. The Bears’ pass ranks 28th, the Steelers’ ranks 14th and the Ravens’ 20th. The Steelers, Ravens and the Bears are the 1st, 3rd and
4th ranked defensive teams (in that order) in the league, the Packers are 2nd.
None of the top four teams have much of an offense except the Packers.
In the last four games that the Packers won, Rodgers has passed 1179 yards and scored 11 touchdowns. He threw just one interception in those games and had an average rating of 122.2. In his last game against the Atlanta Falcons, Rodgers scored 3 passing
and one rushing touchdown.
Cutler has faced the Packers twice this season. In both games he has thrown just one touchdown pass against 3 interceptions. The Packers have always put pressure on Cutler. In those two regular season games, Culter was sacked a whopping 9 times.
“As a 'DB,' you don't get to see the front seven doing their job because you are in coverage all the time”, Green Bay’s Tramon Williams said. “When you come back and watch film and see the way those guys are playing up front, it's crazy. They've done a great
job up there and kind of made our job easy”.
Leading the Packers defence are cornerback, Charles Woodson, and linebacker, Clay Matthews.
Woodson was named defensive player of the year in 2009. He caught 9 interceptions in a single season last year, a Green Bay record. This year his numbers have fallen but that isn’t because his performance hasn’t been up to the mark but because quarterbacks
tend to shy away from throwing the ball in his direction.
While Woodson was the given the defensive player of the year honour last season, Matthews looks set to take the award this year. He has made 13.5 sacks, caught an interception and forced two fumbles.
Then of course there is Williams with 6 interceptions in the regular season and 3 in the two playoff games he has played. Williams has been getting a lot of attention from his teammates and from around the league for his performance in the playoffs but he
tries to not let it go to his head.
The Packers defence and offense are both ready to take on the Bears but Chicago is not short on confidence either. Next Sunday the division rivals would throw everything they have at each other
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