It’s Bears Week.
The Packers host the Bears at Lambeau Field on Sunday to close the regular season. It’s the first time Green Bay has hosted Chicago in the season finale two years in a row.
This is the oldest rivalry in the NFL, going back to 1921. Green Bay leads the series 108-95-6. Those 108 wins, playoffs included, are tied for the most by one team over another in league history. The Giants have 108 over Washington.
The Packers haven’t lost to the Bears since 2018. Eleven straight wins is the longest streak in the history of the series and the longest current streak by any NFL team over a single opponent. Over those 11 games Green Bay has outscored Chicago by 128 points, come out 15 ahead in turnovers and held the Bears to 20 points or fewer nine times.
Matt LaFleur is 11-0 against Chicago. No other coach in NFL history has won his first 11 games against the Bears. Joe Gibbs went 12-0 against Detroit, and George Allen and Blanton Collier are also on the short list of coaches who went unbeaten against one team over a long stretch.
The players know what this game means. Every so often a new arrival on one side or the other says beating the old rival is one of his first goals. More than 100 players have played for both teams, so plenty of them have seen it from both sidelines.
Lambeau has been especially hard on Chicago. Green Bay has won eight straight and 14 of the last 16 at home against the Bears and outscored them 450-244 in those 16 games.
Last year’s Week 18 game was here, too. The Packers beat the Bears 17-9 and clinched a playoff spot. Nobody on either sideline will need extra motivation this time.
Sunday’s game kicks off at noon. That’s only the second noon game between these teams at Lambeau in the last 16 seasons. The other was in 2019. This will also be the second straight season with no prime-time meeting, after 17 straight seasons with at least one. The networks may have noticed the Bears.
Chicago would like to end the streak. The Bears have had 11 chances.
