Packers Game Provides Bears Appropriate Final Exam

How far have the Bears come since their low point against Green Bay earlier will become apparent in regular-season finale with the playoffs on the line

Appropriately, it all comes down to a game against the Green Bay Packers.

Any other opponent simply wouldn't do in a game serving as a junction between what has happened to the Chicago Bears, and what can happen. Their season of ups, downs and ups, the rumors and speculation about the futures for quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace, could all come down to a game against a team they've lost to 18 of the last 21 times.

It's possible making a stand against nemesis Aaron Rodgers could go a long way toward where they go the rest of this season, and also after this season.

"We're playing our rival and we're playing it for playoff implications," Bears defensive end Akiem Hicks said. "You really can't write it any better than that so our goal is to go out and play our best football like we always do."

The key word being "always."

The Bears didn't really play their best football for six straight losses. With a win they become the third team to have a six-game losing streak and still make the playoffs.

"There's no excuses," safety Eddie Jackson said. "It's none of that. It's win or go home. I's been like that for the last, what, four weeks for us? So we know what's at stake for us."

With a loss they fall to .500 for the second straight regular season, and can only hope a Los Angeles Rams team decimated by injuries opens their back door to the postseason by upsetting Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals.

The Bears rebounded from that losing streak, from a blown victory against Detroit and an embarrassing 41-25 loss at Green Bay, to get to this position to face Rodgers again.

"We've had to bring it when we were in a drought and we've kind of just keep building off that and kept getting better and better," quarterback Mitchell Trubisky said.

The statistics reflect it, as they've risen from last in the league in rushing to 24th behind David Montgomery and their rebuilt offensive line. The last Packers game was the first game they used that line, the first time Matt Nagy gave play calling over to offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, the first one Trubisky played as starter after Nick Foles' won two out of seven starts.

"I think everyone else has fed off the offensive line and their energy and intensity and how they've gotten better as a unit the last couple weeks and really everything in our offense goes through them," Trubisky said.

Trubisky improved, as well. Nevertheless, it all came against struggling defenses, including the win over the Minnesota Vikings. 

Now comes the ultimate test of doing it against a team some see as Super Bowl-bound. Trubisky has only a passer rating of 80 and a 1-4 record starting against the Packers.

The pressure falls greatly on their own defense to respond after being so thorough demolished by Rodgers in the first game.

The key to stopping Rodgers is something the Bears know plenty about from the way their own season has gone—resiliency.

"Just understanding, No. 1, that there's a lot of good plays that happen when he's behind the center," Nagy said. "He can make a lot of plays. I think that this game is more about being able to respond to when a good play does happen, right?

"So you go back to that first game and we had them in third down that first drive of the game and he dropped back, he scrambled and he bought some time and then he made a hell of a throw to his guy for a touchdown. And so you worked hard to get to that position on third down and long, he scores a touchdown. How do you recover from that? Do you come out the next drive and you get a stop or you let that defeat you a little bit?"

Their entire season has been about this recovering from defeat.

Now they need to show they've arrived where they need to be, or face only uncertainty going forward.

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