Packer Central

Five Greatest Games In History of Packers-Bears Rivalry

The Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears have been playing since 1921. Will another classic be in store on Sunday? Here are some of the greatest games and moments in rivalry history.

Bill Huber

Green Bay Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji celebrates after returning an interception for a touchdown against the Bears.
Green Bay Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji celebrates after returning an interception for a touchdown against the Bears. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers will host the Chicago Bears on Sunday at Lambeau Field. It will be the 210th meeting in the ancient series.

The rivalry has been filled with memorable moments and bad blood. Here are the five best games in Packers-Bears history.

Five: Sept. 7, 1980 – Packers 12, Bears 6

The Packers had a chance to upset the Bears in overtime, but Chester Marcol’s 35-yard field goal was blocked by Alan Page. The ball bounced right to Marcol, who took off around the left side. Linebacker Jim Gueno had a key block and Marcol ran for the winning touchdown, with the ball balanced on top of his helmet as he started to celebrate.

“It’s a dream come true,” Marcol said after the game. “It was a very fortunate thing. This is probably the biggest moment in my life.

“They loaded up the middle and the ball bounced right at me. Once I caught it and saw the opening, nobody was going to catch me.”

Exactly three months later, the Bears beat the Packers 61-7.

In Mudbaths & Bloodbaths: The Inside Story of the Bears-Packers Rivalry by Gary D’Amato and Cliff Christl, Bears offensive lineman Dan Jiggetts said veteran backup quarterback Mike Phipps was changing plays to run up the score.

“We’re in the huddle and the play comes in from the sideline to run the ball,” Jiggetts said. “We’re up by 50 points, but Phipps hadn’t had a lot of opportunity to play. They’re telling him to run the ball and he goes, ‘I don’t think so.’ So, he starts putting it back up in the air. It was a beautiful thing. Were we trying to rub it in? Absolutely. We wanted 70 points.”

Four: Sept. 9, 2018 – Packers 24, Bears 23

The season-opening game looked like a total disaster for the Packers.

During the second quarter, Aaron Rodgers was sacked by Roy Robertson-Harris and carted off the field with a leg injury.

With seconds remaining in the first half, backup quarterback DeShone Kizer was pressured by Robertson-Harris and intercepted by Khalil Mack, who returned it 27 yards for a touchdown to give the Bears a 17-0 lead.

The Bears started the second half with a field goal to extend their lead to 20-0.

Rodgers returned and led an epic comeback. The Packers’ first four possessions of the second half resulted in a field goal and three consecutive touchdowns.

With Chicago leading 23-17 and the Packers facing a third-and-10 from their 25 with 2:29 to go, Rodgers had all day before finally finding Randall Cobb over the middle. When Cobb turned upfield, he had nothing but green grass in front of him for a 75-yard touchdown.

Nick Perry’s sack/strip clinched the win, the largest fourth-quarter comeback in Packers history.

Three: Dec. 29, 2013 – Packers 33, Bears 28

The 2024 version of the NFC North has nothing in common with the 2013 edition.

Even though Aaron Rodgers missed a big chunk of the season with a broken collarbone, the Packers had a chance to win the NFC North by beating the Bears at Soldier Field.

Chicago led 28-27 with 46 seconds remaining when, on fourth-and-6, Rodgers spotted a wide-open Randall Cobb behind the defense for a touchdown that gave the Packers (8-7-1) the division crown over the Bears (8-8).

“It felt like the ball was in the air for so long!” Cobb said. “I had a bunch of thoughts going through my head: ‘You better not drop this. If you drop it, they’re going to kill you. You better catch it. Just catch the ball. Body-catch it if you have to. Do what you have to do, just make the catch.”’

The hero of the play was John Kuhn, whose desperation block against Julius Peppers allowed Rodgers to escape to the left.

“John Kuhn is a big-time football player,” Rodgers said.

Two: Nov. 6, 1989 – Packers 14, Bears 13

The “Instant Replay Game” will live forever in Packers lore.

On fourth-and-goal from the 14 with 41 seconds left and the Packers trailing 13-7, Don Majkowski extended the play to the right. As he approached the line of scrimmage and sideline, Majkowski threw across his body to Sterling Sharpe for the tying touchdown.

Or so he thought.

Instead, he was penalized for throwing the ball after crossing the line of scrimmage. The penalty was a loss of down. The Bears had won again.

Or so they thought.

After about 2 minutes of replays, CBS’s Dan Fouts realized Majkowski’s pass was actually a touchdown.

Finally, after a review of almost 4 minutes, replay official Bill Parkinson ruled a touchdown.

“I had full confidence that I wasn’t over the line,” Majkowski said after the game. “I have a pretty good sense of where I am on the field, and I was disappointed that the ref threw the flag all the way from the other side of the field.”

Chris Jacke booted the extra point and the “Cardiac Pack” held on for a 14-13 win.

“I’m at a loss for words,” Packers coach Lindy Infante said.

The Bears, who had won eight consecutive games in the series, marked the game with an asterisk in their media guide. (The game is not marked with an asterisk in this year’s media guide.)

One: Jan. 23, 2011 – Packers 21, Bears 14

In 20 NFL seasons, Aaron Rodgers has thrown 499 touchdown passes plus another 45 in the playoffs for a total of 544. One of his six career tackles, however, will rank forever as one of his biggest plays.

In the 2010 NFC Championship Game at Soldier Field, the Packers led 14-0 at halftime and were on their way for more to start the third quarter. On third-and-goal from the 6, however, Aaron Rodgers threw an interception to Brian Urlacher. Urlacher was on the way for a touchdown before Rodgers tripped him up at the 39.

“He picked me off a couple times, maybe more than anybody else has,” Rodgers said on The Jim Rome Show in 2013. “But I had one really bad play in the NFC Championship [after the] 2010 season and was able to somehow grab his knee/thigh area enough to trip him up for a tackle. One of my favorite memories going against Brian.”

Two more interceptions sent the Packers to the Super Bowl.

First, with about 6 minutes remaining, B.J. Raji’s pick-six against backup Caleb Hanie gave the Packers a 21-7 lead. It was a legendary call by defensive coordinator Dom Capers, who sent Sam Shields on a corner blitz and dropped Raji into coverage.

The Bears pulled within 21-14 and had one last chance but, on fourth-and-6, Shields picked off Hanie to seal the deal.

Three weeks earlier, the Packers snuck into the playoffs by beating the Bears 10-3 at Lambeau Field. Rodgers’ touchdown pass to Donald Lee put the Packers in front in the fourth quarter, and Nick Collins clinched the game and playoff berth with an interception.

Honorable Mentions: Top Packers-Bears Moments

Here are some bonus classics, in chronological order.

Sept. 20, 1936: Packers fan Emmett Platten was furious at the officials during Green Bay’s 30-3 loss. He ran onto the field to punch one of them. Instead, he hit Bears player Ted Rosequist.

As noted by Packers historian Cliff Christl, Platten wrote an eight-paragraph letter to The Green Bay Press-Gazette that didn’t exactly serve as an apology.

The Packers beat the Bears 21-17 on Sept. 29, 1957. It was the first game at City Stadium – later renamed Lambeau Field. Vice President Richard Nixon was at the game; a moment immortalized on a series of historic photos that used to hang on the hallway leading from the locker room to the field and now are posted outside the media auditorium and near the tunnel to the field.

Remember when the Chargers made a free kick a few weeks ago? The Packers did it in a 23-12 win over the Bears on Sept. 13, 1964. Paul Hornung booted a 52-yard field goal before halftime.

The Bears beat the Packers on a free kick four years later.

On Oct. 21, 1985, William “The Refrigerator” Perry barreled through Packers linebacker George Cumby and into the end zone during Chicago’s 23-7 win.

A couple weeks later, on Nov. 3, 1985, someone from a Green Bay radio station put manure in the Bears’ locker room. Chicago overcame the stench to win 16-10 in a game in which Mark Lee was ejected for taking Walter Payton out of bounds and shoving him over the Bears’ benches and Ken Stills was penalized for hitting fullback Matt Suhey long after the whistle. This time, William Perry scored on a touchdown catch.

Tempers truly reached a boiling point when the Bears beat the Packers 12-10 on Nov. 23, 1986, when the Packers’ Charles Martin – wearing a towel with the numbers of several Bears players – picked up Jim McMahon and slammed him to the turf following a Packers interception.

“Never talked to him. Never spoke to the guy,” McMahon told Fox News. “And I knew it was coming. It came from the head coach because [Packers coach] Forrest Gregg and [Bears coach Mike] Ditka didn’t like [each other], and Forrest sure didn’t like me, either. So, I knew it was coming. I just thought I’d be able to see it.”

McMahon’s season was over with an injured shoulder; Martin was suspended for two games in one of the dirtiest plays in NFL history.

Said Commissioner Pete Rozelle: “In other aggressive acts against quarterbacks, the quarterback at least still had the ball or the ball was in play. That wasn’t the case this time.”

As for the game, Randy Wright’s 46-yard touchdown pass to Ed West put the Packers in front against the defending Super Bowl champions in the fourth quarter, but Kevin Butler’s 32-yard field goal sent the Packers to 2-10.

On Oct. 31, 1994, an injured Brett Favre splashed his way through the rain for a 36-yard touchdown run as the Packers crushed the Bears 33-6 at Soldier Field. It was the first of 10 consecutive wins in the series by Green Bay.

On Nov. 6, 2014, Aaron Rodgers tied the NFL record with six touchdown passes in the first half alone as the Packers crushed the Bears 55-14 at Lambeau Field.

On Dec. 18, 2016, Aaron Rodgers’ 60-yard bomb to Jordy Nelson in the final moments set up Mason Crosby’s game-winning field goal in a 30-27 win that highlighted the team’s “Run the Table” series of games.

On Oct. 17, 2021, Aaron Rodgers’ 6-yard run finalized a 24-14 win at Chicago. In the end zone, Rodgers yelled, “I’ve owned you all my (bleeping) life! I own you! I still own you!”

Afterward, he explained: “Sometimes you black out on the field – in a good way. I looked up in the stands and in the front row all I saw was a woman giving me the double bird, so I’m not sure exactly what came out of my mouth next.”

On Dec. 4, 2022, the Packers won 28-19 as Green Bay surpassed Chicago for the most wins in NFL history. This would be Aaron Rodgers’ final start against the Bears; he finished 25-5 against the rivals.

Before the game, he said: “I’ve enjoyed the rivalry over the years and been a part of a ton of these games. This is the 37th I’ll be a part of, and I’ve enjoyed all of them. It’s a great rivalry, been around for a long, long time. Happy to be on this side of it, but a lot of good memories at Soldier Field.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.