![]() Bears fans have been anticipating Rodgers’ demise and a turnaround in the rivalry for years. Therein lies the intrigue for the season opener against the Packers on Sunday at Soldier Field, with Jordan Love making his second NFL start for the Packers. And that, predictably, has sprung hope anew that the Bears have their best chance to turn the rivalry back in their favor. The Rodgers era finally ran its course last season, and the future Hall of Famer was traded to the Jets during the offseason. The Bears haven’t won back-to-back games against the Packers since a sweep in 2007, Favre’s last season in Green Bay. Including a victory with Brett Hundley playing for an injured Rodgers in 2017 at Soldier Field, the Packers have won 26 of the last 31 meetings to lead the overall series 106-96 with six ties. One of the Bears’ victories came after Rodgers suffered a separated shoulder on a sack by Shea McClellin and was replaced by Seneca Wallace. Rodgers went 25-5 against the Bears as the Packers’ starting quarterback, including a victory in the NFC Championship Game at Soldier Field in January 2011 - one of several soul-crushing moments of the Rodgers era. When Lovie Smith stopped the bleeding after replacing Dick Jauron, winning six of eight games against the Packers in 2005-08, it turned out to be a blip.Īaron Rodgers replaced Favre in 2008 and, in uncanny fashion, tormented the Bears and their fans even more cruelly than Favre had. The Bears were falling apart, losing to the Vikings (38-10) and Bengals (31-28 in overtime) at home and to the Buccaneers (20-17) on the road. The Packers were starting to make progress under Favre, winning two of three games. (The Packers, 2-5 in Mike Holmgren’s first season, were in worse shape at that point than the Bears are today, with only two playoff appearances in 24 seasons since winning Super Bowl II and only one winning record in the previous 13 seasons.)īy the time the Bears faced the Packers in the rematch at Soldier Field, the winds of change already had started to blow. The Bears were 81-57-6 against the Packers at that point, just one game below their high-water mark of 25 games over. ![]() But the Packers and their fans only could lament another blowout loss in a one-sided rivalry. It was still a typical Bears-Packers game in one respect: The Packers had three unnecessary-roughness penalties (Chuck Cecil, Johnny Holland and Edgar Bennett) and the Bears two (Keith Jennings, Maurice Douglass). He was sacked four times, fumbled twice and completed 20 of 37 passes for 214 yards with one touchdown and one interception for a 69.0 passer rating. Favre threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Sterling Sharpe and made some plays, but he otherwise showed little indication of the torment he was about to unleash on the Bears.
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