The leading candidate for the NFL’s greatest rivalry is the almost 100 year saga between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers. After 194 meetings, the Packers were able to tie the all-time series on Sunday, continuing their recent dominance.
The Bears and Packers have played more games against one another than any two teams in NFL history. And Sunday’s last second 30-27 victory at Soldier Field continued a run of dominance by the Packers that have finally seen them draw level in the all-time series at 94-94-6. The hapless Bears almost had an incredible fourth quarter comeback led by Matt Barkley of all people, after trailing 27-10. However, once the Bears tied the game they allowed a deep completion from Aaron Rodgers to Jordy Nelson to set up the winning field goal. So close, yet so far.
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It might come as a surprise to the modern day NFL fan that Sunday’s win only tied the series given just how dominant the Packers have been over the Bears in recent years. In fact, it’s the first time Green Bay has been level in the series against Chicago since September 1933 when the series was tied at 11 games a piece.
The Bears controlled the 40’s and 50’s, going a combined 30-9-2 against the Packers, building up a lead in the NFL’s greatest rivalry that Green Bay hasn’t fully caught up with until now. And as we all know, that’s largely thanks to the discrepancy in quarterbacks the two franchises have employed over the last two decades.
While the Bears have thrown out quarterbacks like Cade McNown, Rex Grossman, Jay Cutler, Shane Matthews, Henry Burris, Kyle Orton, Jonathan Quinn, and on and on and on the Packers have had two Hall of Famers in Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.
There’s no worse feeling as a sports fan than getting dominated by your chief rival, and Bears fans have had to deal with their fair share of misery in the rivalry. In the last 50 games of the series going back to Favre’s rookie year in 1992, the Packers are an incredible 37-13 against the Bears.
Favre was an impressive 22-10 against the Monsters of the Midway, flummoxing Bears fans time and time again as Chicago never could field a franchise quarterback to battle against him.
Rodgers has been even better, going 15-4 against the Packers’ chief rivals, including the most important game in the series in recent memory, the 2010 NFC Championship Game that the Packers won at Soldier Field. Against the Bears, Rodgers has a 105.7 QB Rating to go with 38 TDs and only 9 INTs.
That prodigious record comes with Rodgers playing many of those games against the closest thing the Bears have had to a franchise quarterback since they last won a championship – Jay Cutler. Sorry Bears fans, it’s true. Cutler is the all-time leader for the Bears in passing yards, attempts, completions, touchdowns, and quarterback rating. However, he’s just 2-12 all-time against the Packers with a rating of 68.9, 16 TDs and 22 INTs. Such is the state of these two franchises for the past two decades.
Of course, Cutler didn’t play in Sunday’s game due to injury. And he may not play against the Packers again in a Bears uniform. If the Bears do decide to move on, it means they’re starting over once again in their search to find someone who can finally reverse the tide. And at 3-11 and with a likely top pick coming in this year’s draft, it just might be time to launch a new rebuilding project.
Bears fans can only hope that the team can find a quarterback, a coach, anybody who can right the ship. And the place every Bears fan would like to see them start is by finding a way to beat the Packers. If they can somehow find a way to beat the Packers, they can somehow find a way to get back to the top of the NFL.
