Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears are in different spots than usual this season. Packers are hanging on by the skin of their teeth for a playoff spot while Chicago is comfortably heading to the playoffs barring a disaster in the final three weeks of the season. There is a ton on the line when these two teams meet on Sunday afternoon. For the Bears, they win and they’re celebrating their first NFC North division title since 2010. For the Packers, they need to survive and advance as the team find itself in playoff mode. Aaron Rodgers and company win this week, they still have a chance and show up in the ‘In The Hunt’ graphic with two easy games to finish off the 2018 season.

How do you stop the Bears pass rush? – That’s the question that everyone will ask on sports radio today, and people will feel confident about the Bears winning because of that pass rush. Green Bay needs to keep it very simple with their passing game. Packers cannot have these long, drawn-out plays, rather, they need things like slants, outs, comebacks along with other short routes. Green Bay can go for the home run every now and again, yet, it cannot be on the regular.

Packers need to force turnovers – Green Bay has their own pass rush. It doesn’t have Khalil Mack or Akiem Hicks, yet, they attack the quarterback. Mitchell Trubisky is an interception machine. He has been bad against high-quality opponents this season. Last week, it looked like every ball sailed on the young Bears quarterback. Green Bay has to take advantage. Hopefully, Bashaud Breeland can play in this one as he’s been out with a personal issue combined with Jaire Alexander and Josh Jackson to make plays for the team.

Can Joe Philbin cure the road woes? – Green Bay is one of the only teams in the NFL who does not have a road victory. The other is San Francisco. There are many teams who struggle on the road like New England, Miami, Minnesota, etc, but only two teams are actually winless. I wonder if Joe Philbin is going to change up the routine at all for these guys on the road. To me, there is some adjustment needed for the team. Maybe this feeds in to the whole distraction thing, and Packers come out more focused with Philbin at the helm.

Prediction
Bears do have a pass rush, but this screams letdown to me. Rodgers and the Packers have owned Chicago at Soldier Field, and the Bears lost there earlier this season. Packers will replicate their short passing game and get some help from Aaron Jones leading them to victory with multiple defensive turnovers leading to Green Bay being victorious this weekend. Packers 24-20

Charlie.