The Green Bay Packers know they should've won.
Even without Jordan Love and Zach Tom. A less-than-100-percent Christian Watson. The first game without Micah Parsons. Faced with that adversity, Malik Willis still led the Packers to the brink of victory against a Chicago Bears team that had won five straight in the safe confines of Soldier Field.
It took a miracle for the Bears, a meltdown for the Packers, to overturn a 10-point deficit with only two minutes remaining.
Saturday night. Soldier Field. Green Bay heads to Chicago again for the main event of an epic trilogy. This time, though, it's the visiting Packers who hold the advantage.
Packers and Bears will meet on a short week, surprisingly making it Advantage: Green Bay
The scheduling works to the Packers' advantage. Both teams face a short week, with this playoff epic placed in a nighttime Saturday slot. That's only a six-day turnaround.
Here's the key: Green Bay just rested almost every important player, and Matt LaFleur hinted that the team could get several injured starters back next week, including right tackle Zach Tom, who hasn't played since Week 15.
Chicago took a different Week 18 approach, going all-in with its starting lineup to secure the No. 2 seed. It ended up with the better seeding, regardless, despite losing a hard-fought game against the Detroit Lions.
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It was a physical contest that kept the Bears' defense on the field for almost 36 minutes. If there's one thing Dan Campbell's teams guarantee, it is that they will make you fight. Since the start of last season, teams that play the Lions are a combined 12-21 the following week.
With such a short turnaround, the Packers should be fresher than the weary Bears, giving them an advantage.
Green Bay emphasized health and freshness at the expense of momentum, but in reality, neither team has any of that.
Packers fans may have forgotten what a victory feels like. By the time they take the field in Round 1, it will have been 34 days since their last win, sealed by Keisean Nixon's interception against these same Bears.
The Packers have since lost Micah Parsons and four consecutive games. But there's room for optimism. They had the Bears beat before imploding. The Baltimore Ravens embarrassed them, but the Packers didn't have Jordan Love. Sunday's loss in Minnesota? As meaningless as a preseason game. The Vikings beat Clayton Tune and the backup Packers.
Meanwhile, Chicago is on its own two-game losing skid, and there's a difference. The Bears have endured two brutal, deflating, physical defeats at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers and Lions.
The latter is particularly disenchanting.
Dan Campbell's Lions looked done following a tough home loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers and then a six-turnover defeat to the Vikings. But they rolled into Soldier Field and bossed the game. Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams shredded the Bears' pass defense, uncovering some flaws the Packers can attack with Christian Watson and Jayden Reed.
Even forced to rely on the very bottom of their offensive line depth chart, the Lions still moved bodies in the run game and opened lanes for Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, who averaged 4.5 yards per attempt.
Detroit wore down Chicago's defense, and that plays straight into Green Bay's hands. There's a reason why the Packers, the No. 7 seed, opened as 1.5-point favorites over the Bears, the division-winning No. 2 seed.
It's set up for a potential playoff classic, but the short week could make it Advantage: Green Bay.