The Green Bay Packers had an awesome Thanksgiving, taking down the Detroit Lions and sweeping their divisional foe on the season. Unfortunately, the rest of the weekend didn't go the way the Packers hoped, as the Chicago Bears won their Black Friday game.
To make matters worse, with the Bears' win and the Rams' loss to the Panthers on Sunday, Chicago is now the one-seed in the NFC playoffs. This is just in time for the Packers to host the Bears next Sunday in a game with much higher stakes than anyone could have predicted.
Let's just say what we're all thinking. The Bears might have hired Ben Johnson in the offseason but did anyone foresee them turning things around this quickly and being the one-seed in the NFC at this point in the regular season? No, definitely not.
The good news is that the Packers have a chance to spoil the party for Bears fans. These two teams will meet twice in the next three weeks and if the Packers want to swoop in and steal the division away from them, this is the time for them to do it.
Packers have a real chance to crash the Bears’ celebration in Week 14
The Bears are 9-3 while the Packers are 8-3-1. If the Packers win next week against the Bears, they'd be 9-3-1 to the Bears' 9-4, giving them the edge in not just the division but in the NFC one-seed race as well. Of course, they'd still need to hang onto that lead in the final four games of the season (including a rematch in Chicago just two weeks later) but that seems doable.
The hope is that the Packers can keep riding the momentum and topple the Bears in Week 14. Beating the Bears has been something Matt LaFleur has been quite good at during his time in Green Bay (he boasts a 11-1 record against the Bears) and hopefully that success continues. If not, we might unfortunately have to live in a timeline where the Bears are actually competent and that is... not fun to think about, to say the least.
Packers fans will also be hoping that the Bears slip up not just agains them but against the Browns, 49ers, and Lions to close out their regular season. It's still possible for them to do so, as these are the Bears we're talking about. That's the timeline we want to live in, so let's hope it plays out that way.