GREEN BAY — The mindset that coach Matt LaFleur is trying to instill in the Green Bay Packers this week is that the NFC wild card matchup with the Chicago Bears is just the next game on the schedule.
“When you get into these situations, you try not to make it more than what it is,” LaFleur said of being in the playoffs. “For us, for our mindset, it is the next game.”
The reality, however, is that the outcome of Saturday’s game will significantly shape how the 2025-26 season is defined for the Packers.
A win over the Bears, and an injury-riddled Packers team that is without several key starters was able to go on the road and beat their division rival. A playoff win, given the Packers’ injury situation and December losing streak, paints a much rosier picture of the season as a whole, regardless of how far Green Bay goes from there.
But with a loss, the Packers’ season ends having lost five games in a row and with another first-round playoff exit as the seventh seed.
Right or wrong — and perhaps regardless of what may happen in Seattle in the NFC Divisional round if the Packers were to beat the Bears — the perception of what this season was for Green Bay drastically shifts depending on what takes place in Chicago.
So there is a balance that has to be struck this week. As linebacker Isaiah McDuffie said, it’s a big game, but it’s just another game for the Packers to get to where they want to go.
The process behind the Packers’ preparation in the coming days may not differ all that much from a regular-season game. And as the game unfolds on Saturday, Green Bay has to play their brand of football, not letting the moment or circumstances of what’s at stake get too big for them.
However, on the flip side of that, there is a finality that comes with playoff football. It’s win or go home, and that urgency has to be recognized.
“I just been preaching there’s only one opportunity,” safety Xavier McKinney said. “I think that’s the biggest, that’s kind of like the biggest thing from regular season to the playoffs is one shot. You gotta make the most of it. So that being said, the details have to be on point. The play style has to be on point. We gotta be ready to go. We can’t take it for granted.”
Every NFL team must possess a forward-thinking, what’s-next mindset. Dwelling on a previous play or the outcome of a past game doesn’t do much good and can be a hindrance.
McKinney’s message to Green Bay’s defense has been that every team is now 0-0 in the postseason, and what happened in the past is in the past.
However, before being able to fully transition to what’s next, teams must first correct and learn from what went wrong.
This week the Packers aren’t only correcting the mistakes from their most recent game against Minnesota, but given the opponent in the NFC wild card round, the Packers have to dredge up what transpired in the devastating Week 16 overtime loss in Chicago.
“Absolutely,” LaFleur said when asked about bringing up the Week 16 matchup. “We always kind of just talk about some of where our focus needs to be and things that we have to do better, and just what the opposition’s going to present.”
Ultimately, the Packers lost in Chicago the first time around because of their inability to finish. The offense moved the ball well, making five trips to the red zone, but were unable to finish drives, scoring zero touchdowns on those possessions.
Late in the game, a botched onside kick recovery attempt and several defensive miscues derailed the Packers’ efforts to put that game away.
“Football is a game of four quarters, right guard Anthony Belton said. “Anything can happen. That’s why we have to do our part, make sure we’re not giving them those chances to make those big plays. Keep it out of their hands and keep it in our hands.”
Saturday’s meeting will be the third game between the Packers and Bears since Dec. 7. To say that these two teams are familiar with each other would be an understatement.
If the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears didn’t already have a rivalry heading into the NFC wild-card playoff game, they’d have one after playing each other three times in six weeks.
With over 120 minutes of on-field action between the Packers and Bears taking place over the last month, there isn’t exactly much mystery when it comes to how these two want to attack each other.
While it goes both ways, that can create an added challenge this week when it comes to game-planning, as both teams attempt to throw different looks at one another.
In a matchup with so much familiarity, the deciding factor may not come down to Xs and Os, but rather play style.
“I think it just comes down to play style and who’s going to really play the hardest,” McKinney said. “And I really think that’s what it is. Like we’re still going to prepare the right way and do it how we always prepare, but at the end of the day it’s going to be about when you get in between those lines, those white lines, who’s going to go the hardest every play for 60 minutes? And whoever does is usually the team that come out successful.”
Much of the Packers’ roster comes into this game with playoff experience. Although the Packers still field the youngest roster in the NFL, this will be the third consecutive season that they’ve made the playoffs. While young, this group isn’t short on postseason experience.
So, in regards to LaFleur’s message of treating this game like any other, that, in theory, can be more easily achieved when many of the players have been in a similar situation before and, to some degree, know what to expect.
“I think it’s the same mindset honestly,” wide receiver Jayden Reed said of this week, “but just knowing what it takes, it’s definitely a different feeling just the mindset going into it, just knowing what it takes and it’s not easy and since we came up short, you just feel like you’ve got to do more at this point.”
Perhaps this is one element that can work in the Packers’ favor in some small way, but at the end of the day, it won’t determine the outcome. The winner will still be decided by which team can better execute throughout the course of the game.
“I think there’s some value in that,” LaFleur said of the Packers’ playoff experience in recent years. “But ultimately it’s about just being able to go out there and kind of channel your emotion and go out and execute. The team that typically can do that the best is probably going to be the team that wins the game.”
“Clean slate” is a phrase that’s been repeated over the last few days, and that is exactly what the Packers have. What took place over the previous four weeks during the current losing streak has no bearing on how things unfold on Saturday.
If the goal is to carry momentum into the playoffs, the Packers aren’t exactly doing that. But the good news is that momentum can be conjured up at any time. As Reed said, it only takes one play.
Building towards that begins with how the Packers attack the coming days. A potentially season-defining game awaits on Saturday, but that contest can’t be won on Wednesday or Thursday.
The magnitude of what’s ahead must be realized, but the focus has to remain on the process and day-to-day details.
“I don’t think there’s a switch to be flipped,” Reed said. “I think it’s just work. It’s the work that’s put in every day, day in and day out, and us being on the same page and executing.
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