CHICAGO — If it feels like the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears just played each other, well, that’s because they did.

The 211th and 212th meetings in the longest rivalry in NFL history are being played 13 days apart, with the Packers (9-4-1) looking to replicate their 28-21 win at Lambeau Field on Dec. 7 by beating the Bears (10-4) again on Saturday night at Soldier Field.

The winner takes sole possession of first place in the NFC North. The loser is still in playoff contention but faces a more challenging road.

“I think we both have that understanding as teams, as organizations, that it’s always going to be a clash,” Packers safety Xavier McKinney said earlier this week. ‘We’re trying to get that top spot, they’re trying to get the top spot. And it’s going to be about who’s going to go out there and compete the hardest and who’s going to do their job the best. I think that’s all it’s going to come down to.”

Well, it might come down to a little more than that — like which team can add an unexpected wrinkle or two that the other didn’t see the first time around.

“I think [the challenge] is the same for both teams,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said. “You’re always trying to find ways to scheme people up, but ultimately we’ve got to go out there and just make sure we do the routine things correctly over and over again, which is hard when you’re playing good people. They’ve got really good coaches and really good personnel. And that is a challenge.”

Countered Bears coach Ben Johnson: “Anytime you play a team in the division, there are certainly elements you look at from the first game of what you did well, what you didn’t do well. You try to make sure that you don’t make the same mistakes and try to continue to attack them in a certain fashion. There are things that I thought we did well that first game; particularly in the second half, we played a lot better on offense in that regard.”

Both coaches said that they not only revisit the prep work they did for the first meeting and fine-tooth comb their way through the first game, but they also take an in-depth look at the game in between — for the Packers, the Bears’ 31-3 win over Cleveland; for the Bears, the Packers’ 34-26 loss to Denver.

The key, multiple players said, is to execute your own stuff while being wary of those potentially unexpected wrinkles and handle them deftly.

“You cannot just go into the game thinking, ‘They’re going to do exactly the same things that they did last week.’ I don’t think it’s going to work like that,” McKinney said. “They have smart enough coaches and smart enough players to understand that they can’t just go in with the same the same mindset [either].

“A lot of this stuff, it probably will be the same, but they’re going to have a few here and there that they might pull from different games that they’ve seen us play, or different things that they’ve been wanting to run. So I think all things are on the table when it comes to this game.”

Here’s are three aspects to the rematch worth watching:

1️⃣ — Magic Man

Heading into their first meeting, LaFleur called Bears quarterback Caleb Williams a “magician” because of his ability to extend plays and escape the pocket when pressured. And while Johnson’s goal is to get Williams to play within the framework and rhythm of the offense, Williams is an improvisor by nature and showed his ability to do so in the first game.

That said, it was also his undoing on his fateful interception to end the Bears’ chances of escaping Lambeau Field with a win. As Williams was rolling to his left and trying to throw back to tight end Cole Kmet, who’d broken open, Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon abandoned his man and picked off Williams’ underthrown pass.

“He’s a hell of a football player,” Nixon said of Williams. “He takes a lot of criticism for stuff but some people got that ‘it’ factor and he’s definitely one of those guys that got the ‘it’ factor. [We] love the challenge, but we’ll be ready.”

According to Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, the challenge is twofold: Wiliams ability to elude tacklers, and his ability to buy time once he does get out in space.

“He’s hard to tackle. You can’t just run full speed and try to launch at him and you can’t go high on him because he’s strong,” Hafley said. “He’ll duck and you’ll miss and he’ll spin one way. He loves to go out to our left, his right, and he makes a ton of plays doing that, so you need to know where you are on the field. Obviously, their boot game has been very successful with him getting the edge on people.

“I just think it’s how you approach him when you’re about to tackle him and how many people we can get to the ball and how hard we run to the ball, because that’s what it’s going to take. He’s done a really nice job this year of getting out of the pocket and making a ton of plays.”

2️⃣ — Elementary, my dear Watson

Sitting in a Denver-area hospital’s emergency room, Christian Watson didn’t know what to think. The pain in his chest and shoulder was starting to subside, his x-rays were clear, he’d been given the go-ahead to fly back to Green Bay with the team, and while he needed more imaging scans once the Packers got back home, he had a pretty good idea that he’d avoided serious injury.

“I mean, I dodged a bullet with it,” Watson said at midweek. “So I definitely think I’m in a better spot than I anticipated.

“I mean, it was definitely hurting pretty bad that night. But once I was able to get all the scans and stuff it was definitely a sigh of relief.”

Although listed as questionable on the team’s official injury report, the Packers expect Watson to play on Saturday night and understand what his presence means for the offense.

Since returning to action Oct. 26 after a nine-month recovery from a torn ACL in his right knee suffered last Jan. 5 against the Bears at Lambeau Field, Watson has caught 28 passes for 481 yards and five touchdowns. And the offense is undeniably more explosive with him on the field.

Look for him to be on a limited snap count but still a focal point of what the Packers do in the pass game.

“Since he’s been back and made some big plays, I think a couple of our concepts might have been going through him a little bit more,” quarterback Jordan Love explained. “But I’m always trying to stay true to my reads and figure out whatever the best option will be based on what the defense is doing.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to get him back this week. I’m glad that it’s not anything that he’d be missing some significant time for the rest of the season.”

3️⃣ — Flag on the play

With 92 accepted penalties for 693 yards against them, the Packers are tied for 14th in the NFL for fewest penalties. That’s actually an improvement after an early season avalanche of flags against them.

In the first meeting with the Bears, the Packers were flagged six times for 55 yards, while the Bears were flagged only four times for just 17 yards. Then came Sunday’s loss to the Broncos, in which the Packers were flagged 10 times for 72 yards — including a knuckleheaded unnecessary roughness penalty on defensive end Kingsley Enagbare for hitting Broncos punter Jeremy Crenshaw long after a play.

“[That penalty] really bothered me. I take those ones personally,” LaFleur said. “Football is a game of emotion, but you can’t allow the emotion of the game to put you in a spot where you go out and do something that costs the team.

“That’s what I’m talking about. He felt like he was held, didn’t get a call and then he took it out on the punter. You can’t do that. That’s not winning football. I certainly addressed that with the guys. Especially in the magnitude of those types of games.

“You’ve got to be disciplined. You’ve got to control yourself. We had a costly penalty the last time we played these guys.”

That one was a 15-yarder against Nixon for retaliating against wide receiver Luther Burden III. While Nixon was flagged, Burden was fined by the league for his role in the dust-up.

While won’t play this week because of an ankle injury, Nixon knows he can’t make such a mistake again.

“I’m going to try to chill. I’m definitely the problem,” Nixon confessed. “I’m definitely locked in for this game. It’s a must-win game for us if we want to win the North. I haven’t won [the division] since I’ve been [here]; never won the division in my career. So I definitely want this one.”

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