CHICAGO \u2014 The Green Bay Packers are hoping the strategy to rest numerous starters helps snap a four-game slide when they face the Chicago Bears in a wild-card round matchup of NFC North rivals Saturday night.<\/p>\n
It will be the third meeting in six weeks between the Bears (11-6), the second seed in the NFC under first-year coach Ben Johnson, and No. 7 seed Green Bay (9-7-1).<\/p>\n
Chicago is making its first playoff appearance since 2020. The Bears have not won a playoff game since 2010, when they eventually lost to Green Bay in the NFC Championship Game.<\/p>\n
“This was the vision from the beginning, to have some home playoff games at Soldier Field,” Johnson said Tuesday. “And so, I was really excited about that opportunity and to see that come to light here this year.”<\/p>\n
Green Bay won the first meeting at home 28-21 in Week 14, ironically the Packers’ last victory. Two weeks later, the Bears averted the regular-season sweep with an improbable 22-16 victory in overtime, overcoming a 10-point deficit in the final five minutes of regulation.<\/p>\n
Chicago recovered an onside kick to set up the tying touchdown, a 6-yard scoring toss from Caleb Williams with 24 seconds left in regulation. In overtime, Packers backup quarterback Malik Willis fumbled the snap on fourth-and-1. Williams then hit DJ Moore with a 46-yard touchdown pass on the Bears’ ensuing possession.<\/p>\n
Green Bay rested almost every key starter, including quarterback Jordan Love and running back Josh Jacobs, in its final regular-season game, a 16-3 loss at Minnesota behind third-string quarterback Clayton Tune, who was released Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Love, who has not played since sustaining a concussion in the second game against the Bears, will start on Saturday, Packers coach Matt LaFleur said.<\/p>\n
Chicago allowed 361.8 yards per game, fourth-most in the league, but the opportunistic Bears led the NFL in takeaways (33, including 23 interceptions) and turnover differential (plus-22).<\/p>\n
Williams has completed 58.1% of his passes for 3,942 yards with 27 touchdowns and seven picks and also has rushed for 388 yards.<\/p>\n
“We’ve seen him grow and progress as the season’s progressed,” LaFleur said Wednesday about Williams. “He’s made a lot of big-time plays. He did it, obviously, in our game. Really both games.”<\/p>\n
The Bears running back tandem of D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai have rushed for 1,087 yards and 783 yards, respectively.<\/p>\n
Second-year wide receiver Rome Odunze, who has missed the last five games with a foot injury, had limited participation at practice Wednesday and told reporters he plans on returning Saturday.<\/p>\n
Chicago had three players who did not practice Wednesday in defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson, defensive lineman Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga, each due to a concussion.<\/p>\n
The Packers’ defense has struggled since losing perennial All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons, who sustained a season-ending knee injury in a Week 15 loss at Denver. Parsons, acquired just before the start of the regular season in a blockbuster trade with Dallas, had a team-high 12.5 sacks before the injury.<\/p>\n
Defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt sustained a season-ending broken ankle on Thanksgiving Day against Detroit.<\/p>\n
Love has completed 66.3% of his passes for 225.4 yards per game with 23 touchdowns and six interceptions and a passer rating of 101.2, the first time that’s been above 100 in his three seasons as the starter.<\/p>\n
Jacobs is the leading rusher with 929 yards and 13 touchdowns and also has 36 pass receptions. Emanuel Wilson added 496 yards on the ground.<\/p>\n
Offensive tackle Zach Tom, who missed the final three regular-season games, is expected to play against the Bears after limited participation at practice Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Bo Melton, who plays cornerback, wide receiver and special teams for Green Bay, was placed on injured reserve after a knee injury in the regular-season finale.<\/p>\n
“It’s a tough opponent on the road, a division rival,” LaFleur said Tuesday. “There’s obviously going to be a lot of excitement everywhere about this game. We’ve just got to go play our type of game.”<\/p>\n
WILD CARD <\/p>\n
Packers at Chicago
Saturday, 7 p.m.
TV: Amazon Prime Video
Radio: WNXR-FM 107.3 and WDSM-AM 710<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 The Green Bay Packers are hoping the strategy to rest numerous starters helps snap a four-game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,692,391,2493,7,6,84,84893,96634,96635,95037],"class_list":{"0":"post-665593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-bears","11":"tag-chicagobears","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nfl-playoffs","15":"tag-what-channel-is-the-packers-game-on","16":"tag-who-are-the-packers-playing","17":"tag-why-isnt-the-packers-game-on","18":"tag-wild-card-weekend"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115863414549847436","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}