GREEN BAY – It's been a while. A long while.
The last time the Packers and Bears squared off with such high stakes for both teams was a dozen years ago, hard as that may be to believe.
No one thought at the time that the 2013 NFC North-deciding regular-season finale at Soldier Field – unforgettably won by the Packers in the final minute on Aaron Rodgers' TD pass to Randall Cobb on fourth-and-8 from the 48 after both players had returned from extended injury absences – would stand alone for so long as the most consequential chapter in the rivalry's recent history.
It actually ended a pretty good run of high-stakes games at the start of the 2010s between these two.
In the '10 finale at Lambeau Field, the Packers needed to win to get into the playoffs and the Bears, despite being locked into the NFC's No. 2 seed, still played their starters to try to keep the Packers out. Then three weeks later they met again in Chicago for the NFC title, B.J. Raji hula-danced in the end zone and everyone knows the rest.
Two years later in mid-December, the Packers were 9-4 and the Bears 8-5 in a tight NFC North race that also included Minnesota. Green Bay got three TD catches from James Jones in a 21-13 triumph on its way to the 2012 division crown, while the Bears missed out on a playoff spot in a tiebreaker with the Vikings. That game certainly mattered for both squads.
But since the '13 finale, nothing has risen to this Sunday's level, when the 9-3 Bears will visit the 8-3-1 Packers with first place in the division on the line.
Oh sure, there have been some memorable moments in between, for both franchises.
The Bears ruined Thanksgiving and Brett Favre's number retirement ceremony in '15; the Packers kept "run the table" alive with a last-second bomb and field goal in December of '16; the Bears clinched the NFC North against the Packers late in '18, avenging that season's dramatic opening comeback when Rodgers returned to the game from a knee injury; Matt LaFleur won his first game as head coach against the Bears in the '19 opener; the Packers snagged a playoff berth by beating the Bears in the '23 finale; and the Bears broke their 11-game losing streak to the Packers in last year's finale.
But all of those were somewhat one-sided, in that the game meant a lot to more to one team than other. Not so come Sunday.
"It's business as usual, but we know what's at stake," linebacker Isaiah McDuffie said. "We know they're the top of the division right now and that's where we wanna be, so we know the task at hand."
The Packers were expected to be in this position, particularly after the Micah Parsons trade heading into Week 1, and they're riding a three-game winning streak that includes a tough road win at Detroit on Thanksgiving. But they've left themselves little margin for error in the division and playoff chase thanks to eminently winnable earlier games against the Browns and Panthers that got away.
Meanwhile, the Bears are the surprise, having caught fire in coach Ben Johnson's first season following an 0-2 start. Last week, according to all outsiders, was supposed to be Chicago's reality check after a weak stretch of schedule that included facing several backup quarterbacks.
But the Bears traveled to defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia on Black Friday and dominated the Eagles with their ground game and turnover-producing defense for a ninth win in their last 10 games, validating their status as contenders. Every team in the NFC North played the Eagles this season, and the Bears were the only one to beat them.
"It shows that they're a serious team," safety Xavier McKinney said of Chicago's convincing win in Philly. "It shows that they're not messing around. They're trying to do exactly what we're trying to do."
The NFC North won't be decided Sunday, not with four games to play, including a rematch between these two in Chicago two Saturday nights from now. That game could become even bigger than this one.
But in the moment, the Packers could reclaim first place for the first time in a while, or the Bears could take command of the division with a 1½-game lead.
So it's not do-or-die, but it's awfully big, and as big as it's been in this rivalry for a long time.
"At the end of the day," running back Josh Jacobs said, "still don't like them, they don't like us, and it's going to be fun."
