5 reasons you should watch Bears vs. Packers on ‘Thursday Night Football’

Folks, it’s time once again for Poopfest Thursday. I hope you all tuned into last Thursday night’s game, because woo buddy, it was a good one.

Last week, I called Rams-49ers “a preseason favorite for the worst of all Thursday night games this season” because it was. It turned out to set an incredibly high bar for Thursday Night Football, one that’s probably not going to be topped. That’s fine, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun this week.

Week 4’s going to put us a quarter of the way through the season and Thursday Night Football. This week, we have a Packers team that’s been hot and cold, as well as a Bears team that’s not super-exciting. But here’s why you should watch the game anyway.

The game itself may or may not be a good one. That really doesn’t matter in this one, because any chance you can get to watch Aaron Rodgers slang the pill, you should do it.

Rodgers went on an absolute tear to end the 2016 season. As a Falcons fan, I was horrified that my team was about to play him in the NFC Championship. He’s carved the Falcons up before and served them on a platter like it’s the fourth Thursday in November. Of course as we know, the Falcons handled that and shit the bed later. But that’s neither here nor there.

The beautiful part about Rodgers’ game is there’s not a play he can’t make. He’s going to land those Hail Mary passes into the mitts of one of his receivers if he needs to. He’s also going to make you pay for every slow substitution or offside with a free play.

He got the Seahawks on one in Week 1:

He’s somehow able to play the game 10 steps ahead of everybody else, and whether you’re a fan of him or the Packers, that’s fun to watch. If you’re a fan of football, this is really the only reason you need to watch on Thursday night.

If you’re watching the Bears this season, there’s only a handful of reasons you’re probably doing so. Howard and Cohen are two damn good reasons to do so.

Cohen is the surprise of the two. He was drafted in 2017 out of North Carolina A&T, where he became the MEAC’s all-time leading rusher with 5,619 yards. That’s a lotta yards, y’all. Through three games in this career, he’s got 157 on just 24 attempts, good for 6.5 yards a carry.

The Falcons got a taste of what he could do in Week 1:

As far as Howard goes, we already knew what he had in him. He was second in the NFL in rushing last season as a rookie out of Indiana. He was also fourth in yards per attempt with 5.2. So yeah — two touches and you got yourself a first down!

Howard scored the game-winner for the Bears in Week 3 against the Steelers in overtime after being set up by Cohen.

The Bears aren’t flashy at quarterback, wide receiver, or tight end. If anything is going to come from their offense on Thursday night, there’s a good chance it’s going to be from a guy wearing a 24 (Howard) or 29 (Cohen) jersey.

Thursday night football isn’t always the prettiest, which means an added Chicago Bears factor could make for some fun. The Bears ended the first half against the Steelers in Week 3 in comical fashion.

The Bears blocked a Steelers’ field goal attempt when Marcus Cooper scooped it up and had the clearest of paths to the end zone. However, he didn’t finish the play and pulled a Leon Lett.

Luckily for the Bears, Steelers punter Jordan Berry illegally batted the ball, and referees eventually gave the Bears the ball on the 1-yard line after the Steelers had already went into the locker room.

The Bears then proceeded to commit a false start, and instead of going for the end zone on an untimed down, kicked a field goal to end the half.

Thursday night, there’s a non-zero chance you could see something equally as weird/bad/embarrassing. Aaron Rodgers could have a hand in that, too.

The Packers and Bears first played each other on November 27, 1921. Back then, helmets were made of hardened leather and were actually just starting to be widely used in the game. That’s obviously changed.

Since then, the Packers and Bears’ all-time series is tied. The regular season series is tied at 93-93-6, with the teams splitting their two postseason appearances at 1-1.

So if you like to look at history as an indicator of how this one might go, you’re out of luck. However, one team will be able to claim supremacy, at least until Week 10 when the loser has a chance to reclaim the tie.

Since Romo joined the broadcast booth, he’s showed us that he can predict the future. He did it during the Packers’ game against the Bengals just last week.

If you don’t like spoilers, Romo’s not your guy.

Enjoy the poopfest!