Return Of The Pack: Green Bay Wins NFC Championship, Heads To Super Bowl

The Green Bay Packers defeated the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship game sending them to Dallas to play the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. The Packers 21-14 victory over the Bears didn’t look like it would be close in the early goings as the Packers jumped out to an early 14-0 lead but Chicago came back to make it interesting late in the game.

There weren’t any significant performances by the Packers so it’s hard pin-pointing the player of the game. SB Nation’s Acme Packing Company asked who the game ball should go to.

It’s the first career touchdown for Raji and the first postseason interception for Hanie.

Hanie has played in five games, completing eight regular season passes, in his three seasons since leaving Colorado State. Caleb Hanie? He went undrafted in 2008, and apparently has been a fan favorite among certain Bears fan circles.

The Bears have actually gotten the ball moving on Hanie’s first drive, so maybe somebody was on to something.

Cutler is questionable to return, having gone six-of-14 for 80 yards. He’s been peppered with hits all afternoon.

Chicago is very lucky to only be down by two touchdowns. The Packers have outgained them by 142 yards, and any talk about Chicago’s defense being able to defend Green Bay better than Philadelphia’s or Atlanta’s did has been proven misguided. Rodgers is up to 211 total yards, Green Bay’s defense is battering Cutler on every drive, and the Packers’ running game has already gone over 100 on the day.

On the play in question Rodgers conducted a fake to Kuhn, who dove up the middle and over Clifton, making contact on the way.

The drive looked to be in trouble early on, when Starks’ kick return was stuffed well inside Green Bay’s 20. But the same thing happened to Starks several times last week in the Georgia Dome, so maybe this is just their thing.

Both teams are thus more or less fully healthy today, though of course playing with wear and tear is to be expected at this time of the season.

There aren’t a lot of injuries this week for the NFC Championship Game, but the Bears may be without one of their starters in the secondary.

Bears safety Chris Harris was limited in practice all week with a hip injury, and is listed as questionable for today’s game at Soldier Field against the Packers. If he can’t go or is diminished, Aaron Rodgers’ chances of aerating the Bears secondary get that much better.

Did you see CBS Sports’ Mike Freeman ranting about the condition of Soldier Field? Here are some pictures that make his “bad weave” claim look specious at best.

First, from ESPN’s NFC North blogger, Kevin Seifert:

Many have worried this week about whether the often poor field conditions at Solider Field would muck up the NFC Championship Game between the high-flying Packers and the less airborne Bears. Those concerns were probably unfounded.

Here’s ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, tweeting about the field conditions:

Often, analysis of keys to victory is hard for teams that seem evenly matched — forget the Packers being favored in the NFC Championship Game odds — but it’s fairly simple for the Packers: if their defense can hold down the Bears, the offense should carry the day.

The Packers are 7-2 when holding teams to under 20 points this season, and their only two losses in that scenario &mdash to the Redskins and Lions, of all teams — came in games that Aaron Rodgers left with a concussion.

It’s been the case all week, though it’s still a little stunning: Bears-Packers odds currently have the visiting squad from Green Bay favored to win the NFC Championship Game and head to Dallas for Super Bowl XLV.

One check of the NFC Championship Game odds shows the Packers favored by 3.5 and 4 points over the Bears, up from the opening line of 3 points earlier this week.

When it’s game time in Chicago in January, it tends to be a cold state of affairs for whichever sporting event is happening. Today’s NFC Championship Game is no exception.

According to weather.com, Chicago is forecast to have a chilly day for the showdown between the Bears and the Packers, with temperatures at the 3 p.m. Eastern (or 2 p.m. Central) kickoff hovering around 18 or 19 degrees. The high for Chicago is a positively balmy 20 degrees, and though there are “AM snow showers” in the forecast, it seems unlikely that there will be snow during the NFC Championship Game, as precipitation chances in the afternoon plummet to a mere 10 percent.

Soldier Field has earned a reputation among players from around the NFL for its supposed less-than-ideal playing surface. As the NFC Championship Game nears, though, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello claims that the field will not present any problems when the Bears and Packers kick off. He tweets:

The temperature in Chicago is forecasted to dip into the single digits by early Saturday morning, and warm up to only 18 degrees by kickoff. Aiello went into detail regarding the system used at Soldier Field to prevent the ground from freezing:

At a cursory glance, it would seem as though the Bears would enter Sunday afternoon’s NFC Championship Game as the favorite over the Packers. After all, the Bears held a better regular-season record, and they’re playing at home in Soldier Field.

Such is not the case, however. About 24 hours before kickoff, Green Bay is the four-point favorite to win. Bodog.com lists the Packers’ moneyline at -190, and the Bears’ at +165. In case you’re unfamiliar with how these numbers work: if you’re betting on the Packers, you’d have to put down $190 to win $100. If you’re wagering on the Bears, you can win $165 on a $100 bet.

Mike Ditka, former Chicago Bears head coach, says the Green Bay Packers may be going down this weekend. Talking with the Chicago Tribune this week, Ditka said both the Bears and Packers, who will meet in the NFC Championship game on Sunday, are both great teams.

But if he had to pick, it’s the Bears.

Chicago Bears cornerback Charles Tillman isn’t spending the week ahead of the NFC Championship Game talking down to the Green Bay Packers, instead choosing to heap praise on the Packers wide receivers. On Thursday, Tillman called the Green Bay receiving corps “the best in the NFL” as he talked about the difficulties of defensing the Packers’ passing attack. After Aaron Rodgers and the Packers carved up the Atlanta Falcons in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs, Tillman has plenty of reason to worry.

It’s the ability of Donald Driver, Greg Jennings and the rest to pick up yardage after the catch in chunks that has the Bears stout defense worried about Sunday’s game. Chicago linebacker Lance Briggs echoed Tillman’s sentiment, comparing the Green Bay receivers running style to that of a bruising back.

Aaron Rodgers gets all the headlines in Green Bay but the Packers also have one of the league’s best, young defenses that has caused a lot of problems for quarterbacks. One of those quarterbacks is Jay Cutler who will see his Chicago Bears host the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game.

SB Nation’s Windy City Gridiron details some of the problems Cutler has had against the Green Bay defense.

Every NFL conference title game is a big deal, but this year’s NFC Championship has almost a century of history behind it. The Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears have met 182 times, with Chicago holding a 92-83-6 series lead (and a win in the only postseason meeting, in a game played only one week after Pearl Harbor). They first played in 1921, a game the Bears won 20-0. 1921!

Geography has lent itself well to the cultivation of the rivalry, with watering holes* near the Illinois-Wisconsin border becoming a popular target for reporters looking for local color. And of course the mayors have made bets. Like Jets-Patriots, Cowboys-Steelers, or Falcons-Saints, Packers-Bears has been made more spirited by cultural differences, as the big-city Bears contrast with the fan-owned Packers.

President Obama must like an underdog.

He’s picking his own team -- the Chicago Bears. The Bears will host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday in the NFC Championship game but the point spread on the game says they’re 3.5 point underdogs. Obama even gives a score in his prediction:

The Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears will meet in the NFC Championship game on Sunday and RB Matt Forte won’t be a big part of the Bears offense if Clay Matthews has anything to say about it. The Packers linebacker joined ESPN Radio this week to talk about the stopping Jay Cutler and Matt Forte.

The Packers had the second overall defense in the NFL but they were 18th against the run while the Bears offense was 22nd in the league running the ball. Matt Forte had over 1,600 combined rushing and receiving yards. As he says, if they can shut down or even slow the game, they will make the Bears one-dimensional.