Aaron Rodgers Tries to Extend Ownership
Aaron Rodgers on Sunday Night Football tries to extend his "ownership" rights over the Bears to a new era, after dominating them since 2009.
First he beat coach Lovie Smith regularly, then Marc Trestman three out of four times, then John Fox and Matt Nagy.
Bears coach Matt Eberflus will have none of that talk, or at least for now he won't talk about it.
Asked about the rivalry and Packers dominance, Eberflus turned within Halas Hall without looking up to the north.
"Yeah, I mean, I mean sure, I hear things and all that," Eberflus said "We're taking this one game at a time so I know that's coach cliché but we're going to focus on us. This is going to be about our football team, about how we operate, how we play and what we do.
"And we're going to take that approach every week."
The Bears haven't done much against Rodgers, causing him to yell "I still own you," after running in a clinching TD at Soldier Field in the first game last season for a 24-14 win over the Bears. His Packers beat them both times Justin Fields started against him and finished off a 7-1 record against Matt Nagy's teams, the only loss coming in the 2018 regular-season finale when the Bears clinched a division title at Soldier Field.
Rodgers has never lost consecutive games to the Bears.
It's been six straight Rodgers wins over the Bears now, the longest winning streak he has had against them. Overall, the Packers are 22-5 in regular-season games he has started against the Bears. It isn't just the wins and losses. He has a phenomenal 109.2 career passer rating against them.
It's been six games since the Bears have intercepted one of his passes and that one by Eddie Jackson clinched the division title in 2018.
"Oh yeah man, the guy is obviously one of the greatest to ever play the game, and you know as a competitor myself, I love going against people like that," linebacker Roquan Smith said. "I'm sure he will be a little bit pissed off after this last game."
The Packers lost 23-7 to the Minnesota Vikings Sunday and were soundly beaten in every phase. Rodgers got sacked four times and Christian Watson dropped a touchdown bomb, resulting in some blank stares from the veteran passer.
Playing without receiver Davante Adams was expected to take a toll and Rodgers realized what it was in the first game.
Smith relishes the thought that Rodgers will be geared up to win after losing last week.
"Hey, you wouldn't want it any other way," Smith said. "Pissed off him, get the best version of him and then we get the dub and it will be even sweeter."
Don't expect Smith to dwell on the ownership claim last year, and the losing streak.
"I'm not really focused on that," the Bears defensive leader said. "Can't dwell on the past. If that was the case, there's a lot of things I can dwell on.
"But hey, we just go down there and I'm just focused on Sunday, going over there, Lambeau, and doing what it do. National TV. Should be a big game. Excited to make some plays."
Smith is geared up for the hype train rolling around with SNF, and how everyone will talk about the upset win the Bears pulled off in the rain over the 49ers.
"Personally and I think I can speak for the guys in the locker room, we didn't see it as an upset," Smith said. "We expected to go in there and win.
"You know, maybe you (Chicago media) guys, the other media and everyone else said, hey, this and that. But we didn't care too much about that. We knew we could beat those guys when we stepped out on the field and I made sure I let the guys knew that as well when we brought it up."
There probably is no better way for them to convince everyone than to beat Rodgers.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
