Bears and Packers: The Line, the Pick, TV, Radio

Green Bay Packers (12-3) at Chicago Bears (8-7)

Kickoff: 3:25 p.m. Soldier Field, Chicago

TV: Fox (Kevin Burkhardt, Daryl Johnston, Pam Oliver)

Radio: WBBM-AM 780, 105.9 FM (Jeff Joniak, Tom Thayer, Mark Grote)

Spanish: Univision Deportes 1200 AM, 93.5 FM (Hector Lopez, Miguel Esparza)

National Radio: Sports USA (Larry Kahn, Mark Carrier)

The Series: 202nd matchup. The Packers lead the series 100-95-6. The Packers have won three straight and eight of the last nine. The only loss by Green Bay in that stretch was in Week 15 of the 2018 season when the Bears won 24-17 at Soldier Field to clinch the NFC North title.

The Line: Packers by 4 (50 1/2 over/under).

BearDigest Pick: Packers 34, Bears 19

At Stake: The Bears win and they are in the playoffs. If they lose and the Los Angeles Rams beat the Arizona Cardinals, they also are in the playoffs. They would be eliminated with a loss and a Cardinals win over the Rams. The Packers would secure home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs and a first-round bye as the No. 1 seed if they win. The Bears would be a seventh seed with a win and loss by the Cardinals. They would face the second seed in the divisional playoffs in that case. With a loss but a Cardinals loss, the Bears would also be in as a seventh seed. They would be the sixth seed if they won and the Cardinals also won. In that case, the Rams would be the team missing the playoffs.

Last Week: The Packers beat Tennessee at Lambeau Field 40-14 as A.J. Dillon ran for 124 yards, Aaron Jones for 94 and Aaron Rodgers threw for four touchdowns.

The Bears went on the road and defeated Jacksonville 41-17 as linebacker Roquan Smith picked off two passes and Mitchell Trubisky threw for 265 yards on 24 of 35 with two touchdowns. Allen Robinson hauled in 10 passes for 103 yards.

The Coaches: Packers coach Matt LaFleur is 24-6, including 3-0 against the Bears and coach Matt Nagy.

Bears coach Matt Nagy is 28-19 in his third year and is 1-4 against Green Bay, including 0-3 against Packers coach Matt LaFleur.

The Quarterbacks: Aaron Rodgers is 19-5 against the Bears in the regular season, 20-5 including the 2010 NFC championship game. One of the losses was the 2013 game when Shea McClellin hit him and broke his collarbone and he left early. Rodgers has a 103.5 passer rating against the Bears in the 25 games.

Mitchell Trubisky makes his ninth start of the season and sixth straight. The Bears are 6-2 in games he has started, including a game in Atlanta in Week 3 when he was benched trailing 23-6. Since returning as starter in Week 12 against the Packers, Trubisky is 91 of 134 for 978 yards, eight touchdowns with three interceptions and a passer rating of 99.7. He's averaging 7.3 yards per attempt in that time. For the year he is 6-2 as the starter, 166 of 255 (65.1%) with 16 TDs, seven interceptions and a passer rating of 95.3. Trubisky has a passer rating of 80 and a 1-4 record as the starter against Green Bay.

Injury Report

Bears

Out

CB Jaylon Johnson (shoulder)
CB Buster Skrine (concussion

Questionable

S Deon Bush (foot)
S Tashaun Gipson (neck)
TE Demetrius Harris (foot)
TE Cole Kmet (shoulder)
RB Cordarrelle Patterson (knee)

* Bears have activated CB Xavier Crawford from the practice squad.

Packers

Out

T David Bakhtiari (knee)
DE Kingsley Keke (concussion

Questionable

G Simon Stepaniak (knee)

#Bears playoff possibility cheat sheet for Sunday — from OUT to the No. 6 seed facing the Packers at Lambeau, per ESPN's Playoff Machine.

Four games to watch — Packers-Bears, Cardinals-Rams, Saints-Panthers and Seahawks-49ers: pic.twitter.com/qai7k3JORU
— Mark Potash (@MarkPotash) January 3, 2021

Matching Up

The Packers are third on offense, ninth passing and eighth rushing. Green Bay's defense is seventh overall, sixth against the pass and 14th against the run.

The Bears are 25th on offense, 22nd passing and 24th rushing. On defense the Bears are 11th overall, 13th against the pass and 15th against the run.

Key Individual Matchups

Bears OLB Khalil Mack vs. Packers RT Rick Wagner

Because of the season-ending injury to David Bakhtiari, it's expected the Packers will move Billy Turner to left tackle and have Rick Wagner playing the right side. Wagner is the former Lions and Ravens lineman who has started eight games this year but is battling a bit of a knee issue himself and missed some practice time this week. Mack has been fighting through injuries but has applied consistent pressure even while double- and triple-teamed. He has only eight sacks. Wagner's 76.9 Pro Football Focus grade is his best since 2014 with Baltimore so he's fit in well and has allowed just one sack. Whether he can stand up to Mack's power moves off the edge remains to be seen as he didn't start the earlier game between the teams.

Bears RG Alex Bars vs. Packers NT Kenny Clark

Clark will line up on either the center, the right guard or sometimes even the left guard and terrorize the inside. The young Notre Dame interior for the Bears helped hold Clark to one tackle and one quarterback hit in the first game between the teams when other years he has been a menacing figure along the line. In last year's games, he had 2 1/2 sacks and three tackles for loss. Clark does it with extreme quickness off a first step for a player in the 315-pound range. Bars has held his own despite inexperience, but hasn't been spectacular. He owns a 54.5 grade on the year according to Pro Football Focus' grading system, which is relatively low but not so much for someone playing for the first time. Bars has allowed one sack, but none since lining up at right guard.

Bears DE Bilal Nichols vs. Packers LG Elgton Jenkins

Jenkins made the Pro Bowl and is at his best as a pass blocker this year with a 75.7 PFF pass-blocking score and 68.3 overall. He has allowed only one sack. Nichols would have been considered no match for Jenkins earlier in the year but has been coming on strong as he mixes time between end and nose tackle. Nichols still is at his best playing at end and has produced several big plays in recent games, including an interception against Detroit and a near pick last week. Jenkins is not a massive, overpowering guard at 6-5, 311. He's about the same size as Nichols, who had one solo tackle and two assists in the first game between the teams.

Bears LT Charles Leno Jr. vs. Packers OLB Za'Darius Smith

Another Packers Pro Bowl player and Leno has been experiencing one of his more consistent seasons, with a 74.9 PFF grade overall and a 75.4 pass-blocking grade despite allowing five sacks, the 10th most at his position in the league. Smith had the strip-sack on Mitchell Trubisky which resulted in a Packers TD return to turn the game into a rout before halftime. He has two sacks in three Packer games against the Bears and Leno.

Bears CB Kindle Vildor vs. Packers WR Davante Adams

Vildor got beat badly last week for a touchdown against Jacksonville and sometimes has show lack of technique on the deep sideline routes, like Adams can run perfectly. When taller receivers go vertical on him, Vildor is not necessarily at a big disadvantage because he is 5-foot-10 because he had a 39-inch vertical leap at the combine.. Adams had six catches for 61 yards and a TD in the first matchup this year and in the last four games has 25 receptions for 319 yards and two TDs. His leaping ability and speed make it likely Vildor will give him some free catches and yards on routes just to prevent the deep ball.

Bears S Tashaun Gipson vs. Packers TE Robert Tonyan

Tonyan burned the Bears secondary for five receptions, 67 yards and a TD in the first game and the TD actually came against Eddie Jackson and not Gipson. Either could wind up covering him when matched up man to man. At 6-5, 237, Tonyan is definitely not a big tight end but has developed a knack for getting open within this offense and learned some of the tricks of the trade from Jimmy Graham, who mentored him somewhat last year. He has 50 catches on the year. Gipson is allowing a passer rating of 96.1 when targeted, and 64.4% completions. He's been a solid tackler, missing only on 4.5% of his attempts.

Of Note

The Bears have never won an overtime game under Nagy. They are 0-3, losses coming in 2018 to Miami and the New York Giants and this season to New Orleans. ... If the Bears make it into the playoff field, they will be one of only three teams to lose six straight games and make it. six-game losing streak. The 1970 Bengals and 2014 Panthers were the other teams ... If the Bears win and get into the playoffs, they will join the Bears of 1933, 1934, 1937, 1941, 1942, 1986, 2001 and 2018 as Bears teams to win their final four games and make it into postseason games. ... With David Montgomery at 1,001 yards and Allen Robinson at 1,213 yards, it's the first time the Bears have had a receiver and a back go over 1,000 yards since 2014. ... With three field goals, Cairo Santos breaks Robbie Gould's team record of 26 straight field goals. Right now he has tied the mark within a single season of 24 straight by Gould. ... Aaron Rodgers, who has an NFL high 44 TD passes and 119.4 passer rating, has tied the NFL single-season record of 13 games with 100-plus patter ratings. ... Packers tight end Robert Tonyan has scored touchdowns on 20% of his receptions, and leads all NFC tight ends with 10 TD receptions.

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