The Bears start a new chapter of the rivalry against Green Bay with Wild Card win

The Bears and Packers, two of the NFL's oldest franchises, have enjoyed one of the league's most storied rivalries. Of course, if you're familiar with the history of the feud, you're well aware that I use "enjoyed" as a figure of speech. The Packers have dominated the Bears over much of the past two decades (if you're upset at the mention of this, know that I feel your pain. I'm simply setting up the plot, and don't worry, it gets MUCH better).

Going into yesterday's matchup, Chicago has only won six of the past 33 games against Green Bay since the 2010 season. That's what happens when one team has a future Hall of Fame QB and the other can't seem to get the position right. The Packers looked like they were going to get win #28 in that span for the first three quarters (and then first three and a half quarters) of yesterday's game.

The game doesn't end at the 53-minute mark, though, does it?

The team that gives their all over the full 60-minute period usually comes out on top, and the Bears have capitalized on that fact all season.

They scored three touchdowns in the final ten minutes and outscored Green Bay 28-6 in the second half. Their improbable 31-27 win resulted in the largest postseason comeback in franchise history (106 years of history, mind you). It also only marked the fourth time in NFL history that a team came back from being down by 15 points in the fourth quarter.

The Bears with a comeback for the ages 🔥

Before tonight, NFL postseason teams were just 3-158 all-time when trailing by 15+ entering the 4th quarter. pic.twitter.com/BXLb8e8OsX
— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) January 11, 2026

In a season full of improbable wins, they somehow achieved the most miraculous one in their most important game to date. In fact, it was their biggest game in 15 years.

Perhaps even more importantly, they buried their hated division rivals in the process. The same division rivals that caused so much anguish in the city of Chicago in recent history. It's tough to articulate just how massive an outcome that is for the Bears franchise. Conversely, it's also difficult to express just how detrimental it was to the Packers.

There's no sugarcoating it; It was a potentially franchise-altering collapse.

The Bears could've lost the game, and hopes would (eventually) still be high. It would take some time, but it still would have been an overwhelmingly positive season. They found their coach for the next decade, their QB showed immense promise, and the future looks bright. This was a team that most pegged for 7 or 8 games before the season began, after all. They managed to win 11 (now 12) in their coach's first year at the helm and overachieved by all expectations.

The Packers, on the other hand, are seven years into the Matt LaFleur experience, and they have virtually nothing (outside of regular-season success) to show for it. They went all in on this season when they traded for All-Pro pass-rusher Micah Parsons in August. This was supposed to be their year, and all the pressure was on them from the jump.

They were on a roll and sitting at 9-4-1 before Parsons suffered a torn ACL in the Week 15 loss against the Broncos. While it would've been difficult for any team to overcome that loss, they still had enough talent on the offensive side of the ball to conceivably be able to make a run. They drafted a receiver in the first round, and are paying their quarterback $55 million per year and their running back $12 million per year. Teams that shell out those types of contracts (especially the latter, considering how much the running back position has become devalued) aren't in a position to make those excuses.

Nevertheless, the Packers didn't win a single game after Micah Parsons got hurt. They lost their four remaining games in the regular season to finish 9-8-1 and got beaten by their rivals in the Wild Card Round. Their incomprehensible loss in that game was a microcosm of their 2025 NFL season, and it might've sent their franchise back a few years.

Even if they retain their head coach, whose future now looks very much in doubt, they could very well suffer a hangover that bleeds into next season. They're negative $10 million in cap space, don't have their first-round pick in the upcoming draft, and could be without their star pass-rusher at the beginning of next season. Oh, and they just suffered one of the most devastating losses in recent postseason history.

The fact that the Bears are the ones who got to put the final nail in the Packers' 2025 coffin is poetry at its finest. It was payback for the 2010 NFC Championship Game, the devastating lob to Randall Cobb in 2013, and all the heartbreak caused by their previous quarterback.

The Bears turned the page on the previous chapter of the storied rivalry in emphatic fashion. It's too early to tell how the book is going to go before it's written, but the first page certainly looks like this one is going to go in Chicago's favor.

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