Playoffs Depend on Jordan Love Continuing Packers’ QB Mastery Over Bears
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Thirty-one years before guiding the University of Michigan into Monday night’s national championship game and five years before Jordan Love was born, Jim Harbaugh was the quarterback as the Chicago Bears entered Lambeau Field to face the Green Bay Packers.
The date was Oct. 25, 1992. In his first taste of Packers-Bears, Brett Favre threw one interception, fumbled twice and was sacked four times. Same as always, the Bears rolled to a 30-10 win.
It was a rivalry that wasn’t, at least from Chicago’s perspective. In the series, the Bears had won five in a row and 13 of 15. All-time, the Bears led 81-58-6. It was an insurmountable advantage.
Or so it seemed.
Nobody could have guessed it when he turned the tables a month later, but Favre was on the way to becoming one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.
Nobody could have guessed it when he helped crush the Bears 37-3 in his first taste of the rivalry on Nov. 16, 2008, but Aaron Rodgers was on the way to becoming one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.
On Sept. 10, 2023, Jordan Love made his debut as the Packers’ full-time starting quarterbacks at Soldier Field. Three touchdowns later, the Packers beat the Bears 38-20 to continue their overwhelming dominance in the series.
Will Love become one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, as well? Who knows? It certainly didn’t look like it during a dismal stretch of games that sent the Packers’ record spiraling to 2-5. But the last six games have been downright masterful. No quarterback has thrown more touchdowns than Love’s 16. No starting quarterback has thrown fewer interceptions than Love’s one.
On Sunday, Love for the first time will battle the Bears at Lambeau Field. It will be up to Love to not just get the Packers into the playoffs but to continue their staggering dominance in the series.
Entering Sunday, the Packers are 105-94-6 against the Bears. Yes, they are plus-11 after being minus-23. Of course, the play at quarterback is the reason why.
Starting with that Harbaugh-Favre game in 1992, there have been 77 individual appearances by Bears quarterbacks, including 63 who threw at least 15 passes. Of those 63, according to Stathead:
- The median passer rating was 72.9 and the median passing yards was 202. The passing total is skewed; their seven games of 275-plus passing yards all came in defeat.
- There have been five games of 100-plus ratings, with only one over the past decade.
- There have been two games of three touchdown passes.
- There have been three games of at least two more touchdowns than interceptions; there have been 12 games of at least two more interceptions than touchdowns.
Compare that to Green Bay with Rodgers and Favre, one game by Love, and a smattering of Seneca Wallace, Craig Nall, DeShone Kizer, Brett Hundley and Matt Flynn. With a total of 62 quarterbacking appearances of 15-plus attempts:
- The median passer rating was 92.0 and the median passing yards was 234.
- There have been 26 games of 100-plus ratings, including six of the last seven.
- There have been 21 games of three-plus touchdown passes.
- There have been 23 games of at least two more touchdowns than interceptions; there have been four games of at least two more interceptions than touchdowns (all by Favre).
Love had a 123.2 rating at Chicago on Sept. 10. The Bears have had only one game better than that over the past three-plus decades – 123.5 by Cade McNown in 2000.
While Favre helped flip the script in the series, it was Rodgers who truly owned the Bears. Not including the 2013 game at Lambeau in which he suffered a broken collarbone on the opening series, Rodgers was QB1 for 28 games against Chicago. He had a 100-plus passer rating 15 times, including seven games of four-plus touchdown passes and zero interceptions.
In 29 career games against the Bears from 2008 through 2022, Rodgers completed 67.3 percent of his passes for 6,965 yards. He threw 64 touchdowns vs. 10 interceptions, averaged 7.7 yards per attempt and fashioned a 109.0 passer rating.
Meanwhile, 10 Bears quarterbacks over that span played against the Packers. Only Josh McCown (85.1) had a rating of 80-plus. Only two threw more touchdowns than interceptions; McCown and Mitchell Trubisky were plus-1.
Added together, the Bears’ quarterbacks completed 59.1 percent of their passes for 6,166 yards. They threw 32 touchdowns vs. 45 interceptions, averaged 6.2 yards per attempt and had a cumulative passer rating of 70.9.
With Rodgers having a touchdown-to-interception advantage of 67 over his Bears counterparts, is it any wonder why the Packers went 25-5 from 2008 through 2022? And with Love added to the mix, the touchdown-to-interception advantage is a remarkable 70.
Beginning in 1992, the Bears have had 20 quarterbacks start games against Green Bay. McNown (2-0), Brian Griese (1-0), Kyle Orton (3-1) and Rex Grossman (3-1) are the only ones with winning records in those games. Jay Cutler went 2-10 with 15 touchdowns vs. 22 interceptions. Justin Fields, who will oppose Love again on Sunday, is 0-5 with four touchdowns vs. seven interceptions.
It's not from lack of effort. McNown in 1999, Grossman in 2003, Trubisky in 2017 and Fields in 2021 were first-round picks. Acquiring Cutler from the Broncos in 2009 required two first-round picks.
And yet, from the moment Favre stepped on the field for the first time with the Packers in 1992, Chicago has reached the playoffs seven times. Having fallen short of the postseason again this year, the Bears since 2010 have zero playoff wins and qualified for the postseason only twice.
On Sunday, Love will try to propel the Packers past the Bears and into the playoffs once again.
“There’s so much tradition here in Green Bay,” Love said. “The main tradition is winning. Obviously, there’s been a lot of success in the past but we try to focus on getting better every week, continuing that winning tradition and, obviously, getting in the playoffs is a huge tradition here, as well. I think that’s what we’re looking forward to more than anything is going out, finishing the season off right and getting a shot at the playoffs.”
