Packers Will Play at Bears in NFL Playoffs Wild Card Game

The Green Bay Packers will have a mostly healthy roster but have lost four consecutive games entering their wild card playoff game at Soldier Field against the Chicago Bears.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love scrambles during the Week 16 game at the Bears. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

MINNEAPOLIS – The Green Bay Packers won’t be entering uncharted territory when they kick off the playoffs next week with an NFC wild card game at the Chicago Bears, but pretty close.

In NFL history, the Packers are the fourth team to enter the playoffs on a four-game losing streak. The 1986 New York Jets are the only team to win their first playoff game.

Momentum be damned, though. Coach Matt LaFleur had a beaten-up and worn-down roster to get ready for the playoffs, so he gave almost all his key players the day off.

“Yeah, I think we did the right thing today in regard to and – we’ll see – time will tell,” LaFleur said after the team dressed in Packers uniforms lost 16-3 to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.

“But I feel better about this certainly than I did a year ago after the game. It was a double whammy when we lose the game and you lose a key player for us to go into that run. I thought this was the best decision.”

In last year’s loss to the Chicago Bears, receiver Christian Watson suffered a torn ACL and quarterback Jordan Love was knocked out with an elbow injury. Both players were stowed safely on the sideline to make sure they’re ready for next weekend.

Love was the backup quarterback to Clayton Tune. LaFleur called the most conservative game imaginable to keep Tune safe behind an offensive line starting four players who will be on the bench for next week.

“If we got in that situation where Jordan was going to go in the game, there was not going to be a pass attempted,” LaFleur said.

Packers Are Mostly Healthy For Playoffs

So, the Packers should be healthy for the playoffs – or as healthy as possible with Micah Parsons and Tucker Kraft out with torn ACLs. Running back Josh Jacobs didn’t play. Receivers Watson and Romeo Doubs didn’t play, and Jayden Reed barely played. On defense, Rashan Gary, Edgerrin Cooper, Quay Walker and Xavier McKinney were among the starters who didn’t play.

They just won’t have any momentum, though the Bears lost at home to Detroit on Sunday evening but earned the No. 2 when the Eagles were upset at home by the Commanders. They blew a lead at Denver following Parsons’ injury, they gave away the game in the final moments at Chicago and they were steamrolled by the Ravens before LaFleur turned the clock back to August in making the loss to the Vikings feel like a preseason game.

“It’s funny you say four straight losses,” safety Evan Williams said. “I didn’t even like [realize that]. I couldn’t even tell you that we lost four straight.”

It doesn’t matter. The Packers gave themselves an opportunity to earn road wins at Denver and Chicago, and the loss at Minnesota was irrelevant.

“Like I told the guys, we’re in the tournament,” LaFleur said. “Everybody’s 0-0. We’re going to have to go on the road, and we’ve got to embrace that opportunity.”

The Packers had two options for the playoffs, and both would be rematches. The first would be a rubber match against the Bears, who the Packers barely beat Lambeau Field in Week 14 and barely lost to in Week 16. The second was against the Eagles, who won at Lambeau Field 10-7 in Week 10. The Eagles beat the Packers in Brazil to start last season and at Philadelphia in the playoffs last season.

This will mark the third playoff game in series history. In 2010, the Packers won the NFC Championship Game at Soldier Field on the way to winning the Super Bowl.

“Sh**, playoffs, man, we start off 0-0,” defensive back Javon Bullard said. “All that record sh** out the window. We in the dance. That’s all we need. We got our foot in the door. No matter what, the regular season, the sh** don’t matter now.

“We’re starting out 0-0. You win you keep going. You lose, you out. That confidence is instilled in us. We’ve been having that confidence. We’ve been coming up a little short the past three games, but that sh** a clean slate now. Our mind is on one thing and that’s to beat the hell out of whoever we’re playing on the road. That’s what we focused on.”

Everybody Is 0-0

The Packers will have a puncher’s chance because of a healthy Love and his multitude of weapons on offense and a defense that, despite its deficiencies, just held its eighth opponent of the year to less than 20 points.

“Doing our job” will be the key, Bullard said. “That’s the only time somebody can beat us is when we’re not doing our job.

“Just looking at the tape, man. Really just analyzing it and dissecting it. The only time somebody can beat us is when we don’t do our job. We feel like that. We truly feel like that. If something happens, it’s something that we did more so than what they did. Going to go back to the drawing board and get it ready for this upcoming weekend.”

This is the Packers’ third consecutive year in the playoffs as the No. 7 seed. In 2023, they rode a bunch of momentum to an upset victory over the Dallas Cowboys and a near-upset over the San Francisco 49ers. In 2024, they were barely competitive in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

“I think every year’s a different year and different experience,” LaFleur said. “You’ve got to learn from your past, no doubt about it. I think it’s just the urgency that needs to be there from the moment we start preparing, which is really right now, in terms of for those guys that battled today, getting their bodies back. We’ve got to have a great week of preparation. We’ve got to maximize it, make the most of it and go shoot our shot.”

For what it’s worth, the Packers say they are confident entering the playoffs. Sunday’s game provided a badly needed mental reset for a team that had played every week since its Week 5 bye.

“I think we’re ultra-confident,” Williams said. “Honestly. I feel like we understand through our adversity, through our losses, in each of them, we felt like we beat ourselves. We felt like we did things that were uncharacteristic, either a loss of focus or our play style wasn’t up to the standard that we need to be. And then we got the games where everything comes together and we’re playing our best ball, and guys have a chip on their shoulder, playing with the edge.

“So, speaking from a personal standpoint, I’m definitely confident in everybody in this locker room. I feel like we have all the pieces necessary to get this done, go all the way, and it’s just about playing with the edge, playing with that little bit of extra energy. We’re excited for the opportunity. We’re excited to come into these playoffs and turn a lot of heads.”

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