The Surprising Truth About Packers’ Big Advantage Over Bears

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers are in the playoffs for a third consecutive season with quarterback Jordan Love and the team is making its sixth postseason appearance in seven seasons under coach Matt LaFleur. The Chicago Bears, who the Packers will play in a wild-card game on Saturday night, will be playing their first playoff game during the LaFleur era.

Advantage, Green Bay.

Or so says conventional wisdom.

You know what disagrees with conventional wisdom?

Math.

The 53-man Packers roster has played in a combined 104 playoff games. The 53-man Bears roster has played in a combined 105 playoff games.

Experience is great. As the saying goes, experience is the best teacher. It can bring a sense of calm in difficult situations knowing that you’ve faced and conquered a challenge.

“I think there’s some value in that,” LaFleur said, “but, ultimately, it’s about just being able to go out there and kind of channel your emotion and go out and execute. The team that typically can do that the best is probably going to be the team that wins the game.”

Experience can be overrated.

In the 2023 playoffs, the Packers played at the Dallas Cowboys in the wild-card round. For Love, it was his first career playoff start. For the Cowboys, it was their third consecutive playoff appearance and Dak Prescott’s seventh career playoff start.

You know what happened. The Packers took a 48-16 lead in the fourth quarter. Love finished 16-of-21 passing for 272 yards and three touchdowns, his 157.2 passer rating being the highest ever for a visiting quarterback in NFL playoff history. In his first career playoff game, Romeo Doubs torched the Cowboys for six catches for 151 yards.

Meanwhile, the experienced Prescott threw two interceptions in the first half, including a pick-six to Darnell Savage.

So, the Packers can find comfort in experience, but they know they can’t rely on it.

“I think experience is very valuable,” receiver Jayden Reed said, “but you’ve got to treat every opponent with the same respect because every Sunday’s another Sunday – or every Saturday’s a new Saturday – so it’s about who’s going to go out there and execute and play more physical. At the end of the day, that’s who’s going to win.”

For the Packers, this game will be about preparation and execution. Maybe experience will matter. Maybe it won’t.

Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney (29) during warmups before last year's playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles. | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

“I think experience matters at a point,” safety Xavier McKinney said. “But I’ve also seen guys with a ton of experience get beat by guys that don’t have a ton of experience. I think it’s all about play style and how you go out there and play and execute.

“You can have a guy with a whole bunch of experience but if he don’t prepare the right way, that experience don’t mean nothing. It all just depends on the player and it depends on how you go out there and prepare. So, I don’t even want to say experience – it has something to do with it at a point, for sure, but it just depends on who the player is.”

For Green Bay, Rashan Gary leads the team with eight games of playoff experience. This offseason, Chicago traded for guard Joe Thuney. He’s played in 22 playoff games, including five Super Bowls.

The Packers have 35 players with playoff experience. The Bears have 22.

Does that provide confidence?

“Nah,” McKinney said. “It ain’t about none of that because, regardless of experience, that don’t mean you can’t get beat. So, I try not to push that message to the guys because I think regardless of experience or not, like, mother****er can still go out there and get beat regardless of if you got hella experience or not. I just don’t think that’s really the right message. I don’t even think about it that way.”

How about the coaches? Led by LaFleur, who has been the head coach in eight playoff games and on the sideline for 13, Green Bay’s coaches have been a part of 159 playoff games, including 104 in Green Bay.

This will be Ben Johnson’s playoff debut as Chicago’s coach, but he was part of five playoff games with the Lions.

Chicago defensive coordinator Dennis Allen has a 19-1 edge over Green Bay defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, Green Bay offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich has an 8-4 advantage over Chicago offensive coordinator Declain Doyle and Green Bay special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia has a 12-7 lead on his counterpart, Richard Hightower.

The Bears’ defensive backs coach and defensive pass-game coordinator, former Packers cornerback Al Harris, has coached and played in 23 playoff games.

“You can try to describe it as much as you can, but until you go through it yourself firsthand, I think that's the best way to learn,” Johnson said of the one-and-done mentality of the playoffs. “I think we’ve got a lot of veterans that have been here before, so they know what that's about. They can certainly share those experiences with the younger guys.

“But my experience has been that this is where the details and the fundamentals come out to the forefront. As simple as it is, it's the blocking, it's the tackling, it's the proper catching of the football, ball security, taking the ball away. It's all those little things that show up the most when the lights are the brightest.”

Ultimately, other than the do-or-die stakes, this is “absolutely” just another football game, LaFleur said. Maybe experience will calm the nerves as the 7 p.m. Saturday kickoff approaches.

“It’s the same thing our guys have been doing all season long,” LaFleur said. “It’s a tough opponent, on the road, a division rival. There’s obviously going to be a lot of excitement, not only, everywhere, about this game. We’ve just got to go play our type of game.”

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