Aaron Kampman had a good feeling Sunday morning as he prepared for the Green Bay Packers biggest game of the season against the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field.
The energy in this locker room was really great before the game, said Kampman, the Pro Bowl defensive end. You get a feel for that, you get a sense for that when youve been around long enough. I knew (the Bears) were going to get everything we had.
Did they ever. The shell-shocked Bears didnt know what hit them in suffering a 37-3 beat down, the biggest trouncing in the series in 14 years.
The result leaves a three-way tie for first place in the NFC North, with the Packers, Bears and Minnesota Vikings deadlocked at 5-5. However, based on Sundays performance, the Packers look much better than their record indicates and have the potential to run away with the division title.
Theres been times where I feel like weve played better football this year in our losses than last year, said Kampman, who has a reputation for telling it like it is rather than making over-the-top statements.
If Kampman is suggesting the Packers arent that far off last years 13-3 team, its hard to argue with him.
The record doesnt support that and no one wants to hear about what-ifs, but the Packers are a couple plays away from having at least a 7-3 record.
You realize its not like were ever getting blown out by anyone, Kampman said. We were in every single one of those games we lost.
Most important, the Packers never saw their confidence waver despite coming into the Bears game with a sub-.500 record. Two brutally painful losses to Tennessee and Minnesota since the bye could have been devastating, but this team stood firm.
We have a lot of good quality, character guys here, linebacker A.J. Hawk said. A lot of times, you can see how a guys going to be when he faces a little adversity. If we were a weaker team, had weaker guys, with a little adversity and losing a couple games, some teams turn around and quit. I knew that never was even an option for us. We knew we had playoff potential.
They knew it and proved it against the Bears, who lost the opening coin toss and everything else after.
This was a butt-kicking of epic proportions, with the Packers dominating the line of scrimmage to the tune of 200 yards rushing against the No. 4 run defense in the NFL. The offensive line, which had been battered physically and bruised mentally a week ago in the Metrodome against the Vikings, faced the Bears with a king-sized chip on its shoulder.
As a collective unit, we kind of put it on our shoulders and said, Were going to get this done, left tackle Chad Clifton said.
Not only did the Packers run the Bears ragged, the line never allowed a defender to lay a finger on quarterback Aaron Rodgers. It was about as spotless a performance as you can get.
Theres probably going to be some mistakes in this film well have to correct, right guard Jason Spitz said.
Yeah, right. Maybe the Packers offensive players need a little work on their Lambeau Leap technique, but thats about it. The Packers scored on six of their nine possessions and dominated every aspect, from first downs (24 to 9), to total yards (427 to 234), to third-down success (50 percent to 25 percent), to time of possession (37 minutes to 22).
We were able to run the ball at will and throw the ball at will today, receiver Greg Jennings said. When youre able to do those things when you want to do them, how you want to do them its going to be tough to beat you.
The Bears know it, and the rest of the league soon could learn the same thing. The Packers will be tough to beat if they keep this up.