GREEN BAY Charles Woodson still isnt quite sure what the Chicago Bears motivation was two weeks ago.
But if coach Lovie Smith was indeed trying to beat the Green Bay Packers in the teams Jan. 2 regular-season finale a meaningless game for the locked-into-their-playoff-position Bears because Smith wanted to keep his NFC North division rivals out of the postseason altogether, well, he failed.
I just look at it that it was a rivalry game, and they wanted to beat the Packers and we wanted to beat the Bears, Woodson, the Packers veteran cornerback, said of Smiths decision to play his starters the entire game in a 10-3 Green Bay victory that sent the Packers into the postseason. I dont know if they wanted to get us out of there so they didnt have to play us or not.
The Bears motivation is moot now, because the Packers not only are in the playoffs, they are going to face the Bears: In the NFC Championship Game next Sunday at Soldier Field in Chicago a game that will add a historic new chapter to the teams long-standing bitter rivalry.
It just doesnt get any better, as I see it, than for the NFC championship coming down to the Packers coming down on our turf this time, Smith said. The Packers and Bears to finish it up. That's how it should be.
The two teams have met 180 times in the regular season dating back to 1923 the longest running rivalry in the NFL with the Bears holding a 91-83-6 advantage in those games, including a season split in 2010. But the lone previous playoff game between the two teams was in 1941, a week after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Forced to play each other after the teams finished the regular season with identical 10-1 records with each teams loss coming to the other the Bears beat the Packers, 33-14, in a Western Division Playoff at Wrigley Field on Dec. 14, 1941. After spotting the Packers a 7-0 lead by fumbling the opening kickoff to set up Clarke Hinkles 1-yard touchdown run, the Bears Hugh Gallarneau had an 81-yard punt return to pull Chicago within 7-6 before Chicago exploded for a 24-point second quarter, highlighted by two Norm Standlee touchdown runs.
The Bears then beat the New York Giants, 37-9, a week later at Wrigley Field in the NFL Championship Game.
In the 70 years since, the teams have never faced each other with as much on the line as next Sunday, when the winner will punch their ticket to Super Bowl XLV in North Texas on Feb. 6.
We go in there one game away from our goal, Packers wide receiver James Jones said. And thats all we can ask for.
Both teams will be coming off dominating victories in the NFC Divisional Playoffs the sixth-seeded Packers a 48-21 rout of the top-seeded Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome on Saturday night, and the second-seeded Bears a 35-24 not-as-close-as-the-score-indicated blowout of the fourth-seeded Seattle Seahawks at Soldier Field Sunday. The Packers will be trying to become the first No. 6 seed in NFC history to reach the Super Bowl, joining the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers, who won the AFC that year by winning three straight road playoff games.
Our season is bigger than just beating the Falcons and going to the NFC Championship Game. Weve got bigger goals than that, Packers nose tackle B.J. Raji asid. We have our work cut out.
Thats what Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was saying Sunday as well, after throwing for 274 yards and two touchdowns and running for 43 yards and two more TDs in the first playoff game of his career.
"It doesn't get any bigger than this," Cutler said. "To be in an NFC Championship situation, at home, and then to bring Green Bay in on top of it just adds to it. They're a really good football team, they're really hot. To go to Philly, to Atlanta, and now to come to us in Chicago ... they're used to the road, I'm sure their confidence is sky-high."
Smith, who has grown tired of reporters bringing up his decree about beating the Packers at his introductory press conference, will undoubtedly be reminded of that quote yet again, which he delivered amid a streak of Packers domination in which Green Bay went 20-4 against its rivals from 1992 through 2003.
"The No. 1 goal that we'll have, the No. 1 goal, is to beat Green Bay," Smith said on Jan. 15, 2004 a statement that prompted hearty applause from Bears staffers in the room. "I feel the pain of seven years that the Chicago fans have of losing to them. I've been on the winning side the last five times I've played them, so I think we know how to beat them."
And Smith has done that with more regularity than his predecessors, going 8-6 all-time against the Packers while splitting 10 games head-to-head with coach Mike McCarthy.
Now, theyll face each other again, with a trip to the Super Bowl hanging in the balance.
We have confidence against whoever we play, Woodson said. We feel good about this team. Were playing well right now. We just want to continue to do it next week.
We just look at it as another obstacle. It doesnt matter who were playing. The object is to win.
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