Bears Beware, Rodgers is Back in Time for NFC North Championship

The NFC North will come down to one of the most storied rivalries in NFL History. This will be the 188th meeting between these two teams and what better way to end the season than to have this rivalry be for the NFC North title with the winning team having another week to play while the loser will be have the rest of year off.

The (7-7-1)Green Bay Packers have been playing the (8-7)Chicago Bears since 1921, let me paint a picture of how the world looked at the time, Albert Einstein received his Nobel Prize in Physics that year and Babe Ruth was hitting his 139th record-breaking home run in his 8th season, yeah it was that long ago.

Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

The Green Bay Packers will be getting MVP QB Aaron Rodgers back after being out since the first meeting between these two teams back in Week 9. Rodgers went out on his first series of the game, backup QB Seneca Wallace came in after that, throwing 11-for-19 with 114 yards and one INT. The Packers just lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers at home last week, 38-31 with backup QB Matt Flynn starting for the Packers, going 2-1 since being put in as the QB. Getting Rodgers back will be help their playoff hopes tremendously this Sunday, since Rodgers has been out with an injury his replacement QB's have thrown over 3 pick-6's while Rodgers entire career he has only thrown 1 INT that was returned for a TD. Before Rodgers went out he had thrown for 17 TD's and 4 INT's, his replacement Flynn has already reached the 4 INT mark but he was able to throw in 7 TD's for the Packers during his fill-in time.

The Green Bay Packers will probably be going into the playoffs and with Rodgers back behind center, should be a team to be feared in the playoffs. Since Rodgers has been out the ground game in Green Bay has finally begun to blossom and Green Bay finally has another 1,000 yard rusher again with rookie RB Eddie Lacy, the last time the Packers had a 1,000 yard RB was back in the 2009 season with Ryan Grant. Going against a Chicago Bears defense that is giving up about 132 yards per game on the ground should make for a field day for Lacy as well as the backup RB James Starks.

A big key for the Bears to have a chance in this game will be obviously pressure on Rodgers, but also Jay Cutler will need to make as few mistakes as possible. The Bears had a chance to clinch the NFC North last week but let that game get away from them early and ended up getting abused by the Eagles, losing 54-11.

Prediction:

GB over CHI 38-28

The reason I am picking the Packers is an easy decision since they will be getting one of the best QB's in the league back. The Bears have been to up-and-down to be able to believe they can hold it together enough to win this one, with any luck they Bears will put back up QB Josh McCown back in and really make it a high flying game. (McCown has a 13:1 TD to INT ratio, Cutler has a 17:11 TD to INT ratio)

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