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Bears Can't Allow Packers Off the Mat

| September 11th, 2012

Bears at Packers does not require over-hyping. It requires no hype at all. But the stakes of the Bears visit to Lambeau Thursday night need not be understated either.

The Packers are ripe on the vine. They have lost their last two games, both at home, by a combined twenty-five points. They were outplayed in January by the New York Giants and out-muscled Sunday by the San Francisco 49ers. Your 2012 Chicago Bears have an opportunity Thursday night to not only send the Packers to an  0-2 record and an early two-game hole in the NFC North. The Bears have an opportunity to sound the first danger alarm of the Aaron Rodgers era in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

How do I know? Here’s an actual email I received Monday morning:

Perspective from the GB owners box: Unless something drastic happens, something I can’t see happening, that is an 8-8 team at best. CCC

15-1 is fast becoming a memory of years gone by for those who love the green and gold. (I am fundamentally opposed to attaching the word “nation” to every fan base . It don’t add up.) The Packers are staring down the possibility of having lost a quarter of their home games before the 2012 campaign is even warm. Many, especially on the national media level, will view Thursday night as the perfect rebound opportunity for the Super Bowl favorites. It will be an opportunity to reassert their home field advantage and reestablish themselves as one of the titans of the NFC. They have come to a fork in the road and beating the Bears will allow the Packers to pivot their season in a positive direction.

The Bears cannot allow it. As desperate as the Packers may be Thursday night, the Bears must approach their voyage to Lambeau with an equal serving as desperation. They must be desperate to end the Packers run at the top. Desperate to continue Green Bay’s downward trend. The waters of criticism surrounding this organization are warm and the Bears must simmer it to a boil.

And all it takes is a victory. One more point than the other guys. It won’t ensure the Bears a playoff spot or Super Bowl trip. It won’t guarantee them supremacy in the division. But it would be the first significant statement of the new-look football club in Chicago. That statement? The road to winning the NFC North no longer travels through Wisconsin.

‘Tis Packer Week.