Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) won his first-ever start against the Chicago Bears … [+]
They were hesitant to use the word “own.”
Then again, they didn’t have to.
By now, football fans everywhere know the Green Bay Packers have owned the Chicago Bears for three-plus decades. And that didn’t change Sunday — even if none of the Packers wanted to go all Aaron Rodgers and say, “I’ve owned you all my (bleeping) life! I own you! I still own you!”
The Packers rolled into Chicago, where the Bears believed they were finally ready to end 31 years of misery against their oldest rival. Instead, the same movie that’s played since 1992 was still in the projector, as the Packers routed the Bears, 38-20.
“Nothing’s changed,” star running back Aaron Jones said. “We’re still the Packers.”
And that means dominating their foes from the Windy City.
Frank Sinatra once called Chicago, “My Kind Of Town.” The Bears are really nobody’s kind of team, though, certainly when it comes to their matchup with the Packers.
Green Bay’s win over Chicago was its ninth straight over their 104-year foe, and the second-longest in series history. The Packers won 10 straight against the Bears from 1994-1998.
Amazingly, the Packers are 27-5 against Chicago since the start of 2008 and 49-15 against the Bears since 1992.
“Throughout this whole entire offseason, we just believed in ourselves,” Packers outside linebacker Rashan Gary said. “We turned off the outside noise, a lot of people on this team, we block it out and we believe in each other.
“And everybody on this entire team, from top to bottom, wants to improve on the small things. And like I said, today was a good start of blocking out the noise and us keep working and continuing the same thing.”
Just more than three decades ago, Chicago owned this rivalry between the NFL’s two oldest franchises.
Mike Ditka’s Bears won 12 of 14 games between 1985-1991 and took a 80-57-6 lead in the series. But everything changed in 1992 when Packers general manager Ron Wolf hired Mike Holmgren as coach and traded for Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre.
Favre went a sensational 22-10 against the Bears, a .688 winning percentage. Aaron Rodgers took the reins from Favre in 2008 and went a remarkable 25-5 during his 15 years as a starter (.833). Even backup quarterback Brett Hundley went 1-0 against Chicago, winning his start in 2017 when Rodgers was hurt.
Sunday was the beginning of the Jordan Love-era in Green Bay and he shined against the Bears like Favre and Rodgers before him.
Love went 15-of-27 for 245 yards, threw three touchdowns, didn’t have a turnover and finished with a 123.2 passer rating. He’s now 1-0 against Chicago and the Packers are 106-95-6, their largest lead in the history of the series.
“Coming in here, we knew what type of game we were in for,” Love said. “Obviously my first game in this rivalry, so it felt good. They’re a good team. Obviously the first half was close and the second half, the way we bounced back and came out there in the second half and just total domination felt good.”
Green Bay held a narrow 10-6 halftime lead against a team and a city that entered with remarkably high hopes for the 2023 campaign. The Packers then erupted for 28 points in just under 13 minutes and pulled away for an easy win.
Green Bay won the turnover battle, 2-0. Jones had a pair of second half touchdowns that changed the game. And midway through the fourth quarter, the majority of Chicago fans were headed for the exits.
“It’s fun,” Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander said. “It’s always fun winning at Soldier Field because like I said, everybody wants us to lose there, so it’s always fun to win.”
That’s what Green Bay has been doing the past 31 years.
And there’s no sign the end is in sight.
“That was a lot of fun,” Green Bay cornerback Rasul Douglas said. “And that’s what you play football for is to have fun. As much as it’s like you make a lot of money and do all of that stuff, the main thing always has to be have fun. Just go out there and have fun.”
And for both Green Bay and Packer Nation, owning the Bears is about as fun as it gets.
