Brian Giesen – Flickr
Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers
Location: Lambeau Field, Green Bay, WI
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m.
Line: GB -10
TV: NBC (Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth)
Radio:
Chicago: WBBM/WCCS-FM (Jeff Joniak, Tom Thayer and Zach Zaidman)
Green Bay: WTMJ (Wayne Larrivee and Larry McCarren)
Gobble, Gobble, Gobble! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Especially to football fans around the world. On Thanksgiving night 2015, the oldest rivalry in the NFL will be renewed once again as the Chicago Bears travel to Lambeau Field up in Green Bay, Wisconsin to take on their hated rival Green Bay Packers. This will be the 192nd meeting between these two teams after they met the first week of the season with the Packers winning that match-up 31-23. This put Green Bay within one victory of tying up the all time series which Chicago currently leads 93-92-6. With the Packers sitting as generous 10 point favorites, that looks like a good possibility right now. We’ll see if that holds true on Thursday night.
KEYS TO THE GAME: CHICAGO BEARS
Will Matt Forte be able to return from injury? If not, will Jeremy Langford keep up his strong play since taking over the starting position? Either way, Chicago will need to be able to run the ball consistently against the Packers defense like they did successfully in week one when these two teams played.
Jay Cutler has been playing great football the last few weeks, with the exception of last week against a stout Denver Broncos‘ defense. Although if you were to compare the production of him versus what Peyton Manning would have done if he would have played last week, I’d take Cutler’s performance any day. He will need to bounce back against Green Bay and lead the Bears offense up and down the field, if they want a chance of winning against Rodgers and company.
Last key for the Bears is obviously their defense against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense. Yes, the Packers haven’t been playing like everyone is used to seeing them play the last month, but last week against the Minnesota Vikings, they looked like themselves again. That’s not a good sign for the Bears this week.
KEYS TO THE GAME: GREEN BAY PACKERS
Aaron Rodgers needs to follow up his solid performance against Minnesota with another great showing against the Bears who he destroys on a yearly basis. If he can do that, the game will be completely one sided.
The running game of the Packers finally got back on track last week and by the running game, I mainly mean Eddie Lacy. Lacy has been a huge disappointment this year and last week against a good Vikings defense, he eclipsed the 100-yard mark. Look for him to continue that dominant running against the Bears along with James Starks.
The Dom Capers led Packers defense has finally shown up the last two weeks. They will need to again this week against Jay Cutler who has been one of the hotter quarterbacks in the NFL as of recently.
IMPACT/FANTASY PLAYER: CHICAGO BEARS
JEREMY LANGFORD – This kid has stepped up huge for the Bears in the absence of Matt Forte accumulating 250-yards and five touchdowns. He will need to be the x-factor for the Bears Thanksgiving night.
IMPACT/FANTASY PLAYER: GREEN BAY PACKERS
JAMES JONES – James Jones has had a fantastic season for the Green Bay Packers and their offense already this season. He’s hauled in 30 passes from Aaron Rodgers for 592-yards and seven touchdowns. Two of those touchdowns came in the first meeting against the Bears in week one. Look for Rodgers to look for Jones again Thursday.
PREDICTION:
The line on this game currently has the Packers favored as ten points. Myself as a die-hard Packers fan, I feel that’s too high. The Packers finally redeemed themselves last week with a big win over the previous NFC North division leader Minnesota Vikings and even now they still are tied at 7-3. They only are in first by a tie-breaker. On the Chicago side of things, Jay Cutler and company have been playing much better football as of late even though they lost to the Broncos last week. This game could be much closer than most people think. This is going to be a good, fun Thanksgiving night game. Packers will win, but it will be close.
CHICAGO – 24 GREEN BAY – 34
Ryan Cole is a Writer for Couch Rider Report. Follow us on Facebook or twitter
