Bears vs Packers: Pregame Notes and Numbers

Saturday, December 3, 2005 | Dave

This is quick and messy but in preparation for Sunday’s epic game here are notes on the Bears/Packers’ rivalry, the oldest in football.

The Bears lead the Packers 85-78-6 despite dropping 19 of 22 since 1994.

In their only postseason meeting the Bears beat the Packers 33-14 on Dec 14, 1941. 43,425 fans came to Wrigley Field for it. The following NFL championship game between the Bears and the Giants brought in a mere 13,341 fans.

Mike Sherman is 8-2 against the Bears.

Favre has a 21-5 career record against them with a 93.8 career passer rating, including a 98.5 rating on the road. In the last four games in Soldier Field (and the one in Champaign) he has thrown for 11 touchdowns and been intercepted only twice and sacked just four times.

Farve has also won 11 straight on the road against the Bears.
If they won Sunday the Bears would tie the NFL record for consecutive home losses against the same opponent, It is currently shared by the 49ers from 1968 to '80 against the then Los Angeles Rams and the Rams themselves from 1987 to '98 against those same 49ers

I don’t want to hear tales about how the Packer season was lost due to injury. They have 8 players on IR, including 4 running backs and 2 wide receivers. But only Ahman Green and Javon Walker were starters.
The Bears have 5 players on IR including two starters, Grossman and Mark Bradley.

Green Bay has given up an average of 155.8 rushing yards in the last 4 games. So look for a good day from TJ and Peterson.

The Bears have shut out the Packers 13 times in 169 all-time meetings dating back to 1921 (The Bears that season were called the Chicago Staleys.)

The fewest points the Packers have scored in the Farve era was last year when they scored 10 in Chicago’s 21-10 win in Lambeau.

Other notes and numbers that bear mentioning:

If the Bears win this week Lovie would be at the .500 mark as a head coach. A fairly amazing achievement considering last years 5-11 record.

Maynard (who is right footed) kicked punts (impressively I hear) with his left foot this week to prepare Rashied Davis for Green Bay’s left footed punter. Seriously Maynard is Superman, is there nothing he cannot do?

Thomas Jones needs 88 yrds to record his first 1,000 yrd season He would be the 10th Bear to do so.

The others in the 1,000 club:
Beattie Feathers who in 1934, became the first back in NFL history to reach 1,000 yards.
Walter Payton, a 10 time member.
Neal Anderson: 3 times
Gale Sayers: 2
Atrain: 2 (Go Train!)
James Allen, Raymont Harris, Rashaan Salaam, Rick Casares: 1

Fred Miller can now eat solid food but only "in real small pieces," and he still 10 pounds lighter.

Last week was the 9th time Orton has thrown for under 150 yards

Robbie Gould pronounces his last name "Gold." Which ruins Noah’s “Its GOULD� celebration when we Robbie makes a FG or PAT. “Its Gold� just doesn’t have the same ring.

Alex Brown was the Chicago Bear miked up for last week’s game continuing an unbelievable streak of games where the player miked up had an incredible day.

Alex Brown is a huge fan of the anime cartoon Dragon Ball-Z

December 2 is the annual "Roberto Garza Day" in Rio Hondo, Texas. He also has a street in town named after him.

Matching his season high with 15 tackles against Tampa Bay, Lance Briggs overtook Urlacher for the team lead in tackles after getting 15 against Tampa. He currently has 120 which is on track to beat his career high set last year with 168. He and Urlacher are the first linebackers to post back-to-back 100 tackle seasons since Barry Minter who recorded over 100 from ’96-’99.

The Bears have improved from 28th in the league in yards allowed per kick return (25.6) to sixth (20.7).

The Bears lead the NFL overall with 90 negative plays (negative runs, passes for negative yards and sacks), according to Stats Inc.

According to unofficial numbers, the defensive line "ruined" nine of 121 total plays with a sack, deflected pass or a tackle for zero or minus yards against New Orleans and San Francisco. (not including penalties forced or forced fumbles)

�That "disruption quotient" spiked to 13 of 63 plays against Carolina and 11 of 59 against Tampa Bay. That means nearly 20 percent of all snaps against two of the NFC's top teams were destroyed before they ever reached the line of scrimmage or another Bear.�

The Bears have allowed opponents to get a first down on only 28.1 percent of their third downs, a rate that leads the league.

And I know a lot has been said about the parallels between the ’05 Bears and the ’85 Bears but while we are doing awesome there is still room for improvement.

The ’85 Bears scored 456 points that year, second in the league. The ’05 Bears’ have scored 182 points, 16.5 per game, the worst among any team with a winning record. That number includes only 17 TDs. The passing game is averaging an anemic 5.2 yards per attempt. That’s barely a yard more than the Bears’ average per rush.

The offense has scored 1 TD in each of the last 3 games. The last two have come on drives that went a total of 9 yrds. Eight yrds in 3 plays against the Panthers and 1 play for 1 yrd against the Bucs.

The ’85 Bears’ D had 64 sacks and 54 turnovers. The ’05 Bears D are on pace for 34 turnovers (for an overall minus-1 turnover margin and 2 defensive TDs) and 54 sacks..