NEWSLETTER
The last two installments of the Bears Rewind have featured thrilling come from behind victories that ended up in Bears victories, but today we’re going to change it up a bit. With plenty of uncertainty surrounding the Bears as they welcome the Packers into town tomorrow, let’s take a look at a pretty thorough beatdown of Green Bay from Week 1 of the 2006 season to experience some rare good feels when it comes to the Bears-Packers rivalry.
The Bears have lost 22 of their last 27 meetings with Green Bay since Aaron Rodgers took over under center for the Packers in 2008, and Matt Nagy is 1-5 in the NFL’s oldest rivalry. Justin Fields will become the fifth Bears rookie quarterback to make a start against the Packers, and if he wins, he would be just the second to do so. I talked more about that in this week’s Bears-Packers preview, so check that out if you haven’t yet.
Rex Grossman and Bernard Berrian started the scoring in this one with a 49-yard touchdown strike through the air, a rarity in the Lovie Smith era, but man, was it exciting. Of course, this era was when we still thought Rex might be the answer, and of all the mediocre wide receivers that churned in and out of Halas Hall during that decade, Bernard Berrian was one of my favorites to watch.
In typical Bears fashion, the offense would rely heavily on Robbie Gould to kick field goals, and the defense would dominate this Sunday.
Gould drilled four field goals throughout the second and third quarters of this game, and the Bears would lead Green Bay 19-0 heading into the fourth. The defense did its thing as well, holding Brett Favre to 16-0f-30 for 170 yards, zero touchdowns, and two interceptions. Charles Tillman and Danieal Manning each recorded interceptions, and Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs combined for 16 tackles and a sack on the afternoon.
Oh, and who could forget Devin Hester taking a Jon Ryan punt 84 yards to the house in his NFL debut. The punt return touchdown was the first of 14 punt returns that the soon-to-be-Hall of Famer would take back for a score during his career and one of 19 total return touchdowns for Hester.
This victory was the first of 13 in the regular season in the last year that the Bears made an appearance in the Super Bowl. We won’t talk about how that ended. Let’s just enjoy the good vibes from a Bears beatdown of the Packers for today.
