The 9-3 Chicago Bears will play the 8-3-1 Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in a Week 14 matchup. Here’s what you need to know before kickoff (3:25 p.m., Fox-32).
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5 things to watch at Lambeau Field — plus our Week 14 predictions
It’s not like the semiannual grudge match between the Bears and the Packers needed higher stakes, but the football gods bestowed them anyway.
To the winner goes the lead in the NFC North and possibly maintaining the top seed in the conference. Read more here.
- Bears LB T.J. Edwards set to return after missing 4 games — but WR Rome Odonze ruled out for Sunday
- Stats show troubling trend in Caleb Williams’ accuracy, but Ben Johnson says to ‘throw those out the window’
- Micah Parsons making history in his 1st season with the Packers as his sack totals climb
Al Harris has made an impact for years. And wherever he goes, takeaways follow.
Al Harris had a profound impact on the Bears long before being hired as defensive backs coach/passing game coordinator.
Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen put a wire cage — the kind you see in a physical education class — in the unit’s meeting room to fill with footballs as the defense collected takeaways this season. With five games remaining, there isn’t a lot of room left. The Bears have 26 takeaways and 17 interceptions — tops in the NFL in both categories — with Harris’ defensive backs accounting for 13 of the picks and six fumble recoveries. Read more here.
- Nahshon Wright’s ’emotional’ breakout season for Bears comes as he mourns his JUCO coach John Beam
- How did the Bears’ Jaylon Johnson recover from a season-threatening injury? Fasting — and faith.
Every point the Bears lose by, he runs a mile. But Sunday’s stakes are higher: His fiancée is a Packers fan.
Chase Bandolik caught everyone’s attention when he ran 31 miles, in a row, for every point lost by the Bears against the Lions in early September — including the Bears.
Star quarterback Caleb Williams and wide receiver DJ Moore have interacted with his social media accounts. Last month, the Bears sent Bandolik a gift package filled with Bears socks, pajamas, blankets and other gear.
For Bandolik, who has been running a mile for every point the Bears lose by in games since 2024, the challenge has become personal — his fiancée, Rylee Jade Ollearis, is a die-hard Packers fan. Read more here.
6 reasons Ben Johnson may be right about Bears playing their best ball in December
It was on the heels of a 31-point beatdown in Detroit that Ben Johnson predicted the Chicago Bears would be playing their best football in December.
The wins indeed have come rapidly — nine in the last 10 games — and now Johnson looks like some sort of football oracle. Read more here.
- Kyle Monangai laughs about fan’s ‘Lion King’ parody: ‘Everybody’s been sending it to me,’ Bears RB says
- NFL division races tighten after surprises and upsets — and the Bears own the NFC’s top seed now
- 4 things we learned from the Bears, including why the NFC lead ‘doesn’t mean anything’
- Bears Q&A: Could Ben Johnson win Coach of the Year? When should fans panic about Caleb Williams?
By the numbers: Rarely have Bears and Packers been this good in long rivalry
The stakes are higher than they’ve been in a long time. Not since 2019 have the rivals squared off in the months of December or January when both teams had a winning record.
Taking that a little deeper, according to Stathead, this will be just the second time the Bears and Packers were both five games over .500 entering a regular-season meeting in December or January. The only other instance was Dec. 9, 2001. That afternoon, coach Mike Sherman’s 8-3 Packers beat Dick Jauron’s 9-2 Bears 17-7 at Lambeau Field.
The NFL often schedules these division games for late in the season, but rarely in the Bears-Packers rivalry have both teams been this good this late in the season. Read more here.
- Bears and Packers have played 210 times in the past 100 years. Here’s how the rivalry has unfolded.
- Bears’ Week 16 matchup with Packers scheduled for prime-time kickoff
Bears fans line up again for free Wieners Circle hot dogs
Everyone was there Tuesday for the big day at The Wieners Circle — the guy wearing 1985 Bears drip, people dressed like hot dogs and plastic mustard containers, various shirtless men, and, of course, a dog in a Caleb Williams jersey.
Ben Johnson’s “good, better, best” mantra was repeatedly uttered by those in line on Tuesday, and someone even managed to give it a Wieners Circle twist.
“Good. Better. Best get your (bleeping bleep) out the (bleeping) way, you Green Bay (bleeps).”
It was enough to make a grown man cry. Read more here.
- Photos: Bears fans line up — again — for free hot dogs at Wieners Circle
- Why did Bears’ Ben Johnson go shirtless? ‘Anytime you get a chance to feed a city, you want to do it.’
About last week
An exuberant Kyle Monangai returned to the locker room underneath Lincoln Financial Field with a silver platter stacked with gourmet sandwiches.
The Prime Video postgame crew rewarded Monangai and D’Andre Swift with the sandwiches during their appearance Friday night after the Bears bulldozed the Eagles 24-15 to improve to 9-3.
Monangai was looking to feed his offensive linemen, the guys who paved the way on a historic rushing day for a franchise with great history running the ball. Read more here.