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When I read that Chicago Bears defensive end Julius Peppers was fined $10,000 by the NFL today for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in Sunday’s NFC Championship, one thought and one thought only went through my head:

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

For a player who recently signed a huge free agent contract that could total $91.5 million, $10,000 is like pennies to you and me. During the regular season, the NFL apparently made it crystal clear to teams and players that hits that involve the leading of the helmet would not be tolerated and would be met with stiff fines and possible suspensions.

If $10,000 is a stiff fine to multi-millionaires, then I’m the King of England.

Look at Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison (who the Packers will face in Super Bowl XLV). He has been fined for times for illegal hits and the fines total $125,000 for an average of roughly $31,000 per offense. Again, pocket change to the millionaire players of the NFL.

But let’s get back to Peppers, and more importantly for Packer fans, Rodgers.

This is not the first time Peppers has rung Rodgers’ “bell.” In a regular season game at Lambeau Field in 2008, Peppers was flagged for a bruising hit on Rodgers out of bounds when he played for the Carolina Panthers. That hit can be seen here: Julius Peppers Nails Aaron Rodgers  Read more... (770 words + 1 image, estimated 3:05 mins reading time)

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The writing crew at AllGreenBayPackers.com put their prognostication skills on the line for this NFC Championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears:

Adam Czech: Packers 26, Bears 22
The Packers need to win the turnover battle and put together long drives that result in touchdowns. Also, weird things will happen-it’s soldier field-don’t let it snowball.

Chad Toporski: Packers 23, Bears 17
Despite the hype of Aaron Rodgers and Jay Cutler, this game is going to come down to the performance of two of the best defenses in the NFC. And while the Chicago Bears are extremely solid up front, their secondary is less stellar. Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers defense is a more complete unit, with key playmakers at all positions. Look for the Packers to finish with at least a +2 turnover differential and four sacks.

Kris Burke: Packers 23, Bears 17
In what will be an emotional tug of war for nearly 60 minutes, the game likely will come down to the final drive. Aaron Rodgers will continue his hot hand Cutler will make another interception eerily similar to the one he threw against the Packers in Week 17.

Thomas Hobbes: Packers 16, Bears 10
I see this as a game of defense and field position.  The Bears will probably get one lucky strike against the Packers; either a kickoff/punt return for a touchdown or a long touchdown pass to one of their speedy receivers.  The Packers will have better success moving the ball on the Bears, but will have to settle for field goals.  Read more... (377 words + 2 images, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

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I meant to do a post on this topic earlier in the week, but work got the best of me and I also got sucked into this documentary about the White family of West Virginia on one of my free nights (I could not decide if it was sad, disgusting, fascinating, or all of the above).

Anyway, I have been thinking about the Packers approach on offense in Sunday’s win over the Bears. It initially bugged me that the Packers did not stick with the short passes that moved the chains so effectively in the first Bears game, and appeared to be working fairly well early on Sunday. The Packers also showed brief flashes of a competent run game, so I also wondered why they didn’t stick with it a bit more, especially with James Starks in the second half.

I am usually not one of those people that nitpicks at playcalling (unless it’s the fullback dive), but I do like to try and look at the big picture after each game and decide if I liked the approach or not.

In the week three loss, the Bears were content to sit back, let the Packers move down the field, and wait until drives imploded via penalties, turnovers or other miscues. Under no circumstances were they going to let the Packers start connecting on their trademark deep passes.

This is what the Bears do and they do it well. They do it well against almost every team they face, but especially against the Packers.  Read more... (598 words + 1 image, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

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The Packers and the Bears met for the 181st time today. As would only seem appropriate for these two long-time rivals, defense ruled the day, with the Packers pulling out a do-or-die 10-3 victory. Yes, they’re in the playoffs. Bring on Michael Vick.

Oh, and thank you Lovie Smith for playing the game to win. The Packers had to beat your best to get in and that’s the way it should be.

My game day impressions:

PREGAME:

As tweeted by Mike Vandermause, this is first time in history of Packers-Bears series that both teams enter game with 9 or more wins.

MY KEY TO THE GAME: If I had to pick JUST ONE thing, it would be this: Protect Aaron Rodgers.

The Bears come in with one of the best front sevens in the league.  As I said in a previous article:

They’re not going to dominate the Chicago DL, but they don’t need to. Like last week against the Giants, they just have to hold them off long enough to give Rodgers some clear looks in the Bears secondary.

My 1A key to the game: This could be a toss-up between avoiding Devin Hester and harassing  Jay Cutler. Assuming the Packers meet the goal of my #1 key, there won’t be many punt return opportunities for Hester, so I’ll go with pressuring Jay Cutler. Make him uncomfortable and the mistakes will follow.

Inactive for Green Bay on Sunday:  Read more... (1128 words + 3 images, estimated 4:31 mins reading time)

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The Packers and Bears squared off in a Monday Night battle that would be marred by poor play and penalties nullifying big plays. Here are my first impressions as the game was being played:

As the inactives were announced, I found it very interesting that all four tight ends and all three fullbacks are active. WIth the tight ends, I’ll be looking for a three tight end red zone set, with Finley, Lee and Crabtree and the Packers throwing the ball out of that set.

With the fullbacks, I’m thinking we might see passes to the running backs substituting for some runs tonight, especially with Nance inactive and Jackson as the only true halfback. Not to mention a power 3 fullback backfield.

Derrick Martin showed on the opening kickoff why he is on this team.

Dom Capers goes Psycho-crazy on first possession. Does that make any sense?

The Packers are consistently doing a nice job surrounding the kick returner on kickoffs. The returners may pick up some yards, but there are no lanes for them to break off a big one.

Jay Cutler throws some real head-scratching interceptions…

Twenty minutes in and Cutler already has that “deer in the headlights” look. This is looking like a good night for the Packers…

We’re seeing the expected use of the short pass to the running backs as a substitute for running the ball. Only in the second quarter, but we’ve probably seen as many passes to the running backs as in the first two games combined.  Read more... (730 words + 3 images, estimated 2:55 mins reading time)

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Now THAT was more like it.

Despite getting off to a sluggish start in the first half and after a fiery speech by a supposed red-faced Mike McCarthy, the Green Bay Packers ran over the Buffalo Bills 34-7.

This week, the Packers won’t be afforded the luxury of a slow start as they head to Soldier Field to face the Chicago Bears Monday night with first place in the NFC North on the line.

With two weeks of the 2010 NFL season now in the books, some trends are beginning to emerge. The Packer offense is every bit as potent as expected and the defense, despite some occasional shakiness, looks to have rebounded from the debacle that was last year’s playoff loss in Arizona.

Clay Matthews continues his torrid pace recording his second consecutive three sack game, a first in Packers history. Aaron Rodgers recovered nicely from a shaky game against the Philadelphia Eagles and the offense didn’t seem to miss a step without running back Ryan Grant who is out for the season on injured reserve.

The Chicago Bears enter this game as one of the biggest surprises of this young season. The Bears sit at 2-0 after a win over what could be a worse than expected Dallas Cowboys team and an incredibly lucky Week 1 win over the Detroit Lions when Calvin Johnson’s obvious touchdown catch as time expired was overturned by the officials.  Read more... (1336 words + 1 image, estimated 5:21 mins reading time)

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