Aaron Rodgers said this week that he has no regrets about yelling, “I own you” toward Bears fans when leading Green Bay to a win in Chicago earlier this season. It’s easy for Rodgers to feel that way, because he’s right.
The Packers are 21-5 against the Bears in games started by Rodgers (plus 1-0 in the postseason), and his presence has led to the Packers taking a decisive lead in the century-old rivalry.
The Bears and Packers first started playing in 1921, when the Bears were known as the Decatur Staleys. The Staleys won that first game 20-0, and for decades afterward the Bears were the better team. The Bears won most of their games in the 1920s and 1930s and so dominated the rivalry in the 1940s and 1950s that by 1960, the Bears had a 24-game lead in the all-time rivalry. Vince Lombardi’s Packers narrowed the gap in the 1960s, but the Bears were so dominant in the 1980s that they again took a 24-game lead by the early 1990s.
That started to change with the arrival of Brett Favre in Green Bay, but even when Favre was traded away and Rodgers became the starter, the Bears still had an 11-game lead in the all-time series.
That’s no longer the case. Thanks to their dominance with Rodgers as the starter, the Packers took the series lead in 2017 and have extended it since then. When the Packers beat the Bears earlier this season, it extended Green Bay’s series lead to 102-95-6. That seven-game lead is the largest lead the Packers have ever had in the all-time rivalry.
The Bears and Packers will meet again this week on Sunday Night Football. The Packers are 12.5-point favorites, as Rodgers is expected to extend the Packers’ lead to 103 wins with 95 losses and six ties against the Bears.