On Sunday afternoon, the Chicago Bears got back into the win column with a blowout 31-3 home win over the Cleveland Browns. That, combined with a loss from the Green Bay Packers against the Denver Broncos, vaulted the Bears back into first place in the NFC North with just three weeks remaining in the season.
Next up for the Bears is a rematch with the Packers, after narrowly falling against them two weeks ago in Wisconsin. The big story heading into this game is the fact that Green Bay will be without star pass rusher Micah Parsons, who tore his ACL in the loss to the Broncos.
On Tuesday, Bears head coach Ben Johnson spoke on how the injury will affect things in the matchup between the two teams this weekend.
“We look at everything and that’s where being in the division last year certainly helps because you see all that tape from Hafley’s defense a year ago… There’s elements of that you take into account but at this point of the season, it’s a really good football team. Really good defense,” said Johnson, per Courtney Cronin of ESPN.
“I know you kind of lock in one player because he does garner a lot of your attention when you go against that defense and yet they have some high caliber players throughout on the defensive line, linebacking core and on the back end. Just because one player goes down, doesn’t mean this is going to change a whole lot for them,” he added.
Overall, the Packers are certainly a much better defense with Parsons on the field, but they still possess enough talent to make things happen even with him on the sidelines.
In any case, the Bears and Packers are slated to kick things off on Saturday evening at 8:20 pm ET from Soldier Field.
