The Chicago Bears flipped the script on the Green Bay Packers for the second time in three weeks on Saturday night, completing another comeback win over their NFC North rivals, this time in a 31-27 wild-card thriller.
After the game, Packers safety Javon Bullard was focused on how Green Bay (figuratively) dropped the ball, not necessarily how Chicago managed to pull off yet another comeback.
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“No disrespect to them,” Bullard said, “but it ain’t s*** that they did. It’s us. We gotta finish. You know we whoopin’ they ass the whole game, but that’s us. We gotta finish. They (didn’t) do s*** special. We gotta finish. We ain’t finish last time, we ain’t finish this time. So that’s some s*** we gotta work on within us. Chicago ain’t do s*** special. They ran what they did, they did what they did, they made plays, OK cool, but a lot of this stuff is on us.”
Comments like Bullard’s apparently just add fuel to the Bears’ fire, as head coach Ben Johnson said after Saturday night’s win.
“There was probably a little bit more noise coming out of their building up north to start the week, which we heard loud and clear, players and coaches alike,” Johnson said. “So this one meant something to us.”
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That was evident in Johnson’s postgame locker room speech, where he put things more succinctly: “F*** the Packers! F*** them!”
Just moments earlier, Johnson had met Packers head coach Matt LaFleur at midfield for a very quick, fly-by handshake that raised some eyebrows.
The two have a little bit of history. When Johnson was hired as Bears coach, he mentioned LaFleur by name when talking about staying in the NFC North.
“And to be quite frank with you,” Johnson said, “I kind of enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year.”
And after the Packers’ win over the Bears in early December, the pair shared another quick, businesslike handshake, which LaFleur downplayed afterward.
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No matter the true nature of the relationship between the two, their paths now diverge — Johnson will shift his focus to the divisional round next weekend, while LaFleur will meet with Packers leadership to discuss his future with the team.
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