Chicago Bears: Solving Aaron Rodgers isn’t overly complicated

The Chicago Bears know they will never vanquish the Green Bay Packers until they figure out how to keep Aaron Rodgers under control.

That’s easier said than done of course. He’s one of the best quarterbacks in football and will be in the Hall of Fame one day. Still, for him to be 16-4 against the Bears in his career, that seems more lopsided than it should be. So what gives? Mostly it has to do with bad timing. Rodgers caught the Bears on the downslope of their more recent run of success. By 2008, the year he became the starter, Chicago was already on a slow decline from their Super Bowl run two seasons prior.

That deterioration coincided perfectly with Rodgers’ rise to the top. Granted, a huge part of that was the Bears’ fault for not drafting well enough to keep the team strong during that time period. Still, the past is the past. For the first time in ages, they seem to have the look of a playoff team. Everybody knows though that nothing changes until they get back Rodgers and Green Bay.

So the question is how. How do they finally take down their longtime nemesis? Truth be told, it’s not overly complex.

Aaron Rodgers is a quarterback who lives for the big play

One of the big reasons the Bears have consistently been unable to beat Rodgers, aside from their own issues scoring points against Green Bay, is the fact they keep finding ways to give him big play opportunities. It was especially apparent in their first meeting this year as he hit them for multiple plays of at least 25 yards or more including two touchdowns to Geronimo Allison and Randall Cobb.

History will show that when Rodgers has these opportunities taken away, his team become far more susceptible to defeat. Since 2015, the Packers are 9-14-1 in games where their quarterback averages less than seven yards per pass attempt. They’re 23-14 when over that mark. The team simply has more success when he is able to hit for those chunk plays.

This is important. Why? The Bears defense ranks 2nd in the NFL in yards per pass attempt allowed at just 5.9. If they can keep it in that general area for this upcoming game, their chances of victory should go up considerably. Sure that’s asking a lot against Rodgers, but if they wish to prove they’re for real, then they were going to have to pass this test sooner or later.