NEW YORK — It’s been well documented about the un-love affair between Brett Farve and Aaron Rodgers, but is that the reason Rodgers seemed to play a horrible game on his home turf of Lambeau Field in a stunning 17-13 loss to the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving night? If you’d ask the Bears, they’d say, ‘absolutely not.’
The night was perfectly set up for the Green Bay Packers and their fan base to have a storybook ending as been the custom and habit and tradition even with Rodgers at the helm, especially against the Bears.
But on this rainy night in Green Bay, a special night when Farve’s number 4 was being hung up in the Packers Ring of Honor with five others, it was the Bears and their defense that had the Thanksgiving night to remember. Especially when you consider it was the Packers that had won six of the last seven at Lambeau in the lopsided series. Jay Cutler with 200 yards with one touchdown finally exorcised the ‘Ghost of Packer Past’.
The Bears who have won three of the past for games and the Packers have now loss its second straight at home suddenly are making the NFC North Division pretty interesting.
Rodgers however in the teams last stand in the red zone was unable to pull out any magic. From the Bears’ 8 yard line, Rodgers couldn’t zip the perfect pass into any of his receivers: Richard Rodgers (no relation), Justin Perillo and Davante Adams all dropped passes. Eddie Lacy did his best to carry the offense with 105 rushing yards and 34 receiving but it wasn’t enough. Rodgers couldn’t capitalize on the 13 plays and 72 yards they gained from the 2:23 mark after the Bears elected to punt instead of going for it on 4th and one.
Perhaps had Rodgers been able to channel in his inner Kristaps Porzingis who took it upon himself to have a game of his life (29 points and 11 rebounds) in front of Hall-of-Famers and former Knicks, Willis Reed (who was visiting) and Patrick Ewing who was coaching with the Charlotte Hornets, he would have been able to pull out a victory. Rodgers was playing in front of not only Favre who wasn’t the most hospitable to him when they were teammates on the Packers and Mr. Green Bay himself, Bart Starr.
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