Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers: Everything you need to know about the Week 11 game before kickoff
Nov 17, 2024
The 4-5 Chicago Bears will play the 6-3 Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field in a Week 11 matchup. Here’s what you need to know before kickoff (noon, Fox-32).
What to watch for — plus our predictions
Packers quarterback Jordan Love runs off the field after a victory over the Bears at Soldier Field on Sept. 10, 2023. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
It’s always the Packers quarterback in the spotlight against the Bears, isn’t it?
After Aaron Rodgers went 25-5 in his career against the Bears, Jordan Love, his successor, won his first two starts last season to extend the Packers’ winning streak to 10 in the rivalry. Love completed 71.2% of his passes for 561 yards with five touchdowns, no interceptions, two sacks and a 129.3 passer rating in those two games.
Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson missed the season finale against the Packers last season with a shoulder injury, so he didn’t play against Love after the quarterback rounded into form — with 18 touchdowns and just one interception over the final eight games. But he knows how much stopping Love and the Packers would mean to Chicago, because it would be the same for him.
“We’ve been getting our ass whooped for a long time now,” Johnson said. “I don’t have a win (against Green Bay), so it would mean a lot to me personally.” Read more here.
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No pressure, right?
New Bears offensive coordinator Thomas Brown walks across the field during practice at Halas Hall on Nov. 13, 2024, in Lake Forest. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
During his first team meeting as the new offensive coordinator on Wednesday morning, Thomas Brown articulated his vision for the week, offered some ready-made adjustments for the team’s struggling offense and spoke with purpose about what will be needed to keep this roller-coaster season from careening off the track.
Make no mistake, a far different energy pulsed through the air at Halas Hall, a palpable passion that Bears players felt ready to plug right into.
“To hear him up there in front of the whole team, it was amazing,” receiver DJ Moore said. “He brings a lot of juice, a lot of energy.”
Now the Bears are praying that Brown’s charisma and infectious “juice” can, at the very least, give them a short-term lift in the fight to save their season. Read more here.
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What it all means for Matt Eberflus
Bears coach Matt Eberflus leaves the field after a loss to the Cardinals on Nov. 3, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
When Matt Eberflus walked into his first training camp as the Bears head coach, he did so with a collection of 19 assistants, a mostly handpicked coaching staff he believed could help lift the team to new heights.
That was just 27 months ago. At the midpoint of his third season, only eight members of Eberflus’ original staff remain.
If you’re keeping track, Waldron is the third coordinator Eberflus has parted with in 2½ seasons. Over the last 15 months alone, 10 of Eberflus’ assistants have departed, including eight via either resignation or dismissal. Read more here.
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Will move help unlock Caleb Williams?
Bears quarterback Caleb Williams speaks with the media during a press conference at Halas Hall on Nov. 13, 2024. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Nine games into Caleb Williams’ rookie season, his development — and the Bears offense — had taken such a concerning step back that coach Matt Eberflus fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. The midseason upheaval is obviously not ideal, but the Bears hope Thomas Brown’s fresh approach to leadership and perspective on the offense will help unlock Williams.
In the previous three games, Williams completed just 50.5% of his passes for 468 yards with no touchdowns, 18 sacks and a 64.7 passer rating. Eberflus has said Williams remains the starter, so it falls on Brown to turn him around.
Williams said he thought Bears leaders had properly seen his frustration with how the offense was going, but he didn’t think he could have given much input to influence the decision. Eberflus said he consulted with team leaders, including Williams, and the players shared their frustration but didn’t ask for the move. Read more here.
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Stadium update
The former Michael Reese Hospital site, between a truck marshaling yard and Prairie Shores apartments on April 26, 2023. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
The Bears are reconsidering the former Michael Reese Hospital site as a potential location for a new stadium, a source said, but the team remains focused on the lakefront.
The team is open to any alternative that would work, but officials have said previously that the former hospital site was unworkable because it’s next to Metra train tracks that pose a security risk.
The 49-acre site is limited because it’s long and skinny, sandwiched between the tracks and DuSable Lake Shore Drive on the east, apartments on the west, 31st Street on the south and the Stevenson Expressway to the north.
The advantage of the site is that it’s mostly open land, not far from the Loop and the lake, and next to McCormick Place Convention Center. It would also avoid a legal fight over the Bears’ proposal to build a $3.2 billion roofed stadium on the lake to replace the team’s current home in Soldier Field. Read more here.