Bearly Relevant: Week 11, a Favre-less Green Bay

This is super long, I'm not sure if it makes any sense, and I finished it at 3 a.m. so it's almost certainly loaded with fun and exciting typos. Just a warning.

Lovie Smith takes a ton of heat in this city. I think the main reason is because the Bears are - and we should be able to unanimously agree on this - Chicago’s favorite sons. We boo because we love. Michael Jordan was kind of cool and having two baseball teams is fun, but all 16 of the Bears’ regular season games just mean more. For that reason alone, any coach who takes over the Bears inherits a certain amount of scrutiny. It comes with the job.

But I feel like Smith gets bashed more than he deserves, which is a little confusing. If anything, Lovie should get more leeway from fans and media than his predecessors. After all, he gets the Packers, and he beats the Packers.

Lovie’s first press conference became infamous when the Bears went to the Super Bowl, but that seems like eons ago now. We can’t forget how awesome it was. Smith’s three part plan to rescue the franchise went as such:

1) Beat the Packers

2) Win the division

3) Win the Super Bowl

When I saw the highlights of that presser, the first thing I remember thinking is that this guy must have Gavin Floyd-like balls. Could you ever imagine Dick Jauron being so blunt in a million years? And what if the Bears turn out to be pretty good, but still couldn’t beat Green Bay? It would make sense, you know, because up until that point, the Bears never beat Green Bay. Lovie seemed to be setting himself up for disaster from the start.

As you probably know by now, the Bears under Lovie Smith have been fairly dominant against the Packers, winning six of the last eight times. Each of those wins were awesome, mostly because they left Brett Favre either beaten, bloody, or really, really cold.

But #4 is gone now, so it begs the question: is beating the Packers still as important as it once was?

Honestly, I have no idea. Yeah, I still hate the Packers, but when I think Packers, I think Favre. He’s the only villain I’ve ever known. Without him, what becomes of the rivalry?

In sports, there are two types of rivals: proximate and remote. The Bears and Packers are, at least how I experienced it, remote rivals. So are the Yanks and Red Sox, Buckeyes and Wolverines, and Celtics and Lakers. I grew up hating the Packers, but so did everyone else. There was never any school room divide because there were no Packers fans. The rivalry was a one-way avenue.

Proximate rivals, I think, are much worse.  Its most pure form is at the high school level, and in this part of the universe it peaks with the Cubs and Sox (I love how that post occasionally still gets comments). If we were to poll TUP Nation on who they detested more, Cubs or Packers, I’m sure the Cubs would win by a landslide. It’s nothing against (or for) the Packers, it’s just that the Cubs are so much closer. We are bombarded with Cubs fans in our everyday lives in a way the Packers can never touch. Though the Yankees and Red Sox get all the headlines, I’d bet Yankees fans would rather beat the Mets. Rivalries, after all, are all about the fans.

The thing about Favre, though, was that he was so universally beloved by anyone outside of Chicago that he made the rivalry feel closer than it actually was. All it takes to have your Cubs hate rekindled is going to school or work. For the Packers during Favre’s reign of terror, all you had to do was turn the tv or fire up the Internet. Everywhere you looked, Favre was getting sucked off. It wasn’t some kid at school talking shit, it was ESPN. I’m not sure what’s worse.


That’s why I’m glad the Bears and Packers come into this game, the first in the post-Favre Era, with a little something on the line. If the Bears and Packers weren’t separated by one game in the standings, I’m not sure how jazzed up I’d be for this.  The fact that Sunday will go a long way in determining the division makes it all a little more interesting.

Maybe the most telling sign for the future of this rivalry will come when the Bears and Packers play again, Week 16 at Solider Field. Say the Bears have the division in the bag heading into the game: will beating Green Bay really be that important? If Favre were playing: yes. Unleash the hounds. We will have to wait and see if the venom left with him.

*
The spread

Packers -3.5

Around the Web

Big Daddy Drew: "   ."

Peter King: "The Bears need Kyle Orton to return, and he'll try. Regardless, this is Matt Forte's game. Green Bay's playing the run like Peter King and Dr. Z are the starting defensive tackles."

SI FanNation sez:

Packers, 66%

ESPN's experts agree

Everyone that's in is taking Green Bay. Good sign.

Matchup Bears should win

Matt Forte vs. Desmond Bishop

Matchup Bears should lose

Greg Jennings vs. whoever tries to cover him

Sweet 90's alt rock song that may or may not remind you of Alonzo Spellman

Nirvana - Drain You

Mock my previous predictions

Read them all right here.

In the end

Packers 20, Bears 13