Should the Bears play to win the game?

You’re playing to knock them out of the playoffs. I’d say that’s a game where you use your starters.

That’s what it comes down to. Play our starters and we risk injury. Yes I can get hurt stepping out of the shower but I’m far more likely to get injured being tackled by a 315 lb man. And what happens if we play and get beaten badly. Kiss momentum and confidence goodbye. I’d like us to keep our rhythm too but at what potential cost? Unless we beat Green Bay, flat out beat them we gain nothing by playing our starters and risk everything. And here is the bottom line for me. If Green Bay wins (whether we play our starters or not) they get the 6th seed. They’d play the Eagles in Philly. If they win there they get to travel to ATL or NO to play one of those teams on the road. If they win there they then have to come into Soldier Field and play us at home for the championship. Sound like a tall order? Especially if our team is fresh and full of confidence. Play the starters but if our O-line gives up a sack or Cutler starts getting pressured I’d get him out of there like he was a prostitute in church. Imagine how much our playoff chances are diminished if we lose Cutler, Forte, or Hester for even one start. Everyone wants to see us play Green Bay and win but is it worth the risk? NO FREAKIN’ WAY.

Especially Hot Rod and the defense- link

and the performance of the defense — which surrendered nearly 400 yards to the Jets — disappointed the staff to the point where a player, who asked not to be identified, dreaded the extra running the unit would be subjected to Wednesday at practice.

But for me I’d like to see them play, whatever will happen will happen. I can’t see a player saying I don’t want to play cause we’re in the playoffs. This is an opportunity to for our offense (the line in particular) to continue to gel and get more continuity. We know we have a bye coming up, do we really need 2 weeks off?

Play to keep them out of the playoffs. Period.

Play them for a series, maybe even until half time. But if the o-line looks crappy and Cutler’s taking some big hits at least pull him. And limit Forte to a hand full of carries. We have very little depth at running back. And I’d give Devin the night off. He’s proven he won’t get rusty. His mere presence on the field will effect our playoff hopes. The defense can play all night. They already too last week off.

Say it with me now…“”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zLlIdZikDk" target="new">You Play To Win The Game"

I really do not want to see a division rival in the playoffs and I’m hoping Lovie has his guys ready and motivated to win this game.

I’m afraid I’ll experience uncontrolled projectile vomiting if Todd Collins plays. Besides, playing Collins will cause other players to get hurt trying to run down safeties and CB’s on pick 6’s.

oh, come on guys this is the pack we are talking about. everyone has gone wanny, in that they are forgetting history, rivalry and knocking the pack out.lets get forte 1000 rushing 500 receiving.

to the idea of play your starters until the game is out of reach (either way of course). There’s plenty at stake here, and if fans ok with having to play a very, very hot Packers team, then I’m not sure what to say. I’m fearful of Rodgers’ abilities.

Lance Briggs: “In years b4 there was absolutely nothing we could get out of (last game), this game, we can knock GB out of playoff race.”

via Brad Biggs’ Twitter

While it is the Packers, this game has all the significance of a fourth preseason game/final tune up, except it counts on the record.

Therefore, I would be okay if the starters started, but came out at halftime or the third quarter or something.

Dez Clark said (paraphrasing) last night on the Laurence Holmes show that we make too much (and make incorrectly) of the quote at Lovie’s introductory presser, that the goals are in ascending order – beat Green Bay, then win the division, and then win the Super Bowl… and I think I believe it, for what it’s worth, because quite frankly, it’s asinine to put winning two divisional games above making the playoffs and winning the Super Bowl.

That being said. You don’t beat the Packers with intent to “keep them out” of the playoffs, and conversely, you don’t lay down against them to “keep [New York] out” of the playoffs. These are the playoffs; more often than not the top six teams in the conference are in, and at the minimum you have to beat three of the twelve (including the top other conference team) to win the Super Bowl, no matter who they are.

You don’t worry about the playoff matchups with this one unless ATL and NO both lose, because the only way to face the team that “gets let in” by this game anyway is the sixth seed, and the Bears wouldn’t have to face them until the Conference Championship, which is two games the sixth seed would have to win. Obviously, if the Bears are playing for the one-seed, all bets are off.

But if the two holds, this doesn’t dictate who the Bears play in the playoffs.

Just get through healthy, get tuned up, and go into the bye week. I’d love to beat the Pack, but not at the expense of Peppers, Urlacher, Cutler or Forte, especially in a game that means nothing to us (unless ATL/NO both lose) and that we wouldn’t face the six until the Conference Championship.

(Little rambly, I know, but whatever. Random playoff rant.)

Clay Matthews is freaking overrated

He leads the leauge in sacks ok, yet he has 58 tackles. FIFTY-EIGHT!!! How a guy that gets so much hype be that one dimensional?

lay down and die… as in don’t even do your game plan. I say this not even knowing if I want you guys to go all out or not. I mean if you’re not playing for anything, there’s going to be a lot more stupid flee flickers and stuff and I don’t like how that could start an upset.

If you go all out, suddenly the Packers know how you want to game plan for them. Look at AZ last year. The Packers game planned for them 3x (Preseason, regular season, playoffs) but AZ only planned once. Arizona saw what the Packers wanted to do on defense and Warner picked them apart. To be honest, the Bears have no effect on the Packers offense anyway. It seems the Packers players and only the Packers players can do that. When they’re struggling on offense it’s usually a Packer player struggling causing the whole thing to be off (as in a no name DE will own one of our OL). Yes Peppers is good, but if the Packers are on, no defense can contain them.

The Packers defense however, can be beaten, if you do it right. That’s where I see the advantage is. You get to see how the Packers want to attack the Bears and use that tape for a potential rematch. You have 2 games to go off of, the Packers have one. You get that advantage and no injured players… seems like a no brainer to me

which do you hate more:

J. Allen’s douchey calf rope celebration

or

Rodgers awesome championship belt celebration?

Just curious

the belt was because he had to play scout team under Favre and when they scored on the starting defense, it was like winning the championship because they never got actual game play, so they put on the belt.

Hence why Matt Flynn ran over to Rodgers and “put on the belt” when he threw his first TD

Not possibilities. #1 seed is what if’s.

It’s been said a few times before me, but play the game like a late pre-season game. Get the starters in, get some reps and rest. The other side of the coin is a 1st round bye. You cannot give players more rest IMO than the first half. Keep them fresh.

GB has a chance of making it even in a loss, but we wouldn’t see them until the NFC championship; correct? I’d think however the Bears plan for them, it will be most difficult beating a team twice within a few weeks (whatever the outcome this weekend). Beating any team 2-3 times in a season is very difficult in modern NFL.

Back on the pre-season theory: this allows the starters to see what GB has to offer, gives them some playoff feel (it’s the Packers after all!), and allows adjustments IF both teams play in post-season.

My 2 cents.

See them driven before us and hear the lamentation of their women.

But all kidding aside, Play solid for the first quarter and let the 2nd and 3rd team get some reps. It’s a pride game and a speed bump in the road to the ultimate prize. I’d love to see them beat the Pack and handily, but they need to preserve health for the playoff run.

And then bring on WOLFE

You put him down before he musters one last bite! Kick the Pack’s behind and send them on their way.

Go for the win.
Beat the Packers.
Laying down for the loss to save players does not build mental toughness, momentum or confidence.
Go Bears!

and make their women and children cry

but another reason that I’d like the Bears to crush the Pack this Sunday, is because of all the new-age hippie children with their near-sightedness that claim the Vikings’ are the Packers’ biggest rival. “Vikings-Packers have had more meaningful games…” I call bullocks. There’s not a rivalry in professional sports that has the history that the Bears-Packers one does.

Ever since that debacle at the end of 05 in Minnesota. However, after listening to a very well respected analyst on the radio today, I feel that as much as sweeping the division and keeping the Packers out of the playoffs would be nice, you play to win the SUPER BOWL. I know that the Pack are “scary” and Aaron Rodgers can make life difficult for any secondary but they are human beings and they CAN in fact be beaten. So what, if we rest our starters and potentially lose and have to face the Packers again? NO TEAM is unbeatable. Aaron Rodgers has yet to prove he can win big games in crunch or playoff time when it matters most, and given the fact our talent on offense may not be what you would call elite or even very good, but is indeed very capable of beating Green Bay. I say let the pace of the game dictate how long we keep the starters in. In the unlikely event Atl and NO loses, than obviously the main objective is to crush them. But we need to do whatever is necessary to win a Super Bowl, not keep the Packers out of the playoffs

Is Pisa needs to play the whole game.

He hasn’t looked great since coming back, and he needs to get up to speed or they need to prepare for Roach as the starter in the bye week.

Is because the offense is starting to gel and I don’t want to lose that momentum. They can continue to improve and give the Oline another game to biuld upon. I would prefer them play the whole game and beat the packers out of the playoffs.

Then consider the option but this is the Packers, play the game and play to crush them. I am not a fan of the “it doesn’t matter” rest the starters mantra. I would love to see fans boycott when teams do that and let them lose the TV, concessions, parking etc. revenue and let Stub Hub suck on all those tickets they jack up.

Besides the players already get a whole week off thanks to the bye, so just play the starters for the whole game. You never want your players to be too rested.

of the previous 11 when the bears are 6-0 against the Packers, Vikings, and Lions we have won the SB 100% of the time.

when we have lost at least one game against them we have won the SB 0%.

that the Giants-Skins game was at noon. Then there could have been the scenario where t the Pack would rest people. If the Giants and Bucs lose, the cheezies are in regardless- so if they had that knowledge before they played, they could sit the starters.

So if the Bears are really a lucky team this year, the league will randomly decide to flex in the Giants game to noon, the Skins and the Saints win, and McCarthy rests his beaten up team. DO IT UNIVERSE.

Mostly because they aren’t certain that they CAN win. It might be different if it was a game against the Panthers. But I think they could use the lessons learned from this, and get the fire stoked.

We’re about to face a better quality of teams in the playoffs for a few weeks now, so let’s get into the swing of it. (with the caveat that they should pull Cutler if the Pack are able to get to him through our O-line)

And I don’t quite think it’s FanPost worthy but here goes…

If this wasn’t the Packers we were talking about, say it was the Rams or something (read: random team, but maybe one in the playoffs or in the Packers’ position)… Would we be having the discussion to this degree? I notice quite a few, if not most, of the “Go for it, play the starters, win the game” answers are because it’s the Packers.

I know we’d be having the “Play/Rest” debate either way, and with good reason, but if you take the Packers out of the equation, and you’re playing to either knock a team out of the playoff race or just playing the game to get through it… To what degree does that matter? How much is that influencing the decision?

Does this make sense? Or should I send Orange Shy Guy to timeout for confusing everyone?

i cannot think of 1 reason why we do not play to win.why bother showing up.i feel for players who want to play all out. cutler, forte, knox, hester, the whole o-line, and thats just offence. defence peppers, briggs, urlacher, harris,et al. i hope they play to win,PLEASE

How about Urlacher do his best Bobby Boucher impersonation, and sack rodgers, then throw him into the stands.

 My Mama says that alligators are ornery because they got all them teeth and no toothbrush.

“on a freeing winter day, the bears win the bears way-with defense” The heart of the 1963 bears league leading defense- and the entire team-was its corps of linebackers:Larry Morris,Bill George, and Joe Fortunato.I would bet these guys didnt play to lose.I hope Briggs, Urlacher and Peppers do not play to lose sunday.