Chicago Bears vs Green Bay Packers: NFL Week 15 Pre-Party Livestream and Open Thread

Good morning. The Bears can clinch the NFC North. Actually, let me repeat that...

The Bears can clinch the NFC North. At Soldier Field. By beating the Green Bay Packers.

Exactly as we all drew it up, right?

Signing Matt Nagy as head coach of the Bears altered expectations. Signing a new group of receivers and trading for Anthony Miller in the draft altered expectations. Trading for Khalil Mack massively altered expectations.

And now the Bears are one win away or one Vikings loss away from clinching the NFC North, or one Washington loss away from clinching a playoff berth. It’s that simple.

Of course, the Packers the last seven or eight years have been that really annoying spectre hovering over the Bears’ shoulders, especially as the Bears have been, well, bad. So it only makes sense the Bears’ road to the NFC North crown goes through a team that fired their head coach this year but has mostly run the division, especially picking up two wins year after year against the Bears, and especially against the team Matt Nagy’s Bears first lost to in his first game as a head coach.

The Navy and Orange have a task ahead of them. Last week’s win against the NFC’s elite in the Rams showed the Bears are dangerous enough to beat anybody in the league. But with the summit of the NFC North mountain in sight, this week’s game is about that one final push. For the Bears themselves, with all the change in roster the last several years, the changes this year, and one of the top defenses in the league...

For us, the Bears fan, it’s perfect. For the Bears, it’s Sunday.

Onward, to 10 wins. To beating the Packers. To the playoffs, and to the crown of the NFC North. Bear Down, my friends.

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Today’s the final WCG Sunday Livestream of the regular season, but assuming the Bears continue on into the playoffs, this will be the first season that we’ll have postseason coverage on the WCG Sunday Livestream. As of now I’m not sure of postseason scheduling availability, but we’ll work something out for sure.

As it is, there’s a lot to talk about from beating the Rams, and even more to discuss as we head into the later weeks of the year, so for two hours or so, we’ll turn it over to you, the viewer. Ask your questions, make your comments, and I’ll respond to them all morning as we head up into the highly-anticipated matchup against the Packers.

• Of course, comment here in this thread;
• Over on the Twitch site at SJS_illini;
• And over on the Twitters at @SJS_illini, @SamHouseholder, @WCGridiron, and @RobertZeglinski

We’ll be live at 9:30 am CT; see y’all then.