Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Best of the Bears: Old rivals meet in a high-stakes playoff showdown
10 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Mullion Hall with Stacey Dale. Stacey, good morning. How are you? Good morning, guys. I'm so eager for this game.
Chapter 2: What are the emotions surrounding the Bears-Packers playoff showdown?
I'm trying to contain my excitement. I feel the same way. Join the club, everybody in town. Yeah, it's difficult, and it's Saturday, so we're already on Wednesday. I mean, time is a ticking. It's pretty extraordinary that this thing is coming as fast as it is for as much meaning as it has. I mean, this is a big one. Yeah, so...
I'm on the phone last night with Kevin Bayard getting, you know, working through my mission and there's no greater player to speak to in the national football league than Bayard. KB is absolutely the best. And he gives you really good information. And at the end of our chat, and I go really quick with the players, but at the end of our chat, we talked about just what this game means.
And he said, you know, you were at that week 16 game, right? And I was like, yeah, yeah. Like, you know, covered it of course. And he said we could feel the electric energy emanating from the tunnels at Soldier Field and just how special that felt during pregame warm-ups before they went out. And he gave me the quote of the week, and I'll share it with you guys.
I don't know if he said it in his press conference, but he said, we have to play to the edge, but just don't jump off the cliff. Like, controlled aggression. So I'm going to use the hell out of that clip today. In my reports on our shows this week and certainly on Saturday evening and Saturday afternoon during game day morning, I think we're on from like 11 to 3. I got goosebumps.
And, you know, play to the edge. Don't jump off the cliff. Controlled aggression. And he told me that, you know, we know how much this means to us as a team. We know how much it means in terms of the division. But we mostly know how much this means to the city of Chicago.
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Chapter 3: How does Matt LaFleur's coaching impact the Packers' future?
So make no mistake, if you're listening and you're Bears fans, these guys know how you feel and they want it as much as you do. I think controlled aggression is a good way to put it in the context of what the Bears' approach will be. I wonder about the Packers.
We've been talking all morning, Stacy, about what could be at stake, and I wonder if controlled aggression will be matched by controlled anxiety because there's a lot at stake for the Packers' future in that we don't know, I suppose, because of the contractual realities of ā
Matt LaFleur, of Brian Gutekunst, of what they are looking at in terms of a future if something goes amiss Saturday night at Soldier Field. Do you view it that way, or is that an overstatement of what could be at stake? Well, knowing Matt LaFleur, I think he's a hell of a football coach. I think he is incredibly strategic. He is detailed down to the core.
I think what he's done when he's had to change quarterbacks from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love to Malik Willis, etc., has been incredibly impressive and it's hard to run a 53-man roster and then add on all those practice squad players.
They've been now, this is their third seven seed, so the last draw in the playoff dance and three straight seasons, Jordan Love, but making it to the playoffs in three straight seasons. I think Packers fans are spoiled. They've had so much success historically that it's easy to be spoiled. So to them, but you know, I'm a fan of, of what they do in green Bay.
I think that they've done consistently been winners. And so what's really fascinating is they go four and two in this division and, and the bears go two and four in the division. And I know that's probably going to eat away at Ben Johnson. You could, you agree we're nodding in the off season, but what's really stark to me guys is the,
Micah Parsons was added to go to the Super Bowl, and this is no fault of Matt LaFleur's or Jeff Halfley's, but the defensive reality without him, and I was on the phone with Quay Walker, who's one of the top tacklers in the NFL yesterday, and the defensive reality, they still think they're a good defense, and they still believe, even prior to him joining the team, they were a top 10 defense, as you recall, last season, and one of the top takeaway defenses in the league.
But the numbers are almost shocking, putting dramatics aside. Without Micah, since Week 15, their 0-4, they're allowing almost 30 points per game, so nine more points per game than with Micah on the field. Their total yards defensively have gone up 105 total yards, so they're almost at giving up 400 total yards of defense defensively.
They're giving up almost 70 more rush yards per game without Mike Parsons, right around 171. And their sacks are down two per game. He still leads them in every statistical category and metric in terms of affecting the passer. And that is the reality when you lose one of the, in this decade, he'll go down as one of the greatest. I think we can agree. Um,
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Chapter 4: What does controlled aggression mean for the Bears in this game?
Defensively, the Bears held the Lions to 19 points. It seemed like worse. But what did you think the Lions did that the Packers might learn from or lean on in terms of trying to stop the Bears' offense? And why have they struggled specifically in the first couple series? That's a great question, David.
When I went back and looked at the numbers this week, because it was a little perplexing for me, they ran for 65 rush yards. Detroit had 20 more plays than they did. So I know Ben cares about turnovers and takeaways and critical downs, third down, fourth down. But I also know that he likes bullets and he likes to control the clock. So they didn't have enough plays.
But the way they defended Caleb Williams, the Detroit Lions, I thought was very interesting. He was pressured on roughly 23% of his dropbacks against Detroit. So it was basically Aiden Hutchinson. which was the fourth lowest pressure rate this season. So they kind of made Caleb win from the pocket a little bit, if you will.
And I say that mildly because I felt like, you know, I feel like Caleb is just so good. He challenges and stresses the defense with not just sort of a magicianry to his mind, but he's fast. He's faster than we think. And I do think he's a really smart player, and I think that he loves big moments and he thrives. The stakes are higher.
But I thought it was interesting that the pressure rate wasn't the same. And certainly Green Bay, if you look defensively at them, their blitz rate has gone up roughly 10% without Micah Parsons. So you're going to see different...
Um, levels of, of defenders, you know, try to affect whether it's the linebackers or the defensive backs, whether they go to a dime or somebody comes out of a nickel and you know, how they pressure upfront and try to manufacture that pressure without Micah Parsons. But, um, the Packers pressured Caleb quite a bit in their previous two meetings.
I mean, his, his, the week 14 game was the fourth highest pressure rate he's seen. Obviously Micah was on the field. Now that dropped about 5% to 35 in week 16. And so you don't have Micah Parsons, but I think Detroit kind of tried to corral Caleb and they certainly their emphasis was to take away the run game.
I don't know if you guys just vividly thinking back to week 18, but it just felt like there were no. pure open lanes for the rushers. I mean, Swifty hit a couple on the outside a couple times and was, you know, pressing them on the edge, but they really didn't get some of the push up the middle with Kyle Menungai that they had.
And that was a concerted effort by Detroit saying, we're going to stop the run and we're going to try to contain him and keep him back there in the pocket and see what happens. And they won the game. I think there is an argument to be made that the Bears have gotten out of the running game on their own.
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Chapter 5: How have injuries affected the Packers' defensive performance?
You've got to have really sharp guys. And after this playoff run, though, we're going to see guys like Jeff Hasley get interviews, and see potentially if he still remains the coordinator in a place like Green Bay. I think there's still a lot of change to come, but certainly some of those expected did happen. Great stuff, Stacey. Thanks, Stacey. See you Saturday night. Yep. See you guys Saturday.
Have a great week. That is Stacey. Dale's always fun to talk to her. The signals have been there, hiding in plain sight since this. New Packers president, Ed Policy, said in June, no extensions for LeFleur or Gutekunst before the end of the 2025 season, and I don't like lame duck arrangements. Well... They're signed through 2026.
So they're either getting new contracts or they're going to be gone after the season. And until the Packers tell us what they're going to do, we don't know what they're going to do. Is getting to the playoffs enough? And without that seventh playoff spot, the Packers, who have been the seventh seed for the last three years in the NFC, they'd be on a four-year streak of no playoffs.
The floor would already be gone. That's Mike Florio today. He was on the muscle. Giving plenty of oxygen to stuff that we saw in the ether yesterday, and neither one of us gave a lot of credence to this idea that if Matt LaFleur loses on Saturday night, his run as Packers coach could be over so they could go get John Harbaugh. We did give a lot of Clearwater and Revival to it, but no Creedence.
It's very weird to... Because Schefter had reported that there were, at the time, there were six openings. Yeah. And that seven teams had reached out to John Harbaugh. That leaves one with a coach. Right. That means that somebody's got a coach, and they're like, hey, we would like to upgrade. Considering LeFleur's record in Green Bay... It's crazy to me. He's won at, what, a 65% clip up there?
Yeah, and dominated the Bears, but won at a very high clip, successfully navigated the ugliness of the end of Aaron Rodgers and the beginning of Jordan Love. He's got, I mean, he and Love clearly have a thing. He's shown an ability to stay in games and battle, even with Malik Willis. He's 3-5 in playoffs, though. Okay. All right. I mean, do what you want. Do what you want, Cream Bay.
I mean, here's the other thing about Harbaugh. Clearly a very good CEO, but that's what you're getting, and you're not getting an offensive mind or a defensive mind still. You're getting a special teams roots guy with 18 years as a CEO, but as a partner with a really good front office with Ozzie Newsom and Eric DaCosta and everybody. I don't know that I sign up for that, to be honest.
It's an interesting little backdrop, and I'm sure that everyone will be reporting on it as we get closer to kickoff. But the idea of could this be the way that he keeps or loses his job? I mean, I guess that's what Sunday night was for John Harbaugh. And maybe for Mike Tomlin, too. We don't know. Like, if it had gone the other way, is that whole thing over with there in Pittsburgh, right? Yeah.
So this thing, I guess you can look at it this way. You could go, well, while you were in charge of the Packersā I saw the Lions, the Vikings, and the Bears pass you up in different seasons. I saw the Vikings have the second-best record in the NFL last season. That's a good point. I saw the Lions continue to win divisions, and I saw the Bears come out of nowhere and be the No. 2 seed.
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Chapter 6: What strategies should the Bears implement to win against the Packers?
The number one story is Matt LaFleur and your correct contextualization of what it might be like from Carbon Policy's son's perspective up there as the Green Bay boss. I'm watching Sam Darnold go out here and win 14 games. Sure. Sure. There's all kinds of stuff going on, and you are not winning 14 games. Here's Matt LaFleur today when talking about the rivalry.
How does he feel with a whole bunch of Janets sometimes around him? I know from afar everybody knows the Bears-Packers rivalry, but when you first got here, was there a moment when, whether it was somebody in town or somebody around where you went, oh my God, this is a big deal here?
Yeah, probably that first summer when I went down to Lake Geneva and I was like, we're in Wisconsin and saw all these Bears fans and giving me a hard time. So I also think just when I think back, that was my first game here as a head coach in 2019 to kick off the season. I just think back to that atmosphere, how crazy and just the anticipation for the game. It was a great atmosphere.
That sucks because that's the game when the hopes and dreams of 2019 were dispelled like a fart. That's the game where Matt Nagy dressed up as George Hallis. And then they scored, what, three points in that game? Yeah, 10-3 is your final. The Bears went up 3-0. It was really, really awful. It was awful. And Lake Geneva is another one of those battleground cities between the two teams.
It's like Rockford. I mean, it's nicer than Rockford, but it's like Rockford in the way that that's where a lot of Bears fans congregate, and that's where a lot of Packers fans congregate. Shout out to those Bears fans giving Matt LaFleur a hard time in Lake Geneva.
Yeah, just trying to have a vodka soda up at the Geneva Inn or have a nice little fish and chips there at Popeye's and some Bears fans going up to him. Way to go. Way to go, Bears fans. That's good effort. That's good effort. You're on our team. I enjoy the local references. Those are good.
What do you say we reenact Sherman's March to the Sea from Lake Geneva all the way up to Green Bay if the Bears win this game? Who's with me? Who's with me? I mean, it took them a long time to recover. Yeah, that's true. One would argue that they still haven't. Down in Georgia? Yeah. Yeah, so that's maybe a bad idea? We can just go back to harassment at Popeye's. We can keep it simple. Yeah. Okay.
I'm on the phone last night with Kevin Byard. He said we could feel the electric energy emanating from the tunnels at Soldier Field and just how special that felt during pregame warm-ups before they went out. And he gave me the quote of the week, and I'll share it with you guys.
I don't know if he said it in his press conference, but he said, we have to play to the edge, but just don't jump off the cliff. like controlled aggression. So I'm going to use the hell out of that clip. I got goosebumps and, you know, play to the edge, don't jump off the cliff. Controlled aggression. And he told me that, you know, we know how much this means to us as a team.
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Chapter 7: What role does experience play for Jordan Love in this matchup?
Our guy. Let's go! What's he up to? I love that idea. Let's go! I really love that idea. Oh, I'd love it if John Vincent sang the anthem. Oh, that would be... That's the idea, Tanny. That's why you're great at this.