💥 BREAKING NEWS: Jordan Love and Caleb Williams collide in the Packers-Bears showdown with playoff futures hanging by a thread.QQ

It’s a big matchup for Green Bay and Chicago in the NFC North race.

Another week, another big NFC North matchup. This time around, the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears play at Lambeau Field, and the winner will be at the top of the division. Right now, not only do the Bears lead the division, they are in the first seed of the NFC.

With such a big game coming, we invited all of our four NFC North beat writers to make their game predictions.

Packers 28, Bears 24

Implications cannot be any higher for this game, rivalry aside. With how tight the NFC race currently is with five games remaining, one loss can make or break a season, especially a key divisional game like this one.

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The Packers are fresh off back-to-back divisional wins after taking it to the Minnesota Vikings and then handling the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving. Getting another win over the Bears on Sunday can vault Green Bay not only to the top of the division, but the conference. Meanwhile, the Bears have quickly become the hunted coming off a huge win over the Philadelphia Eagles and are still trying to figure out how to play a fully complete game.

To me, the battle to watch is between Micah Parsons and rookie left tackle Ozzy Trapilo. Parsons easily has the ability to wreck this game and the way the Packers’ offense is playing it only takes one drive-killing play on defense to pull off a win at Lambeau. I see this being a close one, but the Packers get that key stop which ultimately decides the game just like they did last week against Detroit.

Packers 21, Bears 17

I don’t expect this to be a high-scoring game, just because both teams like to run the ball and control the clock, lowering the number of possessions. In this type of game, efficiency is key. Most metrics would say that the Packers are a better team, but the Bears have been highly effective running the football and generating turnovers — they have a +17 turnover differential, and no other NFL team is above +9. If Jordan Love can have another clean game and the Packers have good results in the red zone, it’s their game to lose. But if Ben Johnson can scheme explosive runs and get ahead early, Chicago can pull off another big win in their prolific season.

Packers 27, Bears 19

We’ve seen this before from in the NFC North. The division leader is being labeled as a fraud. The Chicago Bears currently have a .376 strength of schedule and an even worse .344 strength of victory. They have feated on teams with losing records, but have struggled against teams with winning records, going 3-2 in those games, including a 52-21 drubbing by the Detroit Lions.

The Packers have seen this before with the Minnesota Vikings in 2022 and they lived it in 2019. This season, the Packers are 2-1-1 against winning teams. The Packers proved once again on Thanksgiving that they are the class of the NFC North. The Bears are a much improved team, but they aren’t there yet. The Packers have continued to deal with adversity, and this is Toyotathon Jordan Love. They will take things to the Bears and get the win in a big spot.

Packers 28, Bears 24

It still feels like both of these teams are fighting above their weight class a little. Neither is really running away with wins, but neither has been blown out for a while either.

This should be pretty evenly-matched on offense, but defensively I have to go with the Packers every day of the week and twice this Sunday. Plus, it’s at Lambeau.