No Favre or Rodgers: A rare Bears’ match-up vs. Packers the last three decades

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — If this match-up between the Bears and the Packers seems a little different, you’d be right.

That’s because it’s rare the team hasn’t faced their rivals from Green Bay without a quarterback with the last name of Favre or Rodgers over the past three decades.

With Aaron Rodgers off to the Jets, Jordan Love takes over and will be under center for the Week 1 contest against the Bears at Soldier Field Sunday at 3:25 p.m.

So how rare is it to not have either Rodgers or Favre as the quarterback for the Packers if you’re a fan of the Bears?

Love’s start on Sunday will mark just the second time since the start of the 1992 season that one of those quarterbacks wasn’t under center against the Bears. Taking over as the starting signal caller for Green Bay that year, Favre would start two games a year against the Bears through 2007.

Against the Bears with the Packers, Favre was 22-10.

Rodgers would take over in 2008 and he would start all but one game against Chicago through the 2022 season, including the 2010 NFC Championship.

He would torment the Bears even more than Favre, going 25-5 including that playoff win at Soldier Field in January 2011. Rodgers would win his last eight games against the Bears, throwing for 6,965 yards with 64 touchdowns compared to 10 interceptions.

So when was the one time since 1992 that the Bears faced anyone other than Favre or Rodgers? You have to go back six years.

On November 12, 2017, Brett Hundley against the Bears at Soldier Field after Rodgers suffered a fractured collarbone after starting

Despite the starter being out, the backup still beat the Bears as Hundley went 18-of-25 for 212 yards and a touchdown in a 23-16 Green Bay victory.

Now Love steps into the spotlight against the Bears as he becomes the starter for the first time in his NFL career after the Packers picked him in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.

He had one start in 2021 for Rodgers and has appeared in relief for him in nine other games in his career. In that limited time, Love had completed 50-of-83 passes for 606 yards with three touchdowns compared to three interceptions.

Whether he has the same luck against the Bears as his predecessors is still to be seen, though many in Chicago hope a three-decade trend begins to change in 2023.