Aaron Rodgers can finally get his wish: an NFC championship game at Lambeau Field.
All the Green Bay Packers have to do is win one more game and it’s a reality.
Rodgers ensured Sunday during the final season of the regular season was due in part to a perfect first half en route to a 35-16 win over the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.
This gave the Packers (13-3) the no. 1 in the NFC playoffs. With that comes a first round – the only one in the conference thanks to the extensive playing field – and home games between now and the Super Bowl. While the other six NFC playoffs play next weekend, the Packers advance to the division round on January 16 or 17.
Rodgers played in four NFC championship games and won just one – ten years ago at Soldier Field. After last year’s NFC title loss to the 49ers, the Packers’ third consecutive loss in the conference title game after the 2014 championship game in Seattle and the 2016 game in Atlanta, Rodgers longed for one at Lambeau.
“I’ve said it before: we need to get one of these at home,” Rodgers said after the 37-20 defeat to the 49ers in January last year. “It’s a different ball game. It’s different than playing weather and snow in 20 degrees. Cold and wind are a different kind of game than playing here.”
The Week 16 game against the Titans showed it. The Packers blew Tennessee 40-14 on a snow-covered field and they excelled Sunday in a 32-degree afternoon in Chicago.
The Packers last selected No. 1 after their 15-1 regular season in 2011, but lost to the Giants 37-20 in an NFC playoff game at Lambeau Field.
The Packers ran 21 games in the first half and scored 21 points. Rodgers completed his first 11 passes, including 10-for-10 for 155 yards and three touchdowns, including a 72-year-old for Marquez Valdes-Scantling in the second quarter. It should have been his first 12 and hit with four, but Valdes-Scantling dropped a 53-yard shot on the first ride of the third quarter.
After a slow start to the second half, the Packers sealed things off when Aaron Jones passed on a 4-yard point with 3:47 left. At the same time, Davante Adams broke Sterling Sharpe’s single-season reception franchise record (112). On the very next ride, he also equaled Sharpe’s single-season franchise record for touchdowns with his 18th. It was also the third most in a season in NFL history. Only Randy Moss (23 in 2007) and Jerry Rice (22 in 1987) caught more. And Adams missed two full games – and half another – due to a hamstring injury in the early season.
The attack on Adams was Rodgers’ fourth of the game, giving him a career-best and 48 franchise records for the season (and only five interceptions), closing out his case for a third MVP.
The victory in Chicago came just three days after the Packers’ David Bakhtiari’s All-Pro left-hander lost due to a season-ending knee injury. Billy Turner moved from the right side to replace Bakhtiari and Rick Wagner came on the right tackle. Rodgers was fired only once.
What’s more, the Packers feel better about their defense, which was overrun by the 49ers in the championship game last year.