It was stunning. That doesn’t happen, not in these matchups. For 30 years, the Green Bay Packers have owned the Chicago Bears. Twice a year, these teams meet, and the Packers take the lead, either blowing them out or calmly watching the Bears fail as they try to mount a comeback. Not this time. Despite holding a 16-9 lead with under two minutes to go, the Packers gave up an onside kick, allowed a tying TD to an undrafted rookie, and then gave up a long touchdown in overtime to lose. It was easily the worst collapse by a Green Bay team against Chicago in decades.
One Packers fan believes it served as evidence that the Packers might be cursed. Why? Watching that final sequence unfold, Hunter Baumgardt was immediately given PTSD stemming from the Packers’ epic meltdown in the 2014 NFC championship against the Seattle Seahawks. It sounds like a stretch at first, until you see the video evidence he delivers. All three decisive plays the Bears had – the onside kick, TD to Walker, and TD to Moore – were eerily similar to the three decisive plays Seattle delivered to end Green Bay’s season 11 years ago.
The Chicago Bears likely enjoyed bringing back those memories.
One could argue the Packers have never been the same since that loss to Seattle. Up until that point, Green Bay was 3-2 in conference title games, with both losses being to the eventual Super Bowl champions. The Packers were red hot. They’d won eight of their last nine games. They had the #1 offense in the NFL and a Hall of Fame quarterback at the peak of his powers. Everybody felt this would be the coronation of the next dynasty that had been started in 2010 with that Super Bowl win. Then Seattle ruined it.
Since then, the Packers have reached three more NFC championships and lost all three. They wasted the remaining years of Rodgers’ incredible career and haven’t even reached a conference title game with his successor, Jordan Love. Now their most hated rivals are on the cusp of winning a division title that was supposed to be theirs. All of this settling in over the course of less than 24 hours is a good way to make you wonder if your team might somehow be cursed.
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