By Odeisel

In the NFC, it boils down to the most historic rivalry in football: The Green Bay Packers face the Chicago Bears for the right to go to the Super Bowl. Perhaps no two fan bases hate each other with more gusto than these two Midwest teams. The monsters of the Midway vs. Title Town in a battle older than the actual Super Bowl itself, facing each other 181 times since 1921. They haven’t met in the playoffs since the 1940’s so there’s a lot of catching up to do with the money on the line.

Both teams went through rocky patches during the season with the Bears going feast of famine as cowboy Cutler learned to adjust to Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz’ system. Green Bay was all but out of the playoffs, suffering through Aaron Rodgers’ concussion and running through a gamut of victories to gain last minute entry to the playoffs. The Bears won in Week 3 (20-17), and Green Bay won in Week 17 (10-3).

 (10-6, 3-5 away) VS. (11-5, 5-3 home)

Key Matchups:

Quarterback: Aaron Rodgers is the best quarterback remaining in the playoffs, skill-wise. He can make every throw there is to make, his receiving corps will go to the wall for him and he’s a true leader in the huddle. He torched Atlanta last week with his legs as well as his arm, putting up Tecmo Bowl numbers. Since his return from a concussion he has been the Terminator with 125.0 passer rating over his last nine games with 22 TDs and two interceptions. It’s up to the Bears defense to be John Connor.

Jay Cutler put the hammer down on probably-shouldn’t-have-been-there Seattle. The Bears will win or die with his gunslinger mentality, but can he mitigate those mistakes and interceptions with the pressure that Green Bay’s defense is certain to bring?

In a game with stakes so high and two quarterbacks capable of putting up big numbers, it will come down to the one that’s NOT prone to giving things away

Advantage: Green Bay

Defense: Jay Cutler is prone to give up the big ones. With Charles Woodson applying pressure on blitzes and ball hound Tramon Williams roaming the perimeter it will be very easy to force Cutler into being himself. Williams snatched the game from Vick to get into the playoffs, and took two from Matty Ice last week. A few hits from Clay Matthews and those happy feet will start moving.

The Bears defense, with Urlacher playing near his peak and Julius Peppers wreaking havoc have more than made up for Cutler’s mistakes, mitigating damage and allowing him to quietly manage games. Lance Briggs is nothing to sneeze at as well and the Bears allowed a 4^th best 17.9 points at game this year. Only problem is that Rodgers is just as dangerous outside the pocket as he is from the pocket, and the Packers’ defense was even stingier than Chicago’s.

Advantage: Packers

X-Factor: Coaching

Lovie Smith has been here before a couple years ago, even with Rex Grossman at the helm Cutler’s a far better QB. Smith has head coach level coordinators by his side and veterans on the field that are used to playoff pressure. He also has special teams that shorten the field and possessed of homerun capability with Devin Hester.

X-Factor: Soldier Field

It’s the worst field in the league according to players from both sides. You have to go with the home team in a situation like that.

Advantage: Bears

Two gun slinging quarterbacks facing tow of the league’s best defenses. While it would seem that Green Bay has the better defense and quarterback, but Chicago has superior coaching and a screwed up field that has to be worse on visitors than the homeys. Is Aaron Rodgers who we all think he is? If so, you gotta go with Green Bay. If the QB’s play to a standstill, it will be Da Bears.

20-14 Packers