The Chicago Bears are gearing up for a key NFC North battle against the Green Bay Packers, where quarterback Tyson Bagent will face Chicago's bitter rivals for the first time as a starter.
With Caleb Williams set to miss his third straight game due to a hamstring injury, Bagent will make his sixth career NFL start -- and it's arguably his most important to date with division seeding, pride and a three-game winning streak against the Packers on the line.
Heading into Week 5, the most important thing for Chicago is to win their third straight game and improve to 4-1 with Williams still sidelined. But Bagent understands that this isn't like any other game and there's so much more at stake as the Bears head to Lambeau Field on Sunday.
"I think you
go into each week the exact same as Wednesday, Thursday, Friday getting the exact plan down, being locked in, taking it extremely serious," Bagent said. "But to say this is just like any game just wouldn't be true. This is one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports. It's easy for the fans to get up for, easy for us to get up for, so it will certainly be a different feel out there.
"That's why it's so important that we put in the amount of work that we need to this week, get acclimated in a smart way but also in a hurry so we can have our best foot forward going into this weekend."
The Bears haven't beaten the Packers three straight times since 2006, which also just happens to be the last time they made it to the Super Bowl. In that game, rookie -- and future Hall of Famer -- Devin Hester ran back the opening kickoff and it was smooth sailing from there.
It sounds like Williams is gearing up for a return in the next couple of weeks, which means Bagent's time as starter is coming to an end. There would be no sweeter thing to add to his resume than a win over the hated Packers.
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Tyson Bagent says Bears-Packers isn't like any other game
