Bears Expect 'Aggressive' Packers Defense
One of the biggest matchups in Sunday's NFC Championship game will be between the Chicago Bears' offense and the Green Bay Packers' defense. The winner of that battle might take the game.
"I would expect them to be aggressive," Bears' quarterback Jay Cutler said. "They have the past four or five games, with Charles [Woodson] blitzing a lot, and Clay Matthews and those guys."
There are two matchups within this matchup that will be worth paying attention to over the course of the game. The first revolves around the respective coordinators for each side. Mike Martz and Dom Capers are two of the best coordinators in the league. And they're sure to draw up excellent gameplans. For either team to win the players' will have to execute those gameplans.
"We just have to be on our keys, and on our tips and hit our hot routes, and do what we do on offense, " Cutler said.
The other matchup will come between the Packers' outside linebacker Clay Matthews and Bears' offensive lineman J'Marcus Webb.
"He's really good," Cutler said of Matthews. "Does a good job, off the initial contact, of spinning and making things happen. If you hold the ball, if you double clutch it for a second he's going to get there. There's no real stopping him, he has a high motor."
But in the two Bears-Packers games this season, Matthews has only five tackles and one sack. And the rookie Webb deserves some credit for limiting Matthews, who some consider the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year.
"J'Marcus has done fairly well against him," Cutler said. "But we need him to have a huge game this week."
