Hardly did Luther Burden realize that his fiery speech after the Chicago Bears 23-12 win against the New York Jets would turn out to be heavy. His pre-game boast about making the Green Bay Packers quit proved hollow after Green Bay’s dominant 31-7 victory. And what better opportunity for the Packers to give Burden the taste of his own medicine? Packers linebacker Zaire Franklin ripped into the Bears wide receiver.
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“Just being the best versions of ourselves. It’s not about them, it’s about us. And we see all the little weird stuff they be doing in the meeting and all the different stuff they be saying,” shared Franklin in the post-game presser. “We got guys that never really made a real play in this league. Talking about making somebody quit, that’s weird. We don’t do that. He quit today, by the way. He didn’t want to play anymore. But we focus on ourselves, man.
“We ain’t really worried about that. We ain’t play that in a team meeting or nothing. We just focus on ourselves being the best versions of ourselves. And we put out a good performance today because of that.”
By now, fans are aware of the pulse between the two teams. Asked about Ben Johnson’s widely known animosity toward the Packers ahead of their first meeting of the season, Burden fully embraced his head coach’s stance.
“I feel like [Johnson] wants to beat them really bad, like everybody else in the room, every Chicago fan,” Burden said earlier. “We just want to beat them real bad and make them quit.”
Across 214 meetings, including three playoff games, the Green Bay Packers have won 110 times, while the Chicago Bears have recorded 98 victories. However, the Bears player said that they were keeping all the noise away and were ready to “come back home with a dub.”
But unfortunately, that comeback did not happen, as instead another defeat got added to their bag. Green Bay forced five turnovers and limited their rivals to just seven points.
With Caleb Williams still out of the lineup, Chicago was a 7.5-point underdog heading into the matchup, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, despite having a stronger record than its divisional opponents. But ultimately, not having the starting quarterback turned out to be costly. The Bears generated only 246 yards of total offense, with 165 coming from passing plays, as Green Bay finished with a significantly higher 428 yards. Not the sweet timing for the Bears’ offense to underperform.
The Packers’ defense came up with a big play when safety Xavier McKinney picked off Tyson Bagent early in the second quarter, putting Green Bay in position to score again. MarShawn Lloyd finished a 5:36 drive with a rushing touchdown, giving the Packers a 14-0 advantage.
At the same time, Chicago’s difficulties persisted with a missed 43-yard field goal and Bagent’s second interception of the game. McKinney was responsible for both picks, and the Bears trailed 23-7 heading into the fourth quarter.
As Underdog NFL covered the news on X, Burden came up with a fiery reply.
“Tell bro stop clout chasin me 😹👎🏽,” the Bears player wrote in the comments.
All this combined led Zaire Franklin to point fingers at where Chicago is going wrong.
“They do a whole lot of weird stuff. Since I been here, they do a whole lot of stuff that they worried about us. We worried about ourselves,” Franklin said. “Hopefully they learn to stop dissing us. Real talk.”
The fact that Green Bay is worried about themselves has been proven by how they have resurrected over the weeks.
The Packers have endured a mixed start to the season, going 3-2 after suffering a Week 1 divisional defeat and a 35-14 home loss to Atlanta in Week 3. Matt LaFleur’s squad regained its footing with a narrow 17-14 win over Tampa Bay before delivering a convincing performance against Chicago.