The Bears and Packers will close the regular season at Lambeau Field at 3:25 p.m. Sunday.
The league had left all of its Week 18 games unscheduled until it knew all the playoff implications. It filled two Saturday slots and a Sunday night slot.
The Saturday games are Steelers-Ravens (3:30 p.m.) and Colts-Texans (7:15 p.m.). The Sunday night game is Bills vs. Dolphins.
One reason for the Bears playing at 3:25 is because the Packers are still eligible for the playoffs and the league would want their game to run concurrently with the Seahawks-Cardinals game. The Seahawks and Packers are 8-8.
The NFL typically chooses its best Week 18 game, ideally one in which both teams need to win for playoff positioning, for Sunday night and is attentive to play matchups that affect each other in the same time slot. If possible, it doesn’t want a team knowing its game is inconsequential before it takes the field.
The Packers have beaten the Bears nine consecutive times, most recently 38-20 at Soldier Field in the season opener. Another win would match their longest winning streak in the series, equaling the 10 straight they won from 1994 through ‘98 with Brett Favre at quarterback. The Bears’ longest winning streak against the Packers was eight from 1985 through ‘88.
