Heres the thing that everyone misses out on: Everyone Is Susceptible To The Short Passing Game. There isn't a team in the league that can stop a really well run west-coast style short passing game akin to what the Patriots and Packers run. The way the game has been legislated and the rules have been enforced, its basically unstoppable. They'll roll up yards and points on you. Its the way the NFL wants it to be. You just do what you can to hold teams to as few points as possible, and try to get your turnovers when you can. The days of a shutdown defense are gone. Pine for those days all you want, but even the best defense in the league can't hold Aaron Rodgers, when he's on, from rolling up 270+ in the air. Its just the way the league is. Hope you can generate a pass rush, hope you can disrupt as many of those underneath passes as you can, but there is no more stonewalling. Those days are over. Now whether or not our corners and secondary are worse than average in stopping the short game is a possibility. We certainly played better at the beginning of the year, of course we also played much worse teams at the beginning of the year as well. With all that said: As scared as I am of a back-to-back playoff scenario vs. the Packers, when I stop and think about it, its not all that scary. We only need to beat them once to stop them (either shut them out of the playoffs at Lambeau, or beat them in the playoffs) Its...just not all that likely, even with a team as strong as the Packers, with a QB as good as Rodgers, to beat a team in back-to-back weeks. Yeah, its not unheard of, but I would take the Bears in at least overcoming them one of these times. As humiliating as it would be, it just probably doesn't happen. Either way everything in this season has been gravy since clinching the North. We've already played beyond our talent level, and we still have a young growing QB. I want to see strides, but I'm not going to be crushed emotionally if we lose in the playoffs, especially with this offensive line. Next year may be the make-or-break year, as our defense isn't getting any younger, and that may be our one window year to contend. Now if we don't pick a minimum of 2-3 lineman in next years draft...then I'll be crushed emotionally.