Normally, when Packers-Bears week rolls around, the focus lands on the biggest stat lines ever put up in the rivalry. This time, the deeper cut is even better: who got there first?
With a matchup this old, the answer stretches back across nearly the entire history of both teams. And thanks to the available record, we can trace the earliest documented Packers performances against Chicago in a few major categories.
The first 300-yard passing game against the Bears belongs to Lynn Dickey. In 1983, he threw for 31-28 win in 1983, becoming the first Packers quarterback to top 300 yards against Chicago.
Ten years and one day later, Brett Favre reached an even higher mark, becoming the first Packers player to throw for 400 yards against the Bears. It also stood as the only time in Favre’s Packers career that he passed for 400 or more yards.
On the ground, the earliest recorded 100-yard rushing game against Chicago came from Clark Hinkle in 1936. The early numbers are incomplete, so there may well have been an earlier one that simply never made it into the record.
But in the Pro Football Reference database, Hinkle is the first. He needed only 13 carries to get there, helped along by a 59-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
Hinkle, considered by early Packers historians to be the greatest player to ever wear the green and gold, made the most of a short afternoon.
The first 100-yard receiving game against the Bears goes back even further. Verne Lewellen did it in 1926, catching six passes for 109 yards in a draw with Chicago.
Lewellen was a threat in all three phases, and this was another example of how much he could do. It still wasn’t enough to break the tie.
The first official Packers sacks against the Bears didn’t arrive until 1983, the same season sacks became an NFL stat. Green Bay was shut out in that category in the two games against Chicago in 1982, but the Packers made up for it the next year.
Cliff Lewis and Ezra Johnson combined for four sacks, with Johnson accounting for three and Lewis for one. Johnson gets the distinction here after taking down Jim McMahon on the fourth play of the game and setting the tone.
That 1983 game had another milestone attached to it, too, since it was also the day Lynn Dickey threw for 300 yards.
And then there’s the first on-record interception against the Bears, which goes to Don Hutson. The caveat matters here: Green Bay and Chicago had already been meeting for about 20 years by then, so it’s entirely possible someone had picked off a pass earlier. Still, based on the record we have, Hutson gets the nod - perhaps because of a statistical quirk, perhaps because history simply left that one to him.
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For the Packers, the change matters because it takes one of Chicagos more reliable ground-game options off the field for now, even if the Bears are not planning to place Monangai on injured reserve. The door remains open for a quicker return, but at least for this Sunday, Green Bay will face a Bears offense that has to adjust on the fly in the backfield. [Read more 🡒]