Thursday Night Football open thread: Bears at Packers

Week 7 kicks off with a game that actually has relevance to the Detroit Lions. The Chicago Bears (1-5) will face off against the Green Bay Packers (3-2) shortly, in an NFC North showdown.

The Bears are at a point in the season where any hope of a postseason is pretty much gone. They’ve already lost five games and haven’t even played the 5-0 Minnesota Vikings yet. If there’s any hope for them, this is an absolute must-win.

The Packers are 3-2, but you’d think they were the 1-5 team the way their fanbase is acting. Aaron Rodgers hasn’t been playing like the elite quarterback he typically is and that has got the entire state of Wisconsin panicking. It doesn’t help much that Eddie Lacy was placed on the injured reserve list on Thursday. Though this is a team that is still very much figuring out things offensively, they can still be dangerous.

A Packers loss would drop them to 3-3, tied with the Lions for second in the NFC North, while the Bears would still be a few steps behind at 2-5. A Bears loss would essentially bury any chance for Chicago in 2016, while the Packers would take stronger command of an NFC wild card spot at 4-2.

Once again, SB Nation will be hosting a stream for the game tonight. So if you are away from the television or don’t CBS or NFL Network, be sure to tune in here to watch the game.

Time: 8:25 p.m. ET

Where: Lambeau Field - Green Bay, WI

TV: CBS/NFL Network

Announcers: Jim Nantz, Phil Simms, Tracy Wolfson

Odds: Packers by 7.5

Online: SB Nation, Twitter