Win and in? Easier said than done against Aaron Rodgers

You ever had that dream where the monster is coming and you try to run away but can’t and you wake up in a panic?

Then you fall back asleep, start dreaming again and the monster IS STILL AFTER YOU?

Hello, Aaron Rodgers.

The Packers’ star quarterback relentlessly stalks the Bears. And us.

He is here to chase us into nightmares of inadequacy and grievous mistakes.

Specifically, he reminds us of how picking a lousy or middling quarterback to lead one’s chosen team is a horror from which there is no waking.

Rodgers turned 37 on Dec. 2, and he is finishing up his 16th NFL season. He is a ridiculous 20-5 against the Bears.

More accurately, he’s 20-4 because he threw only two passes against the Bears in a 2013 game before being injured by Shea McClellin and undergoing subsequent shoulder surgery. The Packers lost that game, but you can’t blame the monster if he temporarily has been expunged.

You might say, well, the dude’s getting old, so this torment can’t go on for much longer. But then someone — say, an old, cruel sportswriter — might remind you that Drew Brees will be 42 in just more than two weeks and is leading an 11-4 Saints team into the playoffs. Fading? Brees is completing almost 71% of his passes and has a quarterback rating of 105.4.

Then there’s Father Time himself, the lurching, undead horror known as Tom Brady, age 43. He’s completing 66% of his passes for the 10-5 Buccaneers, with more than 4,000 yards and 36 touchdowns — tied for the third-most of his career — and a passer rating of 101.0.

I bring this up just to remind the Bears’ community that Rodgers might not be disappearing from their collective misery for another five years or so. Remember, Rodgers is younger than his age, football-wise, because he barely played in his first three years in the league while sitting behind Brett Favre, an earlier razor-clawed creature with the Packers.

It’s interesting because Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky is playing fairly well these days after being benched through the middle of the season, and now some folks think he’s in steep ascendence. He led the Bears to a 41-17 victory Sunday against the Jaguars. In a snow game, Rodgers led the Packers to a 40-14 victory against the Titans.

Similar scores. Similar quarterback performances?

Not really.

Trubisky passed for 265 yards, completing 68.6% of his passes with two touchdowns and one horrendous interception — a mindless fling into an end-zone horde. His 97.9 passer rating wasn’t bad, but it was nothing special.

Rodgers completed 84% of his passes with four touchdowns, one not-so-damaging interception and a passer rating of 128.1. And he did this in a near-blizzard against a playoff-hopeful Titans team.

On a clear day, Trubisky beat the worst team in the league, the 1-14 Jaguars, who are on track to have the worst point differential in NFL history. By losing, they guaranteed themselves the first pick in the 2021 draft. This assuredly will be Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, if that young man declares for the draft, which he basically has — though he could change his mind because he might perceive going to the Jaguars to be worse than endless COVID-19 quarantining.

Such is the NFL. In fact, we saw Packers someday-quarterback-to-be Jordan Love peeking from the sidelines in street clothes during the game against the Titans. Love, an unknown from Utah State, hasn’t thrown a regular-season NFL pass and might not for the foreseeable future.

But it’s terrifying to think the Packers could have a Rodgers clone ready to work someday, the way Rodgers marched into the Favre void.

Here’s one more unfortunate quirk: If the Bears, Seahawks and Cardinals all win Sunday, the Bears would play their first-round playoff game a week later against, yep, the Packers. In Green Bay. Against Rodgers.

Beat him twice in a row? Don’t think so.

‘‘We’re all still humans,’’ Bears safeties coach Sean Desai said Monday when asked about Rodgers’ mastery.

Quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo echoed that sentiment, saying the upcoming game was not about fearing Rodgers but more about the Bears playing the way they knew they could ‘‘because we’re all human.’’

Hmmm. Interesting concept.

But Rodgers often looks like a robotic humanoid from another, superior planet.

I’d recommend bringing your laser swords, Bears. A little kryptonite wouldn’t hurt, either.