Bears coach Matt Eberflus avoids fixating on Packers, but rivalry will define his tenure

Around this time last year, just days before he stomped the Bears yet again and taunted the crowd at Soldier Field by screaming, “All my [expletive] life, I own you,” Aaron Rodgers mentioned — unsolicited — an amusing pattern he had noticed at Halas Hall.

Every Bears coach — there have been five during his 15 seasons as the starting quarterback for Green Bay — blusters about the same thing.

“The main focus for so many of these coaches’ news conferences in Chicago is beating the Packers,” he said, knowing every word of it would sting a team he has beaten 23 of 28 times.

The newest coach to take his shot at Rodgers and the longstanding kings of the NFC North is Matt Eberflus, who will make his debut in the rivalry Sunday night at Lambeau Field. And he’s not giving Rodgers any new material.

Eberflus never even mentioned the Packers by name Monday and rejected the premise that he was hired to dethrone them.

“I don’t look at it that way,” he said. “I really just focus on our process and what we want to get done and how we want to improve every week.

“We’re writing our book, and we’re turning our pages, and we’re going to do that one game at a time.”

That’s fine, but the central conflict in this tale is that he’s following a long line of fallen coaches who couldn’t defeat the supervillain. Vengeance needs to drive this plot, or no one is buying Eberflus’ book.

So, regardless of whether he wants to discuss it, there’s no doubt his success or failure against the Packers will be one of the key determinants of how long he keeps this job.

The last Bears coach to have a winning record against the Packers was Mike Ditka, who went 15-5 from 1982 through ’92. Since then, Brett Favre and Rodgers shredded everyone except Lovie Smith, who managed what is considered a relatively respectable mark of 8-11.

Dave Wannstedt, Dick Jauron, Marc Trestman, John Fox and Matt Nagy each won two or fewer games and combined to go 6-34. The last three came and went very quickly.

“I mean, sure, I hear things and all that ... but we’re going to focus on us,” Eberflus said. “This is going to be about our team, about how we operate, how we play and what we do.”

There’s prudence in that mentality, but it’s undeniable that the Bears and Packers are always playing a zero-sum game. Their fates are inextricably linked, and that has been true for more than a century.

With a new coach and a roster loaded with young players, most of the Bears haven’t been around long enough to truly grasp the exasperation of Rodgers’ dominance.

Linebacker Roquan Smith is one of the few who does. His introduction to the rivalry was the maddening collapse in the 2018 opener, and he’s 1-7 against Rodgers and ever eager for his next shot.

He expects Rodgers’ absolute A-game after the Packers stumbled in their season-opening loss to the Vikings on Sunday.

”The guy is one of the greatest to ever play the game, and as a competitor myself, I love going against people like that,” Smith said. “I’m sure he’ll be a little bit [angry] after this last game. Hey, you wouldn’t want it any other way — get the best version of him, then we get the dub, and it will be even sweeter.’’

All right, now it’s getting a little spicier. Anybody else got anything?

“They don’t like us, and we don’t like them,” said wide receiver Byron Pringle, a newcomer. “We already know what type of game it’s going to be.”

That’s hardly a jalapeño compared to “I own you,” but it’ll do for now.

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