Bring on the Packers as Bears roll to 35-24 win

Bring on the Packers.

The Bears are ready.

After their oldest and most bitter rivals upset the Falcons 48-21 in Atlanta the night before, the Bears eliminated the Seattle Seahawks 35-24 on Sunday in a game they dominated for all but the final few minutes.

That sets up an all NFC North conference championship game next Sunday at 2 p.m. at Soldier Field, with a Super Bowl berth going to the winner.

By the time the Seahawks (8-10) scored 2 cosmetic touchdowns in the final two minutes and 16 seconds, the Bears (12-5) had outgained them 433-147 in total yards and, especially on offense, played about as well as they have all season.

The Bears' offense finished with 437 yards, its highest total since the season-opening victory against the Detroit Lions and 169 yards more than it had averaged in the previous five games.

Quarterback Jay Cutler, a huge hit in his first postseason game since high school, posted a 111.3 passer rating, the fifth time he has topped 104 in the past seven games.

He completed a modest 15 of 28 passes, but they went for 274 yards, including a 58-yard bomb to tight end Greg Olsen to kick-start the offense less than three minutes into the game as a light snow that began just before the opening kickoff continue to fall.

“It's pretty simple,” Bears coach Lovie Smith said, “we needed to get the home crowd into it right away.”

Mission accomplished.

Cutler also had a 39-yard strike to No. 3 tight end Kellen Davis to complete the Bears' scoring.

He added touchdown runs of 6 and 9 yards — early in the second quarter, as the snow intensified and began to accumulate, and late in the third, after the snow had stopped. The first TD run pushed the Bears' lead to 21-0; the second made it 28-0.

Besides Cutler, only the Cleveland Browns' Otto Graham has ever run and passed for 2 touchdowns in a postseason game.

Cutler scrambled five times for 46 yards, and even after three kneel-downs at the end of the game still finished with a career-high 43 rushing yards.

“It starts with Jay Cutler,” Smith said. “Whether it's running the football or making the different throws that we ask him to do, he was outstanding.”

There were plenty of other encouraging signs from an offense that has struggled to find consistency all season but put together an exceptional all-around effort in the Bears' biggest game of the season.

The ground game produced 176 yards, the second-highest output of the season, and the commitment to the run game continued, with a season-high 45 rushing attempts.

Cutler was sacked three times but for most of the afternoon was afforded more time and a cleaner pocket than he has enjoyed most of the season.

“The offensive line did a great job (against) their front seven,” Cutler said. “They gave me plenty of time, a lot of credit to them.”

The line got little credit but lots of criticism early in the first half of the season, as it struggled with frequent lineup changes.

But the group appears to have solidified down the stretch. The same starting five has played 10 straight games together, and the Bears are 8-2 during that stretch.

“We just stuck together all year and said we would try to improve,” said 13-year veteran center Olin Kreutz. “Hopefully it's showing, and hopefully we'll improve again next week.”

Maybe the Bears' biggest offensive improvement from the Week 6, 23-20 loss to the Seahawks to Sunday's third-highest point production of the season came in converting third-down opportunities.

Back in October they went 0-for-12. This time they converted 10 of 18 for a 56 percent success rate, their third-highest of the season.

“We could talk quite a bit about the offense, starting with the offensive line,” Smith said. “This was a big challenge for them. Last time they got a lot of pressure on us (6 sacks), but I felt the offensive line took control.

“Whenever you can rush for (176) yards … Matt Forte was outstanding, as it seems like he's been for the last half of the season.”

Forte labored to pick up 80 yards on 25 carries, and he averaged just 3.2 yards per attempt, but he now has rushed for 80 or more yards in five of the last seven games. In the first nine games he rushed for 80 yards or more just once.

Offensive coordinator Mike Martz called 37 pass plays and 42 run plays Sunday, not counting the kneel-downs.

That balance between run and pass — which began after the bye week, when the Bears were treading water at 4-3 — has produced excellent results.

“If you look at when we don't do it,” Forte said of the run-pass balance, “we don't really do that well.”

The Bears have done well enough to be just 1 victory from playing in Super Bowl XLV.

“It just doesn't get any better than the NFC championship coming down to the Packers coming down to our turf,” Smith said. “The Packers and Bears to finish it up … that's how it should be.”

•Follow Bob LeGere's Bears reports via Twitter@BobLeGere, and check out his Bears Essentials blog at dailyherald.com.