Matt Nagy thinks about the Packers a lot.

He thinks about his first career game as an NFL head coach, at Lambeau Field, and how he'll "never forget that day, that game, for so many different reasons."

He thinks about his first NFC North title, which was clinched when Eddie Jackson intercepted Aaron Rodgers in the end zone, avenging the season's earlier loss.

And he thinks about Week 1 of this season, when millions of eyes tuned in on Opening Night to watch a supposed Super Bowl contender score three points, at home, in a loss to the Packers.

"I try not to remember too much of that," he said. "That was a rough one."

It just so happens that, this week, everyone else is thinking about the Packers too. On the surface level, it's the 200th meeting in one the league's most storied rivalries, and a pivotal game in this year's race for the second Wild Card spot. There's Aaron Rodgers, who Nagy called, "competitive as hell." There's a talented-and-maybe-underperforming defense, with Za'Darius Smith and Preston Smith on the edges creating matchup nightmares for an offensive line that's undergone more change than anyone.

"We knew what kind of players they were," he added. "They're not unknown anymore."

If you wanted to get esoteric, there's a great redemption narrative to Sunday's game too. The Packers came into Chicago and exposed the Bears' starters – who, you'll remember, sat out the preseason. Things would get worse – so much worse – but the book was out on Nagy's Bears, and it took them three months to recover.

"I just feel like we're kind of in a rhythm now," Mitch Trubisky said. "We're a different team. There were some things that we had to go through in the first game and the beginning of the season that just didn't go our way, and there's things we definitely learned from as an offense. I just feel like we have a new-found identity of what we want to do and everybody is really locked into what they have to do within their job description on the offense."

Things have been different than Week 1, even if you couldn't say that until Week 12. Nagy has admittedly found a better rhythm as a play-caller, and many of the issues that plagued the Bears in Week 1 haven't been an issue lately. The tight end room is producing, they're shifting through personnel groupings less, and the run game has stabilized – all vital components of the offense that best suits the 2019 Bears. It's not what Nagy envisioned, but 202 ended up being formative in ways he never expected.

"I feel like a better coach going through this for the players, for my coaches and just the way we communicate," he said. "The honesty, the belief in one another; going through this is important and it'll help me in the long run, to be able to handle these type of situations when they arise again."

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Sunday is Matt Nagy's chance to prove the Bears' changes are for real originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago