It’s beginning to look a lot like the NFL playoffs.

The Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers are set to renew the NFL’s oldest rivalry in the wild-card round of the 2025playoffs, but the conditions will be far from favorable for either team. In fact, Soldier Field already looks like a snow globe ahead of the matchup under the lights.

Both teams will also have to battle Mother Nature in the contest, with cold weather and snow preparing to make an impact.

It will be a unique scene for Caleb Williams’ playoff debut and the Bears’ first home postseason contest since the 2018 season. While Chicago is hoping for some home cooking, it won’t be unfamiliar territory for Jordan Love and the Packers, who are used to playing on a frozen tundra of their own.

Here’s the latest weather update for the NFC wild-card matchup.

Bears vs. Packers weather updates

Snow is falling at Soldier Field ahead of the Bears-Packers matchup. It is beginning to accumulate on the field with an hour to go before kickoff.

The National Weather Service (NWS) is calling for snow showers throughout the night, with accumulations of around an inch.

Low temperatures are expected to be around 23 degrees with winds in the 15 to 20 mph range and gusts up to 35 mph.

Chicago weather forecast for Bears vs. Packers playoff game

Below is a full look at the details of Chicago’s forecast for Jan. 10:

Current temperature (7:30 p.m. ET): 32 degrees
Low temperature: 23 degrees
Chance of precipitation: 80%
Wind: 15 to 20 mph (gusts up to 35 mph)

The Ottawa Senators took the unusual step this week of denouncing internet rumors about goaltender Linus Ullmark’s leave of absence.

Captain Brady Tkachuk took it another step on Saturday, Jan. 10, in an expletive-filled media session in which he said, ‘It’s not true. It’s just a (expletive) story.’

General manager Steven Staios had put a statement on Jan. 8 about Ullmark, who went on leave on Dec. 28. It read in part:

“Linus is away from our team for personal reasons and he has the entire organization’s support. We asked that people respect his privacy, but clearly that request was not heard by the lowest forms of trolls and sick people who scour the internet. We are disgusted that outside forces are attempting to disrupt our hockey club. This statement will put an end to the ridiculous speculation that spread online.”

Tkachuk was asked about it on Saturday and said that it’s OK for people to critique the team’s on-ice performance but spreading rumors about players’ families is stepping over the line.

‘It’s embarrassing that it got to the point that it did and I can tell you for free that I’m not happy about it one bit,’ he said.

He added: ‘That’s just our society and life now that people can just say whatever they want and no repercussions and don’t really realize who it affects. It’s just crazy to bring up a crazy story like that and talk about people’s families and stuff like that. I honestly can’t really wrap my head around it.’

The Senators lost 8-2 to the Colorado Avalanche on Jan. 8. Tkachuk said the players weren’t using the rumors as an excuse and said he feels for Ullmark.

‘Nobody knows what he’s going through, but the fact that he has to even deal with this, even have to think about it,’ Tkachuk said. ‘All we care about for him is getting what he needs. We said from Day 1 that he has our support, the whole organization’s support. Now that he has to deal with this, it’s mind blowing.’

There are 13 games remaining in the 2025 NFL season, six of them set to be played this weekend in what projects to be a postseason as wide open as any in recent memory.

It will begin Saturday, when the sub-.500 Carolina Panthers host − that ain’t right − the Los Angeles Rams, followed by the Green Bay Packers visiting the Chicago Bears in what will be only the third postseason meeting in a rivalry that’s run for more than 100 years.

Sunday, the Buffalo Bills will try to win their first road playoff game in more than three decades against the Jaguars in Jacksonville. The Philadelphia Eagles then begin their title defense in earnest at home against the San Francisco 49ers. The Los Angeles Chargers and New England Patriots will face off Sunday night.

The wild-card round wraps Monday night in Pittsburgh, where Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers could potentially play his final game against the Houston Texans.

How do USA TODAY Sports’ panel of NFL experts foresee the postseason openers shaking out? And, as a bonus, which teams do they think will reach and, ultimately, win Super Bowl 60? Scroll on:

(Odds provided by BetMGM)

Wild-card round picks, predictions, odds

Rams at Panthers
Packers at Bears
Bills at Jaguars
49ers at Eagles
Chargers at Patriots
Texans at Steelers

The offensive gameplan for the Los Angeles Rams was clear at the start of Saturday’s NFC wild-card game against the Carolina Panthers – find a way to get Puka Nacua the football. It worked, as the Rams survived the Panthers’ upset bid with a 34-31 road victory to advance to the divisional round.

Nacua had three catches, 40 yards and a touchdown on the Rams’ opening drive. On the Rams’ third series, the wideout caught a backwards pass from Matthew Stafford maneuvered around a couple of defenders and found the end zone to give Los Angeles a 14-0 advantage in the second quarter.

Nacua’s second score went down as a 5-yard rushing touchdown.

Nacua’s big first half could have been even more pronounced, but the receiver committed a critical drop that cost the Rams a potential touchdown before halftime. His final stat line was 10 receptions for 111 yards and a touchdown, to go with three carries for 14 yards and a touchdown.

The third-year wide receiver entered the postseason coming off another superb regular season. He tallied an NFL-high 129 catches for 1,715 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. He was named an NFL first-team All-Pro for his efforts.

For the New York Jets, a franchise that’s two years away from being a year away – and this has somehow remained a perpetual state of affairs for the past 15 seasons, the NYJ last reaching the NFL playoffs in 2010 – Friday night’s Peach Bowl felt like an unmitigated disaster.

The Jets, who are still in search of a worthy successor to Hall of Famer Joe Namath nearly 50 years after he threw his final pass for the franchise, are scheduled to pick second overall in the 2026 draft. Their 3-14 record this season matched the Las Vegas Raiders in terms of ineptitude – though only the Jets managed to become the first team in league history to lose five consecutive games by at least 23 points apiece. Quite the exclamation mark − expletive mark? − to another sad-sack campaign, the latest without a postseason invite or even a New York Sack Exchange to at least seed optimism for the future.

But no matter. By virtue of playing a weaker schedule, the Silver and Black actually ‘earned’ the No. 1 pick by virtue of the league’s rules − and the right to select Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.

The recently crowned Heisman Trophy winner had played like an NFL franchise quarterback facing Pop Warner competition throughout 2025. Then he thoroughly embarrassed the University of Alabama in the Rose Bowl before the Hoosiers routed Oregon 56-22 in Atlanta on Friday.

Yet while Mendoza continues to etch his 2025 season as one of the best in the history of college football while cementing himself as the prohibitive top pick of the 2026 draft, it had seemed like the Jets would be in line for a tantalizing consolation prize − namely Ducks quarterback Dante Moore, a prospect some evaluators believe might have more professional upside than Mendoza.

“Around the league, there’s a debate on who’s one or who’s two,” ESPN draft analyst Matt Miller told USA TODAY Sports. “Some people love Mendoza – pocket passer, super accurate, poised, never seems to get rattled. He’s more of a distributor – he allows his guys to go make plays. I think there’s a lot of people that see that and like it. He’s kind of Jared Goff-esque … or Kirk Cousins-plus.

“Dante, I think he’s a little more explosive, he’s a little more dynamic. … He’s really not quite as experienced. And so it’s more of an upside bet.”

But now? Doesn’t appear to be much room left for debate after Mendoza owned the Peach Bowl stage, while his team took down Oregon for the second time this season.

Meanwhile, Mendoza was once again surgical – repeatedly drilling the back shoulders of his receivers when he wasn’t layering touchdown passes to them. He finished with five touchdown passes … and three incompletions. (Between the Rose and Peach Bowls, Mendoza has eight TD throws and five incompletions – against defenses stacked with plenty of NFL-caliber talent.)

Said ESPN play-by-play man Sean McDonough at halftime, “I think the debate about who the number one quarterback is and who’s gonna be the number one pick in the draft has been answered.”

Responded analyst Greg McElroy, one of the many quarterbacks who couldn’t cut it with the Jets post-Namath: “I think it was established even before this. I mean, if you’re drafting Dante Moore, it’s on a projection. You’re getting a ready-made product right now in Fernando Mendoza.”

In fairness to Moore, he made some nice throws Friday, even if his 285-yard, two-TD night was ultimately full of empty calories. In further fairness to Moore, he’s 20 years old and has started 19 college games − the kind of relatively thin résumé that’s been predictive of failure for recent top-five QB selections like Mitchell Trubisky, Trey Lance and Anthony Richardson. Moore also looked like a deer in headlights at times. With the benefit of more time and nourished by more quality coaching, he certainly has the potential to be an excellent pro – though patience and quality coaching have been in fairly short supply with Gang Green since the Jets’ landmark Super Bowl 3 victory, famously/infamously guaranteed by Namath, to cap the 1968 season. (The Jets have never returned to the Super Sunday stage.)

In the decades since, they’ve picked passers like Richard Todd, Ken O’Brien, Chad Pennington, Mark Sanchez, Sam Darnold and Zach Wilson in the first round. All have been saddled with outsized expectations, few have had the benefit of a strong supporting cast, none have flourished for more than a handful of seasons.

Moore could be set up for a similar fate if the Jets, desperate behind center yet again more than a year after the failed Aaron Rodgers experiment, tab him. ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith even advised Moore to remain at Oregon in 2026 rather than play for the Jets, whom SAS deemed a “football atrocity.”

“That’s the Dante Moore dilemma,” said Miller. “It’s do you go for the sure thing of being a top-five pick, or do you go back to school and risk having a Garrett Nussmeier-type of year, where your stock kinda falls off?

“Who’s to say (the Jets) don’t have the number one pick next year? The Jets are always in the top five. If you’re running from the Jets, you just need to come out and say you don’t want to play for them.”

As well as Moore played in 2025, two of his worst games came in the losses to Indiana − an opponent sporting a talented, opportunistic defense, if not one as remotely good and complex as the ones Moore will eventually see in the NFL. He didn’t distinguish himself against Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl, either.

Meanwhile, Mendoza, 22, couldn’t have looked more composed or efficient in the biggest game of his life – at least until the South Florida native faces the University of Miami for the national championship on Jan. 19. Big (6-foot-5, 225 pounds), accurate, intelligent and perhaps underrated athletically, Mendoza appears like precisely the guy the Jets need – a winner unlikely to be derailed by the Big Apple’s scrutiny and distractions.

Yet, un-Raider-y as the clean-cut Mendoza presents, he’ll likely be avoiding the distractions of Sin City instead while trying to elevate that once-great franchise from the ashes – and with minority owner Tom Brady to monitor his professional growth and development.

As for the Jets?

Maybe they try to package some of their midseason bounty of high-end draft picks, acquired after trading Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams, to move up for Mendoza. Maybe they make a run at a veteran like Mac Jones or Cousins (a Mendoza facsimile without the wheels) and target Texas’ Arch Manning or Ohio State’s Julian Sayin in 2027. Maybe Moore “Ducks” the Jets entirely and winds up in an environment preferable to a “football atrocity” – you know, like in Cleveland or Arizona.

But it sure feels like Moore’s best play personally is to enter this draft, given the likelihood he’ll be close to a surefire top-five pick, rather than chance a regression ahead of what’s shaping up as a stacked 2027 crop. Better to take the Caleb Williams path and join an organization that might foster initial misgivings – while realizing circumstances in the NFL change on a dime, for the league’s worst franchises and its best (slot Williams’ Chicago Bears wherever you choose).

Regardless – somehow, some way – sure seems like the Jets now find themselves two years away from being two years away.

‘Do your job’ is something of a mantra for this Indiana football program.
Curt Cignetti even smiles after Indiana’s 56-22 thrashing of Oregon in Peach Bowl.
If Indiana beats Miami in national championship game, job will be complete.

ATLANTA – To call this a rise from the ashes, something would’ve had to have been burned down first. Indiana football was never here. Not before Curt Cignetti arrived.

He’s the man with the plan. The coach with the swagger. The master blender of transfers. The developer of a Heisman Trophy winner.

In the time B.C. — before Cignetti — Indiana needed four seasons to amass 15 wins.

A.C., they’re 15-0.

If you saw Cignetti standing on the sideline, grim-faced, you might think he was observing a funeral. No, he’s just watching his Hoosiers bury another opponent.

When it was finished, this 56-22 body slam of Oregon in a College Football Playoff semifinal, Cignetti even cracked a smile. Do you believe in miracles?!

All it took was a 34-point beatdown to coax out a grin out of everyone’s favorite meme.

“You see (him smile) every now and then. It’s rare,” Indiana wide receiver Elijah Sarratt said, as he smiled next to the Peach Bowl trophy inside the locker room.

When you try to explain how the Hoosiers got here, from Big Ten doormat to national powerhouse in just two years, you’ve got to start with the coach, but you’ve also got to include the quarterback.

Fernando Mendoza fired five touchdown passes and just three incompletions.

You also cannot ignore Indiana’s sturdiness in the trenches or its bundle of skill position talent or how it does not beat itself with mistakes and blunders, like those Oregon made.

So, what’s the best way to explain how Indiana is undefeated and one win away from becoming national champions, after having 100-to-1 odds in the preseason? Maybe, it boils down to three letters that have become this program’s mission.

“Our big thing we say is, DYJ. Do your job,” defensive lineman Mario Landino said. “As long as do your job, it’s going to be OK. We’ve got that posted around the facility and at away games, everywhere.”

Indiana football does its job vs. Oregon, from very first play to last

D’Angelo Ponds did his job. On the game’s very first play from scrimmage, Indiana’s star cornerback bolted in front of an Oregon receiver, picked off a pass and sprinted into the end zone for a touchdown.

“After that play, the whole sideline, we’re turnt. We know, we’re here,” defensive lineman Daniel Ndukwe said.

Eleven seconds into the game, the train horn that blasts inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium after touchdowns blared for the first of many, many times, because these Hoosiers just kept doing their job and kept racking up the touchdowns.

Eight of them, in sum.

Mendoza did his job while completing 17 of 20 passes. He sizzled on third downs.

When Sarratt saw Mendoza, a transfer from California, throwing before the season, he sensed this could be a special season.

“Seeing the way Fernando was spinning it in the offseason I knew we had a chance,” said Sarratt, who did his job with seven catches for 75 yards.

If you’ve got a quarterback, you’ve got a chance. The Hoosiers have a quarterback.

As Cignetti aptly put it, Mendoza played “incredible” and Sarratt was “on fire.”

Both can say they achieved the task of DYJ.

Dan Lanning on Hoosiers: ‘They’re complete.’

The offensive line did its job protecting Mendoza. He was sacked only once, and those maulers opened holes for Indiana’s underrated ground attack to punish Oregon to the tune of 185 yards.

That’s doing your job.

The defensive line’s job was to make life uncomfortable for quarterback Dante Moore. They didn’t just do their job. They aced it. Mark Cuban, give those fellas a bonus check! The Hoosiers had 10 tackles for loss, including three sacks. Landino recovered two Moore fumbles. How’s that for DYJ?

One of the nation’s least-penalized teams, Indiana got flagged just five times. It blocked a punt. It mounted a 3-0 turnover advantage.

That’s how you destroy a good team.

“We’re a smart team,’ Landino said. ‘We don’t make penalties. We’re trying not to make mistakes.’

They don’t beat themselves, while beating you up. They lead the nation in turnover margin. They’re physical, and they’re relentless. When they get up by a few scores, they don’t fall into that pesky trap of letting their foot off the gas. They keep the pedal down.

Take it from Oregon coach Dan Lanning: “They’re complete.”

Bingo.

Zoom out and view this through the big picture, and it’s still hard to believe Indiana, a program synonymous with failure throughout most of its existence, is headed to the national championship game.

Zoom in, and you’ll see a veteran, polished team that’s without weakness and plays with unflinching composure.

“To me, every game is the same,” Cignetti said. “You gotta win the line of scrimmage. You gotta be able to run the ball, stop the run, affect the quarterback, protect the quarterback. And, then, the turnover ratio, which was huge in this game.”

When it was finished, would they admit they accomplished the quest of DYJ?

“I think we took a step,” Landino said.

One more step, and the job will be complete.  

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

The offensive gameplan for the Los Angeles Rams was clear at the start of Saturday’s NFC wild-card game against the Carolina Panthers – find a way to get Puka Nacua the football.

Nacua had three catches, 40 yards and a touchdown on the Rams’ opening drive. On the Rams’ third series, the wideout caught a backwards pass from Matthew Stafford maneuvered around a couple of defenders and found the end zone to give Los Angeles a 14-0 advantage in the second quarter.

Nacua’s second score went down as a 5-yard rushing touchdown.

The third-year wide receiver is coming off another superb regular season. He tallied an NFL-high 129 catches for 1,715 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. He was named an NFL first-team All-Pro for his efforts.

The WNBA collective bargaining agreement expired at 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, Jan. 9.

The league and players’ union are likely to enter into a status quo period, where they continue to negotiate. In that case, player benefits would continue and a lockout or strike can be declared without notice.

The WNBPA released a statement to USA TODAY Sports, 30 minutes before Friday’s deadline, to voice their disappointment in the pace of the negotiations and explain an inflatable rat positioned in front of the NBA Store in New York.

“At midnight, the 2020 WNBA-WNBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement will expire. Despite demonstrating our willingness to compromise in order to get a deal done, the WNBA and its teams have failed to meet us at the table with the same spirit and seriousness. Instead, they have remained committed to undervaluing player contributions, dismissing player concerns, and running out the clock.

‘Today’s display of an inflatable rat, a universal symbol of labor protest, outside of the NBA Store, calls attention to how the league and its teams have handled these negotiations. By delaying and clinging to the status quo, they are jeopardizing the livelihoods of players and the trust and investment of fans, all in the name of preserving regressive provisions that no longer belong in women’s basketball.

‘Players care deeply about their fans and take pride in honoring that loyalty every time they take the court. The league’s tactics harm current and future players and marginalize the very people who show up for the game in communities across the country.

‘This misguided approach will not work. In the face of the league and teams’ actions, the players remain undeterred, unafraid, and unwavering in their commitment to doing what is necessary to secure a transformational new CBA. This agreement must include a salary system tied to a meaningful share of the revenue that would not exist without player labor, mandate professional working conditions, and require protections that honor the players who built this league and set the next generation up for success.

‘Make no mistake. Pay equity is not optional and progress is long overdue. We urge the league and its teams to meet this moment. The players already have and will continue to do so.”

The WNBA released this statement early Saturday morning:

“The current Collective Bargaining Agreement has expired, and negotiations with the Women’s National Basketball Players Association remain ongoing. As the league experiences a pivotal time of unprecedented popularity and growth, we recognize the importance of building upon that momentum. Our priority is a deal that significantly increases player salaries, enhances the overall player experience, and supports the long-term growth of the league for current and future generations of players and fans.”   

The players have prioritized increased revenue sharing and salary structures in negotiations. The sides differ on whether revenue sharing should be net or gross income, the percentage of the share and the salary cap.

“We’ll continue to negotiate in good faith. It doesn’t mean that on Saturday we’re going to have a lockout, unless the league does something that we’re not prepared for,” New York Liberty All-Star Breanna Stewart said Friday on the ‘Good Game with Sarah Spain’ podcast. ‘That’s not going to happen.’

When asked about a timeline to get a deal done, Stewart seemed cautiously optimistic it wouldn’t take too much longer.

“Hopefully, everything can be done by February 1,’ Stewart said. ‘Even if we agree, we still have to wait for the contracts to be written. So there’s a lot to be thinking about. It’s not just like, ‘Oh, you’re done now, it’ll work.’ If we can get by February 1, we’ll all be in a good place.”

Offers could be sent because of labor law

The WNBA has an obligation to allow clubs to send qualifying offers under the expired agreement because of U.S. labor law. According a person with knowledge of the situation, GMs and executives from every franchise have been called by the WNBA to let them know the status quo period would allow for qualifying offers to free agents beginning on Jan. 11. Any offer would be under the old CBA, so it would be purely procedural to stay in line with labor laws. It has been reported by several outlets late Friday there may be a moratorium reached by both sides to avoid going through the motions.