Of all the people to shatter the Lambeau Field cloak of invincibility, it wasn't supposed to be Jay Cutler. Matthew Stafford and the Lions dented the force field a few weeks ago with their first win in Wisconsin since 1991. Cutler busted through it by beating Aaron Rodgers and the Packers on Brett Favre night in front of a rain-soaked and emotional crowd to put the Bears right back in the playoff race and continue the head-scratching season for the Packers.

Quietly the Bears are good. Or at least better than they're supposed to be. Their past three losses? By a total of eight points, against two teams (Vikings, Broncos) that will likely see the field after Week 17. 

Luck swings both ways, of course, but for Chicago to go into Lambeau Field and pick up a win on a night that was supposed to be about the Packers giving thanks for their eternal parade of franchise quarterbacks is hard to fathom. They were nearly double-digit underdogs (the line closed around eight points, although it opened at nine-plus) but still managed to neutralize the dangerous Packers offense.

And, actually, outplay it. Rodgers has a lot of blame to hand out to his receivers, but he got outplayed, statistically speaking, by Cutler at Lambeau Field.

Pretty sure that's a first.

At the very least, it's a rarity, because Cutler was 0-4 at Lambeau before Thursday, with three touchdowns and 12 interceptions to show for his efforts. Reminder: If you think you know something will happen in football, it probably won't.

Jay Cutler crashes the party in Green Bay (via NBC)

Here are 7 more takeaways from the NFL's Thanksgiving night game: 

2. Brett Favre: Did you hear? Favre had his number retired. Someone needs to go back and do a closed-caption count of the number of times "Favre" was used on the broadcast. I would bet it's greater than the number of times the word "football" got mentioned. 

But Favre's retirement was a cool scene for football fans, with Bart Starr coming out onto Lambeau and celebrating No. 4 getting hung in the rafters, so to speak. 

Favre also spent basically an entire quarter in the booth with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth. It was a Favre love fest, but he opened up about some cool stuff like playing with injuries, playing against the Packers and what not. If you DVR'd the game, go back and watch that stretch.

3. Sneaky Bears defense: Quietly Vic Fangio is putting together a pretty delicious chicken salad with some ... less-than-remarkable ingredients. The Bears are supposed to be terrible on defense -- just based on personnel -- and yet, they're not. 

In fact, Chicago hasn't given up more than 23 points since October. The bye was a revelation for Vangio's unit, even if the competition has been relatively limited. 

There aren't many times when Rodgers is held below 225 passing yards at home (just 10 since he took over as full-time starter) but Thursday was one of them.

Tracy Porter is out there making plays, locking down receivers, picking off Rodgers in the fourth quarter and then knocking away a potential winning TD pass to James Jones. 

Credit Fangio and this unit for the Bears' hot streak. 

4. Double checked: Not an ideal day for Aaron Rodgers. He wasn't good on the field, the guy whose job he took was honored the entire time, his receivers were terrible, he swore on national television and his receivers aren't playing very well.

That feeling when:

The concern over the Packers' long-term prospects bounces back and forth depending on whether they're winning or not but this really is a team that isn't guaranteed to overcome deficiencies just because it has a great quarterback. 

5. Ball security issues: This is part of the reason. Eddie Lacy looked poised for his second straight breakout game in late November -- 70-some rushing yards and a score and he was piling up yards all over the Bears.

Then all of a sudden Lacy decided to give up the ball before he got across the goal line (he got lucky and the call was ruled a touchdown despite a REALLY quick replay).

Another Lacy fumble and suddenly he's benched. 

Meanwhile, Davante Adams just flat-out refuses to catch the ball, routinely making terrible drops on catchable passes. The guy who turned 11 targets into 14 yards? He kind of embodies the Packers' struggles this season.

6. Home stretch: The last time the Lions and Bears beat the Packers at home in the same year ... 1991 (the last time the Packers lost at home to the Lions, go figure). This is also the first time that Rodgers has lost back-to-back home starts since Weeks 13 and 14 in 2008, which goes to tell you just how vulnerable the Packers are right now. 

7. Playoff implications: The Bears' win was massive for the Vikings, who move back into first place in the NFC North, for now. Minnesota and Green Bay still square off in Week 17, but after a humbling home loss last week, the Vikings can still see a division title as possible. There's no real reason to doubt the Packers making the playoffs with the Lions, Cowboys and Raiders upcoming. But they close with the Cardinals and Vikings. It's not a free pass and three of five are on the road. 

The Bears threw themselves back into a muddled NFC wild-card battle. They'll need some serious help and still trail the Buccaneers and Seahawks behind the Falcons for the last spot. But the 49ers and Redskins at home the next two weeks are winnable games with the potential to make things interesting.

8. What's next: Bears vs. 49ers (1 p.m. ET), Dec. 6; Packers at Lions (8:25 p.m. ET), Dec. 3 (Thursday Night Football on CBS/NFL Network).