Part 2 Steelers and Packers Headed to Super Bowl XLV

PACKERS 21, BEARS 14: Without Jay Cutler, Bears Fall and Packers Head to Super Bowl

Nearly 70 years had passed since the N.F.L.'s oldest rivals played each other in a postseason game. In 1941, George Halas roamed the sideline for the Chicago Bears. Vince Lombardi was nearly two decades from coaching the Green Bay Packers to a series of championships, including the first two Super Bowls.

B. J. Raji (90) returned an interception for a score to provide the winning margin in Green Bay's 21-14 win over Chicago. Pages D6-7.

On Sunday night, when the relieved and exhausted Packers returned to the visitors' locker room deep under the southern end of Soldier Field, they celebrated around the George S. Halas Trophy. That piece of shiny hardware, given to the champions of the National Football Conference, was soon shepherded away. There is a bigger prize to capture.

Green Bay's 21-14 victory over the Bears, its third straight road victory of the playoffs, sends the Packers to Super Bowl XLV against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Feb. 6. They are searching for their 13th N.F.L. championship, and first in 14 years.

"We always felt we were a very good football team," Green Bay Coach Mike McCarthy said. "Now we have an opportunity to achieve greatness. That's winning the Super Bowl down in Dallas and bringing the Lombardi Trophy back home."

The Packers shot to a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter and never trailed, but found themselves scrambling to hold on as darkness descended in the fourth quarter. Jay Cutler, Chicago's starting quarterback, was ineffective before he left the game early in the third quarter with a knee injury. The backup Todd Collins was no better, completing none of his four passes.

The Bears, with zero points and little hope, turned to the third-stringer Caleb Hanie.

He had thrown 14 passes in his three N.F.L. seasons. But he rallied the team like Sid Luckman, the Hall of Fame quarterback who led Chicago to that playoff victory over the Packers in 1941, sparking the Bears to their only two touchdown drives.

Hanie sandwiched those scores around one of his two mistakes -- a short pass into the arms of Green Bay's B. J. Raji, a 337-pound defensive tackle who rumbled 18 yards for what proved the clinching touchdown.

With 47 seconds left and the tying touchdown in reach, on fourth-and-5 at Green Bay's 29, Hanie was intercepted by cornerback Sam Shields at the 12.

One snap later, the Packers (13-6) kneeled to run out the clock and became the second No. 6 seed to reach the Super Bowl, after the 2005 Steelers. They have won three Super Bowls but lost their last time there, at the end of the 1997 season.

Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers completed 17 of 30 passes for 244 yards and was intercepted twice. He led the Packers to touchdowns on their first possession and again early in the second quarter.

Still, Green Bay's 14-0 lead seemed frozen in the 20-degree temperatures for much of the afternoon.