CHICAGO -- Framed by a large wooden stall in the visitors' locker room late Sunday afternoon, Green Bay wide receiver Bill Schroeder looked considerably smaller than his listed height and weight as he attempted to downplay his role in a victory that boosted the Packers into a tie for the NFC Central lead.

	Antonio Freeman and Bill Schroeder celebrate after Schroeder's second-quarter touchdown.

It was, in retrospect, one of the few things at which Schroeder failed all day.

Back in the Green Bay lineup after a two-week battle with a balky ankle, Schroeder was again the unheralded star of the Packers' passing game, catching four balls for 100 yards and one touchdown. Once again an opposing team's secondary took Schroeder too lightly, and once again the sixth-year veteran took a unit to task for its critical oversight.

"To me, it's just about doing my job, that's all," said Schroeder, whose presence gave the Packers a much-needed vertical dimension in this key divisional matchup. "The biggest thing was that we won the game, that we got a big division victory, and that's really the only number I look at."

Schroeder, 30, might want to peruse his individual numbers a little bit closer.

Of his four receptions, all were for 17 yards or more, and each produced a first down or a touchdown. His 41-yard touchdown catch, boosting the Packers into a 10-6 lead just 45 seconds before halftime, was arguably the game's signature play.

But then again, the Packers have come to expect nothing less from the clever Schroeder, clearly missed during his two-week injury hiatus. Schroeder easily torched strong safety Tony Parrish, overmatched in Chicago's zone coverage, for the score that came on a second-and-7 play.

"He is so key to us," said quarterback Brett Favre, who completed 19 of 32 passes for 268 yards and two touchdowns. "People sometimes take him for granted but, when he is out of the lineup, we're not as good a team. It's as simple as that. He really is a heck of a player and, if some people don't understand that, everyone in our (locker) room does. He played great but, then again, he usually does."

It is not happenstance that, while Schroeder sat for two weeks, the Green Bay passing game limped along as well. While the Packers split those two games, Favre failed to go over the 200-yard mark in both of them, and Green Bay averaged just 17 points.

Counting his Sunday appearance, the Packers have averaged 25.7 points in the six games Schroeder played. And if Schroeder doesn't always look like he's moving too quickly, his statistics after Sunday suggest otherwise, because now he is averaging a gaudy 21.1 yards a catch.

Almost as notable is that, with five touchdown receptions, Schroeder now is averaging a score every 4.4 catches.

Not bad for a lifelong Packers fan, who was born in Eau Claire, Wis., and played at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, but who needed plenty of perseverance just to make it onto an NFL roster. A sixth-round choice in the 1994 draft, he was released at the end of camp, re-signed to the Green Bay practice squad, and then spent three seasons on the Packers and New England practice squads.

	“	He is so key to us. People sometimes take him for granted but, when he is out of the lineup, we're not as good a team. It's as simple as that. ”
		— Brett Favre on Bill Schroeder

Not until 1997 did Schroeder even play in a regular-season game and, in his first couple active years, he totaled just 33 catches for 467 yards. In the past two-plus seasons, he had started 38 games, caught 161 passes for 2,515 yards and 14 touchdowns. His five scoring catches this year already equal his career best.

"Having him back gave us a lot more options," said wide receiver Antonio Freeman, who had four catches for 68 yards, including a 9-yard touchdown grab. "Defenses have to play us differently when he's on the field. Until you play against him, you don't realize how fast he is. He really opens up a lot of stuff for us."

In fact, at 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, Schroeder is much faster than he appears. And there are a number of teams that already have earmarked him as a potential target if he hits the unrestricted free agent market next spring. New Orleans made overtures to the Packers before the trade deadline lapsed last month, and the Saints almost certainly will pursue Schroeder if Green Bay doesn't retain him.

To allow Schroeder to escape might be costly for the Packers, because Freeman has yet to justify his lucrative contract, and the young Green Bay wideouts continue to struggle. Every year, it seems the Packers feel like one of their youngsters -- Corey Bradford or Donald Driver or Charles Lee -- will emerge. Every year, Schroeder manages to hold off the challenge.

Smart enough to understand where the holes are in zone coverage and fast enough to run past cornerbacks when they "squat" too early on his route, Schroeder showed again Sunday how essential he figures to be to the Packers' effort in the second half of the season.

So essential, in fact, even Chicago defenders were more than willing to give him his due.

"When he plays, they're better, OK?" said Bears cornerback Walt Harris. "A lot better."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.