Good afternoon, everyone. On Sunday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers opened their 2023 regular season against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. I was expecting some ups and downs considering that this was the very first game of the Jordan Love era. The first half was iffy, but the Packers broke the game open in the second half. Let’s get into detail on how this game went down.
The Packers won the coin toss, but elected to defer to the second half. As a result, the Bears received the opening kickoff. The kickoff was returned to the 23 yard line of Chicago, but an unnecessary roughness penalty against the receiving team forced the Bears to start at their own 12 yard line. After a 19-yard catch and run by Khalil Herbert got the Bears a first down at the 31 yard line, the drive stalled in the next four plays. On third and 1, the snap went directly to TE Cole Kmet, who was stopped for no gain. They went for it on fourth down with a Justin Fields QB sneak. However, the sneak failed to get a first down after the chains were brought out. As a result of that, the Packers took over on downs at the Chicago 40 yard line. The first two plays went for negative yards, resulting in a third and 13. That third down was converted thanks to a pass completion from QB Jordan Love to WR Romeo Doubs. A couple of more first downs later, the Packers had first and goal at the 5 yard line. On first down, AJ Dillon lost three yards on a rushing attempt. After an incomplete pass on second down intended for Aaron Jones, Love connected with Doubs for the first touchdown of the game. Anders Carlson made the extra point, giving Green Bay a 7-0 lead with 6:08 left in the first quarter. After the kick return, the Bears started their next possession at their own 34 yard line. They quickly got to Green Bay territory thanks to a 23 yard pass completion from Fields to Darnell Mooney. A couple of plays and two false starts later, the Bears faced a first and 20 from the GB 41 yard line. Justin Fields scrambled for 8 yards on the play before being softly pushed out of bounds by Jaire Alexander. A scuffle followed on the Bears sideline, eventually resulting in 2 unnecessary roughness penalties. Those 2 penalties did not do anything because one was against each team (in other words: offsetting penalties). 3 plays later, the Bears’ drive stalled with an incomplete pass on third and 7 intended for Chase Claypool. The field goal by Cairo Santos was good from 47 yards out, cutting the Packers’ lead to 7-3 with 2:04 left in the first quarter. The Packers did nothing on their next drive and they punted back to Chicago. The Bears then went down the field for another score. They got all the way to the Green Bay 4 yard line, but a Lukas Van Ness sack of a running Justin Fields helped the Packers defense force the Bears to settle for a second field goal. Santos was good was 29 yards out, cutting the Packers lead to one point with 9 minutes left in the half. 4 punts later (2 from each team), the Packers had the ball with 1:12 left in the half looking to score some points. On third and 10 from the GB 44 yard line, Jordan Love connected with rookie WR Jayden Reed for a 30 yard pass completion. They didn’t get any further due to an incomplete pass and a sack of Love by Yannick Ngakoue. The sack forced the Packers to use their final timeout with 4 seconds left. Anders Carlson made the kick from 52 yards away, giving the Packers a 10-6 halftime lead.
The Packers started their first drive of the second half at their own 25 yard line following a touchback on the kickoff. Aaron Jones got plenty of touches on this drive, including runs of 9 and 7 yards. The biggest play was a 51-yard catch and run on a screen pass that went 51 yards to the Chicago 7 on second and 2 from the GB 42. 3 plays after that big gain, Jones finished the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run that, along with the extra point by Anders Carlson, gave the Packers a 17-6 lead with 10:19 left in the third quarter. The Bears went three and out on their first second half drive thanks to a sack of Justin Fields by Devonte Wyatt, who was not bothered by the play-action fake at all on the play. Jayden Reed took the punt and ran it back 35 yards to the Bears’ 42 yard line. On the Packers’ next drive, things looked bleak when they faced a 3rd and 12. Jordan Love scrambled for 9 yards, giving them a chance to go for it on fourth down. They did just that, and Love found Aaron Jones on a quick pass that Jones took all the way for a touchdown. Jones grabbed his hamstring after he made it to the end zone, but he signaled on the broadcast that he is ok. The extra point was good, giving the Packers a 24-6 lead with 6:26 left in the third quarter. The Packers quickly got the ball back after the defense recovered a fumble that resulted from a strip sack of Justin Fields. The Packers would have started in field goal range had it not been for an unnecessary roughness penalty against De’Vondre Campbell. Due to the penalty, the offense started at the Chicago 43 yard line. On third and 8 from the 41, Love went deep for Jayden Reed. Reed was roughed up and his helmet was forced off of his head, but there was no penalty against the Bears. The punt by Daniel Whelon went for a touchback, but the Bears got an extra 15 yards thanks to a face mask penalty on Innis Gaines. During the drive, Rashan Gary’s sack of Justin Fields was nullified by a defensive holding penalty against Kingsley Enagbare. 2 plays later, Rudy Ford was called for unnecessary roughness after a run play gained 11 yards. 2 plays after the penalty, Fields found Darnell Mooney for a 20-yard touchdown pass. Instead of an extra point, the Bears went for two points and got it easily, cutting the lead to 24-14 with 59 seconds left in the third quarter. Green Bay’s offense started their next drive at their 39 yard line after Keisean Nixon’s facemask was grabbed by a Bears player. The Packers converted a third and 8 with an 18 yard pass completion to Jayden Reed. On the next play, Jordan Love recovered from a near fumble and found a wide open Luke Musgrave. Musgrave would have scored on this play had he not fallen down. Love found Romeo Doubs on a goal-line fade play for the touchdown on the next play (a perfect throw and catch). The extra point was good, increasing the lead to 31-14 with 13:30 left in the game. That lead increased to 38-14 thanks to a pick six by Quay Walker, who was able to bounce and spin away from a Bears player and made it to the goal line for the score. The PAT was good, and Bears fans were leaving the stadium in droves as soon as that score happened. From there, it was pretty much garbage time at Soldier Field. The Packers punted on their last two drives. On the first of those two drives, Jayden Reed looked like he hurt his knee badly after failing to catch a deep ball from Jordan Love. Thankfully, he returned to recover the onside kick after the Bears scored a meaningless touchdown. After the onside kick, Love was able to relax as Sean Clifford entered the game for a drive that resulted in a punt. The Bears went down the field for some garbage time yards before the time ran out.
With the 38-20 win, the Packers start the Jordan Love era and the 2023 season at 1-0. It is always awesome to watch the Packers win against the Bears. Sunday’s win is more sweet considering that a lot of Bears fans talked trash all offseason only to watch their team lose again to the Green and Gold and boo their own team. With that out of the way, let’s discuss how the Packers did on all sides of the football. Offensively, the Packers played well for most of the game. I did not like that Aaron Jones was all but ignored in the first half after the opening touchdown drive. It did not help that AJ Dillon ran for only 19 yards for the entire game. Playmakers like Jones were needed more in the first half due to Christian Watson being out with a hamstring issue. In the second half, Jones was in the game more and scored two touchdowns while gaining a total of 127 yards on the day (41 rushing, 86 receiving). The bummer is that Jones hurt his hamstring after the catch and run TD, but (like I said earlier) he signaled that he will be ok. He had his helmet on later in the second half, but he was not brought back in the game just to play it safe with him. Jordan Love played well on Sunday, and part of that is thanks to the offensive line protecting him all game long. He only got sacked once, but that sack messed up a potential scoring opportunity before halftime. Letting the clock run down to 4 seconds and then calling timeout was bad clock management at the end of the first half. Anders Carlson made the kick, but it should not have been from that far away. Love had plenty of support from everyone on the Packers team (plus the fans), and he threw for 245 yards and three touchdowns on the day, with Romeo Doubs catching two of them. The Aaron Jones catch and run TD was partly thanks to a 9-yard scramble by Love. Luke Musgrave had 3 catches for 50 yards, but he was a trip and fall away from easily scoring a TD in his first NFL game. I hope that he redeems himself later this season. Jayden Reed contributed with 2 catches for 48 yards, but he almost got two deep balls during this game. On both of those plays, he got roughed up by the Bears defense. I was relieved when he came back for the onside kick after the second play because he was holding his knee after that. The second half was definitely more productive for the Packers. Hopefully they continue to be productive for the whole season. There will be tougher games down the road, but I have confidence in Matt LaFleur, the offensive coaching staff, and the players.
On defense, the Packers played a great game. There were a few scrambles allowed, but other than that, they kept Justin Fields’ rushing effectiveness to a minimum. The pass rush totaled 25 pressures on the day, including 5 by Lukas Van Ness (who also sacked Fields), and 5 by Rashan Gary (who was on a snap count). Gary sacked Justin Fields in addition to that, but it was nullified due to a defensive offside penalty. My favorite sack was Devonte Wyatt’s solo sack in which he completely ignored the run fake and went after Fields. The biggest play allowed by the defense was 23 yards, which is much better than when the defense allowed a scramble touchdown over 50 yards last year. The secondary played well against the Bears’ receivers, especially Jaire Alexander and Rasul Douglas. Their play helped in limiting DJ Moore to only 2 catches for 25 yards. Yes, the defense allowed a touchdown to Darnell Mooney, but he still had less than 60 receiving yards. Khalil Herbert was mostly kept in check by the Packers defense, only getting 27 yards on 9 rushing attempts and getting 37 yards on 3 catches. Not only was Fields sacked 3.5 times, but he also threw a pick six on Sunday. The pick six was by Quay Walker, who I think will redeem himself this season after being ejected twice in his rookie year. Not everything was perfect on defense. A major issue was not being disciplined enough to avoid unsportsmanlike conduct and unnecessary roughness penalties. The biggest example was after the strip sack and fumble recovery. The Packers would have been in field goal range had it not been for a penalty on De’Vondre Campbell. The offense had to punt it away and the Bears were able to score on the ensuing possession with the help of a couple of big penalties on Green Bay’s defense. That is the biggest issue that needs to be cleaned up for next week and beyond. As long as everyone stays healthy and do their assignments well, I think that this defense will be one of the best in the NFL.
On Special Teams, the Packers did not do anything dumb, other than a couple of penalties. I was nervous about the Packers starting a rookie kicker and punter. Anders Carlson gave me a sigh of relief because he made every single field goal and extra point attempt on Sunday. He did get some help from accurate snaps by the long snapper, the holder (punter Daniel Whelon), and great protection at the line of scrimmage. I hope that Carlson stays that consistent all year long, even in colder games. Daniel Whelon at least did not have a punt blocked. A couple of his punts went in the end zone for a touchback, which gave the Bears a comfortable start to their next offensive drive. I hope that Whelon performs better in future games. In addition to his two catches, Jayden Reed had a couple of nice punt returns on Sunday. Keisean Nixon didn’t have a huge return, but the good news was that he and Reed did not commit a turnover. On the other side, the Packers did not allow a kick or punt return that could have changed the momentum in an instant. Rich Bisaccia had his guys ready to play, which I have no doubt will continue for the whole season.
Overall, it was a satisfying win for the Packers on Sunday against the Bears. It was not all perfect, but the Packers got the win and humiliated the Bears in the process. We’re just getting started with the 2023 season, with next week being another road game. This game will be in Mercedes Benz Stadium against the Atlanta Falcons. I’ll talk more about that game later. In the meantime, I am celebrating the first Victory Monday of the season. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page. Click on "Watch on YouTube")
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