Good morning, everyone. On Sunday night at Lambeau Field, the Green Bay Packers took on the Chicago Bears in the 201st meeting of the historic rivalry. Green Bay dominated this game from beginning to end, with their biggest lead being by 31 points. They did this in front of a small crowd consisting of family members of team employees (the first time any spectators were allowed to attend a game at Lambeau this season). Let’s go into detail on what exactly happened in this game.
The Packers got off to a great start on offense, going on a 14-play, 75-yard drive that lasted more than 7 and a half minutes of game time. During this drive, a third and 7 was converted with a catch and front flip past the first down marker by Allen Lazard (who was playing in his second game back from core muscle surgery). A few plays later, the Packers faced a third and 10 from the Chicago 12 yard line. Aaron Rodgers had plenty of time to find Davante Adams for the touchdown (which was, coincidentally, Adams’ 500th career reception). I always have to give credit to the offensive line, who gave Rodgers all of that time in the pocket. Despite Mason Crosby missing the extra point, the Packers drew first good in the contest at 6-0. Crosby did a squib kickoff to avoid the potential long return by Cordarrelle Patterson. Things looked disastrous at first for the defense on their first drive. On second and 7 from the Chicago 35, David Montgomery ran 57 yards to the Green Bay 8 yard line. After that big run, the defense made sure that the Bears did not get into the end zone. 2 incomplete passes in a row by Mitchell Trubisky forced the Bears to settle for a 27-yard field goal. The field goal by Cairo Santos decreased the lead to 6-3. The Packers responded with another touchdown drive, which would increase the lead to 10 points. During the drive, Rodgers converted a third and 4 by scrambling for the first down. Unfortunately, center Corey Linsley was injured during the play. 3 plays later, Rodgers found Marcedes Lewis for his second touchdown pass of the game (but not the last). The defense got the first of their three turnovers on the Bears’ second offensive possession. On first and 10 from the Green Bay 38 yard line, Trubisky was throwing a deep pass into the end zone, which was intended for Darnell Mooney. Safety Darnell Savage read the play very well and made a back shoulder catch for the interception. Starting their next drive at their own 20, the Packers offense went on a 13-play drive that lasted nearly 8 minutes of game time. During this particular drive, the Packers faced a fourth and 2 from the Chicago 28. Rather than settle for a field goal, they decided to go for it. Aaron Rodgers found Robert Tonyan for a 14-yard gain to convert the fourth down and keep the drive going. 3 plays later, Rodgers threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to a leaping Allen Lazard (who did a Lambeau Leap to nobody afterwards). The Packers quickly added to their 20-3 lead with a strip-sack by Za’Darius Smith that resulted in a 14-yard fumble return by Preston Smith for a touchdown. The 27-3 lead was cut to 27-10 thanks to a touchdown by the Bears on the next drive, which started all the way back at their own 13 yard line. On third and goal from the Green Bay 3 yard line, Trubisky threw incomplete to tight end Cole Kmet. Unfortunately, Christian Kirksey was called for defensive pass interference, which gave the Bears a free first down. On the next play, Trubisky found Allen Robinson for a 1-yard touchdown pass that decreased Green Bay’s lead to 27-10 at the halfway mark.
The Packers defense got to a great start in the second half, forcing the Bears to punt after a third down sack of Trubisky by Preston Smith (who had the fumble return for a touchdown earlier). The first offensive drive in the third quarter for Green Bay pretty much went nowhere due to a holding penalty. The penalty nullified a toss play that Aaron Jones took for 9 yards. 3 plays later (including 2 incomplete passes in a row), JK Scott punted 50 yards to the Chicago 26, where it was fair caught by the Bears. 3 plays after the punt, Trubisky threw a pass into triple coverage that was picked off by Darnell Savage for his second interception of the night. After the pick, the Packers only took 4 plays to get into the end zone again. On second and 8 from the Chicago 39 yard line, Aaron Rodgers rolled out to his left after a play-action fake and threw a touchdown pass to Robert Tonyan. Coincidentally, Rodgers surpassed the milestone of 50,000 career passing yards on the play (only the 11th QB in NFL history to reach that milestone). After the Packers defense forced the Bears to go three and out, the offense added to the 34-10 lead with another touchdown on their next drive. During this drive, Allen Lazard was hit hard by Jaylon Johnson on a play that resulted in an incomplete pass. What I did not like was that Johnson was still over Lazard, even when he got injured during the play. That moment was pointless because the Packers had a 24-point lead at the time. Later on, they faced a fourth and 1 from the Bears 16, which was converted with a 3-yard run by Jamaal Williams. Williams then carried it up the gut for a 13-yard touchdown that increased the lead to 41-10. After that score, the Bears tried their hardest to make the game closer for pride’s sake. They went on a 13-play, 65-yard drive that culminated in a 6-yard touchdown catch by Allen Robinson (his second of the night). On the next Packers possession, Rodgers was still on the field despite the fact that they had a big lead. On third and 13 from the Green Bay 40, Rodgers was looking to throw deep to Davante Adams. Adams was not able to catch the ball, forcing the Packers to punt for a second time. The Bears then went on another long touchdown drive that took over 5 minutes of game time. The drive resulted in a 3-yard touchdown pass from Trubisky to David Montgomery, which was followed by a 2-point conversion pass to Darnell Mooney. That score decreased the lead to 41-25, which ended up being the final score. After an onside kick recovery by Adams, the Packers offense got a couple of first downs to seal the win (including converting a third fourth down). On the 2 kneel-downs by Tim Boyle, he tried to not lose a yard. There was a bit of a scuffle on the second one, which was not needed at all. Regardless, the Packers won the game over the Bears at Lambeau Field.
This win not only gets the Packers to 8-3 on the season, but it is also the 100th win all-time over the Bears in the history of the rivalry between the 2 teams. Other than a couple of bad plays here and there, I thought that the offense played very well on Sunday night. They had almost no problem moving the ball down the field for touchdowns. The Packers ran for a total of 182 yards on the night, led by Aaron Jones’ 90 yards and Jamaal Williams’ 73 yards (plus a scramble by Aaron Rodgers and an end around by Equanimeous St. Brown). Rodgers threw for 211 yards and 4 touchdowns with a passer rating of 132.3. During the game, 2 milestones were reached. First, Davante Adams reached 500 career receptions on the 12-yard touchdown pass that happened in the first drive. Second, Rodgers reached 50,000 career passing yards on the play-action TD pass to Robert Tonyan. In addition to the touchdown catch, Tonyan stiff-armed Danny Trevathan to the ground (which was great to see). Another funny moment was St. Brown signaling first down from the Bears bench after a catch and run. There were a couple of missed opportunities by Davante Adams, including a couple of dropped passes. The most egregious drop was during a free play, in which he was wide open for a catch. They did get a touchdown during the drive, but that was easily a missed opportunity by Adams. I am sure that he will rebound next week against Philadelphia. Even with the injury to Corey Linsley, Rodgers was kept upright all night long by the offensive line. With Linsley out for at least 3 weeks with a sprained MCL, it is up to Elgton Jenkins to play center (with Jon Ronyan, Jr. at the guard spot). Before I move on to talk about the defense, I want to give a shoutout to Jenkins, who played wonderfully against the Bears. He did not allow a single pressure of Rodgers throughout the game, which helped the offense score plenty of points. My advice to him is to just keep it going.
Other than giving up a couple of garbage time touchdowns, I thought that the defense played well on Sunday night. They forced the Bears into three turnovers, including the strip-sack by Za’Darius Smith that turned into a fumble return touchdown by Preston Smith. Safety Darnell Savage picked off Mitchell Trubisky twice, including a leaping catch on a pass that Trubisky should not have thrown (the receiver was covered by 3 defenders, including Savage). In addition to the strip-sack by Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith and Kamal Martin got a sack of Trubisky on Sunday night. I also have to give the defense credit for holding the Bears to a field goal after the long run by David Montgomery in the first quarter (half of his yardage came from that play alone). That type of long run should not happen again during these last few games. I am sure that the defense will address these issues and mishaps before next week’s game. Thankfully, nothing disastrous happened on Special Teams. Mason Crosby went 5 for 6 on extra points, while JK Scott only punted twice (with the first punt being 50 yards long). There were no long returns given up to Patterson, who only had one kick return on Sunday night (which did not go far at all). As long as no crazy things happen, I think that Special Teams will be fine for these last few weeks.
Overall, it was great to see the Packers take down the Bears by a comfortable margin. For now, it is on to next week for Green Bay. That next game will be against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lambeau Field. I expect the Packers to win against the Eagles, but anything can happen in the NFL. I will talk about that game later. In the meantime, I hope that you all have a great day. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page.)
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