Good morning, everyone. On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers took on the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. The Packers had the opportunity to take the all time wins mark in this game. Both teams were tied at 786 wins all time entering the contest. It took a comeback to do so, but the Packers got it done. Here’s how the game went down.
The Packers defense was on the field first, and they did not get to a good start. 4 plays into Chicago’s first drive, the Bears were in Packers territory thanks to a 24-yard pass completion from Justin Fields to former Packer Equanimeous St. Brown that got to the 39 yard line of Green Bay. Luckily, the defense kept the Bears to only a field goal on the drive, giving the Packers a chance to answer with a touchdown on their first offensive drive. The problem was that the Packers offense didn’t do much on that drive. The drive stalled after Aaron Jones was tackled for a 7-yard loss on second and 5 from the Green Bay 34 yard line. The offense ran a “give up” short pass to Jones to get 5 yards on third and 12, leading to Pat O’Donnell punting the ball back to Chicago. From their own 30 yard line, the Bears needed only 5 plays to get a touchdown. On second and 10 from the Chicago 44, Justin Fields took a designed run 56 yards untouched for the touchdown that (with the extra point) gave the Bears a 10-0 lead with 3 minutes left in the first quarter. After the kick return by Keisean Nixon, the Packers started their second drive at their 30 yard line. This time, they were able to move the ball down the field. The biggest play was a 20-yard pass completion from Aaron Rodgers to Allen Lazard that got the Packers to midfield. Little by little, the Packers went all the way to the Chicago 6 yard line. The bummer was that the Packers didn’t score a touchdown on this drive. They were forced to settle for a field goal that only cut the lead to 7 points with 10:22 left in the second quarter. Thankfully, the Packers defense forced a turnover when Rasul Douglas punched the ball out of Chase Claypool’s hands and Rudy Ford recovered the ball at the Green Bay 40. After that, the Packers did nothing with the opportunity as they turned over on downs due to an incomplete pass on fourth and 7 from the Chicago 36. The Bears then took over and went down the field for their second touchdown of the game. They only needed two plays: a 56-yard pass completion to St. Brown and a 7-yard TD run by David Montgomery. The extra point kick was no good, keeping the score at 16-3 with 6:09 left in the first half. The Packers then responded with their own touchdown drive that, thank goodness, used up almost all of the rest of the clock. In this drive, Aaron Rodgers connected with Allen Lazard on two crucial third down passes that kept it alive. Late in the drive, Green Bay faced a fourth and 4 from the Chicago 14. Rather than settle for a field goal, they decided to go for it. Aaron Rodgers connected with Christian Watson for a touchdown pass that (with the extra point) decreased the lead to 16-10 at the halftime mark.
The second half didn’t start good for either team, as they combined for 3 three and outs (2 for Green Bay, 1 for Chicago). With 9:51 left in the third quarter, the Bears went on their final scoring drive of the game. From their own 38 yard line, they were able to get to the Green Bay 10 in 12 plays. Thankfully, the defense kept the Bears from scoring a touchdown. The 28-yard field goal by Cairo Santos was good, increasing the lead to 19-10 with 1:50 left in the third quarter. The ensuing kickoff was returned only to the 18 yard line by Keisean Nixon. Even with the iffy field position, the Packers were able to score a touchdown on the drive. After Aaron Rodgers connected with Christian Watson to convert a third and 7, he went for a deep pass to Watson that went incomplete. The good news was that there was a pass interference penalty that gave the Packers a first down at the Chicago 21. On the next play, AJ Dillon ran left and made it all the way for a 21-yard touchdown. The extra point by Mason Crosby was good, cutting the lead to 19-17 with 14:41 left in the game. Things were not going great on the next defensive possession when Justin Fields connected with N’Keal Harry on a 49-yard pass completion that got the Bears into field goal range. But then, the defense was able to stop them and force them to settle for a field goal. The kick was then blocked by Dean Lowry, leaving the score at 19-17 and giving the Packers a chance to take the lead with 11:40 remaining. From their own 30, the Packers were able to do just that after a 13-play, 56-yard drive. A key play was a third down run by AJ Dillon that went for 6 yards to get the first down. The drive stalled after an incomplete pass to Robert Tonyan on third and 5 from the Bears 14. The field goal was good from 32 yards out, giving the Packers a 20-19 lead with 4:49 left in the game. The Bears were driving down the field to answer back, but disaster struck for them. On first and 10 from the Green Bay 43, Justin Fields threw an interception to Jaire Alexander, who read the ball perfectly and grabbed the pick and pretty much sealed the game. The Packers offense then capitalized on the pick by scoring another touchdown with a 46-yard end around by Christian Watson. On the play, the Bears defense had no clue that Watson had the ball until he got to the end zone and did some sort of dive. After the touchdown, the Packers then went for two points. On the two point attempt, Aaron Rodgers connected with Marcedes Lewis to increase the Packers’ lead to 28-19 with 1:51 left. The win was sealed when Justin Fields threw his second pick, this time to Keisean Nixon. With the win, the Packers are now 5-8 on the season and sole possessors of the all-time wins with 787.
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page. Click on "Watch on YouTube.)
On offense, the Packers were a mixed bag, with mostly good stuff towards the end. There were a few drives that stalled out due to some throws by Aaron Rodgers that were totally unnecessary. For example, the Packers faced a third and one on their first possession of the third quarter. A logical choice for this situation would be to punch it in with AJ Dillon. Instead, Rodgers went deep and the ball fell incomplete. Rodgers didn’t have his best game, but he was protected well by the offensive line (which was without David Bakhtiari due to an appendectomy that he had). In fact, he didn’t get sacked even once on Sunday. Rodgers did make clutch throws to Allen Lazard and Christian Watson that converted third downs and, in Watson’s case, scored a touchdown just before halftime. I really think that Christian Watson could win the offensive rookie of the year thanks to his barrage of 8 total touchdowns in the last 4 games (7 receiving, one rushing). AJ Dillon had a great game on Sunday, rushing for 93 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries. He has been doing better in these past couple of weeks than earlier in the year. Part of it is because of the game plan having less runs out of shotgun. Aaron Jones only had 50 combined yards due to him hurting his shin during the game. Thankfully, he has the bye week to get healthier before the next game. It will be interesting to see how the offense does after a week off.
On defense, the Packers were most bad at some points. They gave up over 150 rushing yards, with the worst play given up being the 56-yard TD scramble by Justin Fields. Fields also threw a couple of big passes to Equanimeous St. Brown, including a 56-yard pass that set up a David Montgomery TD run. Jaire Alexander was a victim of a couple of those deep passes, but he was able to seal the Packers win with an interception in the fourth quarter. Keisean Nixon also intercepted a pass later in the fourth quarter that closed out the game. Before those two picks, there was a forced fumble by Rasul Douglas that Rudy Ford recovered in the first half. I was glad that the Packers defense was able to keep the Bears from scoring a touchdown a couple of times when Chicago got into scoring range. Granted, it was against the Bears, but it was good to see that. Joe Barry’s job is still not safe past this season. At least the win kept him from being left in Chicago.
On Special Teams, the Packers made a couple of big plays. The biggest one was a blocked field goal by Dean Lowry that kept the score close for Green Bay. Keisean Nixon didn’t have the amount of big returns that he had against the Eagles, but he did return one to the 30 yard line, which was a good start for the offense. Mason Crosby did his job in terms of making each field goal and extra point attempt. Pat O’Donnell secured each hold for the field goals and the line made sure that there were no blocked kicks. O’Donnell only punted three times, with the third one being inside the Bears 20 (it was at the 10 yard line). There was a weird penalty for fair catch interference, but there were no penalties or turnovers on kick and punt returns. With how disappointing this season has been so far, I’m glad that the Special Teams unit has Rich Bisaccia as coordinator.
Overall, it’s always satisfying to see the Packers win against the Bears. This game was Aaron Rodgers’ 25th win over them in his career as QB of the Packers (he also “owns” the Bears). Not only did they get that 787th all time win, but they eliminated the Bears from playoff contention. It’s still a longshot for the Packers to make the playoffs themselves, but anything can happen. Hopefully they use the bye week to get healthier and prepare themselves for the last 4 games of the season. Have a great day, everyone. Go Pack Go!
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