Good evening, everyone. On Sunday night, the Green Bay Packers were looking for their 10th win of the season. This game was their 204th meeting with the Chicago Bears. It was crazy in the first half, but the Packers were able to get the win by a score of 45-30. Want to know what exactly happened at Lambeau Field? Let’s find out now.
The Packers defense started out good by forcing the Bears to punt on their first drive. Yes, they allowed an easy catch to Darnell Mooney, but the defense stood their ground after that play. QB Justin Fields threw incomplete to tight end Cole Kmet on third and 7 from the Green Bay 40. The Packers offense started their first drive at the 20 due to a touchback on the punt. The drive ended in a three and out, with Aaron Rodgers getting sacked on second and 4 from the 26. After the sack, Robert Quinn (once again) mocked the belt, this time in Rodgers’ face. How that was not a taunting penalty is ridiculous. Corey Bojorquez punted the ball 57 yards to the Chicago 22, but Jakeem Grant returned it 34 yards to the Green Bay 44 yard line, giving the Bears great field position to start their drive. Despite the disadvantage, the Packers defense was able to force Chicago to settle for a 23-yard field goal by Cairo Santos. The field goal was good, giving the Bears a 3-0 lead with 4:21 left in the first quarter. On the ensuing kickoff, Malik Taylor made an awful decision by trying to catch the ball when it was going out of bounds. As a result, the Packers started their drive at the 5 yard line. The only highlight of this drive was on third and 18 from the Green Bay 12. On this play, Rodgers connected with WR Allen Lazard, who made a fantastic leaping catch for a 32-yard gain and a first down. Unfortunately, the offense didn’t do much else on the drive and were forced to punt back to Chicago. There was a moment where Rodgers had an aborted snap, which was recovered by AJ Dillon. Corey Bojorquez was able to punt the ball to the Chicago 11 yard line. Even with the bad field position, the Bears were able to go down the field for a touchdown in just six plays. During the drive, Rasul Douglas got called for a terrible defensive pass interference penalty that gave the Bears a free first down. Two plays later, Justin Fields connected with Jakeem Grant on a shovel pass that went for 46 yards and a touchdown. The extra point kick by Santos was good, giving Chicago a surprising 10-0 lead with 11:09 left in the second quarter. Thankfully, the ensuing kickoff resulted in a touchback, giving the Packers the ball at the 25 yard line. On this drive, the offense was able to go down the field for a touchdown in 11 plays. A couple of key plays including a 12-yard completion from Rodgers to Davante Adams on third and 2 from the 32 and a 25-yard completion to Josiah Deguara that got the Packers to the Chicago 25 2 plays later. After an 11-yard run by Aaron Jones and a 12-yard catch and run by Marcedes Lewis (beautiful play-action fake by Rodgers on that play), the Packers faced first and goal from the 2 yard line. After 3 failed attempts, the Packers decided to go for it on fourth down. The gamble paid off as Rodgers found Allen Lazard for a 2-yard touchdown pass (followed by a Lambeau Leap). The extra point kick by Mason Crosby was good, cutting the lead to 10-7 with 6:02 left in the first half. The Bears started their next drive at their own 41 after a long kickoff return by Khalil Herbert. The Bears didn’t do anything with the great field position due to Justin Fields throwing an interception to Rasul Douglas, who read the route perfectly and took the pick all the way for a touchdown. The extra point kick was good, giving the Packers a 14-10 lead with 4:59 left. That lead did not last long. First off, the kickoff went out of bounds, giving the Bears the ball at the 40. Second, Justin Fields found WR Damiere Byrd for a 54-yard catch and run that went for a touchdown. A Santos extra point gave the Bears a 17-14 lead with 3:21 left in the half. The Packers had a good play with a 20-yard pass completion from Rodgers to Marcedes Lewis, but that was it for positive things. Davante Adams was oddly called for offensive pass interference on third and 4 from midfield. The ensuing punt was a nightmare for Green Bay. Bojorquez was able to punt the ball to the 3 yard line, but Jakeem Grant took it all the way for an inexcusable 97-yard touchdown. Just like that, the Bears lead was back up to 10 with less than 2 minutes left in the half. Green Bay’s offense had no problem going down the field for a touchdown before halftime. The drive was only 4 plays long, with the final play being a wonderful 38-yard touchdown throw from Rodgers to Adams. The lead was cut to 24-21 after that touchdown pass, but Chicago was able to get a field goal before halftime (thanks to another long return by Herbert). The score at the end of the first half was 27-21 in Chicago’s favor. Little did the Bears (especially coach Matt Nagy) know that this would be the final time in the game that they had a lead.
The Packers offense took the field first in the second half. What followed was a masterful 9-play, 75-yard drive that took 6 and a half minutes off the game clock. AJ Dillon was running for important yards while Aaron Rodgers connected on a couple of passes to Davante Adams and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. The drive ended with a three-yard touchdown run by RB Aaron Jones. The extra point kick by Mason Crosby was good, giving Green Bay a one-point lead with 9:24 left in the third quarter. The Packers quickly added 7 more points to the board after a strip sack of Justin Fields by Preston Smith (the fumble was recovered by Rashan Gary) and a 23-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Aaron Jones. On the touchdown, Jones was able to reach for the pylon as he was going out of bounds. Just like that, the score was 35-27 Green Bay with 8:24 left in the third quarter. The Packers defense forced the Bears to punt after a three and out. Amari Rodgers returned the punt to the Chicago 48 yard line, giving the Packers great field position. The Packers offense was so close to adding another touchdown on the board on their next drive. They got all the way to the 2 yard line before the drive stalled. It looked like they were going for it on fourth down, but they sent the field goal unit after a pointless timeout. I’ll just say this: if you’re going to go for it, then just do it. The 20-yard field goal by Mason Crosby was good, giving Green Bay a 38-27 lead with 2:52 left in the quarter. After that score though, there were three punts in a row. The Packers almost had a disaster when Amari Rodgers muffed a punt and it was returned for a touchdown. I said almost because the touchdown was nullified by a player out of bounds penalty on Chicago. The redone punt was returned to the Chicago 29 by Rodgers. From there, the Packers went on a 13-play drive that consumed nearly 9 minutes. During this drive, AJ Dillon was busy getting tough yards against the Bears defense. The drive concluded with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams. On the play, Adams juked CB Jaylon Johnson to get open for the touchdown. The extra point kick was good, increasing the lead to 45-27. The Bears were able to get a field goal and an onside kick recovery (which should have been caught by MVS). Thankfully, the play was blown dead after Khalil Herbert got the ball. The game was over when Justin Fields was picked off by Chandon Sullivan (plus two kneel-downs by Kurt Benkert, who was able to take his first official NFL snaps). With the 45-30 win, the Packers are now 10-3 on the season.
Offensively, the Packers played great as they put up 38 points on the Bears (one touchdown was on defense). Aaron Rodgers made Robert Quinn and the defense pay for the mocked belt celebration by going off for 341 yards and 4 touchdowns on 29 of 37 pass attempts. For Rodgers, it was the 7th time in his career that he threw for 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions against the Bears (the most for a quarterback against any opponent in NFL history). He made a lot of great throws, torching the Bears secondary in the process. Davante Adams led the receivers with 10 catches for 121 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Allen Lazard added 75 yards and a touchdown on 6 catches (including that wonderful leaping grab in the first quarter). Marcedes Lewis added 51 yards on 4 catches. I wished that Lewis would have scored on that play-action pass in the second quarter. Josiah Deguara caught 3 passes for 44 yards, including a 25-yard catch and run that set up the first touchdown for Green Bay. AJ Dillon ran for 71 tough yards on 15 carries, while Aaron Jones added 35 yards and a touchdown on 5 carries. Jones also caught a 23-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers in the third quarter. Before I move on to the defense, I once again have to give credit to the offensive line for their effort on Sunday night. Despite losing Billy Turner due to a knee injury (which thankfully is not season ending), Dennis Kelly was able to help the O-line play well against the Bears defense. Shoutout to both Matt LaFleur and Adam Stenavich for their coaching on Sunday night.
Despite giving up 30 points against the Bears, I thought that the defense played well on Sunday. Some of those points were set up by a few blunders on Special Teams (more on that later). The defense was able to pressure Justin Fields plenty of times, with Preston Smith getting two sacks in the second half (including the strip sack that set up a touchdown in the third quarter). Fields was also picked off twice, including a pick six by Rasul Douglas, who read that pass perfectly. Yes, the defense allowed Fields to run for 74 yards and throw for a couple of long touchdowns, but they got the stops when they were needed the most. Eric Stokes wasn’t mentioned too much, probably because he was doing great with his pass coverage. Everyone deserves credit, especially De’Vondre Campbell getting 16 tackles and Krys Barnes making crucial stops. Joe Barry and his assistant coaches deserve credit as well for the defense’s play this season (obviously ignoring Week 1). If you take those long touchdowns away, then it would have been more dominant (similar to the Rams game).
I am just going to say this bluntly: Special Teams was awful on Sunday night. There were a myriad of mistakes, including giving up a few long kickoff and punt returns. That 97-yard punt return touchdown was inexcusable. Malik Taylor made a terrible mistake by trying to catch a kickoff that was going to be out of bounds anyway. That mistake made the offense start at their own 5 on one drive. Mason Crosby made every field goal and extra point kick, but he had one of his kickoffs go out of bounds, giving the Bears the ball at the 40. Corey Bojorquez had a few good punts, but one of them only traveled 22 yards. Marquez Valdes-Scantling was lucky that the onside kick play was blown dead after Khalil Herbert got the ball. Amari Rodgers was also lucky that the muffed punt was nullified by a penalty. All of those mistakes can’t happen from this point forward. If any one of them happen in a close playoff game, it could be the difference between going to the Super Bowl and losing before the Big Game. The whole unit needs to get this stuff figured out quick.
Overall, the Packers survived a crazy start to the game to win by 15 points. This game was proof that anything can happen against a division rival, even if that team is struggling. With the loss by Arizona to the Rams on Monday night, the Packers are now the number 1 seed in the NFC. All the Packers need to do to get home field advantage in the playoffs is to win out. The next game for the Packers will be a road matchup against the Baltimore Ravens. I will talk about this game later. Have a good night, everyone. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page.
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