Hello, everyone. On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers took on the Chicago Bears at a very chilly Lambeau Field. This game was the 200th meeting in the historic rivalry. It went down to the final moments, even though the Packers had plenty of chances to put it away. I am here to give you my thoughts on what exactly happened in this game. Let’s get right into it.
The defense got off to a good start by forcing the Bears to punt on their first offensive possession after only 6 plays. Tyler Ervin returned the punt 12 yards to the Chicago 30 yard line. The first play for the Packers on offense should have been a touchdown. Aaron Rodgers threw a perfect deep ball to Marquez Valdes-Scantling, but MVS could not get his hands on the ball. Later in the drive, Geronimo Allison dropped a third down pass that forced Green Bay to punt it back to the Bears. The Packers defense forced a three-and-out on the Bears’ second drive. During the three-and-out, Kenny Clark sacked Mitchell Trubisky on second and 9 for a loss of 7 yards. Tramon Williams was fielding the punt this time after Tyler Ervin went to the sidelines for a bit. Williams got clobbered by Cordarrelle Patterson and he lost the ball. Luckily, Patterson was called for catch interference, which I have to admit was a questionable call. The Packers took advantage of the short field (they started at the Chicago 35) and scored the first touchdown of the game. On fourth and 4 from the 29, Aaron Rodgers found Davante Adams for a touchdown pass that gave Green Bay a 7-0 lead. The defense forced another three-and-out despite a good return by Patterson. There was no return on this punt, as it went out of bounds at the Green Bay 25. The offense moved the ball well until the drive stalled at the Chicago 43. 2 straight incomplete passes after a 6 yard run by Aaron Jones forced the Packers to punt again. The Bears offense went down the field on a 13-play drive that took more than 7 minutes off the game clock. Luckily, the defense forced them to a turnover on downs after a pass breakup by Chandon Sullivan on fourth and 7 from the Green Bay 41. Unfortunately, the Packers offense had a turnover on downs of their own after a 6-play drive. Aaron Rodgers threw incomplete to Davante Adams on fourth and 8 from the Chicago 36. The Bears then went down the field for their first score of the day. The defense forced them to settle for a field goal after a pass breakup by Darnell Savage, who should have intercepted that pass on third down. After the 30 yard field goal, the lead was down to 7-3 with 1:45 left in the first half. Tyler Ervin took the ensuing kickoff return all the way to the Green Bay 46, giving the offense prime position to get a score. However, they did not get any points on that drive. After converting a third and 3 with an Aaron Rodgers pass to Allen Lazard, it looked like the offense had no energy whatsoever. The second down play was something that should be taken off the playbook, or at least assigned to someone faster than Jimmy Graham. Graham was stopped for no gain after catching the pass. On third down, Rodgers was called for intentional grounding, which kicked Green Bay out of field goal range. On fourth down, I thought that Rodgers was going to try a Hail Mary with only 9 seconds left. He didn’t do that this time. Instead, he threw a pass that was incomplete to Geronimo Allison. Mitchell Trubisky attempted his own Hail Mary pass before halftime. It was intercepted by Jaire Alexander, who lateraled it to Adrian Amos for a gain of 9 yards. Amos then lateraled to Kevin King for a loss of 11 yards. King then lateraled it to Darnell Savage, who returned it to the 18 before going down. I did get that the defense tried to make something happen, but those laterals ended up being very pointless. The score at halftime was the Packers leading 7-3 over the Bears.
The lead was increased to 14-3 after a 5-play, 73-yard drive that ended with a 21-yard touchdown run by Aaron Jones. The touchdown was set up by a 34-yard pass completion from Rodgers to Adams and a 17-yard scramble by Rodgers. The defense forced the Bears into another turnover on downs after a 6-play drive. On fourth and 6 from the Green Bay 34, Mitchell Trubisky threw incomplete to Allen Robinson. The offense took advantage of the turnover on downs by increasing their lead to 21-3. The 2-yard touchdown run by Aaron Jones was set up by a great 49-yard catch and run by Jake Kumerow, who was getting away from defenders all the way to the Chicago 11. After 2 more drives that ended in punts (one by each team), the Bears went down the field for a score. Rather than going for it on fourth down from the Green Bay 9, the Bears settled for a field goal that cut the lead to 21-6. Unfortunately, the Packers offense went three-and-out on their next drive. On third and 5, the offense went in an empty backfield formation. Before this play, Khalil Mack was shut down by the offensive line. For some reason, Mack got to Rodgers unblocked and forced him to throw incomplete on third down. After the punt, the Bears cut the lead to single digits after a 13-play, 67-yard drive ended with a touchdown. The defense had an opportunity to get off the field after a third and 15 play, but Tramon Williams was called for defensive holding, keeping the drive alive. The drive ended with a 2-yard touchdown pass from Trubisky to Anthony Miller. The extra point by Eddy Pineiro cut the lead to 21-13 with 8:09 left in the game. The Packers offense again went three-and-out on their next possession. For some reason, Aaron Rodgers went head first instead of sliding during a scramble on third down. The play was initially ruled as a fumble recovery by the defense, but after further review, Rodgers was down by contact before the ball was loose. The punt by JK Scott gave the Bears the ball at their own 40. Thankfully, Dean Lowry intercepted Trubisky a couple plays later, giving Green Bay the ball at the Chicago 33. That interception was possible thanks to the QB pressure by Za’Darius Smith, who should be in consideration for Defensive Player of the Year. The offense did nothing with it, as they went three-and-out after Rodgers was sacked on third down. The punt by JK Scott pinned the Bears at their own 5 yard line. They got to the Green Bay 49 before turning it over on downs again. On fourth and 10 from the 49, Trubisky threw incomplete to Allen Robinson, giving the Packers possession at that same spot. For some reason, the refs looked at the play for 5 minutes, trying to see if there was any pass interference on the defense. After those few minutes were over, they let the play stand as called, wasting everyone’s time in the process. The next drive by Green Bay was pretty much a way to get Chicago to use their last 2 timeouts. The Bears had one more chance to tie the game with 36 seconds left. From their own 22, they drove all the way to the Green Bay 34 before 2 desperation plays occurred that Chicago almost scored on. The first play was a Hail Mary pass by Trubisky to the end zone that was almost picked off by Jaire Alexander. It almost got caught by one of the receivers, although it would have been an impossible catch. The second play was a crazy turn of events. Trubisky threw complete to Tarik Cohen for 13 yards. Cohen then fumbled the ball and Trubisky recovered it. He then lateraled it after 5 yards to Jesper Horsted, who should have lateraled it to Allen Robinson for the score. Luckily, he didn’t do that and he lost the ball. The fumble was recovered by Tramon Williams at the Green Bay 2, sealing the 21-13 victory for the Packers.
With the win, the Packers improve to 11-3 on the season (including 4-0 in division games). In addition to that, they are now in the playoffs after the Rams lost to the Cowboys. The Bears are officially eliminated from playoff contention, which was sweet considering that it was the other way around last season. These division games are always tough, regardless of the record. Sunday’s contest was another example of that, as the Packers won in ugly fashion again. When Green Bay took the 21-3 lead, I thought that the game was over after they got another score. Unfortunately, they kept the Bears in it due to three-and-outs and questionable decisions. Aaron Rodgers once again did not have his best game, despite throwing for 203 yards and a touchdown. He made some decisions that were baffling, including almost losing a fumble after going head first on a scramble. To be fair, there were a few missed opportunities for a score. The very obvious one was the first deep pass of the game, which was a perfect throw by Rodgers. MVS could not get his hands on that pass. There were also a few drops, including a third down drop by Geronimo Allison on the same drive as the miss to MVS. I get that Rodgers wants to get Jimmy Graham involved, but that is sometimes a bad thing for the offense. That second down play before halftime should not be done again. Jake Kumerow, in my mind, had the play of the day on his catch and run. He seems to make plays when he is called upon, and I hope that he gets more snaps later on, even during the playoffs. The Packers rushed for a total of 100 yards (51 by Aaron Jones, 26 by Jamaal Williams, and 23 by Rodgers). Going into these last 2 games of the regular season (plus playoffs), the offense needs to perform a lot better, especially when they have a lead. One way to do this is to have better tempo instead of running the play clock down every time. I think that they will fix their mistakes before next week’s game.
The defense had a good game, for the most part. The biggest flaw though was allowing too many open passes down the middle of the field, especially to Anthony Miller (who finished with 9 catches for 118 yards and a touchdown). Defensive coordinator Mike Pettine needs to do more man coverage instead of the soft zone looks. During the last drive, the zone allowed the Bears to go down the field and get to scoring range. Those last 2 plays were nerve-wracking, to say the least. In my opinion, they should not have been in that position in the first place. The important thing is that the Packers got the stops when they needed them. The defense did get 2 picks and a fumble recovery, but there were so many times where they should have gotten more turnovers. Darnell Savage dropped a couple of potential interceptions, including the drop that set up the first field goal. Jaire Alexander pretty much shut down every short screen pass that went his way. Kenny Clark had 2 sacks, while Rashan Gary had a sack of his own. For Gary, it was his first sack since Week 3 against the Broncos. Special Teams had a good game as well for Green Bay. Other than the penalty that saved the fumble by Tramon Williams, there were no other crazy things that happened. Mason Crosby made all 3 extra points, and JK Scott had 2 punts that went inside the 20 (including the one that pinned the Bears offense at the 5). Tyler Ervin had a total of 83 return yards on the day on 3 returns (2 kickoff returns, one punt return). Luckily, the defense bailed them out after the long return by Cordarrelle Patterson.
Overall, it was another ugly win for the Packers. Once again, it doesn’t matter how ugly or pretty a win looks. A win is all that matters in the NFL, and nothing should be taken for granted. Next week for the Packers is 2 straight road games to end the regular season. The first one is on Monday December 23 against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium. In the meantime, it’s another Victory Monday for the Packers. Have a great day, everyone. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page)
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