Good afternoon, everyone. On Sunday night, the Green Bay Packers took on the Chicago Bears for the 205th time in the history of the rivalry, which has lasted for over a century. This most recent matchup took place at Lambeau Field. The Packers were looking to rebound from an embarrassing loss in Week 1 at Minnesota. They did that on Sunday night, winning by 17 points. I’m here to give you my thoughts on what exactly happened. Let’s get started.
The Packers began this game on offense after the Bears deferred to the second half. They started with a couple of first downs. One was a result of an illegal chop block penalty against the Bears. Another one was thanks to a pass connection from Aaron Rodgers to Sammy Watkins. A third and 7 was converted with a pass connection from Rodgers to Allen Lazard. After two runs by AJ Dillon that went nowhere, Rodgers connected with Aaron Jones (who made a great catch) to convert a third and 10. After that though, the drive stalled. First, there was a false start. Romeo Doubs didn’t see the ball on first and 15, Allen Lazard had a potential touchdown catch broken up on second down, and Rodgers was sacked on third down. Once again, Rodgers held the ball for too long looking for a touchdown. Mason Crosby made the field goal from 40 yards out, giving Green Bay a 3-0 lead with 8:33 left in the first quarter. The Bears responded with a touchdown on their first drive. Three plays in, there was a botched snap that was luckily recovered by Justin Fields. On the next play, the Bears converted a flea flicker pass to former Packer Equanimeous St. Brown for a 30-yard gain. For those who don’t know, a flea flicker is when the quarterback hands off to the running back. The running back then tosses it back to the QB, who then throws a normal pass to a receiver. 3 plays later, Justin Fields took it in from 3 yards out to give Chicago the lead. Little did they know that this would be the only lead the Bears would have on Sunday night. The Packers responded with a great drive that ended with a touchdown. The drive was a mix of Jones and Dillon getting touches with a couple of passes (and an end-around by Christian Watson) thrown in. The 15-yard touchdown run by Aaron Jones (and Lambeau Leap) was set up by a 24-yard connection from Rodgers to Watkins that got Green Bay into the red zone. The extra point was good, giving the Packers a 10-7 lead just into the second quarter. The Packers defense then forced a three and out thanks to a sack of Fields by Preston Smith and two great open field tackles by Rasul Douglas. The punt was fair caught by Amari Rodgers at the Green Bay 39 yard line. From there the Packers did absolutely nothing, going three and out. It didn’t help that on two of the plays, including the third down sack, Rodgers had a defender right in his face. After Rodgers was sacked by Robert Quinn, the Packers punter back to the Bears. Thankfully, the defense forced their second straight three and out. On third down, Justin Fields started to scramble and then threw a pass two yards past the line of scrimmage, which is not allowed. After that penalty, the Bears punted back to Green Bay. Amari Rodgers returned the punt 20 yards to the Green Bay 46. From there, the Packers offense marched down the field for another touchdown. However, they had to overcome a second and 28 after a holding penalty on Royce Newman and another sack of Rodgers. Rodgers found Romeo Doubs, who caught the short pass and gained 20 yards. On third and 8, Randall Cobb caught a 9-yard pass to convert it. Two plays later, Aaron Jones caught a touch pass that he took 8 yards for his second touchdown. The extra point was good once again, increasing the lead to 17-7 with 4:36 left in the half. After the defense forced another three and out, the Packers took over with 3:10 left in the half. There was a nervous moment when Amari Rodgers muffed the punt, but he recovered the ball. A holding penalty pushed the offense back to the 33. Aaron Jones had no problem getting the Packers into scoring range with a 14-yard run and then a 15-yard catch and run. Aaron Rodgers then connected to Randall Cobb on a second and 7 that got them into the red zone. 2 plays later, Allen Lazard caught a 5-yard touchdown pass and then brought his teammates along for an awesome tea party celebration in the end zone. The extra point was good, giving the Packers a 24-7 halftime lead.
The Packers defense started the second half with yet another three and out. On second and 3, Rashan Gary sacked Justin Fields for a loss of 7 yards. On third and 10, the Bears were stopped short of the first down marker. Amari Rodgers caught the punt and was immediately tackled at the Green Bay 14. From there, the Packers offense started moving the ball down the field for another potential touchdown. Aaron Jones ran for a combined 48 yards to get Green Bay into Chicago territory. AJ Dillon then ran 11 yards for another first down that got the Packers to the 28 yard line. After that, disaster struck when there was a messup on the handoff exchange between Aaron Rodgers and AJ Dillon. The fumble was recovered by the Bears at the 31, ending a potential touchdown drive. Thankfully, the defense forced the Bears to settle for only a field goal after that turnover. The Packers then went on another promising drive that ended weirdly. On second and 9 from the Green Bay 46, Christian Watson was running in motion when the ball was snapped by Josh Myers. The ball bounced off of Watson’s hip and was loose. Myers recovered the ball at the 33, forcing Green Bay to deal with a third and 22. The screen pass to Doubs was short of the first down marker, forcing the Packers to punt back to the Bears. From their own 10 yard line, Chicago went on a long drive that nearly ended in a touchdown. The most frustrating part of this drive was the fact that the Packers got a sack of Justin Fields and then gave up 55 combined rushing yards after that. David Montgomery ran for 28 yards on second and 20. Then Khalil Herbert ran for 27 yards to get the Bears into scoring range. A few plays later, the Bears faced a third and goal from the 6 yard line of Green Bay. Initially, it looked like Justin Fields reached the pylon for the touchdown. After review, the officials found that Fields’ left knee was down just before the ball hit the pylon. The Bears then went for it on fourth down at the one. Fields was ruled short of the goal line. The officials reviewed it and then upheld the ruling. On the replay, it did look like he crossed the plane, but there wasn’t clear evidence of the ball crossing it. Therefore, the Packers took over on downs at the one. The first goal was to get out of a potential safety situation, which they did. Then, a big play happened with a 55-yard pass connection from Rodgers to Sammy Watkins that got the Packers into scoring range. Aaron Jones followed that with an 18-yard run to the Chicago 15. After that, the drive stalled and the Packers were forced to settle for a field goal. On fourth and 5, I thought the Packers were going to go for the touchdown. All that happened was a failed attempt at getting the defense offsides. The field goal was good from 28 yards out, increasing the lead to 27-10 with a little over 2 minutes left in the game. The Bears then tried to respond on their next drive, but the game was over after Jaire Alexander intercepted Justin Fields on 2nd and 10. AJ Dillon got the first down that allowed Rodgers to kneel down. The Packers made their home fans happy with the 27-10 win over the Bears. With this win, the Packers are now 1-1 on the season.
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the official YouTube page of the NFL.Just click on the "Watch on YouTube" link.)
Offensively, the Packers played much better than in Week one. There were a few reasons why they played better. First, they focused on the run game more, with Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon combining for 33 rushing attempts. Jones was the player of the game for Green Bay, with 170 total yards (132 rushing, 38 receiving) and both a rushing and receiving touchdown. AJ Dillon ran for 61 tough yards on 18 rushing attempts. Even though he didn’t score, he helped block for Aaron Jones’ second touchdown. The second reason was the return of Elgton Jenkins to the offensive line. His presence helped the line perform better in terms of protecting Aaron Rodgers, even though he was sacked a couple of times. Next, the Packers played with more energy than last week. Given that they were playing at home, they wanted to keep the crowd into it. 3 touchdowns by the offense will do that. A key play was the 2nd and 28 play where a few blockers were able to help Romeo Doubs get the 20 yards on that catch and run. That play helped the Packers convert the third and 8 and, eventually, score the touchdown that gave the Packers a double digit lead. Aaron Rodgers is still able to make great throws, especially with the third down conversions. It was great to see Randall Cobb get a couple of clutch catches, Sammy Watkins get nearly 100 receiving yards, and Allen Lazard score a touchdown on Sunday night. I do have to say that Christian Watson needs to get more deep shot chances rather than just be an end around guy. There were a couple of dud drives and a fumble, but I still thought that the offense played great on Sunday night at home. Hopefully it gets better as the weeks go on.
Defensively, the Packers played great, allowing only 10 points to the Bears. The defense was able to sack Justin Fields 3 times, with Preston Smith getting 2 and Rashan Gary getting one. Other than the sacks, the defensive front was able to hurry him up a few times, with Kenny Clark nearly getting to him after doing a Reggie White like bump move on the O-Lineman. The defense did struggle with the running attack. There were moments where the defense was unable to get to the ball carrier. They have got to get better at tackling the ball carrier in future weeks. I loved it when the defense forced a few three and outs in a row. The energy was awesome during those moments, especially with Rasul Douglas getting those two open field tackles. I was nervous watching that goal line stand, especially when it looked initially that the Bears scored. I give kudos to the unit for stuffing Justin Fields on that fourth and goal play. Jaire Alexander sealed the night with an interception of Justin Fields after no picks for the whole defense last week. Hopefully the defense does much better in terms of keeping the run game in check after Sunday night.
On Special Teams, the Packers once again avoided terrible mistakes. Granted, Amari Rodgers nearly made one my muffing a punt. Thankfully, he recovered the ball and the Packers fans made a sigh of relief. Rodgers also had a 20-yard punt return, which helped set up a touchdown drive for the offense. That was the only return that went for good yardage. One punt resulted in a fair catch, and another was no yards at all. On the other side, the Packers coverage unit did well with keeping kick and punt returns to a minimum. Pat O’Donnell punted well again (which helped with the return thing) and Mason Crosby made every kick. No kicks or punts were in danger of getting blocked this time around. I still wish that Crosby can get a break from doing the kickoffs in the future to save his leg for the field goals. Slowly, but surely, the Special Teams unit is improving. I really have hope that they’ll make a big play later this year.
Overall, it was a great win for the Packers over the Bears on Sunday night. It’s always satisfying to beat the Bears, especially at Lambeau Field. Next week, the Packers will take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. For now, though, it’s a victory Monday for the Packers. Have a great day, everyone. Go Pack Go!
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