Thoughts on Week 14 (2025): Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears

What a dramatic win that was on Sunday. Entering the game against the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field, who were surprisingly 9-3, the Green Bay Packers were looking to gain possession of first place in the NFC North. It ended up being a one possession game, and the Packers made sure to take care of business in front of their home fans in the bitter cold. Let’s get into detail on how this game went down.

The Packers won the coin toss, but they deferred to the second half. As a result, the Bears started this game on offense. On first and 10 from the Chicago 28 yard line, D’Andre Swift ran for 5 yards to set up second and 5. On the second down play, Caleb Williams threw incomplete, setting up a third and 5. Caleb avoided a sack and ran for a first down, but the play was nullified due to an offensive holding penalty. On third and 15, Caleb threw another incompletion, resulting in a three and out. Romeo Doubs returned the punt to the Green Bay 31 yard line, but a penalty on Bo Melton forced the Packers offense to start at their own 11. The Packers’ first drive looked promising at first. They were moving the ball down the field, getting to Chicago territory in the process. However, things went downhill when Jordan Love took a 14 yard sack on second and 5 from the Chicago 38 and threw an interception to C.J. Gardner Johnson on the next play. The pick was returned to the Green Bay 36 yard line. Thankfully, the Packers defense made sure to allow no points after that play. There was a play where Colston Loveland caught a pass but didn’t maintain possession. It was initially ruled a fumble recovered by Chicago, even though Evan Williams clearly had possession. Matt LaFleur challenged the play, and it was changed to an incomplete pass. Two plays later, the Bears went three and out and decided to punt it back to Green Bay rather than try for a long field goal. The punt was fair caught at the Green Bay 11 by Romeo Doubs. The drive started with a 5 yard run by Josh Jacobs. On second and 5 from the 16, Love found Christian Watson for a 19 yard pass completion that set up first and 10 at the 35 yard line. Jordan Love then found Luke Musgrave for a 34 yard pass completion that would have given the Packers a first and 10 at the Chicago 31. However, the Bears, under rookie head coach Ben Johnson, challenged the ruling. It looked more like a catch than the previous reviewed play by Loveland, yet they somehow ruled it an incomplete pass. The drive derailed from there thanks to a facemask penalty on Aaron Banks and an incomplete pass on third and 16 intended for Romeo Doubs. After the punt, the Bears took over at their own 25 yard line. After allowing two runs for a total of 12 yards to Swift, the Packers defense made the Bears punt three plays later. Micah Parsons pressured Caleb Williams to throw the ball away on third and 7 from the Chicago 40. The ensuing punt went into the end zone for a touchback, giving the Packers the ball at their own 20. From there, the Packers offense was able to move the ball down the field for their first touchdown of the game. The drive started with two runs by Josh Jacobs that went for a total of 12 yards, setting up a first and 10 at the 32 yard line. Three plays later, Josh Jacobs converted a third and one with a 7 yard run. Three plays after that, Love found tight end Josh Whyle for a 21 yard pass completion that gave the Packers a first and 10 at the Chicago 23. After two plays that went nowhere, the Packers faced a third and 10. Love was blitzed on the play, but the pressure was picked up and he was able to throw a fadeaway pass to Christian Watson, who was able to catch it and get in the end zone for a touchdown (plus a Lambeau Leap to celebrate). The extra point kick by Brandon McManus was good, giving Green Bay a 7-0 lead with under 9 and a half minutes left in the second quarter. The Bears then proceeded to go on a long drive that lasted more than 8 minutes of game time. There were two times that the Bears got a free first down thanks to two penalties on Keisean Nixon. The second one was ridiculous as Nixon was grabbed by the neck by Luther Burden, who is one of the receivers for the Bears. Rather than Burden being called for the penalty, Nixon was called for retaliating Burden. He had every right to retaliate there because of the neck thing. In the end, the Bears were able to get into field goal territory. Thankfully, the Packers defense made sure to keep them to only a field goal on this drive. The 33 yard field goal by Cairo Santos was good, cutting the lead to 7-3 with a little over a minute left in the half. The ensuing kickoff landed short of the landing zone, giving the Packers the ball at their own 40 yard line. Two plays after the messed up kickoff, Jordan Love found Luke Musgrave for a 12 yard pass completion that gave the Packers a first and 10 at the Chicago 45. Two plays later, Love was able to heave it deep for a wide open Bo Melton (who is supposed to be a corner this year) for a 45 yard touchdown pass. The extra point kick was good, giving the Packers a 14-3 lead right before halftime. The Bears couldn’t get any points during their last drive of the half, which resulted in the score being 14-3 in Green Bay’s favor at the halftime break.

The Packers unfortunately went three and out on their first drive of the third quarter, messing up an opportunity to double up and giving the Bears a chance to cut the lead. After the first punt, which went inside the Bears 20 yard line, got nullified due to a holding penalty, Daniel Whelan’s second punt gave the Bears good field position at their own 36. From there, the Bears were able to put some more points on the board. It was a mix of run and pass plays, including a scramble by Caleb Williams, as the Bears had next to no issue moving the ball down the field. The drive ended with Caleb Williams running to his right and throwing a pass that should have been picked off by Keisean Nixon. Instead, the ball went through Nixon’s hands and into the hands of Olamide Zaccheaus for a touchdown. The Bears then went for two points and got it when Kyle Monangai ran it in from two yards out. As a result, the lead was cut to 3 points with under 8 and a half minutes left in the third quarter. Bo Melton returned the ensuing kickoff to the Green Bay 37 yard line. From there, the Packers started their next drive with the hope of getting another touchdown. Jayden Reed (thank goodness he’s back after a 12 week absence) started the drive with an end around that went for 15 yards and a first down. After two runs by Josh Jacobs, the Packers faced a third and 3 from the Chicago 41 yard line. Christian Watson ran a short slant route, caught a pass from Jordan Love, and took the pass all the way for his second touchdown of the game. The extra point was good, giving the Packers a 21-11 lead with over 6 minutes left in the third quarter. The ensuing kickoff went out of bounds, giving the Bears the ball at their own 40. From there, the Bears were able to once again get into scoring position. Thankfully, the defense was able to force Chicago to settle for a field goal. The kick by Cairo Santos was good from 41 yards out, cutting the lead to 21-14 with over 3 minutes left in the third quarter. The Packers were unable to sustain anything on their next possession as they went three and out, allowing the Bears to have an opportunity to tie the game. During a drive that lasted 8 and a half minutes of game time, the Bears offense was able to meticulously move the ball down the field against a Packers defense that has been mostly gassed in the second half. There were a couple of passes, but the drive was mainly focused on the running back duo of D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai. The long drive ended with a one yard touchdown pass from Caleb Williams to Colston Loveland that, with the extra point, tied the game at 21-21 with 8 minutes left in the game. The ensuing kickoff went into the end zone for a touchback, giving the Packers the ball at their own 35 yard line. Thankfully, the Packers were able to score on a drive that lasted 4 and a half minutes. Josh Jacobs started the drive with an 11 yard run. On the next play, Jordan Love found Jayden Reed for an 18 yard pass completion that gave the Packers a first and 10 at the Chicago 36. Three plays later, the Packers faced a third and 2 at the 28 yard line. Initially, it looked like Josh Jacobs was going to be tackled for a loss. However, he was able to get past the defenders and run for a 21 yard gain. After a 4 yard run by Emanuel Wilson, there was a neutral zone infraction penalty on Chicago that set up second and goal at the 2. 2 plays later, Josh Jacobs punched it in from two yards out for the lead. The extra point was good, giving the Packers a 7 point lead with 3 and a half minutes left in the game. The Bears were able to get into scoring range as they were looking to answer back with a touchdown of their own. During the drive, Micah Parsons was held for what seemed like the millionth time on Sunday. During the two minute warning, the crowd booed the non-call and Parsons was visibly frustrated. Thankfully, the drive ended in a turnover when Caleb Williams ran to his left and threw a pass up into the end zone. Keisean Nixon was able to intercept the pass, sealing the 28-21 win in the process. With this win, the Packers are now 9-3-1 on the season and are in first place in the NFC North.

(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page. Click on “Watch on YouTube” if you’re interested.)

On offense, it wasn’t a perfect game for the Packers. For one thing, their first possession ended in a turnover when Jordan Love threw a bad pick. Thankfully, the Packers avoided any more turnovers for the rest of the game. However, there were times where drives ended in a three and out, especially during the second half. When the Packer needed touchdowns, the offense was able to deliver on 4 drives. Christian Watson had a great game as he caught 4 passes for 89 yards and 2 touchdowns. To see him have that game after tearing his ACL in January of 2025 against the Bears was incredible. Bo Melton was the recipient of the touchdown that gave the Packers the 14-3 halftime lead. Jayden Reed didn’t score, but he made some good plays. I’m just glad that he made it back after being out for 12 weeks after foot and shoulder surgery. Jordan Love got past that early pick and had a great game against the Bears defense. When Love was blitzed, he was unfazed as he threw for 171 yards, 3 touchdowns, and no picks for a 156.3 passer rating against the blitz. It was great to see Josh Jacobs run for tough yards against the Bears defense. Even though the play in the final scoring drive was not the best, Jacobs made it work by getting past defenders for a 21 yard run that set up the touchdown run that happened a couple of plays later. Kudos to the offensive line for blocking well for both the run game and the passing game. Everyone needs to be ready for any challenges that are coming up against a tough Denver defense next week, from players to coaches.

On defense, it wasn’t a perfect game on that side of the ball for the Packers. In the first half, the defense was able to hold the Bears to only a field goal. In the second half, they gave up a lot of yards and 18 points while losing the time of possession battle. Part of that was due to the offense not doing its job and going three and out. There were times where the pass rush was so close to getting to Caleb Williams only for him to out-run most of the defenders. Micah Parsons was able to preserve Caleb to throw it away one time, but he was not able to get a sack of him. However, he did help Kingsley Enegbare get a sack of Caleb. It’s unbelievable that Parsons has been held by many offensive linemen so far this season and yet no flags have been thrown on the linemen. There was one play near the end of the game where Parsons was basically getting choked by the lineman and no flag was thrown. The Lambeau Field crowd had every right to boo the replay during the two minute warning. Hopefully the officials throw at least one flag next week. Edgerrin Cooper had 11 tackles, which led the team. Javon Bullard played well even on a bad ankle. Keisean Nixon redeemed himself by catching the interception at the end of the game. Earlier in the game, Nixon was called for two penalties that helped the Bears continue their drive. Nixon had every right to retaliate after Luther Burden grabbed his neck. It’s ridiculous that Nixon was called for that nonsense. LaFleur had a chat with Nixon after that penalty. I’m glad that Nixon got the redemption at the end with the pick. Jeff Hafley was excited at that moment. Speaking of Jeff, I hope he stays as Packers defensive coordinator for a while. It wasn’t perfect, but the Packers got the clutch stop that was needed to seal the win.

On Special Teams, it was another imperfect game for the Packers. There were a few penalties, a kickoff that went out of bounds, and a punt that gave the Bears good field position on one of their drives. At least the Packers didn’t have any kicks blocked or have any turnovers on punt or kickoff returns. On the other side, the Packers didn’t allow any huge kick or punt returns to the Bears unlike that disastrous punt return TD in January of 2025. Thankfully, Jayden Reed was kept off the return game in his first game in 12 weeks. Putting him there would have been a dumb decision if he got hurt again. Brandon McManus made each extra point and Daniel Whelan punted well outside of that one shank. From now on, there’s no room for error as we get closer and closer to the postseason. Hopefully Rich Bisaccia’s unit is ready for anything in Denver.

Overall, it was great seeing the Packers get a clutch home win over the Bears in the bitter cold. As of now, the Packers are a perfect 4-0 in NFC North games with two more division games to go. They do have to play the Bears again in Chicago in less than two weeks on Saturday the 20th. Before that happens though, the Packers need to focus on playing the Denver Broncos at Mile High Stadium. The Broncos are another team that has surprised many people with their record, which is now 11-2. It will be tough, but I am sure that the Packers will be ready for anything. I’ll be back for the recap of that game next week, regardless of the outcome. In the meantime, I am celebrating another Packers win over the Bears. Have a great week, everyone. Go Pack Go!