Thoughts on Week 5 (2026): Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears
That was a great win on Sunday. Entering this game against the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field, the Green Bay Packers were looking to improve to 3-2 on the season. It hasn’t been pretty football in the slightest for Green Bay so far this season, but this week was an improvement in most aspects. Even though Caleb Williams was unavailable to play due to injury, it felt great to see the Packers get a blowout win against their oldest rival (and in their new rivalry uniforms, to boot). Let’s get right into it with the recap of this game.
(Before I start, I want to respect the Packers for having a moment of silence for former Bears coach Mike Ditka, who passed away recently at the age of 86. RIP Coach Ditka)
The Packers won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half. The Packers defense did allow a 13 yard pass completion to start off, but they were able to force the Bears to punt on their first drive thanks to an 11 yard sack of Tyson Bagent by Devonte Wyatt and a stop on third and 20. The ensuing punt went out of bounds at the Green Bay 9. On the first play of the drive, Jordan Love found Tucker Kraft for a 13 yard pass completion that gave Green Bay first and 10 at the 22. After that, there was a good mix of run and pass as the Packers moved the chains. During the drive, they were able to convert a third and 1 with a direct snap run by Tucker Kraft. On the following play, which occurred on first and 10 at the Chicago 42, Jordan Love found a wide open Christian Watson for the game’s first touchdown. Watson celebrated the occasion with a Lambeau Leap. The extra point kick by Trey Smack was good, giving Green Bay a 7-0 lead with less than 6 minutes left in the first quarter. The Packers quick got the ball back after the defense forced an interception on the Bears’ second drive. Bagent’s pass hit the hands of Javon Bullard and landed into Xavier McKinney’s hands for the pick. The Packers offense was able to take advantage of the opportunity and scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive. MarShawn Lloyd concluded the drive by trucking a defender and getting into the end zone from 7 yards out. The extra point kick was good, increasing the lead to 14-0 just as the second quarter started. After each team went three and out on their ensuing possession, the Bears took over from their own 22 with 11:03 left in the second quarter. For the next 9 minutes and 10 seconds, the Bears took their sweet time moving the ball down the field in the hope of getting their first score of the day. Very late in the drive, there was this crazy play where Bagent was running away from the defenders as he was looking for someone to get open. After that running, he just threw the ball away. However, instead of the play resulting in a fourth down, the Bears got a free first down due to a weird holding penalty on Zaire Franklin. 4 plays later, D’Andre Swift ran it in from one yard out. The extra point kick by Cairo Santos was good, cutting the lead to 14-7 with less than 2 minutes left. Neither team was able to get anything done before halftime, including the final moments where Jordan Love got sacked twice in three plays. At least Love did not turn the ball over as the Packers kept their 14-7 lead heading into the halftime break.
The Packers started their first drive of the second half with a bang as Jordan Love found Christian Watson for a 31 yard pass play. After a run by MarShawn Lloyd went for a loss of two yards, the Packers said “screw it, someone is open deep” on the next three plays. On second and 12 from the Chicago 43, Love’s pass to Christian Watson was overthrown. On third and 12, J Michael Sturdivant caught the pass for a touchdown, which was nullified by a tacky tack offensive pass interference penalty. On third and 22 from the Green Bay 47, Christian Watson caught Love’s pass for his second touchdown of the day. Trey Smack missed the extra point, resulting in the score being 20-7 in Green Bay’s favor. The Bears were able to get into field goal range, but they failed to score due to the kick by Cairo Santos sailing wide left. Two punts later, the Packers took over from their own 38 yard line. Jordan Love found Tucker Kraft for a 46 yard pass completion that got them into scoring range. After that huge play, they went nowhere and had to settle for a field goal. Trey Smack made the kick from 35 yards out, increasing the lead to 23-7 with less than 2 minutes left in the third quarter. The Packers got the ball back quickly after Tyson Bagent was picked off for a second time by Xavier McKinney. Green Bay’s offense took over at their own 45 yard line and immediately went to work. Jordan Love found Matthew Golden on back to back pass plays that got the Packers into goal to go territory. MarShawn Lloyd easily ran it in from 4 yards out. Rather than taking the extra point, the Packers went for two and got it thanks to Love connecting with Golden. From there on out, no more scoring happened as the entire fourth quarter was essentially garbage time. The Bears suffered three more turnovers, including Case Keenum throwing a pick deep in Green Bay territory to Ty’Ron Hopper. Keenum also lost a fumble during a sack. The other fumble was when Rome Odunze tried to extend a play and lost the ball in the process. The Packers were not immune to mishaps in the fourth quarter as they failed to score on a couple of drives due to Trey Smack missing two kicks from less than 50 yards out (possibly due to wind). Very late in the game, Javon Hargrave, who has been a solid contributor to Green Bay so far, tore his Achilles on a very meaningless snap. Despite that iffy fourth quarter, the Packers were able to hold on to the 31-7 win over the Bears. With the win, the Packers improve to 3-2 on the season and 1-1 in NFC North play.
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page. Click on “Watch on YouTube” if you want to.)
On offense, the Packers played great aside from a couple of drives here and there. Jordan Love lit up the Bears defense for 367 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He was able to connect on a lot of deep passes, including both deep shot TD passes to Christian Watson and some other connections to Matthew Golden and Tucker Kraft that helped the Packers score on the Chicago defense. Watson and Golden each had over 100 yards receiving, with Watson tallying 143 yards on 6 catches (including those 2 TDs) and Golden tallying 123 yards on 6 catches. Tucker Kraft contributed well with 5 catches for 64 yards, including the 46 yard deep pass that set up a field goal. The run game wasn’t the most efficient one so far, but MarShawn Lloyd scored on two short runs, including his first one from 7 yards out when he trucked a defender on his way to the end zone. Other than allowing a couple of sacks, the offensive line was solid against the Bears. Laken Tomlinson has played well so far for Green Bay. Kevin Zeitler was active, but did not start at RG thanks to Travis Glover, who wasn’t bad on Sunday. With the O-Line playing well, Love was able to put up those crazy numbers and torch the Bears defense. Hopefully the whole offense improves from week to week.
On defense, the Packers played great on Sunday against the Bears. They forced 5 turnovers and registered 4 sacks on the day. Yes, they did allow that long touchdown drive before halftime, but the defense rebounded from that in the second half by not allowing any more points for the rest of the game. Xavier McKinney recorded 2 picks off of Tyson Bagent, while Ty’Ron Hopper picked off Case Keenum in the fourth quarter. Devonte Wyatt recorded 2 sacks while 2 rookies got one sack each, with Dani Dennis-Sutton and Brandon Cisse getting in on the sacking fun. One of those sacks was a strip sack that led to a turnover, so that was a plus there, even if the Packers didn’t score after that fumble recovery. Javon Hargrave unfortunately tore his Achilles very late in the game on a meaningless snap. It really stunk the vibes of the win, and I hope that he has a full recovery. Even with that injury, I give major kudos to the defense for playing great against the Bears. Hopefully they keep up that great play as they wait for the inevitable return of Micah Parsons.
On Special Teams, the Packers did not play perfect at all. Let’s get the obvious out of the way now. Trey Smack was not good against the Bears. He missed three kicks, including an extra point and 2 field goal attempts between 40 and 50 yards. I understand that he is a rookie and it was windy at Lambeau Field. However, he can’t have another performance like this. He’ll learn from this and hopefully make more kicks in windy conditions. At least he did not have to worry about any of the missed kicks playing a role in a close game this time around. Daniel Whelan punted well, averaging 55.2 yards per punt on 4 attempts. His longest punt of the day was 75 yards, and 2 of them landed inside the opposing 20 yard line. There was a long return allowed, but the Packers defense held firm to bail them out of that situation. The return men did their job of protecting the ball and giving the offense good field position on the punt returns. Matthew Golden was slightly tripped by Cairo Santos after one punt return, which came back to haunt Santos as he missed a field goal attempt in the second half. Despite some slip ups and Trey Smack’s bad day, the Packers special teams unit did their job and did not make any game-altering mistakes. Hopefully things get cleaned up soon.
Overall, it was a great win for the Packers as they dominated the Bears from start to finish. Sure, some mistakes were made and the Bears were not at their healthiest, but it still feels great to see the Packers get a win over their oldest rival. Packers fans celebrated after the game by chanting “Bears Still Suck” as they left Lambeau Field. Heck, the chants were happening before the game was over. There were quite a lot of Bears fans, including some dressed up as Coach Ditka. Thankfully, those fans left disappointed as the Packers took care of business at home. They’ll be looking to do the same next week as they take on the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. It is a bummer that Micah Parsons won’t be ready for that one, but the Packers should be able to get the win and make Jerry Jones angry, which is always great to see. I’ll be back for the recap of that game next week. In the meantime, I’m celebrating another Packers win over the Bears. Go Pack Go!
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