GREEN BAY, Wis. — To say that the Green Bay Packers throttled the Chicago Bears on Sunday would be an understatement.
It appeared that the Packers were in the driver’s seat from start to finish. At one point, they had scored 17 unanswered points. Jordan Love had arguably his best performance of the season, throwing for 367 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Love’s 137.5 passer rating was his highest mark in a regular-season start, eclipsing the number he set in last year’s win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. He completed 25 of his 31 passing attempts with a pair of touchdowns, and his 367 yards were the most ever thrown against the Bears at Lambeau Field.
“His performance was pretty spectacular,” said head coach Matt LaFleur. “There was one sequence where we called three deep shots in a row, and he’s putting the ball in play for our guys to make plays—and they were making plays.
“Collectively, I was pretty proud of the guys today.”
The tandem of Christian Watson and Matthew Golden combined for 266 receiving yards. With the contributions of Tucker Kraft’s 64-yard performance, that number would be bolstered to 330 yards. MarShawn Lloyd, who had just one career touchdown coming into the game, found the end zone twice to go along with his 37 yards from scrimmage.
Jonathan Gannon’s defensive unit stole the show, even with the offense appearing to have turned a corner. Devonte Wyatt had a pair of sacks, including a strip-sack of Case Keenum in the fourth quarter. That was one of five turnovers forced by the Packers’ defense in the game.
“It makes it a lot better for your offense, anytime you can take them out of the end zone,” said Love. “To get the ball back in great field position, that’s a testament to the way they play and their play style—they’re flying around. We did a great job capitalizing when they get those opportunities. It was a terrific performance by them.”
First Quarter
It was a quick possession to start the game for the Bears. Tyson Bagent completed a couple of quick passes behind the line of scrimmage—one to Luther Burden III, and the other to D’Andre Swift—but a third-and-20 after a Devonte Wyatt sack created an impossible set of circumstances to overcome.
On the Packers’ first offensive play from scrimmage, head coach Matt LaFleur called a flea-flicker from their own nine-yard line. It wasn’t a downfield shot, but rather a screen to tight end Tucker Kraft, who picked up 13 yards. It was the start of a drive that was arguably the Packers’ best of the season yet. MarShawn Lloyd had three carries for 16 yards, including a 10-yard scamper for a first down. Love took advantage of Christian Watson in single coverage, heaving up a 42-yard touchdown pass that marked the wideout’s fifth of the season.
Above all else, the Packers weren’t called for a single penalty on their opening drive.
The Bears didn’t have much of a response to a surgical touchdown drive. Bagent flipped a pass out to tight end Cole Kmet, but he couldn’t corral it. On the next play, Bagent went downfield, but his pass was tipped by Javon Bullard and intercepted by Xavier McKinney.
The first quarter ended in the midst of a nine-play, 39-yard drive for the Packers’ offense. Love was 4-of-5 for 27 yards, including a 12-yard first-down reception from Matthew Golden on second-and-7. More importantly, the Packers dominated time of possession. Of the 15 minutes in the first quarter, they held the ball for 11:45.
Second Quarter
The quarter begins with a six-yard run from Lloyd, punctuated by him bulldozing through Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson for the touchdown. It marked the second rushing touchdown of his career, paving the way to his very first Lambeau Leap.
The Bears ran twice with Roschon Johnson on the ensuing drive, but a third-down incompletion from Bagent to Rome Odunze led to a hasty three-and-out. Their defense rose to the occasion, however, and forced the Packers to go three-and-out as well. Love was able to connect with Bo Melton for an eight-yard gain on third down, but Daniel Whelan’s 59-yard punt helped flip the field.
Momentum is finally beginning to shift in the Bears’ favor. Swift gained 10 yards on third-and-4, and Kmet had an eight-yard reception on third-and-5 to help sustain their drive. Despite the two-touchdown deficit, Bears head coach Ben Johnson isn’t going to stray from the bread and butter of his offense—running the football. Swift had another 12-yard run on third-and-1 that moved the Bears into the red zone for the first time today.
The Packers’ offense would’ve stood tall on third-and-8, but Zaire Franklin, who missed a tackle of Swift on a third-down run earlier in the drive, was flagged for holding. It looked as if they were going to stand strong for a second time, but Swift punched in a touchdown on fourth-and-goal to cap off a 16-play scoring drive.
With an opportunity to double up before the end of the half, the Packers used up 13 seconds of the game clock. A third-and-6 pass to Melton was incomplete, but it would’ve been well short of the sticks anyway.
The Packers were able to get the ball back before the end of the half, thanks to the contributions of Lukas Van Ness and Brandon Cisse. Van Ness’ pressure on second down led to the first full sack of Cisse’s career, followed by a third-down pass breakup from Cisse. I don’t even think anything that happened in the final 39 seconds of the half is worth mentioning, but, unfortunately, I have a job to do.
Love was sacked by Austin Booker on first down, and the Packers never called a timeout. On second down, he threw incomplete to Watson, but J. Michael Sturdivant was flagged for an illegal substitution penalty. They were trying to get another receiver on the field for their next play, but Sturdivant, an undrafted rookie, didn’t get inside the numbers when he came off the sideline, which would’ve made him an eligible player. Love was sacked again on second-and-20 by Booker for a second time, and the Packers just let the clock run out.
Mind you, they were a few yards away from field goal range when they took over at the Bears’ 49-yard line.
Third Quarter
After a brief administrative stoppage from the officiating crew, the Packers’ first play from scrimmage of the third quarter was a 31-yard completion from Love to Watson.
It was then bombs away to the end zone on three consecutive plays. After a first-down run from Lloyd lost two yards, Love threw deep to Watson, but it was incomplete despite some hand-fighting from Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson. On the next play, he went down the right sideline for Sturdivant, but he, however, was flagged for offensive pass interference. Backed up into third-and-22, Love went back to Watson once again—and this time, it was successful. Watson hauled in a 53-yard touchdown reception, giving him his second score of the day and his sixth in the Packers’ first five games to begin the season.
Trey Smack’s missed extra-point attempt made it 20-7, rather than 21-7. If a 14-point deficit wasn’t going to keep Johnson from hammering the running game, 13 points won’t, either. The Bears picked up 15 yards on the ground on back-to-back plays with Swift and Burden, followed by consecutive first downs. They’ve been getting incredibly creative with some of their run designs, scheming up designed touches for Burden, Kalif Raymond, and Zavion Thomas. Dani Dennis-Sutton sniffed out a screen pass to Raymond on third down, limiting the Bears to a Cairos Santos field goal, but he missed the attempt from 43 yards.
And just like that, all of the momentum has been sucked out of the Packers. For the second consecutive drive, a first-down run with Lloyd lost two yards. They were able to convert on a third-and-2 with a five-yard completion to Kraft, but it wouldn’t matter. On second-and-10, Lloyd lost two yards on a run—again—and Love threw an incompletion over the head of Strong on third down.
The Packers’ defense was able to get off the field swiftly, thanks to Franklin stuffing a run from Johnson on third-and-1.
A hard play action to the left side of the field on first down opened up a 46-yard completion to Kraft on the opposite side. The Packers’ offense would then lose a yard on their next three plays, thanks to a failed screen pass to Kraft that lost six yards. Smack was able to convert on a 35-yard field goal to boost the Packers’ lead to 23-7.
It was another quick possession for the Bears’ offense, but not because they went three-and-out. After Bagent converted a fourth-down pass to Colston Loveland, he went back to his tight end on the ensuing first down. This time, however, it was intercepted for a second time by McKinney. He has as many interceptions in his last three quarters of football as he did all of last season.
With the ball and momentum back in their favor, Love went deep for Golden and the second-year wideout plucked the ball out of the air for a 36-yard pickup. Love urged the offense back to the line of scrimmage with time winding down in the third quarter, hitting Golden once again for a 15-yard gain and another first down.
Fourth Quarter
On the very first play, Lloyd bounced a run out left for a four-yard touchdown run—his second of the game. To push the score to a 24-point deficit, Love connected with Golden for a successful two-point conversion.
With roughly 14 minutes left in regulation and facing an uphill climb, the Bears benched Bagent for Case Keenum, who started in the team’s primetime victory over the Philadelphia Eagles a couple of weeks ago. Assisted by a 61-yard kick return from Thomas, Keenum took over with a short field and already moved them into the red zone after a 23-yard completion to Burden. Johnson called a jet sweep to Burden on third-and-goal, but the play lost seven yards and pushed the Bears’ offense into a difficult fourth-and-goal situation. Throwing across his body into the end zone, Keenum’s pass landed in the hands of linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper, who returned it 20 yards. Hopper also had an interception in the Packers’ Wild Card loss to the Bears in January.
The Packers aren’t content with just reverting to their conservative nature and running out the clock. On first down, LaFleur called a play action bomb to Golden that went for 50 yards. Nothing came of it—not even three points. The Bears were able to force the Packers into a fourth-and-3, but Smack’s 43-yard field-goal attempt was no good. It hasn’t been the rookie’s best day. He hasn’t quite been Brandon McManus in the playoffs bad, but still.
Okay, that’s a lie. After the Packers’ defense forced another turnover—courtesy of Franklin and Evan Williams—and a 23-yard run from Kaleb Johnson, the Packers’ offense stalled again, setting up Smack for an opportunity to redeem himself. His 47-yard attempt, once again, was no good. Much like McManus in January’s Wild Card game, Smack has missed a pair of field-goal attempts and an extra-point attempt.
The Packers’ defense is keeping the Bears at bay by this point. Wyatt strip-sacked Keenum, while Dennis-Sutton pounced on the fumble. It was the fifth takeaway of the game for Jonathan Gannon’s unit. The fourth-round rookie didn’t stop there, either. On the Bears’ final possession, Dennis-Sutton pressured Keenum into an errant first-down throw before sacking him on the very next play.
A fourth-and-21 incompletion from Keenum gave the Packers possession of the ball and the opportunity to kneel out the rest of the clock. Tyrod Taylor replaced Love to do the honors.
Zachary Jacobson is the author of The Packer Dispatch. He is entering his 12th season covering the Green Bay Packers after spending seven as the Editor-in-Chief of Packer Report. He is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America. Follow him on Twitter @zachjacobson or contact him via email at itszachariahj@gmail.com.
I was at the game, what an amazing day. 💪💪