Not Many Style Points But Enough Scoreboard Points

Green Bay's third consecutive win followed a familiar script

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For the third consecutive week, it was the same story for the Green Bay Packers.

They play good offense for three or four possessions, which they turn into points.

They play good defense for large stretches of the game, only to make things interesting.

And at the end, the Packers have scored more points than the other team – and then get peppered with questions about the lack of style points upon reaching the winner’s circle.

“I think that’s kind of a condescending question,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said when asked if the team’s performance against Chicago overshadowed the team’s 11th win of the season. “So, I’m going to say I love being 11-3 and I think the performance was a little up and down but I thought we did some really good things. We’ve just got to be a little more opportunistic when we have opportunities.”

Green Bay clinched a playoff berth and stayed in the thick of the race for home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs with a 21-13 victory over the Chicago Bears. It was a similar script as against the Giants, when the Packers scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to win 31-13, and against Washington, when the Packers scored a pair of first-quarter touchdowns but had to hold on for a 20-15 win.

Against the Bears, Green Bay started quickly with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams on a fourth down in the first quarter only to hit one of its lengthy lulls. Chicago hogged the ball for 10:33 of the second quarter but managed only a field goal as Green Bay took a 7-3 lead into intermission. The Packers came out hot in the third quarter, with Aaron Jones scoring on runs of 21 and 2 yards to give the Packers a commanding 21-3 lead.

The Bears looked all but dead but stormed back in the fourth quarter. They were one lateral from potentially forcing overtime.

But that lateral didn’t happen. The offense, again, was just good enough. The defense, again, was just good enough.

“We just won, man. Don’t give me nothing bad,” said Tramon Williams, who pounced on the loose ball to clinch the victory.

Green Bay managed only 292 yards. It moved the chains on only 5-of-15 third-down plays. After the back-to-back touchdowns, its final five possessions resulted in one first down and five punts. One thing the Packers had done well in most of their narrow victories was moving the chains and draining the clock. Not this time. In the fourth quarter, Green Bay’s four possessions resulted in a net of minus-4 yards.

“I think it’s something that we need to look at what we’ve got going on in certain situations,” right tackle Bryan Bulaga said. “Especially at the end of the game there, the execution just really wasn’t there. It wasn’t good enough. But it’s a good defense. I’m not taking that away from them. They’re pretty damn good. We’ll look at it, try to figure out where we went wrong and move forward with it. But I’m not going to be talking to you guys and walking around this building with my head down because we won a game. That’s just not going to happen.”

Green Bay’s best players provided the touchdowns, with Davante Adams catching seven passes for 103 yards and the superlative opening touchdown. Jones broke two tackles on his 21-yard touchdown run and plowed through a defensive back on his second touchdown. Combined, they had 154 yards.

But Rodgers was close to throwing two interceptions, had a critical fumble overturned on review and was just 16-of-33 passing. Marquez Valdes-Scantling dropped what should have been a 70-yard touchdown reception on the Packers’ first play. In the final three drives, Green Bay had drives start on its 41 and 46, Chicago’s 33 and at its 49. Those drives didn’t result in any points.

Defensively, Green Bay dominated Chicago’s rushing attack but Mitchell Trubisky threw for 348 yards, with receivers Allen Robinson (seven catches, 125 yards) and Anthony Miller (nine catches, 118 yards) combining for 16 catches for 243 yards.

“Honestly, all I’m really worried about is the fact that we won the game,” Adams said. “Obviously, there’s different things and particulars throughout every game that you can look back and say, ‘We should’ve did this, we should’ve did that.’ We’ve struggled a little bit in situations like that a little bit this year as far as just making sure we just bury these teams. But like we always say, you can’t apologize for any victory. Every one is hard in this league. It sounds cliché but it’s that way for a reason. It’s tough to win in this league. You can beat a team like that, a really good team that just had an excellent year last year, so for us to come out here and beat them twice this year, that’s all we’re worried about.”

The Packers head to Minnesota to face the powerful Vikings on Monday night with a chance to clinch the division. A win in that game – no matter the number of style points amassed – would go a long way toward changing the narrative surrounding the team.

“I don’t know that we have the full respect of the entire league at this point based on some of our performances where we got beat by a couple scores and kind of the reaction, I would assume, to those situations,” Rodgers said. “But we’re 7-1 at home, we have the inside track at the (No. 2) 2 seed. Obviously, we have an opportunity to wrap up the division next week, which guarantees a home game and the third seed, at worst. I like our chances. I like our football team.”