Packer Central

Packers Beat Bears: Stud, Dud, Snaps, Defining Play

Two former first-round picks saw diminished roles but one potential-packed player rose to the occasion as the Green Bay Packers escaped Chicago with a 20-19 win over the Bears.

Bill Huber

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson sprints upfield for a 60-yard gain against the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson sprints upfield for a 60-yard gain against the Chicago Bears on Sunday. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears, as usual, on Sunday but did it in the most unlikely fashion, with Karl Brooks’ block preserving a 20-19 victory.

Let’s dive into some of the snap counts and other postgame analysis.

Packers Snap Counts

The Packers played 46 snaps on offense.

Offensive line: All five starters went the distance, with center Josh Myers playing with either a large protective wrap or a cast on his left hand.

Receivers: Romeo Doubs led the way with 36 snaps. Christian Watson, the star of the game, played 31, followed by 26 for Jayden Reed, 16 for Dontayvion Wicks, five for Bo Melton and three for Malik Heath.

Running backs: Josh Jacobs logged 37 snaps. There’s been a clear-cut change in the rotation, with Chris Brooks playing 10 snaps and Emanuel Wilson just three. Wilson had a 13-yard run in which he broke two tackles and Brooks had a 9-yard catch in which he broke one tackle. Brooks will keep playing because he’s superb in pass protection.

Tight ends: Tucker Kraft played all but three snaps. Ben Sims played 17 and John FitzPatrick played three. The tight ends did not catch a pass.

The Packers played 72 snaps on defense.

Defensive ends: The big winner in the Preston Smith trade was Brenton Cox. A healthy inactive for the first nine games, Cox played 22 snaps against Chicago. For the ends, the counts were 46 for Rashan Gary, 41 for Kingsley Enagbare, 25 for Lukas Van Ness and 10 for Arron Mosby.

That Cox played almost as many snaps as Van Ness, last year’s first-round pick, is stunning. Van Ness’ only contribution was an offside penalty. Cox had one sack, one additional tackle for loss and two quarterback hits.

Defensive tackles: Kenny Clark played 46 mostly invisible snaps. With Colby Wooden (shoulder) inactive, the others (Devonte Wyatt, 35; T.J. Slaton, 34; Karl Brooks, 29) all got relatively equal playing time. Brooks had two of the group’s three tackles and Slaton had a sack.

Linebackers: Quay Walker played every snap. Edgerrin Cooper is now the clear-cut No. 2 linebacker with 51. Isaiah McDuffie played 21 and Eric Wilson played 13. Walker had eight tackles and a pass defensed but this was not one of his better days, to state the obvious. Cooper had seven tackles but was outflanked too often.

Secondary: The Packers started with a rotation at cornerback but, after Jaire Alexander dropped out after 10 snaps, Green Bay mostly went with Keisean Nixon (71) and Carrington Valentine (64) on the perimeter and Javon Bullard (52) in the slot. Former first-round pick Eric Stokes played only four snaps, which is understandable given how he’s played but stunning, nonetheless.

In his return to the lineup following a hamstring injury, safety Evan Williams played 71.

The team’s leading tacklers were defensive backs: Xavier McKinney and Valentine with nine and Bullard with eight, which typically is not a good sign.

Stud: Christian Watson

Finally, in the 10th of the season, Christian Watson had a breakout game.

Watson was targeted four times. He caught all four for 150 yards.

His first catch went for 17 yards on third-and-11. His next was for 25 yards to the 7 to set up Green Bay’s second touchdown. His third was a 48-yard catch on a bomb into double coverage. His last was the 60-yard catch-and-run to set up the winning score.

Watson had 11 receptions for 153 yards in the last five games combined. He’d been shut out twice this season. A forgotten man at times, this game served as an important reminder of his game-breaking talent. The Packers have a lot of depth at receiver but Watson needs to get the rock.

“I can’t say enough about him,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “Obviously, not everything has gone his way here, but he is a resilient dude.”

Dud: First-Round Picks

General manager Brian Gutekunst has built a contending team, no thanks to his last four years of first-round picks.

2024 – OL Jordan Morgan: Injured reserve (shoulder).

2023 – DE Lukas Van Ness: No statistical contribution in 25 snaps and suckered on a few zone-reads.

2022 – LB Quay Walker: A bunch of tackles but not a good performance. On one play, he almost spun Bears running back Roschon Johnson into the end zone. On the next, Johnson burrowed through him for the touchdown. Those are just two examples. Three of Walker’s eight tackles came on plays of longer than 10 yards. His only tackle shorter than 4 yards was Johnson’s aforementioned run to the 1.

2022 – DT Devonte Wyatt: In 35 snaps, he made zero statistical contributions. Wyatt was off to a hot start but hasn’t gotten rolling again following an ankle injury.

2021 – CB Eric Stokes: In a big change made during the bye, Stokes went from 37 snaps (64.9 percent) against the Lions to four snaps (5.6 percent) against the Bears. 

Throw in Jaire Alexander (2018) being unable to play through his knee injury and Kenny Clark (2016) not recording a single tackle for the second consecutive game, and it was a dismal showing by the first-rounders.

At least Jordan Love (2020) played well and Rashan Gary (2019) had a sack.  

Play of the Game

Well, that’s obvious.

The Packers saw the weakness in Chicago’s blocking and the low trajectory of Cairo Santos’ kicks. Karl Brooks took advantage with a massive play.

“There was a little panic but not really too much,” Brooks said. “He made some great plays and set his team up real well, but there was no panic in my game. I was telling myself the whole time the clock was winding, ‘I’m just going to block this. I’m just going to block this.’ The power of the tongue is powerful, so that’s what I went out there and did.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.