Packer Central

Packers Report Card: Grades From Loss to Bears

The passing game was sporadic, the special teams were terrible and the coaches made some key mistakes. Those units earned the worst grades in this week’s Packers report card.

Jacob Westendorf

Green Bay Packers defensive end Kingsley Enagbare' horse-collar tackle of Caleb Williams helped the Bears' winning drive.
Green Bay Packers defensive end Kingsley Enagbare' horse-collar tackle of Caleb Williams helped the Bears' winning drive. / Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
In this story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The good news following their 24-22 loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday is the Green Bay Packers are 11-6 and headed to the NFC playoffs for the second year in a row.

The bad news is that they’re the seventh seed for the second year in a row. Last year, that earned them a trip to Dallas, where they disposed of the Cowboys rather easily before falling in the Divisional round against San Francisco.

This year, they’ll face a much better team. The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Packers in the opener and finished 14-3.

From a standpoint of pride and respect for their profession, Sunday’s game against Chicago mattered.

In terms of anything from a big-picture standpoint, it didn’t matter at all. The Packers didn’t control anything in terms of their destiny for seeding and were relying on Mike McCarthy and his undermanned Cowboys to beat the Washington Commanders.

“Hopefully, he does us a favor,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Wednesday.

As it turns out, McCarthy did his best. Dallas led in the fourth quarter before a late touchdown drive led by Washington’s backup quarterback, Marcus Mariota.  

Meanwhile, LaFleur and his team forgot one key detail. They had to beat the Bears for anything that happened in Dallas to matter.

Injuries, inconsistent play and mistakes piled up. Perhaps Sunday’s game is a perfect ending to a regular season that was better than last year, but still disappointing considering the preseason expectations.

Some harsh grades are coming out of the 24-22 loss to the Bears, with the worst going to the highest-paid special teams coordinator in football.

Pass Offense

Something is off here.

Green Bay’s passing offense didn’t reach the century mark until the fourth quarter of last week’s loss in Minnesota and wasn’t appreciably better against the Bears.

Jordan Love has looked jumpy in the pocket and is not seeing the field well.

When he is seeing the field well, receivers are not breaking open.

Perhaps coach Matt LaFleur is saving his best passing concepts for the postseason. Perhaps Chicago’s defense was just that good, as it has been for most of the season against opposing passing games.

The reality is the Packers are paying their quarterback a lot of money to play well at the end of the year.

That has not been there in the last two weeks.

Love was 6-of-10 passing for 53 yards in the first quarter, with 19 of those yards coming on a play in which Luke Musgrave made a sliding catch.

Outside of that play, there was little to write home about.

Things went from bad to worse in the second quarter. Love rushed to the line of scrimmage to catch the Bears with 12 defenders on the field but was immediately under duress.

As he was going to the turf, he banged his elbow on a push pass to Josh Jacobs and exited the game shaking his right hand.

Once Malik Willis was in the game, the passing offense found some life, albeit due to some good fortune.

A 31-yard pass from Willis to Jayden Reed looked ticketed to be an incompletion due to how far the ball was underthrown. Instead, Reed made an adjustment and caught Willis’ wobbly pass.

Love warmed up a couple times but Willis finished the game. Getting his first extensive playing time since he helped the Packers beat the Jaguars on Oct. 27, Willis was more inconsistent than in his previous appearances.

He had some big plays, including a 41-yard completion to Malik Heath on third-and-21 that set up a rushing touchdown from Emanuel Wilson, but didn’t make enough plays for the Packers to consistently move the ball.

Regardless of who plays quarterback for Green Bay next week, there’s little doubt the passing game needs to be better.

As great as the run game has been, the NFL is a passing league. A poor performance from Love and his receivers, and the Packers will be headed home early. 

Grade: C.

Rush Offense

Josh Jacobs made a little history when he surpassed the 1,300-yard rushing mark in the first quarter. That made him the first Packers running back since Ahman Green in 2003 to surpass that total. He also extended his streak of games with a touchdown run to a franchise-record eight.

It was clear from the start that coach Matt LaFleur was going to be careful with Jacobs’ workload to get him as fresh as possible for the playoffs.

Jacobs played the first series before giving way to Emanuel Wilson. Jacobs didn’t play at all after halftime and finished with six carries and 20 snaps.

Jayden Reed looked like he had some room on a jet sweep on Green Bay’s last play of the first quarter, but he fumbled the ball away on a hit by Jaylon Johnson. The ball was recovered by former Packers safety Jonathan Owens.

With Jacobs and Jordan Love on the sideline in the second half, Wilson took over the primary duties in the backfield for the second half, and he did what he usually does. He was productive, as was Chris Brooks. The Packers finished with 183 rushing yards on 33 carries (5.5 average), highlighted by Wilson’s 21-yard touchdown that he bounced around the right side.

Green Bay’s three-headed monster in the backfield is a legitimate weapon.

Who would have thought that the best part of Green Bay’s team would be the run game on both offense and defense?

Grade: A.

Pass Defense

For as uninspiring as the start was on offense and special teams, Green Bay’s defense rose to the occasion to start the game.

A fumbled snap by Caleb Williams led to a sack by Rashan Gary on Chicago’s first play from scrimmage.

That was followed by a TFL by Javon Bullard on a smoke screen, and the drive ended when Keisean Nixon sniffed out a screen on third-and-long.

Chicago’s pass protection, which had been poor for most of the year, struggled early and often against Green Bay’s pass rush. The Packers just couldn’t get Williams to the turf and finished with the one sack.

Most of their successful plays through the air came on smoke screens or short passes when the receiver could make a play after the catch.

That is likely a cumulative effect from the beating Williams has taken this season, but also a credit to Green Bay’s pass rush, which was active early.

Williams was 8-of-12 passing for 33 yards in the first half, and rarely looked to throw the ball down the field.

For good measure, Xavier McKinney intercepted his eighth pass of the season when the Bears ran a trick play with Keenan Allen becoming the passer. McKinney fumbled on the return but Edgerrin Cooper recovered.

With 2 minutes remaining and the Bears in position to run out the clock, Carrington Valentine forced a fumble on a screen to D.J. Moore. Bullard recovered, putting the Packers in position to put together a game-winning drive.

Ultimately, this phase of the game gave the Packers a chance to win, but a couple blunders – lowlighted by too-soft coverage on Moore’s 18-yard reception on the final snap from scrimmage – allowed Chicago to kick a game-winning field goal.

Of course, the assignment changes next week. Williams and a lifeless Bears offense will not be on the other sideline. It will be against Jalen Hurts and the high-powered Eagles.

Grade: B.

Rush Defense

The strongest unit of the team flexed its muscles early and often.

Defensive tackle TJ Slaton had a TFL on Chicago’s first rushing play of the game. Defensive tackle Colby Wooden added one on the second rushing play.

If the goal was to tune up for Saquon Barkley next week, then this group appears to be headed in the right direction.

The Bears finished with 83 yards on 26 rushing attempts, a 3.2-yard average. The Packers finished seventh in the NFL with 99.4 rushing yards allowed per game and third with 3.96 yards allowed per carry.

That’s unheard of dominance under Matt LaFleur.

Of course, the challenge next week is as staunch as one can be in today’s NFL.

Saquon Barkley and the electric Eagles’ run game will need to be slowed down if Green Bay is going to snap out of this slump to win a playoff game.

Grade: B.

Special Teams

The start of the game was almost as disastrous as the end of the game was for Chicago the last time these teams met.

Green Bay’s opening kickoff return from Bo Melton was negated by a holding penalty by Chris Brooks, which set the offense back.

Following a stalled drive from Green Bay’s offense, punter Daniel Whelan helped prevent a disaster. Matt Orzech’s snap was high and nearly went all the way through his hands. Whelan was able to recover and kick the ball 35 yards before it was downed by Robert Rochell.

Their second punt went significantly worse, when the Packers were deked by Chicago’s trick punt return play.

Bears receiver D.J. Moore was back deep to return the punt. He acted as if Whelan’s punt was to the right. Instead, Josh Blackwell caught the punt on the left with a wall of players in front of him to provide an escort for a 94-yard touchdown to give Chicago a 7-0 lead.

Saving the special teams’ bacon, and the grade, was Brandon McManus, who made a 55-yard, go-ahead field goal while kicking a brick in frigid conditions.

Shortly thereafter, Green Bay was walked off on a field goal from Cairo Santos, who exacted some revenge with a 51-yard field goal as time expired.

The brilliance of McManus is the only thing that saves this unit from earning an F.

Grade: D.

Coaching

Matt LaFleur won his first challenge of the year.

A play-action pass that was initially ruled a catch by Luke Musgrave was waved off by another official.

LaFleur didn’t look happy that he had to throw the challenge flag, but he did finally get off the schneid with the incompletion getting changed to a 19-yard reception.

Coming into the week, LaFleur was asked consistently whether his top stars were going to play despite the game meaning little outside of playing for seeding.

For comparison’s sake, LaFleur’s former boss, Rams coach Sean McVay, rested some of his starters with only seeding on the line.

LaFleur was consistent in saying that his players were going to play, and said the only approach that was going to be considered successful is the approach that works.

Well, with Christian Watson and Jordan Love sustaining injuries, it’s easy to say his approach did not work.

Watson was questionable coming into the game due to an injured left knee sustained against the Saints two weeks ago. On Sunday, he suffered a serious injury to his right knee against the Bears. Are they related? It’s hard to say as someone who is not a doctor.

That’s not even the worst injury of the day.

Love left the game with an elbow injury after taking a funny hit on a free play in the second quarter.

Green Bay announced him as questionable to return, before ultimately rolled with Malik Wilis the rest of the way.

If the only approach is one that works, then what worked would have been keeping Love on the bench to get ready for next week.

Jeff Hafley’s defense looked prepared and into the game, which earns high marks.

Rich Bisaccia’s unit was detailed above as an abject disaster outside of its kicker.

Finally, as if the comedy of errors wasn’t enough, LaFleur helped the Bears save time late in the game.

After a third-down run by Emanuel Wilson was short of the line to gain, LaFleur called timeout with 58 seconds left, only to kick a long field goal, anyway.

He saved Chicago a timeout, while also wasting one of his own in the event that McManus missed the field goal.

That timeout helped the Bears’ last-gasp, game-winning drive.

LaFleur, to his credit, was accountable for his mistake at the end of the game, and called himself indecisive.

To LaFleur’s credit, he’s usually accountable when he’s made mistakes like that. Unfortunately, there have been too many of those this year, and that ultimately helped seal his team’s fate on Sunday.

One thing that LaFleur has always been good at, at minimum, was beating the Bears.

The Packers are now a Karl Brooks fingertip away from going 0-6 in the division this season, and 0-2 against Chicago.

As the stakes rise next week, the Packers need more from their coaching staff.

Grade: D.

Latest Green Bay Packers News 

What happened and what’s ahead | What happened to passing game? | Packers, Eagles are much different teams | Matt LaFleur’s costly timeout | The latest on Jordan Love, Christian Watson | Packers-Bears stock report | Bears beat Packers 24-22 | Breaking down the 2025 schedule | Jordan Love, Christian Watson injured | Live updates | Packers Bears weather and prediction | Packers-Bears inactives | Three reasons why Packers will lose to Bears | Q&A on eve of Matt LaFleur’s 100th game | Five greatest games in Packers-Bears history

Published
Jacob Westendorf
JACOB WESTENDORF