Packers Report Card: Grades From Victory Over Bears

The Green Bay Packers edged the Chicago Bears on Karl Brooks’ blocked field goal. The block saved the victory and gave the special teams the highest grade of the day.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love scrambles against the Chicago Bears on Sunday. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Jimmy Valvano once said survive and advance.

The Green Bay Packers certainly survived Sunday’s game at Soldier Field.

A 1-yard touchdown run by Jordan Love gave them a 20-19 lead over the Chicago Bears with 2:59 to play in the game.

It looked like the Packers’ defense was going to slam the door after back-to-back sacks by Rashan Gary and T.J. Slaton put the Bears in third-and19 at the 2-minute warning.

Instead, Caleb Williams completed two passes to Rome Odunze and another to Keenan Allen to give the Bears a chance to snap a 10-game losing streak to the Packers.

Karl Brooks had different ideas, blocking Cairo Santos’ 46-yard attempt as time expired to give the Packers a 20-19 win and advance to 7-3.

Brooks’ heroics earn this group the lone A for the week.

Here is the rest of our Packers report card.

Pass Offense

Another game, another Jordan Love interception.

This one came in the red zone, where he missed a wide-open Tucker Kraft. The Packers were leading 7-3 and facing an offense that had been hapless for most of the year. Had Love connected with Kraft, he may have scored or at least gained a first down to make it first-and-goal from inside the 5.

Instead, the Packers got zero points and the Bears gained confidence.

Love’s final numbers were solid.

He was 13-of-17 passing for 261 yards and the touchdown pass to Jayden Reed on the game’s opening possession.

He also helped engineer the game-winning drive on the back of Christian Watson, who was the team’s leading receiver with 150 yards on four catches. That included a 60-yard diving catch and run on their final possession.

Watson gained at least 10 yards on all four of his receptions. He was a big-play machine, and the team should continue to get him involved as he’s their most talented playmaker.

Overall, facing one of the NFL’s best passing defenses, the game was solid, but earns a lower grade than it should due to the red-zone interception.

Grade: C-minus

Rush Offense

Where would this team be without Josh Jacobs?

Jacobs has been their best player. He is not a home run hitter, but he consistently gains more yards than what the blockers provide.

That was true again on Sunday with 76 yards on 18 carries.

Chris Brooks and Emanuel Wilson did not see much action in the run game, with Wilson getting two carries for 17 yards.

It appears the runs around the edge to Jayden Reed have been figured out. His one carry lost 5 yards and preceded Love’s interception.

Overall, the performance was not as gaudy as was expected facing a Chicago defense that had struggled against the run.

That is likely a byproduct of a game script in which Green Bay’s defense could not get off the field, limiting their possessions.

They’ll be looking in a mirror next week, facing a 49ers team the Packers have tried to emulate.

Grade: B

Pass Defense

Green Bay’s pass rush was licking its chops coming. The Bears gave up nine sacks last week. While their starting offensive tackles were back in the lineup, they played without their starting left guard and then lost his backup.

Green Bay’s only sack until the final drive of the game came when Brenton Cox was left unblocked on a play-action fake. Credit to Cox for making the play, but most sacks need to result from beating blocks.

The Packers did not do enough of that until the final drive of the game.

Their front four rarely generated pressure. T.J. Slaton and Rashan Gary sacked Caleb Williams on back-to-back plays to set up a third-and-19, which should have been a death sentence for Chicago’s hapless offense.

Instead, Williams escaped the clutches of Kingsley Enagbare and found Rome Odunze for 16 yards.  On the next play, Williams found Odunze again on a perfect back-shoulder throw to give the Bears life.

Williams complete another pass to Keenan Allen to get the Bears in position for a game-winning field goal.

The kick was blocked, saving this group from a worse mark.

Williams had struggled immensely coming into the game, but the Packers rarely made him uncomfortable.

He finished 23-of-31 passing for 231 yards. He did not throw an interception, nor did he really come close.

The Packers are facing three more efficient offenses in their next three games. They’ll need to be much better against them than they were today.

Grade: C-minus

Rush Defense

Perhaps the worst play of the game on defense came from this phase.

D’Andre Swift is a talented runner that Chicago was looking to feature more as they changed offensive coordinators.

Swift’s 39-yard touchdown run in the third quarter saw Lukas Van Ness get blocked by a tight end, Quay Walker jump into the wrong gap and Xavier McKinney spinning pirouettes in the open field.

Overall, the numbers were poor.

The Packers allowed Caleb Williams to run for 70 yards on nine carries. It was as if they hadn’t defended a zone-read prior to this season.

Swift averaged 5.1 yards per carry. Roschon Johnson grinded out some tough yards, including running through Walker for the team’s first touchdown since the end of October.

In the end, it was 33 carries for 174 yards for Chicago.

Averaging 5.3 yards per carry allowed Chicago to stay ahead of the sticks, making third and fourth downs more manageable.

Up next?

Christian McCaffery, Jordan Mason and Kyle Shannahan’s punishing rushing offense.

Green Bay better get this figured out, quick.

Grade: D

Special Teams

For as much flack as this group has taken, it saved Green Bay’s bacon on Sunday.

Jayden Reed’s 16-yard punt return, which set up the go-ahead touchdown drive, would have been nice enough on its own.

Ditto for Daniel Whelan’s punt in the first quarter that pinned Chicago inside the 5.

The reality? The hero of this game was Green Bay’s special teams.

Matt LaFleur said Rich Bisaccia told his group last night he would not understand if the team walked away from Sunday’s game without a blocked kick of some sort.

Those words turned out to be prophetic, with Karl Brooks saving the game.

Grade: A

Coaching

Rich Bisaccia, for reasons previously mentioned, gets high marks for Sunday’s performance. His units, which had been a disappointment for most of the season, were the heroes of the day.

The rest of the coaching staff, however, left a lot to be desired.

If you didn’t know Chicago was the team in turmoil that came into the game, you would not have by watching Sunday’s game.

The Packers came out firing, scoring on their first drive with relative ease, but did not score a touchdown again until the second half.

They failed in situational football. They failed by turning the ball over in the red zone.

LaFleur has largely dismissed Jordan Love’s issues with throwing interceptions, but he cannot continue to ignore them or they’ll rear their ugly head at the least opportune time.

On defense, Jeff Hafley was baffled by the Bears’ new offensive coordinator, Thomas Brown.

You have to go back a full month to the last time the Bears had scored two touchdowns in a game.

They scored three against Green Bay.

Yes, he was missing Jaire Alexander for all but 10 snaps in today’s game, but his group made a Chicago offense, which has been inept for most of the year, look competent.

Add in the Bears were a combined 12-of-17 on third- or fourth-down conversions, which includes a third-and-19 which was mostly designed to set up a manageable fourth down.

Finally, LaFleur’s challenge of Love’s run for the pylon late in the game made little sense.

Love was ruled out at the 1 and scored easily on a quarterback sneak on the next play. At worst, the Packers would have had four cracks from that spot to push the ball across the goal line. Instead, LaFleur challenged and lost, sacrificing a timeout that could have proved precious in a one-possession game.

This was not the best day for a coaching staff coming off their bye week.

Grade: C-minus 

Latest Green Bay Packers News 

It's a block party for the #Packers, with Karl Brooks heeding Rich Bisaccia's message from Saturday by blocking the game-deciding field goal. ⬇️https://t.co/yvjF9v7ErJ

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) November 17, 2024

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