Packer Central

Three Overreactions From Packers’ Win Over Bears

The Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears, but it wasn’t easy. A potentially fatal flaw has shown up, just in time for the stretch run. That is one of three big takeaways from Sunday.

Bill Huber

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) dives toward the end zone on Sunday at the Chicago Bears.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) dives toward the end zone on Sunday at the Chicago Bears. / David Banks-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – “Just like you draw it up, right?”

That’s how coach Matt LaFleur, with tongue planted in cheek, led off his news conference after the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears 20-19 on Sunday.

Really, nothing was how you’d draw it up.

The Packers were dominated on third down on both sides of the ball and had two critical red-zone failures on offense. The defense was outplayed by what had been an inept Bears offense and almost lost the game.

“It’s always hard to win on the road,” LaFleur said. “They were 4-1 at home, so I figured this would be a four-quarter battle, and that’s exactly what it was. It took all 60 minutes. Thankfully, we made a play at the end of the game.

“I thought there were some good performances and I thought there was a lot of stuff we’ve got to get better at, mainly in situational football – third down and in the red zone and, really, on both sides of the football. So, I told our guys, we’ll never ever apologize for winning. We’re going to learn from this and, you know, we got a big battle next week.”

Before flipping ahead to that big battle against the San Francisco 49ers, here are our weekly overreactions from the victory at Chicago.

1. Progress By Jordan Love

For the eighth consecutive game, Jordan Love threw an interception. Over the last decade, he’s one of only four quarterbacks with a streak of eight-plus games – Josh Allen and Peyton Manning are on that list – and it’s the team’s longest single-season streak since Brett Favre in 2005. 

No Packers quarterback has started a season with an interception in eight consecutive games since Irv Comp in 1944, according to NFL Research.

At least this interception was a physical error, with Love throwing too high for tight end Tucker Kraft on third-and-11 from the Bears’ 15. Errant throws happen, so that mistake is easier to swallow than Love’s panic pick-six against the Lions.

“It was just a bad throw,” Love said.

The only questionable decision was his 48-yard bomb to Watson into double coverage. The safety on the play, Elijah Hicks, fell as the ball arrived.

“When I started moving, the safety was kind of playing both Christian and Tucker, and I saw Christian put his hand up that he was going deep,” Love explained. “I thought he was beyond the safety, and the safety did a good job as I was throwing of turning his hips and taking Christian.

“Anytime the ball’s in the air, you love it when a receiver can go up and make that play and make you right. So, that was a big-time play by Christian to go up there and have that confidence to go make that play. It’s his ball or nobody’s ball and it was a big-time play in the game.”

Love was sharp. He was 13-of-17 for 261 yards with one touchdown and one interception, good for a passer rating of 113.0. Of the four incompletions, one was a throwaway and one was a drop (by Romeo Doubs). According to PFF, Love was 4-of-4 on passes thrown between 10 and 20 yards downfield and 2-of-2 on passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield – a combined 6-of-6 for 182 yards.

Plus, he looked more athletic following the bye, a good sign that the groin injury is behind him.

2. Finally, Packers Remember Christian Watson

There are only so many footballs to go around. In the passing game, Jayden Reed is the team’s most explosive and consistent threat. Romeo Doubs has the best hands and is the most reliable player on those must-have plays. Tucker Kraft is a beast after the catch.

Against the Bears, Christian Watson showed why he needs his opportunities, as well.

Watson caught all four passes for 150 yards. He was responsible for four of the team’s six biggest plays, with a third-and-11 conversion for 17 yards, a 25-yard gain to set up the second touchdown, a 48-yard gain to the 8 with the Packers trailing 19-14 early in the fourth quarter and the incredible 60-yard catch-and-run to the 14 to set up the decisive touchdown.

“It was a focus for us coming into this week was to try to keep getting him the ball, getting him some touches,” quarterback Jordan Love said.

The 60-yarder was one of the plays of the game, with Watson making a diving catch, controlling the ball upon hitting the ground and sprinting downfield for 44 yards after the catch.

“I didn’t know that the DB had fallen, so I honestly didn’t really know what to expect,” Watson said.

Watson entered the game with just 233 receiving yards. He had less than 15 yards in four of the first nine games, and a total of six catches for 50 yards in the team’s three losses.

Reed, Doubs and Kraft need their chances, but there isn’t a pass-catcher on the team – and there aren’t many in the entire NFL – who have the potential to turn any play into a 60-yard gain.

It was a great day for a player who has been a great teammate.

“It’s been a little tough just in terms of me and my individual goals, but, as cliché as it sounds, I’m always going to put the team goals first,” he said.

3. Alarming Performance on Defense

Chicago’s offense the previous two games scored zero touchdowns and gained 353 yards. The previous three games, it converted 6-of-40 on third down.

Individually, during the team’s three-game losing streak, rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was last in the NFL passer rating (64.7), completion percentage (50.5) and yards per attempt (4.9).

The Bears, and Williams, in particular, shredded Jeff Hafley’s defense, which means either new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown is one of the greatest offensive minds in the game or the Packers’ defense is about to implode in spectacular fashion.

The Bears scored two touchdowns and finished with 391 yards. They were 9-of-16 on third down. Williams completed 74.2 percent of his passes, averaged 7.45 yards per attempt and finished with a 95.0 passer rating.

With a chance to slam the door, the Packers allowed the Bears to convert a third-and-19 with completions of 16 and 21 yards, then added a 12-yard completion to set up the Bears for what should have been the winning field goal.

Green Bay has three problems on defense, none of which have a clear solution.

One, the Packers’ pass rush is feeble. They had just one sack – Brenton Cox untouched on a bootleg – until the final series. Not that Preston Smith was having a great year, but trading him didn’t help, especially with Lukas Van Ness – a supposed beneficiary of the trade – contributing absolutely nothing statistically while playing his second-lowest share of the playing time this season.

If you can’t rush the quarterback, you have to get more aggressive. But can the Packers cover well enough to leave their cornerbacks on an island? Which leads us to …

Two, Jaire Alexander can’t stay healthy, exacerbating the team’s weakness at cornerback. Former first-round pick Eric Stokes played just four snaps. It was a major change-up after the bye, but Carrington Valentine didn’t play well in coverage, either.

Three, coordinator Jeff Hafley’s defense showed a lot of promise to start the season, when he had absolutely no track record for opposing offenses to dive into.

Now, there are 10 games on Hafley. Teams know what he wants to do and have seen his tendencies. The Bears’ coordinator change was a factor, but the bye wasn’t a lot of help.

Throw it all together, one of the worst offenses in the NFL with a struggling rookie quarterback came back to life. Williams threw for 231 yards and ran for 70 more. Apparently, even with a bye week to prepare, it didn’t dawn on anyone that the Bears might want to unleash Williams on some zone reads.

Here’s the problem: If the Packers can’t stop Williams, how are they going to deal with the rest of the remaining schedule?

Week 12: Home vs. 49ers. Brock Purdy is 14th in passer rating and third in yards per attempt.

Week 13: Home vs. Dolphins. Tua Tagovailoa is eighth in passer rating and first in completion percentage.

Week 14: at Lions. Jared Goff is second in passer rating, first in yards per attempt and second in completion percentage.

Week 15: at Seahawks. Geno Smith is 24th in passer rating but seventh in completion percentage and fourth in yards.

Week 16: Home vs. Saints. Derek Carr is fourth in passer rating, fifth in yards per attempt and eighth in completion percentage.

Week 17: at Vikings. Sam Darnold is 10th in passer rating and sixth in yards per attempt.

Week 18: Home vs. Bears. Caleb Williams is 28th in passer rating and 31st in completion percentage but just put up 301 total yards against the Packers.

The Packers have a two-game lead in the race for the final playoff spot. However, if the pass defense doesn’t improve, it could be a long, cold January in Green Bay.

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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.