The 200th meeting between the Packers and Bears did not disappoint. Green Bay was able to move to 11-3 on the season after holding off Chicago (7-7) at Lambeau Field, 21-13.
This contest was controlled by Green Bay for the bulk of the afternoon, but Chicago did make things interesting late.
Aaron Rodgers completed 16 of his 33 passes for 203 yards and a touchdown. While Rodgers' stats don't jump off the page, he was able to help the Packers move the ball well for the bulk of the game before running back Aaron Jones broke out in the third quarter with back-to-back touchdowns. Receiver Davante Adams reminded folks why he is still a star pass catcher in this league, hauling in seven of his 13 targets for 103 yards and a touchdown.
For the Bears, Mitch Trubisky dropped back to pass 53 times and completed 29 of his throws for 348 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions. Both Allen Robinson and Anthony Miller were able to go over a hundred yards receiving, but Chicago's inability to hit the end zone consistently and extend drives proved to be their undoing.
For a full breakdown of Sunday's contest, check out our main takeaways below.
Why the Packers won
Green Bay was pretty aggressive all afternoon. On the Packers' very first offensive play of the game, Aaron Rodgers nearly had a 75-yard touchdown pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling, but it fell through the receiver's hands. Then, their first touchdown of the day came on a pretty gutsy fourth-and-4 play from the Chicago 29 yard line, which Davante Adams was on the receiving end of.
That touchdown seemingly came on the command of Aaron Rodgers. He originally tried to have Chicago jump offsides before calling a timeout. Instead of lining up the field goal unit following the pause in action Rodgers came back out and appeared to have noticed a weak spot in the Bears secondary with Adams. His star receiver ran a simple go-route, had a step on his corner and was essentially untouched going in for the score.
The running game also came alive in the second half with Aaron Jones rushing for two scores. We'll get to why those touchdowns were significant in our "Turning Point" section, but it's noteworthy to point out that both of those scoring runs (one of which being a 21-yard dash) came with Jones running to the left side. Clearly, head coach Matt LaFleur and the rest of the staff saw that they had an advantage over the front seven lining up over their left tackle and left guard.
Speaking of the offensive line, that unit kept Aaron Rodgers upright for most of the day as he was sacked just once. That extra time in the pocket also helped Rodgers have a clean game as the Packers as a team didn't have a turnover.
Why the Bears lost
The main reason why Chicago came up on the wrong side of this one is that they couldn't finish drives. It sounds cliché, but they had a number of double-digit play drives that either resulted in field goal no points at all. The offense showed flashes throughout the contest, but consistency wasn't there, nor was the ability to extend the drive. They were nine of 20 on third down and converted none of their three fourth-down attempts.
To start, the offense did come out a bit flat. Despite Mitch Trubisky completing his first half dozen throws, most were check-downs and there was no true attempt to push the ball down the field until much later in the game.
One major disappointment in terms of the offense was the running game. Rookie David Montgomery seemed poised for a strong day against this unit, which was allowing 122.8 yards a game on the ground heading into Week 15. In this one, Montgomery finished with just 39 yards rushing and the team logged a 3.6 yards per carry average. Going down big in the third naturally changed the play-calling, but this should have been an area to exploit.
Defensively, star linebacker Khalil Mack struggled to make his presence known as he was really only first noticed at the 13:20 mark in the fourth quarter when he forced Aaron Rodgers to throw the ball away and make Green Bay have their first three-and-out of the game. Overall, the Bears front seven struggled to get at Rodgers all afternoon and gave him plenty of time to throw.
That said, you do have to give Chicago credit: They didn't give up. After Green Bay blew the game open with a 21-3 score in the third quarter, the Bears did claw back to make it a one-score game. Similar to the start of the contest, however, Chicago couldn't get much rolling after the 13-play touchdown drive to make it 21-13. Mitch Trubisky was picked off on their next offensive possession, couldn't convert on fourth down at the Green Bay 49 yard line on their possession after that, and finally couldn't get the miracle lateral to go their way in the final seconds.
Chicago didn't get help from the officials in this one either as Cordarrelle Patterson was called for interference in the first quarter. The receiver did seem to time his tackle perfectly and forced a fumble that the Bears recovered, but the refs saw otherwise. Green Bay later scored on that drive, but that wrong call was hardly the reason why they lost.
Turning point
Coming out of the locker room at halftime, Green Bay was up by just four and Aaron Jones was held pretty much in check. They got the ball to start the third quarter and broke the game open with back-to-back touchdown drives on the feet of Jones. He finished both drives off with a score, including a 21-yard dash on the first touchdown and then hammered the other in from the goal-line.
At the moment, that did seem to separate the Packers enough for them to win this game, but Chicago did hang around to eventually make it a one-score game. After forcing Aaron Rodgers and company to go three and out with 13:20 to play in the fourth quarter and down eight. Chicago was looking to knot up the score. On his second pass attempt, however, Mitch Trubisky's pass was intercepted by defensive end Dean Lowry that really eliminated their best shot at tying the game.
That double-score at the start of the third and the interception in the fourth as they had seemingly gained momentum was simply too much to overcome for Chicago.
Play of the game
In the end, it proved to mean nothing, but there were shades of a Miami Miracle on this final lateral play for Chicago. Instead of having Trubisky simply throw a Hail Mary from the Green Bay 34 yard line, he completed a pass underneath to Tarik Cohen to begin the school-yard lateral play. The Bears got as far as the Packers' 7-yard line before tight end Jesper Horsted fumbled to end the game. Had he pitched the ball to Allen Robinson, who was streaking behind him, it would have almost certainly been a touchdown. It's a big "What If?" scenario, but an exciting play nonetheless.
Quotable
If the Packers win out, they will be no worse than the No. 2 seed in the NFC and have home-field advantage in the Divisional Round. Given that the Green Bay defense was overall pretty stout in this game, it'd seem like a pretty tough task for any NFC team to head into Lambeau Field and take on this club. And it appears Aaron Rodgers knows it.
What's next
From here, the Packers will pack up and get ready to take on the Vikings in Minnesota for a critical NFC North contest on Monday Night Football. Depending on how the rest of the Week 15 slate shakes out, this could very well determine the division. As for the Bears, they'll head home and await the Kansas City Chiefs, who just beat the Denver Broncos, 23-3.
To see how everything unfolded in real time, check out our live blog from the contest below. Also, be sure to check back in late as this piece will turn into our main takeaways from the contest.
