The 209th meeting between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears had everything you could want.
Intensity. Drama. And last-second theatrics.
Green Bay defensive lineman Karl Brooks blocked a 46-yard Cairo Santos field goal attempt as time expired allowing Green Bay to escape Soldier Field with a 20-19 win.
“I’m visualizing myself blocking the kick,” Brooks said afterwards. “And like I said, I just wanted it more. I just fired off the ball and wanted to get a win.”
The Packers won their 11th straight game in this series that dates back to 1921. That’s now the longest winning streak in the history of this rivalry.
Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur also stayed perfect against Chicago, improving to 11-0 in his career against the Bears.
Green Bay improved to 51-15 against the Bears since the start of the 1992 season and now leads this historic series 108-95-6.
Here’s the ‘Good, Bad and Ugly’ from the Packers’ latest win in this lopsided rivalry.
THE GOOD
KARL BROOKS: The second-year defensive lineman from Bowling Green got his left middle finger on a Cairo Santos field goal kick as time expired, allowing his team to improve to 7-3. The Bears fell to 4-6 and lost their fourth straight game.
“It was just an unbelievable feeling,” Brooks said. “At first when I touched it, I didn’t think I got enough of it and it fell short and that’s when I really celebrated, so it was fun, though, for sure. It was cool. It was a good experience.”
The Packers spotted something on film early last week and believed they could come up with a block.
“Inside,” Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark said of the Bears’ weakness. “Inside at the guards.”
That’s exactly what happened.
Brooks and fellow defensive tackle T.J. Slaton collapsed the middle. Brooks got his 32-inch left arm up and got denied Santos and the Bears.
“We knew there was a high possibility of blocking a kick,” Packers guard Sean Rhyan said. “We didn’t know where in the game it was going to come from, it just happened to be the last one of the game, the most important one. And we got it.”
THE BEAT GOES ON: Since the start of the 1992 season, Green Bay is now a remarkable 51-15 against the Bears — a whopping .773 winning percentage. Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur has played a huge role in the dominance, going 11-0 in his 5 1/2 years with the Packers.
Mike Holmgren started the fun by going 12-2 against the Bears (.857) between 1992-1998. Holmgren also won his final 10 games against Chicago.
Ray Rhodes was 1-1 (.500), Mike Sherman was 8-4 (.667), then Mike McCarthy was a sensational 19-7 (.731) that included a win over the Bears in the 2010 NFC Championship Game.
Joe Philbin was 0-1 as Green Bay’s interim head coach in 2018, and now LaFleur has taken things to another level.
“I’m not worried about what’s happened in the past,” LaFleur said. “It’s one game. It’s great to come away with a win when you don’t feel like you necessarily played your best, but that’s a competitive football team. The margin of error in this league is so minimal.”
SOLID START: Green Bay put together an impressive 8-play, 70-yard touchdown drive to open the game.
The Packers ran the ball five times, threw it three and Love capped the march with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Reed. On the TD play, the Packers went hurry-up when they saw the Bears had 12 men on the field and Love and Reed hooked up for a score to give Green Bay a 7-0 lead.
CHRISTIAN WATSON: Green Bay’s third-year wideout has been quiet all season and entered the day with just 16 receptions for 233 yards.
But Watson had four receptions and set a new career-high with 150 receiving yards.
On Green Bay’s game-winning touchdown drive, Watson had a diving catch, wasn’t touched, then had the wherewithal to spring up and race 60 yards to Chicago’s 14-yard line.
Two plays later, Jordan Love plowed in from a 1-yard out to give the Packers a 20-19 lead.
Watson also had a 48-yard second half reception down to the Bears’ 8.
“Obviously I think it was a focus for us coming into this week was to try to keep getting him the ball, getting him some touches,” Packers quarterback Jordan Love said of Watson. “Definitely a guy that we feel like we can keep trying to get him the ball and give him some of those opps down the field and obviously when we do, he had a really big catch, a contested catch, and went up and made a play. So I think it was a big time day for him.”
BRENTON COX: Second-year defensive end Brenton Cox figures to get more playing time after the trade of Preston Smith last week.
So far, so good.
Cox had his first career sack when he blew up Caleb Williams for a 10-yard loss. Cox also dumped Chicago running back D’Andre Swift for a 3-yard loss.
“It feels good,” Cox said. “Just taking advantage of the opportunity. I knew I had a lot on my plate, so just going out there and playing hard.”
THIS AND THAT: Daniel Whelan’s first punt was 47 yards and perfectly angled to the left corner where Corey Ballentine downed it at the 5. … Running back Josh Jacobs had 134 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown.
THE BAD
CONTAINING CALEB: Chicago rookie quarterback Caleb Williams entered the day averaging 26.2 rushing yards per game. His high-water mark was 56 rushing yards in Week 4 against Jacksonville.
But Williams absolutely shredded Green Bay’s defense, rushing for 70 yards on nine carries. Williams averaged a whopping 7.7 yards per carry
“They had a lot of QB runs, QB-designed runs,” defensive end Rashan Gary said. “I said before the game he’s able to extend plays on his feet and he did that well today. I was surprised by how much designed runs there were, but that comes with having a new OC. There were some new things that we didn’t know that they were going to do and they did. So, it is what it is. We know now. Going into the next game, we’ll be better.”
END OF THE STREAK: Chicago scored its first touchdown in 26 drives in the final moments of the first half when Roschon Johnson ran over Quay Walker for a 1-yard score. That gave the Bears their first lead of the day at 10-7.
Interestingly, Johnson had the Bears’ last touchdown back in Week 8.
QUAY WALKER: The light has just never fully gone on for Green Bay’s third-year linebacker — and this game was more of the same.
Walker had a chance to sack Caleb Williams in the third quarter and inexplicably seemed to stop. Walker had Williams dead to rights on a fourth-and-1 play in the third quarter, but whiffed and the Bears quarterback scurried for a first down.
Walker had running back Roschon Johnson squared up on the goal line late in the first half, but Johnson was the more powerful player and carried Walker into the endzone.
Walker was a first round draft pick in 2022, but hasn’t lived up to that his lofty draft status. Sunday was the latest example.
JAIRE ALEXANDER: The Packers’ seventh year cornerback is a problem — on the field and on the books.
Alexander, who still has two years left on his four-year, $84 million contract, is the NFL’s third-highest paid cornerback. The problem is he’s a part-time player these days.
Alexander had missed 27 of Green Bay’s last 60 games heading into Sunday’s contest against Chicago. Alexander, who hasn’t played since Week 6 against Jacksonville, was questionable all week with a knee injury.
The Packers thought they were getting good news when Alexander showed enough in pregame warm-ups and was active. But Alexander lasted just 10 plays before leaving with that same knee injury.
It’s too late into the season to do anything with Alexander and his hefty contract. But it will be a top priority this offseason.
THIS AND THAT: Romeo Doubs had a costly second quarter drop on a third-and-3 that would have given the Packers a first down. … The Bears went 5-for-7 on third downs in the first half and 9-of-16 for the game.
THE UGLY
DEFENSELESS: The Bears had scored just 27 points in their last three games — a paltry average of 9.0.
Chicago gave up nine sacks last week. And the Bears fired their offensive coordinator this week.
In every way, shape and form, they were a mess.
Facing Green Bay’s mediocre defense will help a team get healthy, though.
Chicago piled up 391 yards. The Bears went 9-of-16 on third downs (56.3%). And Chicago held the ball 36 ½ minutes.
“We’ve just got to clean it up, man,” safety Xavier McKinney said. “It’s tough because I think that we can play way better ball than what we did today, but it’s hard to win in this league. When you do win, you’ve got to be somewhat happy about the win because it’s hard to win. But also, you’ve got to know that there’s a lot of things to improve on and we’ve got to do that moving forward.”
Green Bay’s defense has become completely reliant on forcing turnovers. If they can’t take the ball away, they struggle to get stops.
On Sunday, the Packers didn’t have a single takeaway and watched the Bears march up and down the field all afternoon.
THROWING IT ALL AWAY: The Packers had an impressive 7 ½ minute drive that ate up half the second quarter, but produced no points.
Green Bay drove to the Bears’ 5 and had a second-and-1. That’s when things went awry.
First, left guard Elgton Jenkins was penalized five yards for being downfield illegally. Then wideout Jayden Reed was dumped for a 5-yard loss, setting up a third-and 11.
Jordan Love then overthrew Tucker Kraft and into the waiting arms of cornerback Terrell Smith, who corralled the pass for his first career interception.
“We had Tucker Kraft right there kind of on a pivot route and I missed him on the throw,” Love said. “Just missed high. Obviously sailed over his head and DB was right there to make a play on it. Just, bad throw.”
DOUBLING UP: The Bears turned a 7-3 deficit into a 13-7 lead by scoring a touchdown on their final drive of the first half and a field goal on their opening drive of the second half.
Chicago put together a 13 play, 76-yard drive to finish the first half and capped it with a 1-yard TD drive from Roschon Johnson. The Bears then drove 61 yards in 10 plays to open the second half and got a 27-yard field goal from Cairo Santos to take a 13-7 lead.
Chicago possessed the ball for roughly 10 ½ straight minutes in that time — 5:42 to end the first half and 4:43 to open the second half.
