Packers collapse vs. the Bears in 3rd ever playoff meeting

The Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears met for the third time in the postseason since 1941. It did not end the way the Packers had hoped as Green Bay fell to Chicago 31-27 in the NFL Wild Card round in Chicago, a game where the Packers dominated most of the first half, but will look back on the failures of what was ultimately an incomplete game, culminating in a slow second-half collapse.

The game began with an opening drive score by the Bears to take a 3-0 lead. The Bears chipped away at the Packers’ defense, making the Bears earn every yard. Quarterback Caleb Williams hit two 12-yard completions to Luther Burden and D.J. Moore, as well as a 9-yard run on third down by Kyle Monangai on a 3rd-and-1 to move the chains.

The Bears ended up 4-for-5 on third down on the opening drive after Kingsley Enagbare nearly stalled their drive with a 4-yard loss when he shot through the blocking on an apparent wing trap run. He wasn’t fooled.

But Caleb found D.J. More on 3rd-and-12 for a 12-yard gain. Eventually, the defense tightened and held on 3rd-and-5, forcing an incompletion after sustaining a nearly eight-minute drive.

The Packers went right to work after taking the kickoff and a 10-yard holding penalty that pushed them back to start their opening drive on the 15-yard line. Jaydeen Reed to the offense’s first play on an end around for 14 yards to the 29.

The Packers methodically moved the ball 85 yards in 9 plays. Jordan Love completed a 33-yard deep ball off of a play action mirrored corner concept, where it looks like the outside receivers are going to run deep crossing routes. Doubs breaks out to the corner with a good bit of separation, and Love dropped it in.

A few plays later, Love connected on 3rd-and-2 with Christian Watson for the touchdown. Operating under center, Love executed a play-action fake and booted out to his right on a naked bootleg.

Watson started on the left and ran the slide route to the flat from behind the line of scrimmage. The slide route put Nixon on the nickel in the flat, and from there, Watson did the rest, outrunning Bears nickel Nick McCloud to the front pylon.

The Bears’ next drive went into the second quarter with them converting a 4th-and-2. The Packers got some pressure on 3rd down with Quay Walker blitzing up the middle on a simulated pressure, but he was unable to chase down Williams, who was able to get off a throw rolling to his right.

That set up a 4th-and-2 and an easy decision to go for it. The play call was a 3×1 short dagger concept; the Bears easily converted against cover-1 5-man pressure, where the two inside defenders had trouble passing off the #2 and #3 receivers. It looked like straight man coverage, so it’s not clear what the communication issue was.

The Bears tried to convert another 4th down on the same drive but failed when Caleb Williams missed the sideline throw and threw it too far inside, where Carrington Valentine picked it off, setting up another Packers scoring drive that started at the 13-yard line.

This time, they went 87 yards in 10 plays. Josh Jacobs had a 13-yard run. Love found Matthew Golden on a broken play for 36 yards and then found Doubs for another 10-yard completion. The touchdown play was an absolute dime for six to Jayden Reed in the front corner of the end zone.

The Packers went to an empty 3×2 formation running verticals into the end zone. Reed ran a hitch-and-go that was beautifully executed that put him on the outside linebacker. 

You can see the corner pass off the route and take Watson vertically, while the spin move put linebacker Tremaine Edmunds in a spin cycle and created separation for Reed. Love placed it on the back shoulder.

The Bears’ next drive ended on a 4-and-out series after a replay assist reversed a 3rd down completion to an incomplete pass.

Ben Johnson went for it again on 4th down, and the Bears failed to convert after Edgerrin Cooper deflected the pass at the line of scrimmage, giving the Packers the ball at the Bears’ 32-yard line.

The Packers took eight plays score on the ensuing drive that almost ended in disaster. Watson caught another pass on the same play he scored on in the first quarter, and as he jumped for the goal line, he fumbled the ball into the end zone, where it was luckily recovered by Doubs in a heads-up play.

Any other outcome, whether out of bounds or recovered by Chicago, would have been a touchback for Chicago.

Since it was fourth down, the ball cannot be recovered for a touchdown unless by the player who fumbled so the ball remained in the Packers’ possession but was placed at the 1-yard line for a new first down. Love found Doubs for a 1-yard touchdown throw on 4th down.

The game went into halftime with the Bears failing on their 3rd fourth down conversion attempt in a row and the Packers nearly coming away with a field goal as time expired. The Packers led 21-3 at halftime.

The Packers’ third quarter was a complete 180 from the first half. They had three drives and went three-and-out for -2 yards, followed by another three-and-out for +8 yards, and another drive that started promising but only ended up gaining 13 total yards after an intentional grounding penalty. So that’s a net gain of 19 yards in the third quarter for the Packers offense.

The Bears did their level best to keep themselves from getting back into the game, though after driving the length of the field on two of the drives, only to end in a field goal, a fourth-down red zone interception, and a field goal after a strip sack by Lukas Van Ness.

On some of the notable plays, Matt LaFleur sent an eligible lineman out to run a screen, Darian Kinnard, but he would fumble forward out of bounds after a six-yard gain. Then, Edgerrin Cooper would leave the game for the blue tent and was ruled questionable to return.

On 4th and inches in the low red zone, linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper intercepted a throwaway ball from Williams after Williams wanted to throw to D.J. Moore, who fell down in the end zone.

Williams had nowhere to throw it and didn’t want to take a sack, so he threw it off his back foot and couldn’t get it out of bounds. Lukas Van Ness later came through with a strip sack for a 9-yard loss that forced the Bears to punt.

Jordan Love took another intentional grounding penalty after Jordan Morgan appeared to peel off his block on a pass rusher up the middle in favor of the rusher coming around the edge. The resulting decision for Love to throw it away, where he was flagged. Loss of down and another Packers punt, their fourth of the half after zero in the first half.

That drive was equally frustrating because the Bears’ kickoff after the field goal landed short of the landing zone, giving the Packers offense the ball at their 40-yard line in prime position.

On the ensuing Bears drive, the Bears offense went 66 yards in seven plays, after an 11-yard scramble by Williams, and 22- and 21-yard pass completions to Colston Loveland.

One of the passes got the Bears into the red zone when they isolated Loveland on Quay Walker on a corner route off of a scissors concept. The Packers sent a 5-man pressure with fire zone behind hit, and Loveland gained separation on Walker before Williams hit him in stride over the top. The Bears eventually punched it in from five yards out and cut the lead to 21-16.

The Packers needed to answer in a bad way and did with a 6-play/54-yard touchdown drive. It almost ended in disaster as soon as it began when Josh Jacobs had the kickoff punched out of his hand on the return after a 33-yard gain. Kitan Oladapo recovered it at the bottom of the pile, saving the drive.

The first down play had a holding call on Rasheed Walker. Then Love completed the next two passes to Doubs for nine and 22 yards on a 2nd and 11 to get them across midfield. 

Four plays later, Matthew Golden scored his first touchdown of the season on a swing pass out to the right side. Golden made about four defenders miss their tackles and gave great effort to sprint into the end zone from 23 yards out. Brandon McManus would obviously miss the extra point.

If there’s one thing the Bears and Caleb Williams are good at, it’s playing late with some desperation. The next Bears drive began with 6:29 left in the game and ended in a touchdown score with 4:18 left in the game. They would convert the two-point conversion to cut the game to 27-24 Packers.

Williams extended the drive with an off-schedule throw on 4th-and-8 rolling to his left to hit Rome Odunze for 22 yards down the sideline.

The next Packers drive could have put the game away with a touchdown, most likely would have put it away with a field goal, and instead kept the Bears in a 3-point game when McManus missed his second kick of the night.

Love hit throws of 34-yards and 12-yards to get to the 21-yard line, but they would get no further, leaving the field on a 3rd-and-15 before McManus missed the field goal. 3rd-and-15 because the offense took a 5-yard delay of game penalty when Love didn’t get the snap off in time after making some protection adjustments. 

The Bears took over at the 34-yard line and began their march down the field on a scoring drive before the two-minute warning. The Packers defense was happy to oblige.

The catalyst was two coverage busts back-to-back, first by Kingsley Enagbare.

The Bears are running a simple stick/flat concept, and Enagbare should have carried the flat route all the way to the sideline.

Then the defense bit on a fake screen and allowed D.J. Moore to get wide open on a vertical route down the sideline for the go-ahead touchdown.

The Packers had one timeout and 1:48 left to try and win the game. The one timeout ended up being critical as some poor game management before the 2-minute warning cost them a timeout. The Packers drove down despite the receivers dropping some passes late in spots that put them behind the chains. Love the skill group battled back, but lost 10 seconds for an injury.

A false start put them at 2nd-and-15, and from there it was over. Love and the offense could not mount a comeback, and Love’s fourth-down throw into the end zone hit a Bears defender in the chest as time expired on the Packers’ season, 31-27 at Soldier Field.