Report Card: Grades from Packers’ 17-9 Win Over Bears
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers offense and defense have gone through their struggles this season.
The offense hit rock bottom in late October after the Packers lost 24-10 to the Minnesota Vikings. The defense hit rock bottom two weeks ago when they were embarrassed by the Carolina Panthers.
After today's game, none of that matters.
The Packers are 0-0 and have earned the right to play in the postseason after a 17-9 win over the Chicago Bears.
The offense piled up more than 400 yards. The defense suffocated Justin Fields and Co.
This week’s report card is predictably kind to a team that dug out of a 2-5 hole to find its way into postseason play.
Here are our grades.
Pass Offense
"Jordan Love has things you cannot teach," coach Matt LaFleur said after the game.
Love finished the day 27-of-32 passing for 315 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
That easily could have been four touchdowns, if Bo Melton and Romeo Doubs had held onto as pass that hit them in the hands.
The biggest pass play of the game was not even part of the progression.
"That's just Jordan being Jordan," LaFleur said.
“Jordan being Jordan” led to a 59-yard completion to Jayden Reed that put the Packers in position for their final score of the game.
Love was brilliant, but specifically so on the final drive of the game.
The Packers faced two big third downs. Had they not converted, the Bears would have gotten the ball back with a chance to tie the score.
Love found Reed and Kraft on those plays to keep the drive alive.
It was a culmination of confidence that had been built throughout the season.
Love's play to Kraft, in particular, caught LaFleur's eye.
"That was a hell of a play," LaFleur said.
Love was flushed to his right and threw the ball across his body to Kraft. A forgotten man early in the season while taking a back seat to Luke Musgrave, Kraft gained 15 yards on third-and-7.
“He may not have always loved the role, especially early on,” LaFleur said. “I know he wanted to be out there more. But he’s earned it.”
With the Cowboys on deck, the Packers are going to need points. On Sunday, they were short on those, which is their only knock.
Grade: B
Rush Offense
Aaron Jones is "old" for a running back.
He's 29, which is ancient by his position's standards.
Jones has been in and out of the lineup for most of the season with various lower-body injuries.
He returned for a full workload against the Carolina Panthers, and has looked like the explosive playmaker the Packers know him to be.
He's run for more than 100 yards in each of the last three games.
Chicago's defense entered the game ranked No. 1 in the NFL in run defense. It didn’t matter. Jones carried 22 times for 111 yards. He averaged 5.0 yards per carry.
Perhaps what was most important, with AJ Dillon on the sideline, Jones was the only running back to carry the ball.
With all due respect to the other backs on the roster, Jones is the best one by a country mile.
The more he touches the ball, the better Green Bay's offense is.
They'll need their run game to travel next week as they take on an explosive Cowboys offense.
Grade: A
Pass Defense
The pass rush certainly came to play. Getting Justin Fields on the ground is as difficult an assignment as they come.
Devonte Wyatt, Kenny Clark and Lukas Van Ness found a way to get him down in the first half. All three of their sacks essentially ended drives for the Bears. Quay Walker and Karl Brooks added sacks.
The Packers had three sacks on third down. They had eight all of last season.
Through Youth, Injuries and Slumps, Packers Earn Playoff Spot
That's been the story for the Packers' defense this year. If the front seven gets pressure and sacks the quarterback, they're in a good spot.
If they don't. Well ...
On Sunday, however, they did.
Fields was held to 148 passing yards. With sacks taken off the tally, the net damage was just 117 yards. Those five sacks helped keep the Bears out of the end zone.
D.J. Moore got loose for a 33-yard reception in which it looked like the Packers busted a coverage. Tight end Cole Kmet had a 27-yard gain. Otherwise, the Packers kept Field and Co. under wraps.
Grade: A
Rush Defense
Justin Fields is one of the hardest quarterbacks in football to contain with the run game.
He's tough to prepare for and makes the rest of the run game around him better due to the ability he has to turn any play into a big one.
Chicago's run game was relatively silent. It didn’t help that they were missing two starting interior offensive linemen by the middle of the first quarter when Nate Davis went down with an injury.
Khalil Herbert, who was coming off back-to-back 100-yard games, was Chicago's leading rusher with 28 yards. Fields was limited to only had 27 yards on eight carries.
The Packers' defense has been much-maligned, and deservedly so, but their run defense showed up in a big spot. They're rewarded accordingly.
Grade: A
Special Teams
Anders Carlson missed a 41-yard field goal after a promising opening possession. He knew as soon as the ball left his foot that the kick was not going through the uprights.
Carlson has missed 11 kicks this season, including extra points.
As the stakes rise, those missed opportunities loom large.
Rich Bisaccia showed complete confidence in his kicker earlier this week, but this has been a season-long problem that continues to rear its ugly head.
Bears returner Velus Jones found room to roam against Green Bay's kickoff coverage throughout the day, as well, with a 28.3-yard average.
Green Bay's special teams were once again the lesser unit between the teams. They need to be better as the games get bigger.
Grade: C-
Coaching
Matt LaFleur might be getting some heat from the social channels for not challenging a spot on a Justin Fields quarterback sneak that initially looked like Fields was short of the line to gain.
No such criticism will be coming here. Challenging the spot in a pile of humanity like that is almost always a fool's errand.
He will, however, get low marks for his timeout usage at the end of the first half.
Kenny Clark sacked Fields on the first play after the two-minute warning. Instead of calling a timeout, LaFleur let the clock run. The Packers got the ball back with 1:17 left in the half instead of having an extra 40 seconds to play with.
The Packers got the ball into field goal range to end the half before a completion from Love to Wicks helped run out the clock when Wicks gave up forward progress.
Those extra 40 seconds could have come in handy at the end of the half.
To LaFleur's credit, he stayed aggressive late in the game.
On third-and-2 with more than 5 minutes left, LaFleur could have tried to run more clock when they were backed up deep in their own territory.
Instead, LaFleur trusted his quarterback and young offense and Love threw a seed to Jayden Reed to keep the drive alive.
On a third-and-7 with just over 2 minutes to play, LaFleur let Love try to make a play. Make a play, Love did. He found Tucker Kraft after breaking the pocket to his right, giving the Packers a first down that let them drain nearly the rest of the clock.
Maybe that's a play LaFleur would not have called a few weeks prior, but he did with a chance to clinch a playoff berth.
"We were in a mode where we knew the defense wasn't going to stop us,” Love said. “I think that's just that killer mindset. We wanted to finish with the ball.”
The theory here is that problems are best solved with aggression. LaFleur was aggressive and rewarded accordingly.
Grade: B+
