Packers vs. Bears: Three Reasons to Worry
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers are 6-0 against the Chicago Bears with Matt LaFleur as coach. They’ve beaten the Bears six consecutive times at Lambeau Field. Aaron Rodgers is 23-5 against Chicago as the starting quarterback. What could possibly go wrong?
Here are three reasons to worry about the Sunday night showdown.
Packers on Offense: The Mighty Quinn
In March 2020, Robert Quinn signed a five-year, $70 million contract with the Bears. During his first season, he had two sacks. Free-agent bust? Hardly. Last year, Quinn finished second in the NFL with 18.5 sacks, including three in two games vs. the Packers. He added four forced fumbles. His 17.5 tackles for losses were his most since posting an NFL-high 23 in 2013.
Beyond the four Packers-Bears matchups the last two seasons, LaFleur knows Quinn well. They were together in Los Angeles in 2017.
“The first thing you notice is just his ability to get off the football,” LaFleur said. “He has got great get-off and can really fly off the ball. You’ve got to be on top of your snap count, and it’s a great challenge. And then the next thing that stands out is just the effort which he plays with. He has got a relentless motor and he can play a lot of snaps. It’s a great challenge for whoever has to line up across from him.”
That “whoever” will be David Bakhtiari or Yosh Nijman. Last season, 99.5 percent of his pass rushes came from the defense’s right side, or against the opposing left tackle. In last week’s opener against San Francisco, Quinn lined up on the defense’s right 100 percent of the time.
At right tackle, Elgton Jenkins was full participation on Friday and could make his season debut after suffering a torn ACL at Minnesota in November. His return would be huge. The Packers couldn’t handle the Vikings pass rush last week. If Quinn is the equivalent of Za’Darius Smith, there’s no equivalent to Danielle Hunter. But Trevis Gipson had seven sacks for Chicago last year, Al-Quadin Muhammad had six sacks for Indianapolis last year and rookie Dominique Robinson had 1.5 sacks last week.
A strong four-man rush is exactly what first-year Bears coach Matt Eberflus is looking for.
“It’s really good because you have now seven guys in coverage and you’re able to fill windows, and that’s really good against a good quarterback,” Eberflus said this week. “If you’re playing a guy whose got a little bit more inexperience, you can get away with sending five or more after him and open up those windows and that will affect him because he’ll look down at the rush a lot of time. But when you have a guy with experience, you really want to be able to do that most of the time, have seven guys in coverage, rush with four and that’s how we operate most of the time.”
Packers on Defense: The Full Montgomery
The Packers failed to stop Dalvin Cook last week and paid the price. This week, it’s David Montgomery.
A third-round pick in 2019, Montgomery is one of eight backs with 1,000-plus yards from scrimmage each of the last three seasons. At 224 pounds, he’s got the power to break tackles and continually gain extra yards. But he’s also got soft hands, with 54 receptions in 2020 and 42 in 2021.
He was tremendous in in both games against Green Bay in 2020, with 11 carries for 103 yards and five catches for 40 yards and one touchdown at Lambeau Field and 69 rushing yards and nine receptions (nine targets) for 63 yards at Soldier Field. In his one game against Green Bay last year, he had 81 total yards.
“There’s different types of runners in this league,” defensive coordinator Joe Barry said. “There’s guys that are really good ball-carriers when you hand it to them. There’s guys that are more valuable when they get out of the backfield catching the ball. When Montgomery is healthy, he’s proven to be able to do both. They do a great job with him on screens. He’s a big, physical back. When he catches a routine checkdown, he can turn it into big yards. When he’s stayed healthy, he’s proved to be a very good, very productive back.”
Obviously, a solid running game is a young quarterback’s best friend. With Cook’s effective play last week, Kirk Cousins carved up Green Bay’s secondary with a 155.4 passer rating on play action. The Packers need to stop Montgomery and force the ball into the hands of Justin Fields.
Special Teams: Block Party
Eberflus’ hire as special teams coordinator was Richard Hightower. He spent his last five seasons running San Francisco’s special teams. In the infamous playoff loss to the 49ers, Hightower’s special teams blocked a punt for the game-winning touchdown.
The Packers’ punt team faced a tremendous amount of pressure against the Vikings. “Definiltey way too leaky,” LaFleur categorized the protection. He said too many players were going “rogue” from a responsibility and fundamentals perspective. But the unit averted disaster and Pat O’Donnell had a strong debut.
“They gave us eight-man fronts and I thought we held up for the most part and got the ball out of there,” first-year Packers special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia said. “That’s really what we’re trying to do. How you get it done maybe sometimes doesn’t matter. But getting it done is a big deal and I thought we did that. We’ll get better as the year goes along.”
Packers-Bears: Did You Know?
Aaron Rodgers vs. Bears
Matt LaFleur vs. Bears
Lambeau Field Debut
Sackmaster
Big-Play Safety
Pregame Vitals
How to Watch: Bears at Packers
Packers-Bears Injury Report
