Packers Report Card: Grades From Playoff Collapse Against Bears

CHICAGO – The Green Bay Packers went into Chicago on Saturday night looking for redemption against the Bears after an epic collapse cost them a win and a shot at the NFC North three weeks earlier. The Packers controlled the game that night for 58 minutes, only to fall apart in the final 2 minutes and overtime period.

Saturday night’s stakes were higher. In fact, they were the highest since Jan. 23, 2011. That game was for a trip to the Super Bowl. Saturday’s game was not that, but it was win or go home.

The Packers went home following another epic collapse. On deck is one of the most interesting offseasons in recent memory.

But first, the report card from a devastating loss in the Windy City.

Pass Offense

If Jordan Love was supposed to be rusty, after sitting out the previous two games he didn’t show it. He converted two third downs on the opening drive. A 33-yard strike to Romeo Doubs on third-and-1 was followed by a third-and-2 conversion to Christian Watson for the game’s first touchdown.

On the second series, Love picked up where he left off. He hit Matthew Golden for 36 yards after escaping the pocket to his right. He shook off a sack from Austin Booker to convert a third down to Doubs. He converted the next by finding Jayden Reed in the corner of the end zone to give Green Bay a 14-3 lead.

Green Bay Packers receiver Romeo Doubs (87) makes a catch against the Chicago Bears. | Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Love added another touchdown pass to Doubs on fourth-and-goal from the 1 to give the Packers a 21-3 lead.

Love finished the first half with 166 passing yards, three touchdown passes and a 134.1 passer rating. He was brilliant in every sense of the word.

The second half? Not so much. The highlight of a third quarter was Love completing a pass to tackle-eligible Darian Kinnard for 5 yards that took multiple bounces on the field. Outside of that, the offense was mostly a disaster in the second half. Love was called for intentional grounding twice. He was under siege throughout the second half, until the Packers were leading 21-16 late in the fourth quarter.

Love and the offense were set back after Rasheed Walker was called for holding. From there, Love calmly dialed up two passes for Doubs for a first down. Later, he converted a third-and-9 with another completion to Doubs.

His next pass was a screen for Golden, who showed off his run-after-catch ability with a 23-yard touchdown to put the Packers back in control with 6:36 left to play.

With Caleb Williams making some magic on the other side, however, Love was asked to put together a drive to help salt the game away for Green Bay.

They led 27-24 with 4:18 left in the game and drove into field-goal range on the strength of big plays by Doubs and Golden. Unfortunately for Love, part of playing quarterback is managing the game, as well, and he was guilty of doing too many things at the line of scrimmage on a critical third down and taking a delay of game following a timeout.

That cost the offense 5 yards and any chance of converting to potentially kneel out the rest of the clock.

Ultimately, Love had a chance to win the game late and was part of the problem in the second half. He did not turn the ball over, but only led one scoring drive in the second half and was outplayed by Williams in the fourth quarter.

That muddies up what was otherwise a good performance from Green Bay’s signal-caller.

Grade: B

Rush Offense

The night started off great for Josh Jacobs, who looked fresh and reinvigorated after a week off. The run game would sputter from there, though, especially in the second half when the Packers were trying to salt the game away.

Jacobs finished the game with 55 yards on 19 carries. Most of Green Bay’s rushing yardage came on chunk plays from Chris Brooks and Jayden Reed, who added 30 yards on two carries.

Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs could not find much room against the Bears. | Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Overall, Chicago’s run defense was not good this season, and Green Bay was unable to move the ball on the ground. One carry in the second half gained more than 1 yard. That’s not going to cut it in any game, especially one where you’re trying to play with a lead.

For a coach who wants to move the ball on the ground like Matt LaFleur does, the run game was not nearly good enough for a postseason game.

Grade: D

Pass Defense

This game looked a lot like the last time these teams met at Soldier Field. Jeff Hafley’s group was brilliant against Caleb Williams and Chicago’s offense, holding them to six points through three quarters and taking the ball away with two interceptions.

The fourth quarter? That was a different story. Chicago’ sliced through Green Bay’s defense on the strength of Caleb Williams’ arm

Green Bay Packers defensive end Karl Brooks (94) forces Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams to throw an interception. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Williams shook off early struggles and started tormenting Green Bay’s defense. He finished the game with 361 yards and two touchdown passes, including the game-winner to D.J. Moore with 1:43 left in the game.

Tight end Colston Loveland caught eight passes for 137 yards, ripping off one chunk gain after another. The Bears had nine completions of 20-plus yards, including five on third and fourth down.

All of Green Bay’s good work early in the game was undone by a disastrous fourth-quarter performance. Ultimately, the NFL is about closing games out in the fourth quarter, and the Packers were a complete disaster giving up 25 points in that frame.

Grade: D

Rush Defense

The last time we saw this unit on the field in a game that mattered, they got rolled over by Derrick Henry and the Ravens for more than 300 yards.

This time, they faced a Chicago team who was one of the top ground games in football.

The early indications were that the Packers were going to get a steady diet of Chicago’s ground game. In the first half, Green Bay’s defense allowed just 44 yards on the ground and 2.9 yards per carry.

The result was Green Bay streaking out to a 21-3 lead, which largely took Chicago’s run game out of the game. The best defense, in this case, was their offense. At the same time, Green Bay stood up against Chicago’s run game. Kingsley Enagbare had a tackle for minus-4 and Edgerrin Cooper was incredibly active with five solo tackles.

For a group that was challenged both in the media and their meeting rooms, it was as good of a first half as Jeff Hafley could have dreamed of.

If there were a bright spot in this game, it’s that the Packers kept Chicago’s run game in check. They ran for just 93 yards on 28 carries. That’s 3.3 yards per carry.

Nobody will remember it because of how everything else went throughout the game, but it was a bright spot on an otherwise dreary day in Chicago.

Grade: B

Special Teams

It took until the postseason, but the Packers put Keisean Nixon back on kickoff returns. Nixon is a two-time first-team All-Pro as a kick returner, and as the games get bigger, putting their best returner back became a priority.

Nixon’s first return was marred by a holding penalty by Josh Whyle, which set the Packers back deep into their own territory to start the game. Otherwise, special teams was solid in the first half, with the lone blemish being Brandon McManus missing a 55-yard field goal wide left as time expired in the first half. McManus was not the only one at fault with Matt Orzech’s snap leaking a little to the left.

Green Bay Packers place kicker Brandon McManus (17) reacts to missing a field goal late in the fourth quarter. | Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The second half picked up where the first half ended. With Chicago trailing 21-6 late in the third quarter, Devin Duvernay gave the Bears a jolt with a 37-yard punt return. With Chicago trailing 21-9 early in the third quarter, Duvernay added a 22-yard punt return, which the Bears turned into a touchdown.

Josh Jacobs nearly made the biggest mistake of the game when he subbed in for Nixon as a returner in the fourth quarter. Jacobs returned the ball to the 46 but fumbled. He was saved by Kitan Oladapo, who may have saved the game in the process.

Given good field position, the Packers scored a touchdown on that series, but McManus missed the extra point wide left, meaning Green Bay led 27-16 instead of 28-16.

After Chicago pulled within 27-24, McManus missed a 44-yard field goal to the right.

McManus missed three kicks that cost Green Bay seven points. In a game lost by four, that’s as disastrous of a performance as the Packers could get from their highly paid kicker.

Grade: F

Coaching

All gas, no brakes, as Matt LaFleur likes to say.

The first half of the game was proof of concept for LaFleur, who was not content to simply kick field goals with a 14-3 lead. LaFleur went for it on fourth down twice, and both plays came up aces.

His first was a play-action fake to Christian Watson, who ran for 22 yards before fumbling at the goal line. Thankfully for Watson, Romeo Doubs recovered the ball in the end zone that moved the ball back to the doorstep of the goal line.

After three plays did not result in points, LaFleur went for it again to try and step on Chicago’s throat in the first half. Love found a wide-open Doubs for a touchdown on fourth down to give the Packers a 21-3 lead.

Late in the first half, LaFleur remained not content to simply sit on his lead, instead trying to go get points before halftime after the Bears failed on the third fourth down of the first half.

Love and LaFleur got the team in position, but Brandon McManus’ field goal as time expired leaked wide to the left. That was a case of good process, but a poor result.

The second half? That was an abject disaster.

LaFleur and the offense struggled to get back on track. All three of its possessions in the third quarter resulted in punts, with Green Bay mustering only one first down.

LaFleur struggled to get his quarterback, who was clearly rattled by some of Chicago’s pressure in the second half, back into a rhythm.

The entire second half was a disaster class from LaFleur and his team, who lost composure as Chicago started to mount its run.

Green Bay Packers coach Matt Lafleur walks off the field after the playoff loss at Soldier Field. | Mark Hoffman/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

When the game got tight in the fourth quarter, Chicago looked like it had been there before and was comfortable. Green Bay looked rattled and, ultimately, made too many mistakes. That includes burning one timeout for having too many defensive players on the field and a delay-of-game penalty after a timeout.

Maybe that second timeout was on the quarterback. Maybe it was on the coach. Love was not willing to divulge once the game ended.

“I can’t even process that right now,” Love said.

What is true, is the Packers led 21-3 at halftime. They led 28-16 in the fourth quarter. They blew a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter.

Again.

Add it all together and you have the worst loss in LaFleur’s tenure.

Grade: F

Situational Football

A new category makes its debut this week with playoff games so often coming off to the situations each team is put in. This category covers third and fourth downs, red-zone opportunities, and other big plays in the game.

In the first half, everything was coming up Green Bay, even from the opening drive. Chicago’s first series drove into the red zone, but the Packers’ defense was able to hold the Bears to a field goal. In a playoff game, a four-point swing could prove to be massive.

Meanwhile, Green Bay’s first three red-zone possessions resulted in touchdowns with Jordan Love finding Christian Watson, Jayden Reed and Romeo Doubs for scoring strikes.

In the turnover department, the Packers created two early in the game. The first was a relative arm punt by Caleb Williams on a fourth down that was caught by Carrington Valentine at the Packers’ 13. Green Bay would take the ball 87 yards from there to score and give themselves a 14-3 lead.

Green Bay Packers cornerback Carrington Valentine (24) is tackled by Chicago Bears wide receiver Luther Burden III. | Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The biggest play of the first half, however, came on Chicago’s next series. After Xavier McKinney broke up a pass for Cole Kmet on third down, Edgerrin Cooper tipped Williams’ fourth-down pass at the line of scrimmage, which put the Packers in prime scoring position to take control of the game.

They weren’t done. Williams threw wild to Colston Loveland on fourth-and-4 from the Packers’ 37 late in the first half. That drive led to a missed field goal by Brandon McManus, which was really Green Bay’s lone blemish of the first half.

The second half got off to a bad start for Green Bay as they went three-and-out on their bonus possession, and their defense allowed Chicago to get into the red zone.

A big play by Quay Walker forced the Bears out of rhythm, and the red-zone defense stiffened up, forcing Chicago to kick a field goal.

Green Bay’s red-zone defense continued to save the day when a 21-6 lead that felt tenuous at best. Chicago penetrated inside Green Bay’s 10 when Ben Johnson dialed up a play-action pass on fourth-and-1.

Karl Brooks beat Pro Bowl center Drew Dalman and was in the face of Williams, who was forced to throw off his back foot and into the waiting arms of Ty’Ron Hopper, who was in the game in place of Cooper who left the drive earlier with an injury.

Lukas Van Ness ended Chicago’s next red-zone possession with a strip sack, forcing the Bears to kick a long field goal to make the score 21-9.

After Green Bay’s offense could not do anything with the ensuing possession, the dam finally broke for the red-zone defense with D’Andre Swift finding the end zone from 5 yards out to cut Green Bay’s lead to 21-16 in the fourth quarter.

McManus missed an extra point in the fourth quarter, which took a point off the board for the Packers, after Matthew Golden’s 23-yard touchdown.

Late in the game, McManus would miss again on a drive the Packers looked like they could get in position to salt the game away. With two missed field goals and a missed PAT, McManus cost the Packers seven points, and those plays almost always come back to bite you in a playoff game.

As fate would have it, the mistakes the Packers made, and the failure to put the Bears away when they led 21-3, came back to bite them. Chicago piled up 25 points in the fourth quarter, and the Packers looked rattled throughout the second half.

All of the good the Packers did on this night was undone by the bad that followed.

Grade: D

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Pass Offense

Rush Offense

Pass Defense

Rush Defense

Special Teams

Coaching

Situational Football

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