Snaps, Studs and Duds From Packers’ Statement Win Over Bears

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Chicago Bears’ team song is “Bear Down, Chicago Bears.” On Sunday, it was “Beat Down, the Chicago Bears.”

The Green Bay Packers delivered an emphatic wire-to-wire victory over their rivals. It was total domination and no asterisks were required.

Here’s our weekly look at the snaps along with six studs and two duds.

Packers Snaps on Offense

The Packers played 61 snaps on offense.

Quarterbacks: Jordan Love played the first 59 snaps before Tyrod Taylor took a knee to run out the clock. Love had played every snap this season. After two games of quality pass protection, he will be feeling good headed into Sunday night’s game against the Cowboys.

Love was 25-of-31 (80.6 percent) for 367 yards and two touchdowns, good for a career-high 137.5 passer rating. It was only the second occasion in franchise history of at least 350 passing yards, an 80 percent completion rate and two touchdowns in a game (Aaron Rodgers vs. Washington in 2019).

AIR JORDAN ✈️

Jordan Love joins Ben Roethlisberger as the only players with 5 completions of 30+ air yards in a single game since ESPN began tracking the stat in 2006. pic.twitter.com/x9rY4KOKNu
— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) October 11, 2026

Running backs: After last week’s game against Tampa Bay, coach Matt LaFleur said the best teacher is the bench for running backs with a fumbling problem. So, with two fumbles to start the season, Kaleb Johnson found himself on the bench until the game was in hand.

MarShawn Lloyd led the unit with 27 snaps. Pierre Strong, making his Packers debut after spending all of last season and the start of this season on the practice squad, played 25 snaps. Johnson got nine snaps at the end.

Lloyd led the way with 10 rushes for 31 yards and two touchdowns. The Packers need more of his first touchdown run, when he ran over Jaylon Johnson to gain the final 2 yards, because he’s too often taken down sideways and doesn’t fall forward for an extra yard or two.

Receivers: The Packers are running out of receivers. Skyy Moore, who had replaced injured Jayden Reed in the slot, dropped out after 11 snaps with an ankle injury.

As always, Christian Watson and Matthew Golden led the way. Watson played 49 snaps and Golden played 47 (with three more as the punt returner). Bo Melton became the next man up to Moore, who had been the next man up, with 30 snaps. J. Michael Sturdivant played only eight.

Among all receivers who were targeted at least four times this week, Watson was first with 4.77 yards per route and Golden was second with 4.56.

Melton played 16 on special teams and Sturdivant played 11.

Tight ends: Tucker Kraft played 47 snaps, with his 77 percent playing time a bit less than usual due to the score. Mark Redman, who has been invaluable as a blocker, played 21 snaps. Jonnu Smith also played 21 and Josh Whyle got 11.

Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft (85) stiff-arms Chicago Bears cornerback Malik Muhammad II. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The only statistical contribution was Kraft’s five catches for 64 yards.

Offensive line: The No. 1 line of left tackle Jordan Morgan, left guard Laken Tomlinson, center Sean Rhyan, right guard Travis Glover and right tackle Anthony Belton went the distance. With Glover making his second consecutive start, Kevin Zeitler’s Packers debut was limited to six snaps on special teams.

According to PFF, Belton and Rhyan pitched shutouts in pass protection. Tomlinson allowed only one pressure. Glover wasn’t as good against Chicago as he was against Tampa Bay, but he’s still been an upgrade over Jacob Monk.

Packers Snaps on Defense

Green Bay Packers defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt (95) tackles Chicago Bears quarterback Tyson Bagent. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Packers played 69 snaps on defense.

Defensive tackles: It was a vintage Jonathan Gannon rotation. Karl Brooks, who had one of the team’s eight tackles for losses, led the unit with 39 snaps, followed by Devonte Wyatt with 32, Javon Hargrave and Chris McClellan with 31 each, and Jonathan Ford getting 17.

Now what, though? Hargrave suffered a torn Achilles late in the game. Coach Matt LaFleur was crushed.

“That kind of takes the air out of the room a little bit, when you lose not only a great player but a great guy, a key piece to this team, and it kind of puts a little bit of a cloud on the day,” LaFleur said.

With Warren Brinson on injured reserve, it will be Anthony Campbell’s time after he missed the last three games with an ankle injury sustained in his NFL debut against the Jets.

Wyatt had his first two sacks of the season. The first was a cheap one, with Tyson Bagent slipping and falling. The second was a sack-fumble that was the cherry on top of the victory sundae.

Edges: It was a balanced snap count here, too. Lukas Van Ness played 40 snaps. After that, it was Brenton Cox with 35, Dani Dennis-Sutton with 32 and starter Barryn Sorrell with 31. The tenor of the game meant more snaps for Cox, who is one of the team’s better pass rushers. (More on that in a moment.) Sorrell, meanwhile, played 16 snaps on special teams, so that probably impacted his workload on defense.

Dennis-Sutton might wind up moving ahead of Sorrell on the depth chart at some point. While he’s routinely lost on bootlegs, you can’t deny his big-play production. He had one sack along with a tackle for loss when he read and destroyed a receiver screen.

Linebackers: How would the Packers replace premier starter Edgerrin Cooper? Zaire Franklin played the first 64 snaps before he was removed at the 2-minute warning. Ty’Ron Hopper played 39 snaps and Isaiah McDuffie played 34.

The rotation was the way to go because both players are key cogs on special teams. Hopper played 14 snaps on special teams, giving him a total of 53, and McDuffie played 16 snaps on special teams, giving him a total of 50.

Franklin had nine tackles, one tackle for loss and one forced fumble, McDuffie had five tackles and Hopper had an interception.

Nick Niemann and Kristian Welch didn’t play on defense but got 18 and 16 snaps, respectively, on special teams. Niemann had two solo tackles.

Cornerbacks: Brandon Cisse was one of two defensive players to play every snap. Keisean Nixon played 61; he sat out the eight-play final series. Carrington Valentine played nine snaps as the next corner and Kamal Hadden got seven snaps in the slot to end the game.

Benjamin St-Juste was limited to six snaps on special teams as he continues to be plagued by hamstring issues.

The corners were excellent given the limited challenge brought by the Bears. Cisse allowed only one catch and had one sack.

Safeties: Evan Williams was the other defensive player to play every snap. Xavier McKinney played 61, getting to watch the final eight from the bench as Kitan Oladapo took his place.

Williams continued his hot start to the season with 11 tackles and McKinney’s two interceptions gave him three for the season. It was the team’s first two-interception game since Rudy Ford in 2022.

Packers Studs vs. Bears

QB Jordan Love: Is there a better deep-ball thrower than Love? It wasn’t as if his receivers had to make a bunch of circus catches. For the most part, the balls couldn’t have been placed any better had Love hit pause, run down the field, and put them directly into the receivers’ hands.

On passes of 20-plus air yards, Love was 6-of-8 for 258 yards and two touchdowns. He had as many deep completions as total incompletions in a ridiculous performance.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Matthew Golden (0) celebrates a touchdown against the Chicago Bears on Sunday. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

WRs Christian Watson and Matthew Golden: The numbers are absurd, with Watson and Golden combining for 12 receptions for 266 yards. It’s not as if the Bears have a bunch of stiffs at cornerback. Jaylon Johnson is a two-time Pro Bowler and Tyrique Stevenson is one of the best young corners in the game. Stevenson missed half the game with a hamstring injury, but the Bears are high on rookie Malik Muhammad, who was torched.

Ultimately, it didn’t matter. Watson and Golden are on pace to finish the season with about 3,000 receiving yards.

Edge Brenton Cox: Cox had only three tackles with zero sacks, quarterback hits or tackles for losses, but PFF credited him with six pressures. Really, he was the only player providing something resembling consistent pressure.

S Xavier McKinney and Javon Bullard: Bullard took a big Year 2 jump and has continued his rise. His deflected pass resulted in the first of McKinney’s two interceptions and set up the Packers for a touchdown to lead 14-0.

Packers Duds vs. Bears

LT Jordan Morgan: Morgan actually played pretty well, but pretty well as a blind-side protector isn’t good enough. He gave up a pair of sacks at the end of the first half, robbing the team of a chance to add onto its halftime lead.

K Trey Smack: No explanation is needed. The Packers will hope Smack’s three-miss day will be a blip on the career radar.

Professor @JacobWestendorf has his weekly Packers report card. It includes three 🅰️ grades from the blowout over the Bears. ⬇️https://t.co/54OfsuTNtv
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) October 12, 2026

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