Packer Central

The 18 Plays That Ended Packers’ Season In Playoff Debacle at Bears

The Green Bay Packers lost Saturday night’s wild-card game against the Chicago Bears. Here are the plays that led to their demise.
Bill Huber|
Chicago Bears receiver D.J. Moore beat Green Bay Packers cornerback Carrington Valentine for the decisive touchdown.
Chicago Bears receiver D.J. Moore beat Green Bay Packers cornerback Carrington Valentine for the decisive touchdown. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For the Green Bay Packers, their one epic playoff meltdown against the Chicago Bears on Saturday was the result of 18 plays that went to hell.

Play 1: Final Play of First Half

On the final play of the first half, Brandon McManus kicked a 55-yard field goal but Bears coach Ben Johnson called a timeout before the play. On the re-do, with the snap a bit inside of holder Daniel Whelan, the kick drifted wide left.

Play 2: 8:46 Remaining, Third Quarter

On third-and-2 from the 45, Jordan Love threw incomplete. Love was under pressure and had nobody open. He had an escape path for an easy first down but instead threw the ball into the Bears’ bench. It was the second consecutive three-and-out possession to start the second half.

Play 3: 1:29 Remaining, Third Quarter

On second-and-10 from Green Bay’s 21, Jordan Love was under immediate pressure because nobody bothered to block Montez Sweat. Before Love was sacked by Sweat or Grady Jarrett, he threw it into no-man’s land in the middle of the field. He was flagged for intentional grounding, and the Packers punted after a give-up completion to Chris Brooks on third-and-20.

Play 4: 0:48 Remaining, Third Quarter

Daniel Whelan led the NFL in punting average and was fourth in net. The punt team was exceptional all season, but explosive returner Devin Duvernay took the 50-yard punt back 37 yards to Green Bay’s 35. The gunner to that side, Kitan Oladapo, was blocked all the way to the logo.

The defense stiffened and got off the field on Lukas Van Ness’ strip/sack. Cairo Santos hit a 51-yard field goal to make it 21-9 with 13:29 remaining.

Play 5: 12:57 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

On third-and-10, Jordan Love was under siege again. Under pressure from Montez Sweat, Love chucked the ball into the line and was flagged for intentional grounding for the second consecutive series. The Packers weren’t guilty of a single grounding penalty all season.

The Packers punted the ball back to the Bears after taking about 40 seconds off the clock; their first four possessions of the second half gained one first down and consumed only about 6 1/2 minutes.

Play 6: 12:52 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

Daniel Whelan’s 58-yard bomb was returned 22 yards by Devin Duvernay.

Play 7: 10:12 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

The Packers gave up completions of 22 and 21 yards to tight end Colston Loveland. On third-and-4 from the 6, D’Andre Swift ran right for a touchdown. The blocking was exceptional and Keisean Nixon got out of the way rather than trying to make a play on Swift. The extra point made it 21-16 with 10:08 remaining.

Play 8: 6:36 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

Matthew Golden’s incredible 23-yard touchdown catch restored order, giving the Packers a chance to essentially take a two-touchdown lead. Instead, Brandon McManus’ extra-point attempt was wide left, leaving the score 27-16.

Play 9: 5:37 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

With the Bears on the move, a false start by Pro Bowl center Drew Dalman made it fourth-and-8 from Chicago’s 43. Caleb Williams made one of the best throws you’ll ever see. Just as he was about to be tripped up by Isaian McDuffie, he threw an incredible 27-yard pass to Rome Odunze.

Play 10: 4:55 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

On third-and-10 from the 30, Caleb Williams checked it down to running back Kyle Monangai, who turned upfield for a gain of 22 to the 8. Receiver Luther Burden III was in the area; two defenders tackled Burden and nobody tackled Monangai. One play later, the Bears were in the end zone and tacked on the two-point play to cut the margin to 27-24 with 4:18 remaining.

Play 11: 3:02 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

The Packers absolutely, positively needed a drive. Romeo Doubs’ absurd one-handed catch for a gain of 34 moved the ball from Green Bay’s 33 to Chicago’s 33. Moments later, Jordan Love connected with Matthew Golden at the sideline for 12 and a first down at the 21.

After Josh Jacobs was stuffed on first down and Luke Musgrave appeared to misjudge his jump in the end zone on second down, the Packers called timeout for a critical third-and-10 play. Coming out of the timeout, the Packers were flagged for delay of game. Love’s third-and-15 deep shot to Doubs was incomplete.

Play 12: 2:56 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

After missing two kicks wide left, Brandon McManus’ 44-yard field goal was wide right. So, the Bears trailed only 27-24.

He called it the “biggest disappointment in my career. Just an embarrassment of a performance.”

Play 13: 2:08 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

After a 12-yard completion to Colston Loveland gave the Bears a first down near midfield, the Packers had to burn a timeout because they had only 10 players players on the field. That left Green Bay with just one. More on that in a moment. 

Play 14: 1:48 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

Immediately after Caleb Williams’ short pass to D’Andre Swift on third-and-4 gained 23 yards to Green Bay’s 25, Williams went deep to D.J. Moore for the go-ahead touchdown. Cornerback Carrington Valentine rushed forward to defend a receiver screen to Luther Burden III. Valentine took the bait, and Moore ran right past him for an easy touchdown. The extra point gave the Bears a 31-27 lead with 1:43 to go.

Play 15: 0:55 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

On second-and-3 from Chicago’s 49, Jordan Love delivered a downfield strike to Jayden Reed, who dropped the ball at about the 28. He would have taken the ball to about the 20-yard line.

“That’s all me, man,” Reed said. “I’ve got to make that catch, you know. If I want to be that guy for this team, I’ve got to make the catch. Who knows? I could have broke out and scored. At critical moments, I have to be at my best. So, I take that. That’s blame on me.” 

Play 16: 0:50 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

On the next play, Jordan Love connected with Romeo Doubs for 6 yards and a first down. The Packers opted to call their last timeout, even though they had the Bears on their heels a bit and would have had a relatively easy reset considering the quick-hitting nature of the play.

“Hindsight’s 20-20,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “We wanted to get a good play that we thought could pick up a chunk. We did. But unfortunately we had an injury that burned some time, and obviously, the timeout that really hurt us was when we make a substitution error and we have too many defensive players on the field. That stuff cannot happen.”

Play 17: 0:44 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

On the next play, Jordan Love and Jayden Reed connected over the middle for a catch-and-run gain of 20 to Chicago’s 23. Center Sean Rhyan was injured on the play. Officials called timeout, which meant a 10-second runoff to 22 seconds with a running clock.

Play 18: 0:07 Remaining, Fourth Quarter

After Jordan Love and Christian Watson almost made an incredible connection on a play that started with 19 seconds to go, Rasheed Walker was called for a false start on second-and-10 and Love was hit from behind while throwing on second-and-15.

On third-and-15 from Chicago’s 28 with 7 seconds to go, the design was a quick pass to the sideline to get a handful of yards to make the last-gasp throw into the end zone at least a little easier. Instead, Love dropped the snap, nobody was open and the game ended on an incompletion to nobody in particular.

“When he dropped the ball, then it becomes the last play of the game,” coach Matt LaFleur said, “and then just from there on out, it’s just chaos.”  

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.