The Green Bay Packers are the No. 1 seed in the NFC after defeating the Chicago Bears on Sunday at Soldier Field. The 35-16 win secured a second consecutive 13-3 season and ensured the road to Super Bowl LV will go through Lambeau Field in the NFC playoffs.
Here are the notes and observations from rewatching the Packers’ win over the Bears in the season finale:
– I still think it was a smart challenge by Matt LaFleur to open the game. The difference was 39 yards, and a chance to pin the Bears at the 1-yard line. I also still think there was enough video evidence to overturn the original call. It required piecing the two replays together. I get why the NFL stuck with the call, but I don’t have much doubt that Cordarrelle Patterson touched the ball before he went out of bounds.
– The Packers really loaded up to stop Derrick Henry last week, but they played some lighter defenses to start the game against the Bears, and Chicago took advantage. Playing nickel against two tight end formations is a risk. A lot of the Bears’ production in the run game evaporated when the Packers played some bigger fronts, especially with Snacks Harrison.
– Kenny Clark had a dominant game. On 3rd-and-2 on the opening drive, Clark drove his blocker into the backfield with brute power and disrupted the whole play. He is playing a powerful brand of football entering the postseason.
– Chandon Sullivan was a little late on his slot blitz on fourth down on the opening drive, giving Mitchell Trubisky time to find the hot read and get rid of the ball. Mike Pettine wanted to be aggressive. Sullivan might have had a chance to disrupt the play with better timing.
– Kamal Martin plays fast downhill against the run, but he has to get better at staying under control and making the play in the hole. He whiffed badly on David Montgomery on the touchdown run. He had a chance to stop the play well short of the goal line. The rookie also missed a tackle on Darnell Mooney later in the game.
– Incredible individual plays from Aaron Rodgers and Aaron Jones on the third-down conversion on the opening drive. Rodgers somehow got rid of the ball and avoided a big hit, while Jones caught the ball eight yards short of the sticks but made three defenders miss and picked up 15. Special effort.
– The Packers love the slot fade to Davante Adams in big situations. Rodgers will go to it every time against single coverage. The holding penalty prevented what would have been a touchdown.
– I wonder how many times Rodgers has thrown a red-zone touchdown to his third or fourth progression in a play this season. The touchdown to Robert Tonyan looked like another one. He had enough time before getting hit to come back to Tonyan breaking open along the backline moving to the quarterback’s left. Credit to Rodgers for the patience, and credit the offensive line for providing the time.
– Clark is a screen-buster. On 3rd-and-long, he recognized the screen, instantly pivoted back towards the play and helped stop Montgomery after a short gain. Impressive play from a man his size.
– Tavon Austin has long had a fumbling problem. His fumble was the 23rd of his career. It looked like he wasn’t prepared for the hit from his left after Randy Ramsey blocked the Bears defender into him at a weird angle. Austin must be stronger in possession of the ball, especially on special teams.
– Harrison is quicker than he gets credit for at 339 pounds. He can get off the ball. With his strength and power, a step is all he needs.
– The Packers had the one giveaway, and the Bears turned it into just three points. The Packers scored 14 points off their two takeaways. Adversity defense is important.
– The Packers need to find a better kickoff return option than Malik Taylor. He just doesn’t look comfortable doing the job. In fact, he looks like a turnover waiting to happen. I’d probably let Jamaal Williams handle it in the postseason. At least they could count on the ball security.
– Getting Marquez Valdes-Scantling running down the seam against a linebacker is certainly a fun matchup for the Packers. Danny Trevathan had no chance. Right call at the right time.
– It was a little bit of a fluke play, but credit Jaire Alexander for sticking with it and ripping the ball out on the Cole Kmet fumble.
– The Packers used the jet motion to help the offensive tackles against the Bears edge rushers several times. It’s enough to get those guys to freeze for a half-second. Against guys like Khalil Mack, a half-second is important.
– Once again, Matt LaFleur was one step ahead of Chuck Pagano. He called the perfect play to beat the coverage on Dominique Dafney’s touchdown. The Bears gave safety help against Davante Adams, leaving Dafney an opportunity to get behind the linebacker and into the open spot in the zone for the score.
– Preston Smith jumped offsides for the seventh time since joining the Packers in 2019, negating Adrian Amos’ takeaway. He tries to jump the snap way too often.
– Kevin King probably should have intercepted Trubisky’s final pass of the first half, but it would have been a tough play. He didn’t see the ball until it was right on him. Still, King probably should have been more ready for the ball to get to him in that spot.
– The Valdes-Scantling drop really sucked the air out of the Packers offense to start the second half.
– Surprising to see Darnell Savage let a receiver get behind him as the deep safety. He was a step late from being in a position to potentially intercept the football on the deep ball to Mooney, who made a great play.
– Once again, great adversity defense after giving up the big play. The Bears settling for field goals after big plays changed the game.
– Rodgers received some serious interception luck for a stretch in the third quarter. Three of his passes probably should have been picked. All three were dropped.
– Look at this play from Jaire Alexander. What a player.
– The Packers plugged up the middle with Clark and Harrison on the game-changing fourth down play, forcing the Bears to throw it. Chandon Sullivan played sticky coverage on Allen Robinson and the Bears turned it over. In fact, he probably could have had a pick-six the other way had he caught the ball.
– LaFleur designed a beautiful drive to put the Packers up 28-16. He made life very easy on his quarterback.
– The turnover was overdue. Trubisky suddenly needed to push the ball downfield, and Amos made a great play to drift over from a deep safety position and make the play on a ball that never should have been thrown. At least a few times every game, Trubisky is going to provide turnover opportunities.
– Davante Adams tying the team’s touchdown record on a perfectly-executed slant against the Bears top cornerback was fitting. The hop step king strikes again. Adams is just devastating at the line of scrimmage.
– Rashan Gary is setting strong edges in the run game every week. The Packers held Montgomery to just 69 yards on 22 carries, in part due to the edge players funneling everything back inside to the help.
– Savage didn’t have a takeaway but he was awesome in the tackling department all game.
– Amos and Alexander made strong tackles to keep the Bears out of the end zone to finish it off.