Upon Further Review: Packers vs. Bears

Hero of the Game: The hero of the game on Sunday was Jermichael Finley. He caught 7 passes for 85 yards and caught his first 3 touchdowns of the season. The Bears had no answers for Finley all day. The Bears played Cover 3 for the beginning of the game and finally switched to their traditional Cover 2 once Finley and Greg Jennings began to shred the defense. That is what this offense will do to defenses all over the NFL. “There’s really not too much you can do with the weapons we have and him playing like that, lights out,” Jennings said of Finley. “You want to take one thing away but you open up a can of other things.” The Packers saw the weakness of the Bears, two backup safeties in Craig Steltz and Brandon Meriweather, and exposed it. And they didn’t do it once; they did it all day long.

Goat of the Game: There is really one guy that deserves this spot and that is James Starks. He had 11 carries for 5 yards. 5 yards is not going to get it done. There were cut back lanes and times when Starks could have fallen forward for a yard instead of losing a yard and he missed them. Ryan Grant did a fantastic job of cutting back and running through contact and Starks simply did not. “Grant made excellent reads, cuts, against the playbook to make yards. Starks ran the play as drawn up and ran into the trash,” said longtime Packers contributor, Mike Clemens on a comment on one of my previous posts. Starks also had a big fumble in the fourth quarter that turned into a touchdown for the Bears on the next play. This season the Packers are going to ride the hot hand. It was Starks in the first two games and was Grant in this one. I would expect that to continue and we will see which runner has the hot hand next.

Play of the Game: Ok I know the play didn’t count but it was the play of the game. The Packers punted with just under a minute left to play and a 10 point lead. Tim Masthay’s punt sailed downfield and Devin Hester run up to the left side of the field and looked skyward for the ball. The Packers coverage team reacted to Hester and rallied around him. The ball was actually on the other sideline and caught by Johnny Knox and had open field to the End Zone. It turned into an 89 yard touchdown return and it looked like the Bears had cut the lead to 3 and would get a chance at an onside kick but that never happened. Chicago’s Corey Graham was called for a holding penalty that negated the play and gave the Bears the ball back deep in their own territory with under a minute to play. It was bizarre but scary. The play had been tried earlier in the game and Jarret Bush had downed the ball at the Bears two. The Packers special teams will have to look at this play as a great teaching tool and get their guys to check the ball as they cover the kick.

Quick Hits:

5 -- False starts, all by the offensive line. Gotta clean that up.

111.4 – Aaron Rodgers quarterback rating against the Bears on Sunday. This was the first time against the Bears in Chicago that Rodgers posted a 100 or better quarterback rating. Previous ratings were 87.6, 88.9, 92.5 and 55.4.

100 – Yards rushing by the Packers against the Bears. Three straight 100 yards or more rushing to start the year.

13 – The number of rushing yards for the Bears against the Packers. Jay Cutler’s 9 yard scamper in the final minute gave them 13 yards, their lowest total in 59 years.
 
Matt

Looking forward to the weekend?  See what the Packers should be worried about going up against @kyleortonary and the Broncos.