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.

Packers Top Bears in Sloppy Game, Improve to 3-0

This game was nowhere near as close as the score indicates.  The Packers thoroughly outplayed the Bears on Sunday afternoon at Solider Field.  It was at times your classic, hard hitting Bears and Packers game and at other times it was Green Bay talent overload.  The Bears defense did all they could but at the end they were no match for all of the playmakers on the Packers offense.  

The Packers starting the game the same way they began the NFC Championship in January.  They took the ball and behind a red hot Aaron Rodgers marched right down the field and scored.  This time around it was Rodgers finding Jermichael Finley on a free play (the Bears jumped offsides) for a quick touchdown.  Finley was on his way to a career day with three touchdowns.  The offense at times looked unstoppable against a very good defense but at other times looked sluggish and lack-a-daisical.  Ryan Grant showed a great burst throughout the entire game and made up for two lackluster games prior.  The Packers rushed for 100 yards on the dot and that is the third straight game at or over 100 yards rushing.  The Packers did a good job of opening big holes and getting blocks on the second level by guards Josh Sitton and TJ Lang.  The Packers did get another injury scare to one of their starters.  Right tackle Brian Bulaga left the game and did not return with a knee injury.  We will see what the injury is on Monday when Coach McCarthy speaks to the media; the early reports are a bruised knee.  My player of the game on offense was Jermichael Finley with 7 catches for 85 yards and 3 touchdowns.

The Packers defense was brutal in the first half.  Yes I know they only gave up 10 points but those 10 points came in a ten minute span in the second quarter and there were too many big (plays of 20 yards or more) plays.  Also there was very little pass rush against Jay Cutler and they gave him way too much time to find his receivers downfield.  After halftime the defense made the adjustments and got into gear.  Sacks by Jarius Wynn and Jarrett Bush gave them three for the game.  The defense did an amazing job against the run and held Matt Forte to 2 yards on nine carries.  For the game the Bears had 13 yards rushing their lowest total since 1950.  Clay Matthews did a great job on stopping the run and blasted three running plays in the backfield in the first half.  That was believed to be the only weakness in Matthews’ game and if this game is an indicator of things to come, he may be unstoppable.  Morgan Burnett also had two interceptions and five tackles.  My player of the game on defense was Morgan Burnett.

Some problems for the Packers to work on are penalties, pass rush, turnovers and giving up too many big plays.  They had 7 penalties for 35 yards but most of those penalties killed drives and put the offense in 1st and 15 or 1st and 20 holes.  The Packers have got to clean up the penalties, stop me if you’ve heard that before.  After the first half the pass rush increased and Jay Cutler hit the ground a few times but they have to get it done from the opening kickoff.  The offense had two big turnovers (their first turnovers of the year) in the fourth quarter that made this game closer than it should have been.  Leading 27-10, James Starks fumbled on a great play and read by Lance Briggs.  Julius Peppers recovered the ball and set up the Bears with great field position, which it took them one play to score and bring the score to 27-17.  The next possession ended with Aaron Rodgers first interception of the season.  Brian Urlacher faked a blitz and dropped off into coverage on Finley.  Rodgers didn’t see him and throw a bullet that was picked by Urlacher.  The defense also has given up a lot of big plays so far this season.  

The Bears were able to exploit some of the coverage and made some big plays down the field.  I was really impressed with the Packers special teams play.  They covered punts and kickoffs well and had some good punt returns by rookie Randle Cobb.  Probably the play of the game was that crazy punt return by Johnny Knox in the final minute that was returned for a touchdown but brought back because of a holding penalty.  Devin Hester looked like he was going to make a fair catch and run to the sideline.  Then entire coverage team followed but the ball was at the far sideline and caught by Knox and he had nothing but green to the end zone.  It was a bizarre play and would have worked brilliantly if not for the holding penalty that negated it.  Aaron Rodgers said, “That was the most amazing play I’ve ever seen.”   

This was a huge game because the Packers beat a division rival.  They had to keep up with the Lions who won and are 3-0 also.  The Bears fall to 1-2 and 0-1 in the division which will come into play for tiebreakers at the end of the season for playoff seeding.  The Packers are 3-0 for the second time under McCarthy and are still looking for their best defensive game.  They come home and will face a underachieving Denver Broncos team next Sunday.  Can’t wait!

Matt