Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
INSIDE THE GAME Doing enough to get the job done again
Green Bay — The Green Bay Packers took a big step en route to clinching a playoff berth with a 21-13 victory over the Chicago Bears on Sunday at Lambeau Field.
Owczarski’s observation
It looked like Packers head coach Matt LaFleur didn't want to play around with the desperate Bears, and he made that evident on the first play from scrimmage with a deep shot from Aaron Rodgers to Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Though it fell incomplete, it set the tone for at least half the day for LaFleur. He often went for it on fourth down – and got the game's first touchdown out of it. And in the red zone, Aaron Jones ran with that same killer instinct to seemingly put the Bears away at 21-3 in the third quarter.
Only all of that froze up in crunch time. After that score the Packers ran 15 plays for 10 yards and gained one first down – and they were even assisted by a Dean Lowry interception in Bears territory. They allowed the Bears to climb back into the game and have a chance to tie it twice in the final two minutes. And with a chance to seal a win on thirdand-5 from the Chicago 46, the Packers had Rodgers take a loss to wind clock — giving the Bears another chance with 36 seconds left. It seemed to go against everything LaFleur has been about in the first half and the Bears nearly got into the end zone on a wild play at the end of regulation.
At the end of the day, the Packers again did just enough on both sides of the ball — which is what this team is all about. They've done it 11 times now, and will return to the playoffs for the first time in three seasons.
4 Takeaways
Bear killer: Heading into Sunday, Rodgers had an 18-5 career record against the Bears, including three straight at Lambeau Field and six of the last seven in the rivalry. Rodgers looked alternately fabulous and erratic – and wasn't helped with some early drops – but more often than not he made the back-breaking throws to lead the Packers to another victory in the 200th edition of the rivalry.
Hot hand at cornerback: With Kevin King nursing a shoulder injury, Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine had the option of using veteran Tramon Williams more opposite Jaire Alexander to help King get back to optimum health. King was active after missing last week's game against Washington, and Pettine routinely went with his sub packages to get not only King and Williams on the field together, but also Chandon Sullivan.
Exploiting hole in Bears middle: LaFleur has maintained that he goes into every week looking to exploit matchups, and the Bears entered the game with two backups at inside linebacker. The Packers did try to run at the interior of the Bears' defense and had some success (including Aaron Jones' 2-yard touchdown run), but weren't really able to find matchups in the pass game.
Bears’ new look on offensive line: Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky had been sacked only eight times in the last four games heading into Sunday, thanks to a swap of Cody Whitehair and James Daniels to move Whitehair back to center and Daniels out to guard. The Bears also had former backups Rashaad Coward at guard and Cornelius Lucas at right tackle, but they had played well. Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark dominated the interior, however, as the Packers made sure to stay disciplined on the edges to contain the run game.
Game ball
Kenny Clark, DT: After snapping a 10-game sackless streak last week against Washington with 11⁄2, Clark absolutely wrecked the interior of the Bears' reconfigured offensive line. He had two sacks, 3 tackles for loss and 6 tackles overall. His dominance allowed the Packers to rush three or four, allowing more coverage.
See, what had happened was…
On the first play from scrimmage for the Packers, Rodgers ran play-action to Aaron Jones and Valdes-Scantling streaked past Bears corner Prince Amukamara. Rodgers delivered a perfect ball over Valdes-Scantling's shoulder, in stride, only the receiver didn't extend his arms fully and the ball dropped harmlessly to the turf.
5 Numbers
1: Sacks by the Bears. The Packers offensive line neutralized Bears defensive end Khalil Mack. It was marked improvement from the season opener, when the Bears sacked Rodgers five times.
6: Fourth downs attempted by the Packers and Bears. The teams went 1for-6.
The halftime score Sunday, which equaled the score at intermission of the season opener.
11: Victories on the year for the Packers, their most since 2014.
45: Yards on Tyler Ervin's secondquarter kick return, the longest for the Packers on the year.
Did you notice?
Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine and LaFleur elected to make inside linebacker B.J. Goodson inactive, instead going with safety Ibraheim Campbell next to middle linebacker Blake Martinez for the bulk of the defensive snaps. It also meant safety Will Redmond and cornerback Josh Jackson were active, giving Pettine nine defensive backs to combat a mobile quarterback and slippery skill-position players. Martinez also kept a close eye on Trubisky, tracking him down on scrambles and even tapping different defensive linemen to drop into coverage to help confuse the Bears quarterback.
Play of the game
With 6:33 to go in the game and the Bears in position to potentially tie the game with a touchdown and two-point conversion, Packers linebacker Za'Darius Smith rushed over the middle of the Bears' offensive line and defensive lineman Lowry dropped off. Trubisky unloaded right into Lowry's hands for an interception. Though the Packers went three-and-out, they ran off over two minutes of play clock and then pinned the Bears back at their own 5.