The Green Bay Packers still own the Chicago Bears. What the Packers also own are probably the worst special teams units in the 101 year history of the franchise. Units that played so poorly, they should have cost the team this game.
But Aaron Rodgers is just too good to allow it to happen. The sure-fire Hall of Fame quarterback made one incredibly accurate and clutch play after another, and it was his elite level of performance that inspired his team to overcome the despicable special teams and coast to a 45 to 30 victory over their traditional rivals. Rodgers finished with a stat line of 29 completions on 37 attempts for 341 yards, four touchdowns and a rating of a near perfect 141.1.
Sure, there were many other great performances. Davante Adams blistered the Bears’ defense for 121 yards and two scores on ten catches. Aaron Jones hit paydirt twice. AJ Dillon hammered the Windy City visitors into submission. An offensive line that lost Billy Turner early on, played its guts out. The defense woke up from a first half sleepwalk and chased Justin Fields all over Brown County.
But it’s Rodgers that sets it all up. The Packers have a team full of good players, but they have a chance to be a great team only because of number 12. His ability to read a defense, combined with the poise and skill to make, not only the right throw, but the right throw with precision accuracy, makes him irreplaceable. If this is indeed his last dance in Green Bay, the franchise will face an impossible task to replace him. His game ball, along with Davante Adams, goes without saying. Let’s acknowledge a few others.
GAME BALLS
AJ Dillon
Aaron Jones scored the touchdowns, but it was Quadzilla who wore down the Bears front in the 4th quarter, performing exactly the role he needs to for this team. He finished with 71 yards rushing on a 4.7 per carry average. It’s one thing to bulldoze up the gut as he usually does, but on the final drive when bounced outside for nine big yards to the ten it showed he is not just a one trick pony. NBC commentator Cris Collinsworth remarked that Dillon was “destined for super stardom”, and he may be right.
Allen Lazard
Being a receiver in the shadow of Davante Adams, it would be easy to go under noticed and under appreciated. But the former Iowa State standout is certainly noticed by his teammates, who heaped praise on him after the game. He wound up with six catches for 75 yards and a score, and several of his grabs were in crucial situations. Oh, and his blocking continues to be outstanding.
The Collective Pass Rush
They had a devil of a time getting hold of him, but the Green Bay pass rush made life miserable for Justin Fields all night. The rookie is elusive and fast, but he doesn’t throw well on the run, and the Packers were happy to let him build up his rushing stats while guarding against the big pass play. Give those game balls to Preston Smith, Rashan Gary, Kenny Clark, Kingsley Keke, Dean Lowry, et al. De’Vondre Campbell quietly had a sensational 16 tackles to lead the unit.
Rasul Douglas
What he may lack in speed he more than makes up for in his ability to break on the ball and jump a route. His aggressiveness will get him burned now and then, but it will also result in game changing plays like his 55 yard pick six that gave Green Bay its first lead in the second quarter.
LAME CALLS
The Obvious: Special Teams
It’s one thing to be incompetent. It’s another to be incompetent and stupid. The incompetence came in their inability to tackle Chicago’s return men. The stupidity came when the unit CONTINUED TO KICK TO THEM!! Throw in a muffed punt, a kickoff out of bounds, and a botched onside kick, and it became the theater of the absurd. Maybe the impact of all the injuries has filtered down to these units. The worst part of it is, the team doesn’t seem to know how to fix the problems.
Unnecessary Timeouts
The only imperfect thing about Green Bay’s impressive 13 play, 8:38 drive to ice the game in the fourth quarter, was the need to call the team’s two final timeouts. In both instances, the team didn’t appear to be ready to run the next play. It didn’t hurt them because they were comfortably ahead, but you never know when a timeout will be needed late in a game, perhaps to buy time for an officiating review for example. One day, the premature use of timeouts may come back to bite this team.
AFTERTHOUGHTS
Aaron Rodgers: “The majority of stats don’t mean much to me, but this rivalry is important to me. I know how important it is to the fans….I don’t feel it’s my last game against the Bears. One of the factors will be can I still play. The answer is yes.”
Davante Adams (on the rash of injuries): “I’ve never really seen anything quite like it…it’s tough enough to go out there and win a game when everybody is healthy…guys like Yosh (Nijman) and Dennis (Kelly) go in there and continue to make plays and we need them.”
Matt LaFleur (on what was said at halftime): “It started with Aaron telling everyone to just take a deep breath, and then I sort of echoed that. Then I left the room and Preston (Smith) got everybody going….Everybody was on the same page. There was no panic.”
Preston Smith (on what he said at halftime): “I just told them we weren’t playing like ourselves. What we put on film in that first half was not who we are. I just told them we got to fix our stuff and show who we are.”
THREE AND OUT
• Sneaky hero: Marcedes Lewis. Along with his usual value in the blocking scheme, Lewis is becoming more and more of a receiving threat. He finished with four catches on four targets for 51 yards, and you can tell Rodgers loves to throw to him. Defenses don’t seem to respect his ability to get open. Good.
• Many tweeters and bloggers were posting criticism of the Green Bay play calling in the third quarter, especially when the Packers went ahead 38-27, and then got the ball back around midfield. Instead of running the ball, the Packers attempted three straight passes resulting in a six yard completion, a sack and an incompletion to go three and out. I had no problem with it. The Bears had lost two starters in their secondary and Rodgers decided to attack for the kill shot. Besides, the defense was playing well.
• After the game, Davante Adams was asked if he ever thought about returning punts. He joked that, although he was told by Brian Gutekunst that would never happen, he might just run out there and do it. He said he had no doubt that he could do it well. Let’s hope it never comes to that.
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Ken Lass is a former Green Bay television sports anchor and 43 year media veteran, a lifelong Packers fan, and a shareholder.