Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers managed to hold off the Chicago Bears for another close win in their long-standing rivalry. The Packers won 20-19 after a late touchdown and a blocked field goal.
Love ran for the go-ahead score with just under three minutes left, and Green Bay kept its lead when Karl Brooks blocked a 46-yard field goal attempt by Cairo Santos as time ran out. Christian Watson had a big game, setting a career-high with 150 yards on four catches, including a 60-yard reception that helped set up Love’s touchdown run.
With the win, Green Bay (7-3) avoided falling further behind Detroit and Minnesota in the NFC North. They also extended their winning streak over Chicago to 11 games, the longest streak in the rivalry.
“We knew it was going to be a four-quarter game, four-quarter battle,” Love said. “And I’m proud of the guys. Nobody batted an eye, nobody flinched. It wasn’t by any means our perfect game or our best game.”
The game turned in Green Bay’s favor when Love scored on a 1-yard run with 2:59 left. The touchdown followed a long pass to Watson, who made a great catch and then ran to the 14-yard line.
Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson got tangled with Watson and fell down while trying to cover the pass. Love had earlier been stopped short of the goal line but powered in for the score on the next play. The 2-point conversion attempt failed.
“Phenomenal play, phenomenal catch by Christian, and then just obviously the awareness to get up not being touched and to go put together a huge run. I think Christian made some big-time plays in the game, had a couple big-time catches and I’m proud of the way he balled out,” Love said.
The Bears, with rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, quickly responded. Williams completed back-to-back passes to fellow rookie Rome Odunze to put the Bears in Packers territory. Chicago then drove to the 28-yard line, but their hopes ended when Brooks blocked the field goal attempt.
“I kinda knew, like, I’m gonna block this,” Brooks said. “I said that to myself. I heard the call. I saw Lukas (Van Ness) was next to me and I told him, ‘Hey, just do this, this for me.’ He did it and I got a hand on it.”
The Bears fired their offensive coordinator Shane Waldron earlier in the week, replacing him with passing game coordinator Thomas Brown, in hopes of improving their struggling offense.
Love completed 13 of 17 passes for 261 yards and one touchdown but also threw his 11th interception of the season. Running back Josh Jacobs added 76 yards and a touchdown for the Packers.
The Packers’ defense, led by Brenton Cox, Rashan Gary, and T.J. Slaton, sacked Williams multiple times and played a key role in securing the victory.
Williams threw for 231 yards and rushed for 70 yards, showing signs of improvement after struggling in recent games. D’Andre Swift ran for 71 yards for the Bears and scored a 39-yard touchdown near the end of the third quarter to give Chicago a 19-14 lead.
“There were a lot of positives to build from,” Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. “That’s what you have to do. The last three weeks the offense hadn’t played well. We hadn’t played good complementary ball on defense.
We hadn’t done a lot of things together the last three weeks but today, today we played complementary football.”
The Packers had a chance to extend their 7-3 lead early in the second quarter, but Love overthrew Tucker Kraft on a pressured third-down pass, and Terrell Smith intercepted the ball in the end zone. After that, the Bears managed to score their first touchdown since Week 8, with Roschon Johnson rushing for a 1-yard score just before halftime.
