GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The NFL’s youngest team going into the 2023 season grew up into a playoff participant by season’s end as the Green Bay Packers defeated their arch-enemy Chicago Bears for a 10th straight time to secure the NFC’s number 7 seed after a hard fought, 17-9 victory on a balmy, 34 degree late January afternoon at Lambeau Field. It’s been a remarkable roller coaster ride that saw a 4 game nosedive after a 2-1 start, an encouraging climb back to .500 followed by another stomach dropping 2 game hiccup with one more, pressure packed three game winning streak to the finish. Led by a first year starting quarterback throwing by day’s end to rookie, undrafted rookie free agent and practice squad wide receivers, an incomparable running back and a defense determined to play for a coordinator under siege, this Packer team got it done, finishing 9-8 and earning a trip to Dallas to face former Head Coach Mike McCarthy’s Cowboys next Sunday afternoon at AT&T Stadium.
Before the game kicked off, the Packers realized they would get no help from the NGC South slugfests as Tampa Bay won the division blanking Carolina, New Orleans piled it on Atlanta which cost Head Coach Arthur Smith his job. It was now win or go home. Same scenario as a year ago when with a 4 time MVP quarterback, the Packers went home when the Detroit Lions humbled Aaron Rodgers in his final game. Now against an already eliminated but strong finishing Bears team, so tired of falling further behind in the NFL’s most played rivalry, it was Jordan Love doing what Rodgers could not, delivering another flawless performance. Love went 27 of 32 for 316 yards and two touchdowns, good for a passer rating of 128.6, saving his best for last. Both scoring strikes went to Dontayvion Wicks, 10 yards in the first quarter, from 12 yards out in the third. His command was superb, getting sacked but once, eluding pressure and throwing strikes, even two of his five misses found receiver’s hands. Bo Melton nearly cradled a third touchdown but the catch was denied on replay. Playing without Christian Watson for a fifth game and then losing Romeo Doubs on a chest injury after he nearly came down with a first quarter touchdown, the offense was left to Wicks, Jayden Reed, Malik Heath and Bo Melton. They all flashed. Reed caught 4 balls for his first 100 yard day, 112 in all thanks to a 32 yard catch and run to set up the Pack’s first touchdown and a 59 yard sideline catch he took across the field in the fourth quarter which led to the clinching field goal from Anders Carlson. Melton had 5 catches for 62 yards and heath caught three for 9.
Then along came Jones, one Aaron Jones who back at full strength after a hamstring and MCL sprain marred season, eclipsed 100 rushing yards for the third straight week. 22 carries for 111 yards and a lot of tough, after contact second efforts. He also caught 5 check downs for 30 more pushing him over 8000 total yards in his Packer career. His importance to the offense which finished the year with 470 yards against Minnesota and 432 more today can’t be understated.
Joe Barry’s defense put a lid on explosive plays, Chicago had two long completions of 33 and 27 yards, no others went for more than 18 and the longest rush of the day was just 9 yards. For the second straight week, he unleashed a blitz and pressure package that came through with five sacks of Justin Fields, three of them on third down. The Bears reached the Green Bay red zone twice but settled for field goals. It wasn’t Rashan Gary and Preston Smith that got home, it was Lukas Van Ness, Devonte Wyatt, Karl Brooks, Quay Walker and Kenny Clark. Cairo Santos was three for three with his third coming after Love’s only mistake, a fumble trying to fight for extra yards for a first down late in the third quarter.
The Packers missed out on points twice in the first half. Anders Carlson pulled a 41 yard field goal attempt wide left on Green Bay’s opening drive and the two minute drill to end the half went up in flames with poor decisions and clock management. After Chicago cut the lead to 7-6 with 1:17 left in the second quarter, Love hit Melton for 24, checked down to Jones for 13 and the Packers burned a timeout at the Chicago 38 with :46 left. Tucker Kraft caught a pass in the flat and turned inside for 9 yards as the clock rolled, another catch to the sideline had him get caught after a gain of 7 forcing LaFleur to use his last. Then Love threw to the sideline for Wicks who was driven back out of bounds by Tyrique Stevenson which allowed the clock to expire.
The offense recovered to open the third with a touchdown, after the turnover, tacked on a field goal drive and when the Bears had to punt with 6:08 left, Green Bay pounded out four first downs using rookies Reed and Kraft before the old man Jones ripped off one last 10 yard run to let Love genuflect to the post-season.
Matt LaFleur held this team together at 2-5, figured out how to utilize his perimeter depth stretched to the max, got his defense to respond just in time and will return to the playoffs for the 4th time in his 5 years.
The smell of cigar smoke was evident when the locker room doors opened for reporters. Jaire Alexander was sporting an extra large rollup in his bandana and said “it smells like a casino in here.” Other veterans like Jones and Clark talked of how proud they were of the kids who figured out how to make plays as the season went along, bumpy as it was. The post-season doesn’t happen however if not for such an emphatic answer to the biggest question going into the season. Is Jordan Love the guy?
How’s this for company. Love is just the third quarterback to go over 4000 yards with 32 touchdowns in his first season with multiple starts joining Kurt Warner and Patrick Mahomes. Over his last eight games, Love completed over 70% of his passes for 2150 yards, 18 touchdowns and just one interception. Year one for QB1 and they made it.
Wicks talked of making plays with a heavy heart. Today marked what would have been another birthday for his former University of Virginia wide receiver teammate, Lavel Davis Jr. On November 13 of 2022, Davis was one of three who were killed in an on-campus shooting in Charlottesville. Wicks had Lavel on his mind and admitted tearing up after his second touchdown catch of the day.
Aside from the Doubs chest injury, there didn’t appear to be any significant new issues. Zach Tom left after the first series for a finger injury but he returned. The inactives were Watson, A.J. Dillon, Brenton Cox Jr., Isaiah McDuffie, Caleb Jones and Grant Dubose, a practice squad call up. LaFleur said Watson just wasn’t able to go with his hamstring and they hope one more week is all he needs. The Packers will need everyone as they now get set to face a Dallas Cowboys team that won the NFC East and didn’t lose once at home. Against a coach we all know pretty well.
The Pack is playoff bound for a Sunday, 3:25 PM CST kick. Gonna be a fun week.
Curly to Vince: “Dallas is that way.”
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