The Bears’ 21-13 loss to the Packers helped seal their playoff fate Sunday and stamp this season as a colossal disappointment. Instead of taking the next step from last year’s NFC North championship, either the Packers or Vikings will reclaim the division throne.
More troubling is the Bears scored only one touchdown on 24 full possessions against the Packers this season. Suddenly, the Bears are back on the wrong side of the chasm that stood between the teams for so long.
Here are five observations from rewatching the game using the Fox telecast and the coaches’ film via the NFL Game Pass subscription service.
1. The Bears rushing attack regressed against one of the NFL’s worst run defenses.
Coach Matt Nagy made it clear Monday this was the Bears’ biggest problem, more detrimental than quarterback Mitch Trubisky’s inconsistency throwing the ball.
The Packers entered Week 15 allowing 4.7 yards per carry, sixth worst in the NFL. But the Bears averaged only 2.4 yards on 15 designed runs before the Packers took a 21-3 lead in the third quarter, at which time the Bears were forced to play catch-up through the air.
A disappointing detail within that measly output: The Packers had at least five defensive backs on the field for each of those 15 runs. Defensive coordinator Mike Pettine was so confident in his unit’s ability to beat the Bears’ run blockers that they played with a fifth or sixth DB in place of a lineman or linebacker.
That’s Pettine’s approach in a lot of games. He prioritizes defending the pass, so the Packers will play with three safeties and do their best to stop the run. But as the rankings show, it doesn’t work very well. That is, until Sunday. And in Week 1 against the Bears.
Nagy cited poor execution on some runs and poor play calling on others.
“It just goes back to 11 people — 12 if you include coaches — just everybody being on the same page,” he said.
Of the Bears’ 15 runs before the game became a three-score game, only three gained more than three yards. Only two were with Trubisky under center, while 13 came out of the shotgun. The Bears didn’t use the I-formation on any. The Packers generally controlled the line of scrimmage despite light fronts, and they pushed around Bears blockers.
The collective failure was a nightmarish flashback to earlier this season, when the Bears offense was at its worst.
“The consistency is where we’re at, and that’s going to be, for myself, just something that I take personally,” Nagy said. “I understand how important it is to run the football. We do know we need to be better there.”
Tarik Cohen lost three yards on the first carry of the game when nose tackle Kenny Clark swam past inside left guard James Daniels. Daniels wanted to pin Clark inside, while center Cody Whitehair pulled behind him as a lead blocker for Cohen. But Clark pushed Daniels back into Whitehair, and the collision caused Daniels to lose his leverage. Clark dragged Cohen down by the jersey in the backfield.
On the third series, the Packers held the Bears to no gain on runs on second-and-4 and third-and-4. On both, they used a big-nickel personnel grouping with three linemen and one inside backer (instead of two linemen and two inside backers).
On second down, Clark occupied a double team, which enabled inside backer Blake Martinez to flow to the ball. Lineman Tyler Lancaster extended his arms against Bears right guard Rashad Coward, then shed Coward’s block to help Martinez make the tackle.
On third down, the Bears appeared to run it as part of a run-pass option. Right tackle Cornelius Lucas and Coward were stood up and pushed back at the point of attack.
The Bears got Cordarrelle Patterson involved as a running back on a toss play from under center in the second quarter. But it gained nothing when receiver Riley Ridley didn’t block anyone on the play-side and receiver Allen Robinson lost his block.
Overall, there were too many lost blocks. For the Bears to fix their offense next season, they must upgrade the run and pass blocking. Whether that means personnel changes, schematic changes or both, their offense isn’t going to score points consistently until the blocking improves.
But the Bears are not in position to make a bunch of moves. On the interior, where the blocking inconsistencies have been extremely problematic, they extended Whitehair’s contract in September, and Daniels is a second-round pick finishing his second season. On the outside, they’re committed to left tackle Charles Leno and right tackle Bobby Massie through 2020, based on how their contracts are structured.
So how does that unit get better? Is finding an experienced right guard or drafting a more promising prospect enough to make it all come together? These are pressing questions for the Bears in their upcoming inquest about the offensive struggles.
2. Mitch Trubisky’s up-and-down performance was familiar — and it’s no coincidence the pass protection was inconsistent too.
Mitch Trubisky made some excellent throws from cluttered pockets into tight windows to help the Bears keep the outcome in doubt until the last play. But, more importantly, he didn’t make enough plays with his arm or his legs to lift the offense to victory — or even cross the goal line more than once.
One good example of the inconsistency came late in the third quarter with the Bears trailing 21-3. Trubisky had back-to-back completions of 22 and 21 yards to Allen Robinson and Anthony Miller, respectively. He felt the rush and created time and space for himself. He identified single coverage. He threw accurately and on time down the field.
Those two terrific throws moved the Bears from their 44-yard line to the Packers 13. But on the ensuing first-and-10, he threw a slant behind Robinson. He was a tick off with his timing and awkward with his mechanics — and the throw was high and wide. The incompletion put the Bears in second-and-10, followed by third-and-6. And on those third-and-medium plays, Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine was unpredictable — sometimes playing zone, other times playing man, sometimes dropping eight in coverage.
In that specific sequence, the third-and-6 failed when Cordarrelle Patterson’s toe was barely on the sideline, negating a catch. The Bears had to settle for a 27-yard field goal, which doesn’t cut it against the NFC North leaders on the road.
In the first half, Trubisky missed Miller on a deep over route on third-and-7 from the Packers 41. Miller outran cornerback Kevin King in man-to-man coverage and had two steps of separation. Trubisky’s throw was a foot beyond where Miller could have comfortably caught it, and it glanced off his extended right hand.
That would have been a chunk play that put the Bears inside the red zone. Instead, the Bears turned it over on downs on the following play when the Packers’ three-man pass-rush pressured Trubisky into a long incompletion.
Trubisky didn’t miss that third-down throw by much — one of several “game of inches” plays Nagy noted didn’t go the Bears’ way. But for an offense that lost the schematic chess match throughout the game, the Bears needed Trubisky to seize an opportunity on which Nagy’s play call and design beat the defense. Making those throws consistently would be an indication that Trubisky has elevated his game. This season, the disappointments in that department have outweighed the successes.
Other examples that tilted the game away from the Bears include Trubisky’s indecisiveness and/or loss of spatial awareness on a third-and-4 sack in the second half. Trubisky ran out of bounds for a 2-yard loss instead of throwing the ball away. It lengthened the ensuing fourth down, on which Trubisky threw out of rhythm and incomplete to Robinson.
He was nearly intercepted at the Packers 6-yard line on third-and-6 before halftime. Regardless of whether Trubisky intended his throw for Jesper Horsted, who was covered, or Tarik Cohen, who slipped, Trubisky threw off his back foot when pressured. It was a dangerous throw the Bears were fortunate fell incomplete, and they at least salvaged a field goal.
Speaking of pressure, there was too much of it. Statisticians on the Fox telecast counted 10 pressures and two sacks on Trubisky’s first 13 dropbacks. That’s just one measure of what was obvious when watching the game live.
The Packers front, led by nose tackle Kenny Clark and edge linebacker Za’Darius Smith, won blocks up the middle and on the edges. The Packers made Trubisky uncomfortable by pushing tackles Cornelius Lucas and Charles Leno back and disrupting his ability to comfortably survey the field in the pocket.
“They had a really good front,” Trubisky said Sunday. “They’ve done a great job of that all year long, and that’s what they hang their hat on. They did that today.”
On Trubisky’s interception in the fourth quarter, he threw before he wanted to because Smith swiped past center Cody Whitehair and wrecked the play.
It was second-and-4 from the Bears 46 with the score 21-13 and 6:48 left. The Bears had some momentum, good field position and were ahead of schedule on that set of downs. Smith got on Whitehair’s edge with a swim move. Whitehair didn’t move his feet to recover laterally, and Smith got through to Trubisky for a QB hit. Lineman Dean Lowry made a great play to jump into the passing lane and catch the ball at close range. What a missed opportunity for the Bears.
At other times, Trubisky’s mobility behind the line of scrimmage helped him overcome pressure. On third-and-5 on the third series, he escaped the pocket to the left when he felt pressure from Preston Smith, who went around Lucas on the right edge. Trubisky kept his vision down the field and threw across his body back toward the middle of the field — a funny-body throw — to wide-open Riley Ridley for a first down.
With the Bears in desperation mode on third-and-8 at their 7-yard line with 3:32 to play, Trubisky climbed the pocket and slung a three-quarter-arm dart to Robinson for 14 yards. It was a dynamic, off-platform pass that would have defined Trubisky’s game if the Bears had come back to win.
Trubisky also used his legs to gain yards. In the first half, he scrambled for seven yards on second-and-9 to set up a third-and-2 the Bears converted. On a play-action seven-step drop, the Bears deployed only three receivers against seven defenders in coverage. With nothing open, Trubisky turned the play into a positive.
Trubisky, however, did not do that as often as he did against the Cowboys on Dec. 5. The Packers didn’t exactly have inside linebacker Blake Martinez spying Trubisky. But in zone coverages, Martinez did well keeping vision on the quarterback and rallying to the ball when Trubisky threatened to run.
Could the Bears — specifically, Nagy — have done more to help the offensive line by moving the passing point and calling screens, as Trubisky said shortly after the game?
Well, they did try a screen in the first quarter, but the timing was jacked up, and Leno ended up being penalized for being too far downfield.
They ran a draw for three yards in the middle of the second quarter. And, perhaps to Trubisky’s point, he completed a 33-yarder to Miller on a play-action keeper in the first half.
With play-action to the left directing the defense that way, Trubisky rolled back to the right, avoided Za’Darius Smith and threw a perfect ball on the run to Miller. It was a similar throw to the deep over route he missed, but he put more air under this one, perhaps benefiting from a second chance at the pass.
As the game went on, though, Trubisky consistently took straight drops, including on some incompletions on third- and fourth-and-medium in the second half.
“We called screens and we called some different stuff throughout the game,” Nagy said Monday. “We changed it up. We had a game plan going into it that we liked. What happens sometime is when you get down 21-3 there at the end of the third quarter time is of the essence. They kind of get into, defensively, a one-set mind where they’re going to play a lot more shell, a lot more Cover-2 — that kind of stuff from then on. Before that, we did exactly what we wanted, which was all that stuff — screens, draws, play-actions, etc.”
At least, the result of the game and the offense’s body of work in this lost season show that Nagy must do more to help Trubisky, and Trubisky must do more to help himself.
3. Khalil Mack was too quiet, and the Packers did their part to silence him.
To beat the division leader on the road in December with your season on the line, stars have to be stars. They have to make game-changing plays, not just affect the game in nuanced, subtle ways. Khalil Mack didn’t register in the box score until the Packers’ final offensive snap. That left a lot to be desired, especially after the Bears went without a takeaway for the fifth game this season.
Mack had chances to make a bigger imprint on the game than his one tackle-for-loss. Meanwhile, the Packers made a concerted effort to ensure he didn’t.
Mack was on the field for 20 rushes, but only three went anywhere near him. The Packers’ determination to avoid him seemed very similar to the Rams’ plan of attack on Nov. 17. That’s probably not a coincidence — Packers coach Matt LaFleur and Rams coach Sean McVay are good friends dating to their time together on the Redskins staff in the early 2010s.
By my count, Mack had about 20 chances to rush quarterback Aaron Rodgers. That total is a bit subjective, accounting for the Packers’ quick game, which Rodgers engineers as well as any quarterback in the league. It’s an effective way to mitigate a pass rush, and it worked against Mack.
Mack encountered multiple blockers on about half of his pass rushes, and he was singled up on half. Right tackle Bryan Bulaga deserves special mention for how well he blocked Mack one-on-one. At 6-foot-5, 314 pounds, Bulaga used his length, strength and balance to absorb Mack’s bull-rushes and anchor against Mack’s power.
“He’s a damn good player,” Bulaga said.
Center Corey Linsley and left tackle David Bakhtiari also won single pass blocks against Mack.
Mack’s only stat was a tackle-for-loss when Rodgers gave himself up on a bootleg with 1:27 remaining as the Packers were trying to drain the clock.
“You’d love to be able to see that stat sheet where he’s all over it all the time; I don’t know how real that is all the time,” Matt Nagy said. “I think sometimes there are outliers. Sometimes we go by these stats, and we talk about you have to have all these stats all the time to talk about what kind of player you are. I don’t know if I necessarily believe that all the time.”
Nagy believes players can affect the game in many ways by carrying out their responsibility within the team concept, ways that might be invisible to people who aren’t privy to the design of a play call and the game plan.
“They’re running away from you, or they’re chipping you, or they’re doing some check at the line of scrimmage,” Nagy said. “That’s going to happen. That’s never going change for the rest of his career. Would we love to be able to see more (stats)? Yeah, but none of it is because of effort or scheme or anything like that. That’s just the way it was (Sunday).”
Some of those subtle plays include a first-and-10 with 8:09 remaining. Mack lined up with his hand down on the left edge of the defense, and he deliberately rushed with a shallow angle toward the center. His intent was to occupy Bulaga and drag him inside, freeing the edge for blitzing safety Eddie Jackson. It worked — Jackson ended up winning a one-on-one block with running back Aaron Jones and forcing an incompletion.
Mack drew a holding penalty against Bulaga on the ensuing snap. That helped stall the Packers drive and get the ball back for the offense in their comeback attempt.
Mack also forced Rodgers to throw the ball away on a third-and-5 in the second half when the Packers left him unblocked on the edge. Here’s guessing their protection scheme was misaligned.
Another detail Mack will get credit for is maintaining his outside rush lane on Nick Kwiatkoski’s 11-yard sack that moved the Packers out of field-goal range on the possession following Mitch Trubisky’s interception.
Rodgers eluded the rush and escaped the pocket several times in the game. We’ve heard Bears pass rushers over the years discuss the importance of containing Rodgers to the pocket and not letting him extend plays. Well, Mack did that to help Kwiatkoski come up the middle, run over Jones and haul down the quarterback to keep it an 8-point game in the fourth quarter.
Overall, Mack was a contributing member of a defense that limited the Packers to 5 yards per play, Green Bay’s fifth-lowest average this season. But his performance wasn’t up to his play-making standard, and he’d probably be the first to say that.
4. Akiem Hicks with one good arm is better than many players with two.
The Pro Bowl defensive lineman made his presence felt in his return from a grotesque left elbow injury. The rust was evident at times in his pad level or the suddenness of his movements. But Akiem Hicks still was credited with four tackles and two hits on Aaron Rodgers.
Hicks flashed his elite trait — power — and was dogged in pursuit of the ball. He brought an undeniable energy to the defense. And that’s to say nothing of his toughness and pain tolerance, which obviously were tested on the multiple occasions he came out of the game in pain, only to come back in. Hicks described the painful feeling of bones in his arm moving unnaturally while in the game.
“He was unbelievable,” Matt Nagy said. “I thought he played lights out. Even all the stuff, fighting through the aggravations of the injury throughout the game, the way he played and the plays he made (Sunday), that was fun. We missed that. That was fun to watch.”
5. Throwing ability isn’t the only thing that makes Aaron Rodgers’ so good. It’s his ability to process what he sees.
I don’t want to totally drool over Aaron Rodgers’ postgame explanation of the fourth-and-4 touchdown pass to Davante Adams. He’s not the only quarterback who can break down a play the way he did in his media session.
But it’s rare for the public to get such detailed insight, and Rodgers did it off memory. With the following explanation, he showed us how advanced his mind is on the football field, even in his first year in a new offense.
Watch the play and see how it matches Rodgers’ breakdown below.
“I felt good about the call,” Rodgers said. “I just gave him (Adams) a little potential check in the huddle, should they play a one-high safety and the leverage looked bad on 2 (Adams). And basically just changed Devante from an in-breaker to an out-breaker.
The pre-snap showed Eddie Jackson down on 3 (the receiver nearest the formation). Forty-four (Nick Kwiatkoski) was inside, and it looked like Buster (Skrine) was head-up to maybe even slightly inside (against Adams).
A lot of times, on those three-receiver sides, we’ll run three in-breakers. Based on that, I decided to take a chance and adjust the route, and Tay got a great release. And sure enough, at the snap, Buster jumped inside, so it was a really clean release for Davante. And I tried to get it up and down before the safety could get there. And he made a really nice catch and run.”
That’s a quarterback with command. A quarterback with an elite ability to process what he sees. Of course, Rodgers has been around for 15 seasons. He’s a Hall of Famer. But the NFL doesn’t adjust the scoreboard to handicap that.
In other words, that’s what the Bears are up against. That’s what they’re trying to develop for themselves. And that’s a glimpse of the gap between teams with great quarterbacks and those without.