Explosive plays and the Bears’ ball-control offense kept Green Bay’s snaps to a minimum on Sunday, but they still managed to find a way to win.
The Green Bay Packers had a bizarre game script for their offense in Sunday’s 20-19 victory over the Chicago Bears. With Chicago controlling the football for large stretches and consistently picking up third down conversions, the Packers only had six meaningful possessions in the entire game, yielding a total of 46 offensive snaps in 60 minutes.
That is a particularly small number, but it is affected by the fact that the offense had several explosive plays that got them down the field quickly — most of them courtesy of Christian Watson. In fact, the Packers reached the Bears’ red zone on five of their six drives, scoring three touchdowns for a 60% scoring rate that was higher than both their own average coming into the game as well as the Bears’ typical average TD rate allowed.
Still, the team has red zone issues to iron out, as they would love to see their turnover issues in the red zone clear up. If they do, this team could well return to the heights that they reached in the second half of last season, given how well they continue to move the ball between the 20s.
Here’s a look at the numbers and the playing time from Sunday.
QUARTERBACK
- Jordan Love 46
Due in part to the game script, the explosives, and a few scrambles, Love threw the football only 17 times on Sunday, by far the fewest in a game that he started and finished. In fact, the only previous games in which Love threw fewer than 25 passes were three weeks ago against the Jaguars (22 attempts before he left the game due to injury) and in last year’s Wild Card demolition of the Dallas Cowboys (21 attempts).
He set a career-high in yards per attempt, however, with 15.35 being a ridiculously high number. That came on his 13-for-17 day as he threw for 261 yards, one score, and one interception. Love also carried the ball four times (including a QB sneak for a score), looking much healthier as he was both willing and able to move around in and out of the pocket.
RUNNING BACKS
- Josh Jacobs 37
- Chris Brooks 10
- Emanuel Wilson 3
Jacobs posted another big day on Sunday, gaining more than 130 yards from scrimmage. It was Jacobs’ third straight game over 100 and sixth straight with at least 90 yards, and this one saw him make his biggest impact as a receiver all season. Jacobs ran 18 times for 76 yards and a score, but he put up the third-highest receiving yardage total in a single game in his career with four receptions for 58 yards.
Brooks continues to get snaps over Wilson, though Wilson did receive the only two carries by a non-Jacobs running back, which he took for 13 and 4 yards.
WIDE RECEIVERS
- Romeo Doubs 36
- Christian Watson 31
- Jayden Reed 26
- Dontayvion Wicks 16
- Bo Melton 5
- Malik Heath 3
Watson was the star for the Packers, accounting for nearly all of the explosive passing plays in this game. Each of his four catches went for at least 17 yards, with three of them gaining 25 or more. His diving catch on the final play — when he got up and scampered for a 60-yard gain overall — was massive, as was the contested catch he made between two defenders early in the fourth quarter.
Reed was the only other receiver with a performance of note, as he scored a 15-yard touchdown on the first drive of the game. Otherwise, with Jacobs and Watson leading the way in targets and the Packers only having 17 attempts, there was little left to go around for the rest of the receiving corps.
TIGHT ENDS
- Tucker Kraft 43
- Ben Sims 17
- John FitzPatrick 3
To the point above, Kraft had just one target in this game, the interception that Love sailed over his tight end’s head. That broke his streak of having at least two receptions, which sat at 19 straight games (including playoffs). Also, Kraft once again was an iron man, barely ever coming off the field. Basically all of Sims’ snaps came with the Packers in 12 personnel.
OFFENSIVE LINEMEN
- Rasheed Walker 46
- Elgton Jenkins 46
- Josh Myers 46
- Sean Rhyan 46
- Zach Tom 46
Rookie Jordan Morgan went on injured reserve over the weekend ahead of Sunday’s game, so the Packers were happy to have a full game from all of their starting linemen. With him out for at least the next three more games, Green Bay could be in trouble if they have an injury anywhere on the interior, as Jacob Monk would likely be the next man up to fill in.
As it stands, the Packers protected Love well for the most part, as he took only one sack in the stat sheet, which was actually the result of him scrambling and running out of bounds for a loss of one yard. Otherwise, he took just two hits officially and the line had only a single penalty all game: an ineligible man downfield call on Jenkins.