Packers Clips
With 1:48 to play on Saturday night against the Packers, the Bears had a first and 10 on the Green Bay 25. There was no reason to try to score a touchdown on the next play. Which made it the ideal time to go to the end zone on the next play.
Coach Ben Johnson called a fake screen, with three receivers lined up to the left. Quarterback Caleb Williams pumped toward receiver Luther Burden III. Receiver DJ Moore slipped behind a defensive back who bit on fake. And Williams found Moore for the game-winning touchdown.
“It’s perfect call,” Williams told reporters after the win. “We ended up throwing a screen earlier in the game. And so it sets it up, you know, to the same side. And then, being able to have that play call that we worked for, I think, the past three or four weeks and, you know, just didn’t use it in those other games and then in the right moment, at the right time, Coach calls it, just as he does. And the guys did a great job selling it. Obviously, DJ made a great catch, just put the ball out there for him to go out there, make a catch for us, and go win a game.”
Williams knew the play was going to work, based on what he saw before the snap.
“Yeah, once we lined up, actually knew that we were about to hit it, just off the demeanor of the guys on the other side of the ball, just had a feeling that that was going to be the one,” Williams said. “And like I said, the guys did a great job. O-line did a great job blocking. The guys did a great job over there selling the fake and then and then obviously DJ going up the sideline.”
By calling the play with that much time left, Johnson also showed plenty of faith in the defense to keep the Packers out of the end zone. And while it got a little too close for comfort, it worked. The Bears kept the Packers from scoring, and the fake screen touchdown ended up being the difference in the most compelling postseason game in Chicago Bears history.
We’ve got another potential source off between Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter regarding John Harbaugh.
Earlier this week, Rapoport declared that Harbaugh had lost the locker room in Baltimore. Schefter said that “couldn’t be any less true.”
Now, as to one of Harbaugh’s potential destinations, Rapoport said before Saturday night’s Packers-Bears playoff game that coach Matt LaFleur and the Packers plan to discuss an extension after the season ends, and that LaFleur “is not going to be judged on these four quarters of football.”
Then came those four quarters of football, capped by two disastrous ones. Which opens the door for the Packers to change their plans.
On Sunday’s ESPN Postseason NFL Countdown, Schefter addressed LaFleur’s status. Schefter said new team CEO Ed Policy now has a “significant decision to make” about LaFleur, whose contract runs through 2026. Schefter also echoed something we’ve been discussing all week. John Harbaugh’s agent, Bryan Harlan, is the son of former Packers CEO Bob Harlan. And Harbaugh, who has many suitors, could choose the Packers, if the Packers job is open.
The threshold question is whether Policy would move on from LaFleur only if Policy knows he can get Harbaugh. An arrangement like that would violate the spirit of the Rooney Rule, but that happens all the time. Plenty of owners fire coaches knowing who they’re going to hire next, and then they check the boxes and bide their time and hire the person they damn well want to.
If Policy is comfortable with the possibility of not getting Harbaugh and not comfortable with the reality of keeping LaFleur after night’s debacle, it won’t matter if there isn’t a wink-nod in place with Bob Harlan’s son about Jim Harbaugh’s brother.
Regardless, and as Schefter said, Policy has a major decision to make. And if LaFleur is ultimately available, he’ll become one of the hottest candidates for one of the other eight vacancies.
The league office continues to apply its own interpretation to the catch rule. One which focuses exclusively on the third step in the process of completing the catch being the receiver getting a third foot down.
In his weekly blink-and-you-missed-it visit to NFL Network’s four-hour pregame show, league officiating spokesman Walt Anderson discussed a pair of plays from the Packers-Bears playoff game that involved the third act of catching a pass. As to both of them, Anderson made it clear that, for the folks who run the replay process, the third step is the end-all, be-all to satisfying the final element.
For the third-quarter, third-down catch by tight end Cole Kmet that was fumbled and recovered by the Bears for what would have been a first down, Anderson focused solely on whether Kmet had gotten a third step down before the ball came out.
But the rule (as explained after last month’s erroneous decision to overturn a touchdown catch by Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely) allows the process to be completed without a third step hitting the ground.
From the official rulebook, Rule 8, Article 1, Section 3: “A forward pass is complete (by the offense) or intercepted (by the defense) in the field of play, at the sideline, or in the end zone if a player, who is inbounds: (a) secures control of the ball in his hands or arms prior to the ball touching the ground; and (b) touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands; and (c) after (a) and (b) have been fulfilled, clearly performs any act common to the game (e.g., extend the ball forward, take an additional step, tuck the ball away and turn upfield, or avoid or ward off an opponent), or he maintains control of the ball long enough to do so.”
It’s as obvious as it can be. Taking a third step is just one way to complete the process. Kmet tucked the ball away and turned upfield. More importantly, it’s impossible to find “clear and obvious” evidence that the ruling on the field that Kmet had done so was incorrect.
As a source with direct knowledge of the intended application of the catch rule explained it to PFT in the aftermath of the Likely ruling, “The catch rule now has become more about counting feet than anything else, which isn’t good.”
The same thing happened later, when Bears tight end Colston Loveland caught a pass, tucked the ball, turned upfield, and the ball was knocked out. While the ruling on the field was that the pass incomplete — and there likely wasn’t clear and obvious evidence the ruling was wrong — Anderson clung to the third-step explanation, ignoring the fact that Loveland had tucked the ball away and turned upfield.
The bottom line is that the NFL, through the replay process, continues to apply its own interpretation to the rules, ignoring the fact that the relevant language lists multiple ways to complete the process of catching a pass.
For the balance of the postseason, we can only assume that only a third step will matter. For the offseason, it’ll be for the 32 owners to decide whether to change the rules to fit the application — or whether to tell the league office to start applying the current rule as it’s written.
How did the Bears erase a 21-3 deficit against the Packers on Saturday? The Bears believed.
The belief traces to training camp, when coach Ben Johnson showed the team Super Bowl LI. That was the game that saw the Patriots down 28-3 in the third quarter. Before they turned it around and won the game.
“That was my message to the group,” Johnson told reporters after last night’s playoff win. “Was just reminding them that this has been done before. And rather than saying ‘woe is me’ and ‘oh, crap, we’re in a hole,’ it’s more of an opportunity for us to turn this thing around into a game that we’ll never forget. And that’s what they did.”
Helping to reinforce the point was the presence of a pair of players from Super Bowl LI. Former Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and former Patriots offensive lineman Joe Thuney are Bears. And they both got to enjoy the thrill of Patriots-style victory, while sending the Packers to share Atlanta’s agony of defeat.
The only thing left is for Bears fans to make T-shirts and flags showing the 21-3 score bug.
After missing two field goals and an extra point in Saturday night’s 31-27 loss to the Bears, Packers kicker Brandon McManus stood before the media and took responsibility.
“This is the biggest disappointment of my career. Just an embarrassment of a performance,” McManus said.
McManus said it was tough to face his teammates in the locker room after the game.
“It’s emotional,” McManus said. “It’s disappointing that my role on the team is to make kicks and these guys pour in thousands of plays over the course of the season, and I leave seven points on the board today. It’s the most disappointing point of my career.”
McManus said there were no issues with the wind, the snap or the hold.
“Everything was perfect,” McManus said. “Just bad kicks. Embarrassing performance by me today.”
McManus is due to make $3.7 million from the Packers in 2026, but nothing remaining in his contract is guaranteed. This embarrassing performance could be his last as a Packer.
Bears coach Ben Johnson offered only the briefest of handshakes to Packers coach Matt LaFleur after beating him Saturday night, and afterward Johnson sounded like he took the game personally.
In video posted by the Bears, Johnson screamed “Fuck the Packers! Fuck them!” in the postgame locker room.
Asked in his postgame press conference what had made him so emotional at the end of this game, Johnson said that there had been “noise” coming from the Packers that the Bears took issue with.
“There was probably a little bit more noise coming out of their building up north to start the week, which we heard loud and clear, players and coaches alike. So this one meant something to us,” Johnson said.
Johnson didn’t say what kind of comments the Packers were taking that drew his ire, but Johnson was excited to get the best of the Bears’ longtime rival, in his biggest win yet as a head coach.
Questions swirled about the future of Packers coach Matt LaFleur in the days preceding the wild-card opener. Before the game, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media said the Packers plan to discuss an extension with LaFleur after the season ends.
Then, the season ended in a 30-minute thud. The Packers blew a 21-3 halftime lead to the Bears, falling in Chicago, 31-27.
After the game, LaFleur was asked about his future with the team, given that his contract expires after 2026.
“Yeah, with all due respect to your question,” LaFleur said, “now’s not the time for that. I mean, I’m just hurting for these guys. You know, I can only think about just what just happened, and there will be time for that.”
The topic came up again later in the post-game press conference.
“I’m not gonna get into that right now,” LaFleur said. “Definitely, now’s not the time. I mean, whatever.”
LaFleur made it clear he wants to stay. Asked what being the coach of the Packers means to him, LaFleur said, “It means everything to me. This is the greatest organization in the world, in my opinion.”
He also acknowledged that Saturday night’s loss “is gonna hurt for a really, really long time.” That applies regardless of whatever happens next for him.
The Bears did it again, this time ending Green Bay’s season with their comeback.
Chicago pulled off its biggest postseason comeback in team history, rallying from a 21-3 halftime deficit to win 31-27 in a wild-card playoff game at Soldier Field. The Bears trailed 21-6 in the fourth quarter.
They became just the third team in NFL history to score 25 or more points in the fourth quarter of a playoff game, joining the 1934 Giants and the 1992 Eagles, according to Rob Demovsky of ESPN.
In Week 16, Chicago scored 10 points in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, forcing overtime and winning in overtime on DJ Moore’s 46-yard touchdown catch. Moore did it again on Saturday, with his 25-yard touchdown catch with 1:43 remaining for the game-winner.
The Packers reached the Bears 23 with 18 seconds remaining, but Jordan Love threw three incompletions, two of which came after a false start, as time expired on their comeback attempt.
The Bears outscored the Packers 28-6 in the second half to win Ben Johnson’s first playoff game as a head coach.
Packers kicker Brandon McManus cost his team with a missed extra point with 6:36 remaining and a 44-yard field goal with 2:51 left. He also missed a 55-yarder on the final play of the first half that might have been the dagger.
The Bears won despite going 2-for-6 on fourth down and 2-for-5 in the red zone. On their next-to-last possession, though, Caleb Williams hit Rome Odunze for a 27-yard gain on fourth-and-8. It set up Williams’ 8-yard touchdown pass to Olamide Zaccheaus with 4:18 remaining to get the Bears within 27-24.
Williams finished 24-of-48 for 361 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Rookie tight end Colston Loveland caught eight passes for 137 yards and had a reception on a 2-point play, and Moore caught six passes for 64 yards.
D’Andre Swift had 13 carries for 54 yards and a touchdown.
The Bears ended up outgaining the Packers 445 to 421 after being outgained 231 to 122 in the first half.
Love went 24-of-46 for 323 yards and four touchdowns, with Romeo Doubs catching eight for 124 yards and a touchdown. Matthew Golden had four catches for 84 yards and a touchdown in his best game of his rookie season. Jayden Reed and Christian Watson each scored a touchdown.
The good news for Packers coach Matt LaFleur? Before Saturday night’s playoff game, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reported that LaFleur “is not going to be judged on these four quarters of football.”
The bad news for LaFleur? Those four quarters of football. More specifically, two of them.
The game went as bad as it could have for Green Bay. The Packers blew a 21-3 lead, allowing 25 fourth-quarter points en route to a 31-27 loss. In all, the Packers were outscored 28-6 in the second half.
During the Prime Video pregame show, Rapoport said the Packers and LaFleur plan to meet to discuss an extension after the season ends. Plans change. And if anything would change the Packers’ plans, it would be an epic collapse against their biggest rivals in the third postseason meeting ever between the two franchises.
For now, there will be plenty of angry Packers fans insisting on change. It’s a natural reaction to a situation like this, especially with five straight losses to end the season. Time will tell whether the extension will happen, or whether new Packers CEO Ed Policy will decide to change his plans.
The Bears aren’t going away quietly.
Caleb Williams threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Olamide Zaccheaus with 4:18 remaining in the fourth quarter and then hit rookie tight end Colston Loveland for the 2-point conversion. The Bears have pulled to within 27-24.
The Bears have six wins this season when trailing with less than two minutes to play, including in Week 16 against the Packers.
The Bears trailed the Packers 21-3 at halftime but have rallied in the second half.
Williams is 21-of-43 for 301 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.
