Chicago Bears: Rodgers continues dominance, Packers win again

The Chicago Bears fall to the Green Bay Packers 24-14 as Aaron Rodgers continues his mastery over them.

The more things change, the more things stay the same for the Chicago Bears against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. They beat Chicago once again, 24-14.

Since Rodgers took over as the Packers’ QB1, he’s seen a bevy of Bears quarterbacks. Kyle Orton, Rex Grossman, Jay Cutler, Josh McCown, Jimmy Clausen, Matt Barkley, Mike Glennon, Mitchell Trubisky, and Justin Fields have all tried to beat him. Through all those quarterbacks, Rodgers has compiled a 22-5 record against Chicago.

In those games, Rodgers has recorded 55 touchdowns against just 10 interceptions. On Sunday, that continued. He threw for two more touchdowns and zero interceptions in another win, this time 24-14.

Chicago Bears: Rodgers continues dominance, Packers win again

The Bears started out quickly this time, however. The defense held Rodgers and sacked him on their first two drives. The offense marched down the field and scored a touchdown on its first drive to take an early 7-0 lead.

The Chicago Bears and their fans were excited and had high hopes of another Chicago upset. It was not to be, however. The Packers took advantage of a turning point in the first quarter missed call. Fields thought he drew the Packers offsides and thus had a free play. The replay showed that, but the officials never threw a flag. Fields threw the ball deep into the end zone and the pass was intercepted. No flag so the interception stood.

The Packers took advantage and went 65 yards on 12 plays to tie the game up. Fields explained the thinking on the missed call.

"Really, in my mindset on that, we already have five yards. It’s going to be 1st-and-5, or we can get a potential downfield throw, potential PI or potential big play. So just happened to not be a flag on that play so can’t really do anything about it."

The Bears were rolling along and on their way to another score, be it a touchdown or field goal. Instead, the Packers tied the game.

After a Bears’ three-and-out, the Packers scored again, this time a Mason Crosby 39-yard field goal.

With 4:09 left in the half, the Bears moved the ball and threatened to score again. Again, some strange happenings kept them from scoring. It looked like Fields again threw an interception in the end zone. The officials reviewed the play and ruled an incomplete pass.

The officials failed to reset the play clock, though. Instead of having 25 seconds to run a play, the officials called a delay of game penalty, costing Chicago five yards. Replays showed Fields trying to call a timeout but the officials never acknowledged it.

On the next play, Fields suffered a sack, putting the Bears out of field goal range. They had to punt the ball away with 11 seconds left on the clock.

On that drive, Fields missed a wide-open Allen Robinson in the middle of the field that would have gone for a huge gain. Fields explained that the play didn’t call for him to look that way. A more experienced quarterback might have caught that, however. That is what you have to live with when you have a rookie quarterback.

That Packers take over in the second half

The Chicago Bears had another three-and-out to start the second half. The Packers took over and subsequently went 86 yards on 10 plays to take a 17-7 lead. That took a lot of air out of the Bears’ bubble.

The teams traded punts and the Bears got the ball to start the fourth quarter. They proceeded to march 90 yards on 10 plays that culminated in a Fields to Mooney five-yard touchdown pass. The Bears had to overcome a Khalil Herbert touchdown run called back because of a holding call against center Sam Mustipher. The Bears had to run over two minutes off the clock before they scored again.

Herbert had a good game starting in Damien Williams‘ place. He ran for 97 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown.

Soldier Field was excited again after that score. There was still 8:49 left in the game and Chicago was down just 17-14.

Rodgers then created his magic once again. With the ball on their own 38, Rodgers connected with Davante Adams for 41 yards, ending up on the Bears’ 21. The Packers were threatening again. An eight-yard completion and a seven-yard run put the Packers on the Bears’ six. Rodgers dropped back for a pass but found no one open. He then scrambled and just got to the pylon for the score.

Rodgers became unusually loud after the score. He yelled to the Soldier Field crowd saying “I still own you!’ It was strange considering how much vitriol he went through all these years and he was pretty quiet.

Of course, he wasn’t wrong.

Rookie lumps

As we expected with a rookie quarterback, the Bears suffered through some bumps and lumps with Fields. In addition to the Robinson miss, he took a couple of sacks when he could have just thrown the ball away. With the 10-point difference, the game could have been very different if he makes those plays.

That wasn’t the only reason for the loss, however. The Chicago Bears had a great game plan on the Bears’ first drive. They had Fields move around. He went 3/3 for 46 yards. There was also a 26-yard pass interference call that put the ball on the Packers’ one-yard line.

After the interception, however, the coaches got spooked. They kept FIelds in the pocket for most of the rest of the game. Again, FIelds is a different quarterback when he moves around. He has a knack for creating magic himself with a moving pocket. He can utilize his legs or use his accuracy on the run. It seems that this coaching staff doesn’t know how to best utilize his skills.

The offensive woes again wasted a good defensive effort. The Bears held Rodgers to 195 passing yards but he had two touchdown passes and ran for another. Even when you slow him down a little, he still has that magic touch, especially against the Chicago Bears.

Things don’t get easier for the Chicago Bears. They face a rested defending Super Bowl champs, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tom Brady and company played on Thursday so they have 10 days before facing the Bears. Brady is on another MVP pace this season, He’s completed 68.5 percent of his passes and has 17 touchdown passes to just 3 interceptions. Fields is getting his lessons in. Let’s see how quickly he learns.