All the talk going into Sunday's game between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers centered around comments that Aaron Rodgers had made about "owning" his Windy City rivals, but he continued backing up his talk in a 45-30 blowout victory at Lambeau Field.
Rodgers completed 29-of-37 passes for 341 yards and four touchdowns, picking up his 22nd career regular season victory over the Bears. Two of those touchdowns went to Davante Adams, who had 10 catches for 121 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the win.
AJ Dillon rushed for 71 yards, and Aaron Jones had 35 rushing yards and a touchdown to help the Packers secure yet another season sweep of the Bears.
Justin Fields threw for 219 yards and two touchdowns, but he also threw a pick-six and lost a fumble in the losing effort for Chicago.
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Jakeem Grant had a stellar night, scoring a 46-yard receiving touchdown and on a 97-yard punt return touchdown, the longest punt return TD in team history. Damiere Byrd also had a 54-yard touchdown catch in the losing effort.
After a couple of quick possessions, the Bears got good field position off of a punt and set to work moving into Green Bay territory. Despite a 20-yard run by Montgomery, Chicago couldn’t quite get things in gear, and had to settle for a 23-yard field goal from Cairo Santos to take a 3-0 lead with about four minutes to go in the first quarter.
The second quarter is when the scoring really got going, as the teams combined for 45 points, a record for a single quarter in the history of the rivalry. The Bears struck first, with Fields’ shovel pass to Grant resulting in a 46-yard touchdown that gave Chicago a 10-0 lead.
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As they so often do against the Bears, Rodgers and the Packers responded immediately, putting together their own 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive. Rodgers’ two-yard pass to Allen Lazard on fourth down sealed the score, pushing Green Bay to within a 10-7 margin.
Three plays into the Bears’ next drive, Fields made a big mistake on an attempted pass to Darnell Mooney, allowing Rasul Douglas to undercut the route and take back an interception 55 yards for a touchdown, giving Green Bay a 14-10 lead and sending the Bears into a state of shock.
That shock wore off quickly as the Bears scored another quick touchdown. Damiere Byrd was the man doing the honors for Chicago this time, catching a pass over the middle and speeding up the field for a 54-yard touchdown that put Chicago back in front by three points.
As if that weren’t enough, the Bears got into the scoring act on special teams too, with Grant scoring the longest punt return touchdown in team history on a 97-yard gallop that put the Bears ahead by 10 points just before halftime.
Unfortunately, Green Bay wasn’t content to go into the half down by double-digits, and they reeled off a quick four-play scoring drive that ended on a 38-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Adams, making it a 24-21 game at the break.
The Packers looked to keep the offensive explosion going to start the second half, marching down the field on a nine-play scoring drive that didn’t require a single third down. After a couple of catches by Adams and some hard running by Dillon, Jones carried the ball across the goal line to give Green Bay a 28-27 lead.
Just two plays into Chicago’s next drive, Fields succumbed to one of his persistent issues as he was sacked and lost the ball on a fumble, and the Packers responded immediately, with Jones hauling in a 23-yard touchdown catch on the next play to extend the Green Bay lead to 35-27.
Down 11 points in the fourth quarter, the Bears opted to punt on a fourth-and-inches play, and although they recovered the ball on a muffed punt, Kindle Vildor was flagged for going out of bounds on the play, and Green Bay was able to get the ball back on the ensuing re-punt.
The Packers then put together a 13-play, 71-yard drive to put the icing on the cake, with Adams hauling in another touchdown catch to keep the rout going in northern Wisconsin.
The 4-9 Bears will be back on national television next week when they host the Minnesota Vikings on ESPN's Monday Night Football.
