Looking back at this game now, it hurts A LOT less than it did at the time. I guess knowing that we'd go on to not only beat Chicago twice, but win the Superbowl too takes the sting away. Still, it was a disgusting display.
It was one of those games where we went out there and showed that we're a better team, but we lose anyway.
WHAT COST US THIS GAME: What cost us this game was 1: 18 penalties, including two 15 yarders on Chicago's tying drive. 2: JJ's game costing fumble. 3: Devin Hester's punt return for a TD. 4: You could also say that MM not "letting them score" at the end didn't give us one last shot, but that is just a matter of judgment. Not all coaches think that way. With this defense, a turnover is ALWAYS possible.
JAMES JONES: Since I noticed so many incompletions involving JJ last game, I decided to key on him specifically this game.
-5:00 1st Q, caught the ball and bulled forward for the first down.
-:18 1st, gets a screen and goes 12 yards along the sideline, but misses the first down by a yard or so.
-13:21 I believe in the 3rd, got 11 in the middle of the field.
-2:20 4th This was the play that cost us the game. The game was tied and Arodge was driving us consistently, solidly down the field. He hits JJ along the right sideline, JJ turns and goes up the sideline, when he's stripped by Briggs and Urlacher. Bear5 recover.
OFFENSE:
-MM has a play where AR12 fakes a handoff and rolls the opposite way. Finley comes open across the middle, moving against the flow of the play and when this play works, it's awesome.
-4:31 AR12 wastes another timeout. Seems like he does that early in every game. I think they did get a TD on this drive though.
-11:37 2nd Packers were stuck on the 10 after Derrick Martin tried to return an INT out of the endzone. But Finley comes up big with a 27 yard reception to give us some room. Looked good.
-Announcers break in with news that Trend Edwards was released by the Bills, who we had played (and crushed) the previous week.
-Packers got the ball right before the half, and MM didn't just run out the clock. I appreciated that. It was a close game. Arodge got INT'd on a hail mary. Urlacher knocked it down right to Briggs. Looks bad on the stat sheet, but it was meaningless.
-In the first half, the Packers had 7 rushes for 8 yards.
-7:18 3rd, Tauscher kept holding Peppers. One of these holds resulted in a TD having to come off the scoreboard. This resulted in a blocked FG by Peppers.
-:23 3rd, Third down and less than a yard. Arodge gets called for delay of game, causing us to lose 5 yards. Sucked. Again, penalties were one of the things that caused us to lose this game. Anyway, the resulting punt after this play was a line drive 35 yarder which Hester returned to the house. BAM.
-9:11 4th Kuhn takes a pitch, makes one cut and goes for 20 yards, dragging a huge pile of Bears for the last 8. How does he do it!? At this time, Kuhn was 6 carries 31 yards.
-7:44 Penalty against the Bears, Peppers iirc, for roughing the passer for a shot to Rodgers' head. This is when Arodge started getting these calls. Up until this play, including the entire 2009 season, taking shots to Rodgers head seemed to be legal. Afterwards, no more.
-6:59 Quarless drops a sure TD in the endzone.
-6:52 Rodgers scrambles for a TD.
-2:20 The final drive, the Packers were doing very well. It was Aaron Rodgers time. But JJ fumbled the ball (and the game) away to seal the Bears win.
DEFENSE:
-9:58 1st, Woody with a big PI. Grabbed Hester. This continues Woody's tendency to be too aggressive and get flagged.
-8:22 Bears miss a FG, ends their first drive.
-1:57 Derrick Martin with a huge INT in the endzone, but tried to return it, got only back to the 10. This led to a 55 yard punt by Masthay, which included an extra 10 yards for holding on the Bears.
-14:52 2nd Very nearly picked off by Collins.
-There seemed to be alot of sacks and alot of pressure today.
-2:00 First 35 line drive punt by Masthay, who himself tackled Hester.
-:26 The Bears score right before the half to pull within 3. This drive included a 21 yard play to Knox over Shields and a TD pass which went right by a diving Chillar.
-6:33 3rd, blocked FG by Peppers. Just disgusting. Previous play 7 came off the board due to Tauscher's holding of Peppers.
-5:27 Johnny Knox 36 yards over Shields.
-1:54 Sitton plays DL on a tough goal line 5tand.
-6:38 4th, Barnett INT called back by a roughing the pa55er on Cutler. Fir5t of two huge penaltie5 on thi5 drive.
-6:21 Unnece55ary roughne55 again5t Collin5. Body 5lammed Forte after the play.
-3:59 FG tie5 game for Bear5.
-2:05 Collin5 picked off Cutler, but dropped the ball. Looked like a fumble, but they didn't even run a replay of it on TV. MM didn't challenge.
-1:44 one or two play5 later, Collin5 picked off Cutler again, but it wa5 ruled PI on Morgan Burnett, who got tangled with the WR. BAM!
-From here, the defence did not let the Bear5 5core to get the ball back with time remaining on the clock. Time ran out, and the offen5e never got another chance. Bear5 kicked a FG with :04 remaining.
Jordy had a KO return to the 40, but overall the 5pecial team5 contributed to thi5 lo55. There wa5 a huge off5ide on a kickoff, there wa5 a mi55ed FG and two line drive punt5, one of which went to the hou5e for the margin of victory.
“Winning is not a sometime thing, it is an all the time thing. You don't do things right once in a while…you do them right all the time.”