At 9-3, the Chicago Bears entered their much-hyped contest with the Green Bay Packers in Week 14, with both the NFC North and the top seed in the NFC on the line. The game against the Packers had a significant meaning for the first time since the 2010 NFC Championship game between the two teams.
In the end, the Bears dropped a heartbreaker, losing 28-21, which came down to the final seconds when Caleb Williams' pass was picked off in the endzone when he was trying to re-create the same play from Black Friday game when tight end Cole Kmet caught a pass from Williams for a touchdown, sealing the victory.
Instead, the pass from Williams was underthrown and was picked off in the end zone with 22 seconds left to seal the loss. But the damage had been done long before.
One glaring issue on Bears cost them the game against Packers
On the Packers' opening drive, Montez Sweat sacked Jordan Love for a 14-yard loss, followed by C.J. Gardner-Johnson intercepting Jordan Love on the next play. Since the Sweat sack, the defense could not generate any pressure at all.
On the Packers' first touchdown, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen deployed a cover-zero scheme with a three-safety alignment. Both cornerbacks, Nate McCloud and Johnson, blitzed off the edge. But the Packers picked it up, and Love had all day to throw a pass to Christian Watson, who beat safety Kevin Byard III for a touchdown.
If the lack of pressure wasn’t enough, poor run defense, which was compounded by poor tackling, doomed the Bears once again. After the Bears tied the game at 21-21, Josh Jacobs’ 21-yard run late in the fourth quarter on their next drive epitomized the issue: multiple defenders had him lined up behind the line of scrimmage, but missed tackles let him break free and set up the go-ahead score. These breakdowns extended drives and drained momentum from Chicago’s comeback attempt.
The late-game breakdowns, such as against Minnesota in both games and the shootout in Cincinnati, have become a disturbing pattern due to the lack of pressure. It was the same old story against the Packers. Allen frequently blitzed Jordan Love during the game, and the Packers' offense was highly effective against it.
Read more: Ben Johnson was caught by surprise by lack of production from $110 million star
With a rematch against Green Bay looming in two weeks, the defense must clean up the issues from last Sunday, or the rematch could turn into an ugly, one-sided contest that many Bears fans are used to seeing.