For the second consecutive week, the Green Bay Packers suffered an injury to a franchise cornerstone while blowing a second-half lead. Jordan Love was knocked out of the Saturday night contest in Chicago with a concussion, as the Packers handed the game, and the division, to the Bears, 22-16 in overtime. 

“It should hurt,” coach Matt LaFleur said via packers.com about his team’s mindset after the game. “We had opportunities and we’re up two scores late in the game. Unfortunately, it flipped pretty quick.” 

The Bears now have a 1.5-game lead in the division with just two regular season games remaining. 

Green Bay led 16-6 with 5:49 remaining when an old nightmare began to reemerge. Offensive red zone failures, a botched onside kick, and a long, walk-off touchdown pass by the home team all harkened back to the fateful 2014 NFC Championship game.

Love marched the offense up and down the field in the two drives he completed. The first ended on fourth-and-1 at the Chicago seven-yard line on an incompletion. He again orchestrated a drive inside the Bear 10-yard line, but the Packers settled for a Brandon McManus field goal early in the second quarter, 3-0. 

Three plays into the third drive, Love stepped around pressure deep in the pocket and right into Chicago end Austin Booker. Love tried to cradle at the last second to protect himself, but Booker – with a full six yards’ worth of steam – led with the crown of his helmet to meet Love’s. The helmet-to-helmet crack cost the Bears 15 yards, but more importantly ended Love’s night with a concussion. 

In the sub-freezing temperatures and howling Lake Michigan winds, Malik Willis stepped off the bench cold. He took little time to warm up and generated another three-point drive that stalled on goal-to-go, 6-0 at the half. 

A Cairo Santos field goal put Chicago on the board 6-3, and again the Packers marched the ball inside the Bear 10. However, instead of settling for a field goal, a Josh Jacobs fumble literally left the back empty-handed as the offense came away from the possession empty handed. 

The Packer defense forced a three-and-out and the offense finally crossed the goal line. Romeo Doubs beat the press-man coverage at the line of scrimmage for a couple of steps, and Willis beautifully laid a 35-yard pass out in front, 13-3. 

“I thought Malik did a hell of a job,” LaFleur said. “He was poised, made some plays with his legs, made some plays with his arm, made some off-schedule plays. I felt like the operation was pretty smooth for the most part.”

Willis finished 9-of-11 for 121 yards and the score, and added another 44 yards on the ground. 

Doubs, who has seen his target share in the offense dwindle recently due to the returns of Christian Watson and Jayden Reed, led the receiving corps Saturday night. He caught five passes on six targets for 84 yards and the score. 

Chicago merely answered with another long Santos field goal before Green Bay drove the ball to the Bear 10 once more. Another McManus chip shot made it 16-6 with 5:49 left. The Packers had five drives inside the Bear 10-yard line and scored nine points on them. 

A third Santos field goal – on a drive extended by a Warren Brinson facemask penalty on third-and-20 – at the two-minute warning put the Bears back within one score. With only two timeouts in their pocket, the Bears forgoed kicking the ball back to Green Bay and opted for an onside kick instead. That’s when the 2014 NFC Championship Game nightmare became a reality. 

Santos bounced the ball to the right side. Nobody on the front row attempted to field the ball, and instead let it bounce to number 87, Doubs, as designed. However, Doubs appeared to wait on the ball before taking his eyes off of it. He failed to secure it and the Bears recovered. 

Jeff Hafley’s defense, which had played excellent all night in its first game without Micah Parsons, couldn’t stop the kind of momentum the onside kick generated inside Soldier Field. A fourth down coverage bust between Keisean Nixon and Nate Hobbs sent the game to overtime tied at 16. 

Willis and the Packer offense received the ball first, and moved it again. The backup quarterback rushed a fourth-down snap at the Chicago 36-yard line which resulted in a fumble and turnover on downs. Four plays later, the Bears connected on a deep play-action pass to walk it off. 

Other Notes

• Quay Walker (14) and Javon Bullard (10) paced Green Bay in tackles
• Jordan Morgan started at right tackle for an injured Zach Tom
• Bullard replaced an injured Evan Williams at safety, while Hobbs took Bullard’s spot in the slot
• Josh Jacobs has had a knee injury for the last month and didn’t return after the fumble. He had 12 carries for 36 yards. Emmanuel Wilson carried the ball 14 times for 82 yards.
• The Packers did not punt despite only scoring 16 points.