I believe that this past Sunday’s game at Lambeau was a most disconcerting game. I just can’t decide for whom.
The Green Bay Packers committed just 4 penalties in their win against the Chicago Bears. Four penalties for 30 yards. That’s a pretty clean and disciplined game.
Except that all 4 penalties were committed by the same guy!
Bryan Bulaga, the Packers’ 1st-round pick in last spring’s draft, has proven to be a very able rookie in the trenches for the offensive line for Green Bay. But on Sunday at Lambeau, either the Bears’ D-line or the gravity of the occasion got to Bulaga, and he was flagged for 2 holding penalties and 2 false starts. Four penalties for 30 yards. We need him to get his act together if we’re going to make a playoff run.
Speaking of playoff runs, is it possible to make a playoff pass, instead?
Clark Judge of CBS Sports, in a very thoughtful evaluation of the Packers, thinks that the absence of a serious running game is going to doom us in the postseason.
We sure didn’t muster much of a running game against the Bears. On the other hand, Chicago’s defense ranked 2nd in the NFL against the run this season, so our struggles in that department on Sunday were no great shame. And we did show a rather healthy -- not explosive, but healthy -- running attack against both the Giants and the Patriots in the previous two games.
Of course, the passing game was disappointing on Sunday, too. Rodgers went 18 for 29, tallying a rather pedestrian 229 yards. Not the kind of eye-catching performance we saw against New York the previous week.
On the other hand, it was enough to get the job done. You don’t have to win by 30 points in order to win. Our “W” on Sunday was worth just as much as Pittsburgh’s, for example, as they wiped out the Browns 41-9. Indeed, our “W” is arguably worth more inasmuch as we beat a better team.
The win over the Bears was not flashy, but it was a tough, gritty win: reminiscent of our performance against the Jets a few weeks back. And since we seem to struggle in close games, I’m glad for any occasion when we can go into the 4th quarter knotted up with a good opponent and still come away with a victory.
Meanwhile, how disconcerting should this past Sunday be to Bears’ fans?
Lovie Smith almost inexplicably kept his starters in all game, though they had nothing to gain by winning and nothing to lose by losing. Still, he kept them out there. Still, they kept playing hard. And, still, they managed only 3 points on offense, and they gave up 10 points on defense.
In the end, both the Packers and Bears held serve this season by winning their homes games against one another. The Bears won by 3. The Packers won by 7. That’s pretty evenly matched. But if I were a Chicago fan, I think I’d be afraid to see the Packers come to town at any point during this postseason.
If we do end up meeting again, it would be in the NFC Championship game. Chicago will have to win just one game to get there. We’ll have to win two, beginning with this Sunday afternoon’s tilt in Philadelphia.
‘More on that later…
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