Imagine this; at halftime, the Chicago Bears were slaughtering the Green Bay Packers 20-0. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers went down early with a knee injury he suffered from a sack. He was carted off the field, the pain was so bad. Bears linebackers Khalil Mack and Roquan Smith showed just how dangerous the Bears defense can be in the NFC North, while second-year quarterback Mitchell Trubisky was outplaying the Packers defense, both with his arm and his legs. But football games aren’t won at halftime, and the Bears learned that lesson the hard way Sunday night.
During the second half, Rodgers came back onto the field, hobbling on his right leg, making sure not to put any weight or pressure on his left knee. His mobility was limited, and he faced constant pressure from Mack and Smith in the pocket. And how did he respond? Scoring 17 unanswered points from the end of the third quarter to the middle of the fourth, lead a two play, 75-yard touchdown drive to put the Packers up by one with a little over two minutes left in the game. And how did the Bears respond? By having Trubisky fumble the ball on 4th and 10 in Bears territory. Let’s go ahead and break down one of greatest comebacks in Packers, if not NFL, history, as we analyze the Green Bay Packers’ 24-23 win over the Chicago Bears.
The impact of Khalil Mack and Roquan Smith
For two players that were supposed to be kept on a limited rotation against the Packers Sunday night, Roquan Smith and Khalil Mack had quite the coming out party. And the funny part? Neither one of these guys were fully present at the Bears summer training camp. Mack arrived in Chicago eight days ago from a multi-pick trade with the Oakland Raiders, while Smith showed up two weeks after the start of training camp. Both players were involved in contract disputes for most of the summer, but let’s not focus on that.
Let’s focus on how Smith’s first NFL snap was this;
While Mack did this in his first game as a Bear;
Oh, and this;
Need I go on?
Bears know how to start. Now they need to know how to finish
The Bears jumped out to a hot start in Green Bay, limiting space for Packers receivers to work with while rattling Rodgers in the pocket enough to make him uncomfortable and give up on the play. Trubisky looked like a more mobile Jared Goff when he played, completing deep passes off bootlegs and play action while making good, quick decisions on short routes and throwing the ball away when there wasn’t anyone open.
And like I said, he looks like a more mobile Jared Goff;
Racking up 152 total yards by the offense and only allowing 61 total yards by the defense at the end of the first half was a good start for Chicago.
Unfortunately, there was a whole other half to play. The Bears offense only accrued 159 total yards and fumbled the ball on their last possession, while the defense gave up 274 total yards to a Packers offense that got hot at just the right time. The Bears have a lot of potential and talent on their roster, and there’s still plenty of season left to play. The Bears need to learn how to start quickly, like they did Sunday night, and maintain the momentum until the very last whistle.
Aaron Rodgers is not Human
I actually have a theory on this. I believe Aaron Rodgers is a machine created by Stark Industries and Skynet in order to usher in a new era of super athletes so that they can gain our trust and admiration, making it easier for them to enslave our minds and feed us non-stop ads through our dreams, weakening us for the rise of the athletically-gifted machine army and yeah, I’m just going to stop right there.
Look, Rodgers suffered an undisclosed knee injury earlier in the game. It was so bad, he couldn’t go into the locker room on his own power.
When he came back in the third quarter, you could tell Rodgers was not as mobile as usual. Favoring his left knee for the rest of the game, Rodgers changed the offensive tempo in order to stay in the pocket, lowering his chance of getting sacked or injured. Typically, Rodgers is at his best when he leaves the pocket. His ability to throw on the run is a quality no one else in the league has. Well, maybe Drew Brees, but that’s beside the point.
With limited mobility, an aggressive defense breathing down his neck, and less than 18 minutes to come back from a 20-point deficit, a comeback is already out of the question, right?
After leading one drive for a 42-yard field goal, Rodgers came out and decimated the Bears defense.
A 39-yard lob pass to Geronimo Allison toward the right side of the end zone;
A last resort, 12-yard check down pass to Davante Adams;
And finally, a curl route to Randall Cobb, who took it to the house for 75-yards;
I was joking when I said Rodgers was a mixture of Skynet and Stark Industries. But I’m not joking when I say that Aaron Rodgers, the probable G.O.A.T. quarterback in the NFL, is Not. Human.
The Packers are a terrible team in disguise
Here’s how the Packers do with Rodgers on the field; 286 passing yards and three touchdowns. What do they look like without him? See “Khalil Mack” at the top of this article. Watching DeShone Kizer play out there for Rodgers brings back flashbacks of the 2017 Green Bay Packers. The cheese heads are ill-prepared to perform without No. 12 taking the charge. Mike McCarthy is not a good coach. If he was, he would not have gone 1-7 with Brett Hundley as his signal caller. Supposedly, there is a large crop of talent on the Packers roster, but you wouldn’t know it unless Rodgers was on the field. To put it simply, the Packers are a dysfunctional, disorganized time without Rodgers in the line-up, and a playoff contender with him. Despite being made the highest paid quarterback in NFL history, Aaron Rodgers is severely underpaid. He’s not just the Green Bay Packers starting quarterback. He is the Green Bay Packers.
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