“Our margin for error isn’t that great”, Bears quarterback Jay Cutler said. It happened because the Bears are a better team than a roster, a better defense than their parts. With a number of Bears in coverage and the heat coming, Rodgers throws it to Davante Adams but it’s a bit high. Jones was targeted six times against the Bears and didn’t have a catch.
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“Every game is big, but we are still in the playoff hunt so this game was huge”, said cornerback Tracy Porter, who intercepted Rodgers and broke up four of his passes, including one in the end zone on a third-and-goal from the Bears’ 8 with 36 seconds remaining.
In his first year in Chicago, Fox has instilled confidence in his team that it can hang tough in close games.
“We didn’t get it done tonight, and really I think one of the biggest factors was handling the football”, head coach Mike McCarthy said after the loss, according to ESPN.
“We always accept the challenge”.
Rodgers was banged up after scooping up the ball off the wet Lambeau Field turf with about 5:00 left in the third quarter.
“It’s my left hand, I’ll be all right”, said Rodgers, who was 22 of 43 for 202 yards and a touchdown. Rodgers owns the Bears in his career, the Packers have owned Cutler, who is 1-11 in his career against them. Bears players still have memories of their last Lambeau visit, a scarring 55-14 humiliation.
Talk at Halas Hall the next week will center around the Bears’ coordinators because their next opponent, San Francisco, interviewed both defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and offensive coordinator Adam Gase before deciding against both. His name and No. 4 joined the franchise’s five other retired numbers on the north facade inside the stadium. The previous four trips were full of misery as Cutler threw just three touchdowns while finding Green Bay defenders for 12 interceptions. As I mentioned above the Bears are holding teams to just 14.6 points per game, which would be tops in the league by a wide margin, over the last five and for the season they are ranked 4th in the NFL in passing yards allowed per game.
Cutler also got lucky to recover a fumble on a bad shotgun snap that probably would’ve changed everything the way things go for the Bears in Wisconsin. They moved quickly up the field on their final two drives only to come up short. The first score came on a 25-yard pass from Aaron Rodgers to Eddie Lacy, a touchdown which would stand as the only tally of the quarter. Running back James Starks gained 18 yards on a screen and ran for 7 more to get the ball to the Green Bay 49 at the two-minute warning.
Lacy’s second-quarter fumble perhaps caused McCarthy and Clements some concern. The Bears launched a touchdown drive from there to tie the game at 7-7.
Cam Newton is still flawless this season.
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Back-to-back 100-yard games from Eddie Lacy have helped turn his season around even if that has failed to jump-start an offense that still ranks in the bottom third of the NFL. “We’ve been taking it on the chin, rightfully so, the last three weeks after a couple real poor performances”, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers told reporters.
