Probably no snow tonight, but one of the saddest teams in the league, the Chicago Bears, are going to visit Lambeau Field to go up against a relatively rested Packers team. Previously injured Packers CB Jaire Alexander was seen practicing this week. Unfortunately, despite some rumors, Za’Darius Smith and David Bakhtiari were not active this week. Rodgers did manage to practice this week, despite an ongoing toe injury. LB De’Vondre Campbell was activated from COVID/reserve, but WR Randall Cobb was placed on injured reserve(do not expect to see Cobb again during the regular season).
Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay QB and Bears owner, will likely soon be the winningest QB in the history of the Bears/Packers rivalry. A win tonight will put him at 23 wins, one above esteemed political scientist, Brett Favre. Rodgers has put up triple-digit QB ratings in 13 of those meetings.
First person Aaron Rodgers went to when he ran onto the practice field was GM Brian Gutekunst, and they shared an embrace.
It’s the first practice for Rodgers (toe) in three weeks.
LB De’Vondre Campbell back from COVID.
DNPs: Cobb, Bakhtiari, Love. pic.twitter.com/IVjWeLmlAG
— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) December 10, 2021
Rodgers will likely need surgery on his toe, but most likely not until the completion of the season. He was quoted by ESPN as saying that he will see how it goes tonight.
Game Information
Who: Packers vs Bears
When: 7:20pm Central Time
Where: Lambeau Field – Green Bay, Wisconsin
TV: Sunday Night Football – NBC
Radio: WTMJ
Injury Report
The best news coming out this week is Jaire Alexander coming back from injury. His return is critical if we’re going to make a serious SB run. I don’t look for him or Bakhtiari to play before the last game or two. And then used only sparingly to get into game shape. It’s all about the playoffs now. And we’ll need everyone healthy if we’re to stand a chance against the Bucs in January who owned us last year. ZaDarius Smith’s situation looks to be a little more dicey. I look for him to be a cap casualty in the offseason and I don’t see them activating him unless there’s an injury to Gary or Preston. If he’s activated and then aggravates the back injury, not sure if that makes the Packers on the hook for his full salary or not. Whatever the situation, they’ll play it conservative. Delvin Funchess was signed to the 49er practice squad this week then quickly released two days later. Funchess and Jace Sternberger were the only “starters” to play in that first preseason game back in August. Both are out of football. Management knew something the rest of us didn’t. They weren’t players.
“Funchess and Sternberger…are both out of football
Management knew something the rest of us didn’t. They weren’t players” – Princess
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Ummm…then why did management sign them?
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Gee…i guess the education continues.
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Carry on Goober
Okay, broken record here. I don’t have some way-back device to rely on but I can attest that since pretty much the beginning of the season I have been harping on this disfunctional Special Teams unit and their coaching from the get-go.
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Today’s team looked very good on the offensive and defensive units and the only thing that ever kept Chicago within hopeful striking distance was the pathetic performance of the ST unit. I’m not talking about one series, or two series, I’m talking about every damn time that unit took the field. The bright spot…. Mason kicked em pretty much through the middle. God bless Mason.
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Ball handled, decisions, and coverage on Special Teams is horrendous. A kickoff is going out of bounds at the 5, you let it GO OUT, you get the ball at the 40, not the 5! I was in a bar full of drunks who knew that. Some of those guys were piss drunk and knew that better than the returner and they were shouting, ” Don’t touch it!”
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Bojo has a boot, and he can punt, but when he out kicks the coverage,…Omigod.
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Get it right or Special Teams is going to be the Achille’s Heel going into the playoffs.
Well said. The first half was interesting to say the least. At least Arod and P. Smith had some good talks at halftime to calm things down.
I can’t rate the defense as very good.
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I’m sorry, but if you give up 240 yards and 20 points against the bears offense before halftime.
I’m not patting them on the back
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2nd half…different story, credit for shutting the bears down.
You folks may want to sit down for this….
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But Preston Smith made some plays and even impacted the game.
No shit!….go figure.
Credit when due.
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But then again…isn’t that the reason Gute gave him that fat contract…to make plays?
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I think he has 7 sacks now?
3 more than last season.
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So he has that going for him before the Packers send him packing after the season.
Couldn’t agree more Mitch. I’ve been harping on the STs’ for years. We’ve had a few adequate ST units in the last 2 decades, but never an above average; or even good unit. The last 4 ST coordinators have shown nothing in improvement from one season to the next. What I witnessed last night was probably the worst performance on STs in a very long time! That includes the dark years of the 70s’ and 80s’. LaFleur was questioned about a possible change at the coordinator position after the game. His response was——-“No I’m not considering a change”. It is risky to make changes at the coordinator positions this late into a season; but if Drayton doesn’t get things right soon, an early exit in the playoffs becomes more of a reality.
I wrote almost this exact same message…and it didn’t post. Thanks for saying it. Trying to catch that kickoff going out of bounds…OMG. Amari Rodgers can’t catch. Just don’t put anyone back on punts, it cannot be worse. He doesn’t know when to catch and when to get away. Then when he does try to catch he drops it. I can do better. Wave my hand and run to the sideline every time on every punt. They may be pinned at the 1 but better than hitting me in the facemask.
Offense and defense played well to put up 45 points. Watching that Douglas Pick Six got me excited. Reminded me of the old days when there were several ball hawks on the defense that could take it to the house at any time. Kenny Clark was gettin it done. Smith with a forced fumble.
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Rodgers was Rodgers, but I dare not quote any of his stats because he doesn’t have 7 rings. You’ll have to go back and watch the highlights yourself with your own eyes, just be sure not to count the touchdowns because that number would technically be considered a stat. I enjoyed the floater to Jones and the deep pass to Adams where he made the two Chicago defenders run into each other like a scene out of the three stooges.
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I second what Mitch said, special teams played horribly. I forgot about the kickoff that they grabbed at the 5 yard line. I remember thinking what the hell are they doing? Aside from the 97 yard kickoff return TD, they gave up a ton of return yards as well. Not only that, they are very lucky for two reasons. First, that the Bears defender ran straight out of bounds on his own on that punt return. If not for that Chicago would have had a TD off of yet another Amari Rodgers muffed catch. They need to put someone else back there. And second, special teams lucked out that you cannot advance the ball on an onside kick recovery, which seems like a silly rule, otherwise Chicago would have had another TD off of a Packer special teams blunder. That would have been three touchdowns in one game thanks to special teams having their heads up their arses. You can’t have that happen and expect to win. Thankfully those blunders were called back.
Funny how we haven’t heard anymore loudmouth soup about how Rodgers is “playing to his age this season”.
A few comments:
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Adams was getting separation so fast on numerous plays. I know Tom does not like it, but Arod can target Adams 15 times a game if he can get that much separation. The QB and WR are really in sync.
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When Arod gets the ball out fast, it sure helps the O-line and eliminates sacks. Arod is a part of the reason that GB can score points with 4 OL starters out — just look at the KC game with Love as comparison.
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Arod is on fire, time for Gute to extend his contract come hell or high water… All it takes is for the 2 sides to want to make it work. Can not imagine that Arod would want to leave for “greener pastures” if the contract is fair. They will have to cut a bunch of cap space but whatever… Seems like GB may be the best place if a player does not wish the take the jab and all the mandatory boosters on the rona-coaster.
Excellent points Dean…
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Against some teams this offense clicks, against some others, we struggle to separate.
I believe it’s about how teams match up against against each other and the effectiveness and skill level of how coaches game plan.
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Howard goes into great detail about these different match up situations and coaching schemes/adjustments quite often and in a lot more detail than i ever could, or would attempt to.
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I think we all have learned/learn from him when he explains it to us.
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Big props to him. Credit when due….as always.
Almost forgot Dean….
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I still ‘think’ Rodgers is gone because of the salary cap (and all that implies concerning cutting talent from the team to stay under the cap) and underlying feelings/issues.
Plus….hard for Gute to justify his1st round pick of Love if they keep Rodgers after chasing for Love instead of adding first round talent and a 4th round pick in 2020 to a team on the cusp of getting to the Super Bowl.
Not to mention, either they’d have to trade Love, or make a decision on his 5th year option after next season, which will easily be north of 20 million plus i’m thinking.
What does Love get on the trade market…a 2nd or 3rd….maybe?
When Gute traded up for Love….everyone (all of us) were scratching our heads….for a reason.
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On the other hand…. i think anything is possible i guess.
I admittedly, can’t read the future.
Wow, two things that really stood out to me is the fact that the special teams SUCK. And could Criss Collinsworth kiss
Justin Fields ass any more. He looks like any other average QB. Glad he’s with them.
In my younger days I remember kind of liking Collinsworth as a player but I can’t stand him as a commentator. I don’t why but I’d rather listen to Joe Buck than Collinsworth and that says something.
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Fields is looking average because of his experience level and some bad O-line play but truthfully he shows some real good attributes at this point in his development. I think a good attribute he possesses is that he doesn’t let the screw ups overly define him. A lot of young QBs would be mentally devastated after a pick six and melt down for the rest of the game. Fields seems to brush off some of that bad play and gets back to business. Chicago hasn’t had a decent QB in,..I can’t remember, but he might be a player they can build around. He’s gritty and athletic and when he learns to read the field better he has the potential to be good for them.
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But, Bears. With that GM and all. Yeah.
Fields looks like a rookie as expected. I can see why the Bears and their fans like him. The kid is a competitor, tough and he can wing the ball. Plus he has great anticipation of the pass rush while he’s in the pocket, and as we seen last night , he is slippery. With game experience, he’ll read defenses better.
Amari Rodgers…..
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Yes, it’s too early for judgement but…
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From what I’ve seen he is absolutely horrible on special teams, not just decisions and ball handling.
But his returns aren’t blowing anyone’s skirt up either.
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I also don’t think the braintrust is confident in playing Rodgers in the slot to spell Cobb or add him into the play scheme as they look more towards Lazard it seems.
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So far…i’m going with a D.. At best.
On Rodgers…..
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“He’s all that and a bag of chips” – Stephon A. Smith
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“I take back anything negative I ever said about Rodgers…He is clearly the man, and one of the best QB’s the NFL has ever seen regardless of rings” – Princess
If anyone remember’s, last season was a three man race for MVP.
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Mahome’s, Brady and Rodgers.
Brady and Mahome’s faded down the stretch and Rodgers won fairly easily.
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I’m not calling a repeat, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.
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I know Ragnar…i know. Nobody cares about MVP’s right?
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I say go F yourself and count your NFC North Banners.
Nobody wants you here.
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SKOL