January 8: The home Green Bay Packers defeated the Chicago Bears 17-9 on Sunday to advance to the NFC playoffs behind two touchdown passes from Jordan Love.
The Packers stamped their ticket as the seventh seed and will head to Dallas to play the second-seeded Cowboys the following weekend. Going into the regular-season finale, they needed a win to secure a wild-card berth.
With 3:08 remaining, Love completed his 26th pass of the game for a yard and more than 300 yards, and Aaron Jones, the running back, scored his third straight game-winning touchdown on the game-winning play. With 22 carries, he ended with 111 yards.
After leaving the game for one play in the fourth quarter to get examined for a concussion, Bears quarterback Justin Fields came back to play the remainder of the way. In addition to rushing for 27 yards on eight carries, he completed 11 of 16 throws for 148 yards.
Green Bay nearly let it all get away in the latter stages of the third quarter. A communication breakdown led Love to try to make a play on his own after calling an audible out of a trips left formation. Rather, Love stumbled and scrambled to get the first down, which allowed the Bears to recover and trail 14-6.
Cairo Santos’ third field goal of the game cut the deficit to 14-9 with 13:03 remaining after Fields, who did not attempt a throw in the third quarter, had his third-down pass to Cole Kmet batted down at the goal line.
But Love answered back in kind.
On the first play from scrimmage for the Packers, he connected rookie wide out Jayden Reed in stride, setting up a 59-yard gain to start the next drive. Love hit wide receiver Bo Melton with a nicely placed third-and-four pass from the Chicago 7, but it was too hot to handle. Officials determined after seeing a replay that Melton never really got possession of the ball as he went to his back and touched out of bounds.
Anders Carlson’s 25-yard field goal gave the Packers a 17-9 lead after Love’s attempted third touchdown pass of the game was foiled.
In order to assist force a punt on Chicago’s next drive, rookie defensive end Karl Brooks of the Packers wrapped up Fields for the team’s fifth sack of the game. Chicago was limited to 192 yards overall, while giving up 432.
Fields is now 0-6 versus the Packers since being picked in 2021 as a result of the loss.