The 1962 season proved to be a special campaign for the Green Bay Packers and for running back Jim Taylor. The Packers enjoyed their best season under Vince Lombardi, finishing the year with a 13-1 record and winning their second straight NFL title. Taylor earned league MVP honors that season and won the NFL rushing title. That made him the only player to out gain the great Jim Brown in Brown’s Hall of Fame career. In Week 8, Jim Taylor tied a Packers record by rushing for four touchdowns as the Pack crushed the Bears 38-7.
Jim Taylor Runs for Four Touchdowns as the Packers Crush the Bears: The Buildup
The Packers entered this game with a 7-0 record. They weren’t just winning, they were dominating. Only one of the seven games was close, a 9-7 win over the Lions in Week 4. They had outscored opponents by a margin of 205-54, or by an average score of 29-8. The Pack entered the game with 10 straight victories dating back to last season.
The Pack was without star halfback Paul Hornung who had suffered a knee injury. Tom Moore replaced him at halfback while Jerry Kramer took over the kicking duties.
The Bears entered the game with a 4-3 record. If George Halas’ team hoped to catch the Packers in the NFL’s Western Division, they would need to win this game at Wrigley Field to stay close.
The Tough Battle Early
The game started as tough, defensive Packers-Bears battle. Neither team scored until late in the first quarter when Bart Starr engineered an 11-play, 70-yard drive. Taylor finished off the march with a two-yard touchdown run and the Packers led 7-0.
The Bears did respond. Early in the second quarter, they tied the game when quarterback Bill Wade rolled out and threw to Johnny Adams for a four-yard touchdown. The game was tied 7-7.
The Packers pulled ahead just before the half on a 17-yard field goal by Kramer and Green Bay led 10-7 at the break.
Jim Taylor Runs for Four Touchdowns as the Packers Crush the Bears: The Packers Pull Away
The Second half was all Green Bay. It started with a Boyd Dowler punt. The wind held it up and neither Roosevelt Taylor nor J.C. Caroline could cover it. One of them touched it, though and Jim Ringo recovered for the Pack at the Chicago 28. On the next play, Starr hit Max McGee to the Bears one. Taylor scored on the next play and the Packers led 17-7. That was the score after three quarters.
But the Packers poured it on in the fourth. Willie Wood intercepted Rudy Bukich and returned it for 26 yards. Starr found Moore for 17 yards and that set up another one-yard touchdown run for Taylor, his third of the game. The Pack led 24-7.
The Green Bay defense was dominant. They forced seven fumbles in the game and recovered four of them. They also intercepted three passes, one by Wood, one by Ray Nitschke and one by Herb Adderley. All three players are now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Taylor scored his fourth touchdown of the game later in the fourth quarter. Lombardi took out his starters, installing Earl Gros for Taylor and John Roach for Starr. Gros finished the scoring with nine-yard touchdown run. The Packers won going away, 38-7.
The Aftermath
Taylor finished the game with 124 yards rushing on 25 carries and four touchdowns. The four rushing touchdowns tied his own record from a year ago which he accomplished against the Browns. He would match it just one week later in a 49-0 romp over the Eagles. It remains a Packers record today, with Terdell Middleton, Dorsey Levens and Aaron Jones matching it but never surpassing it.
The Packers defense shut down the Bears running attack. Chicago gained just 65 yards on 27 rushing attempts, an average of just 2.4-yards per carry. Meanwhile, the Packers gained 215 yards on the ground.
The Packers winning streak ended on Thanksgiving when they lost to Detroit, but the team finished 13-1 and defeated the New York Giants 16-7 to win their second straight NFL title.
The Bears finished 9-5, winning five or their last six games, but that was only good for third place behind the Packers and the Lions.
The 1962 Packers are widely regarded as the best team during Lombardi’s illustrious tenure in Green Bay and as one of the best teams of all-time. Their dominant win over the Bears was just another piece of evidence of their dominance.
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