The Green Bay Packers lost a game they should have won in their regular season finale against the Bears. Even before the game started, the coaching staff seemed unsure of how to approach this game. Unfortunately, the Packers were outcoached at key times during the game, and it proved very costly. Here is how the Packers were outcoached in all three phases of the game in Week 18 against the Bears and how it helped cost them the football game.
The Packers Were Outcoached In All Three Phases of the Game vs Chicago: Special Teams
The special teams gaffe happened first in this game. Midway through the first quarter, the Packers second offensive drive stalled at the Bears 44. Facing 4th-and-6, the Packers decided to punt in a scoreless game.
Daniel Whelan dropped back and punted the ball down the left sideline. The Bears tried a playground level trick. They had their primary return man, DJ Moore, line up on the right sideline. One of the gunners, Josh Blackwell, started running down the other side of the field and dropped back to field the punt.
Moore acted like he was fielding the punt which moved the Packers punt coverage to that side. Meanwhile, Blackwell fielded the punt on the other side of the field and went 94 yards for a touchdown without a defender laying a finger on him.
Rich Bisaccia’s special teams unit was completely fooled on the play. The Packers plan to get off to a quick start and then rest their star players after taking an early lead was spoiled.
Offense
On offensive coaching error came in the final minute of the game. The Packers faced 3rd-and-2 at the Bears 35 with 1:05 left on the clock and trailing 21-19. The Bears were down to one timeout and the Packers were on the lip of field goal range.
Head coach Matt LaFleur called for a run by Emanuel Wilson which they thought would surprise the Bears and pick up the first down. Instead, Wilson was stopped for a two-yard loss, bringing up 4th-and-4. The clock was running.
Here, LaFleur opted to call a timeout, stopping the clock with 58 seconds left. LaFleur used the timeout to decide whether to go for it or kick a field goal from 55 yards out. The coach should have known what he was going to do in advance based on the distance needed for the first down and for the field goal.
By waiting, he could have run the clock down inside 20 seconds before using a timeout, or forced the Bears to use their final timeout which would leave them with less play calling options on their final drive.
After the game, LaFleur admitted he made a mistake. “At the end of the game, that’s squarely on me,” He told reporters. “Got caught in a situation where we were planning on going for it. They felt like Brandon could make that field goal. Hindsight is 20/20, I wish I wouldn’t have taken that timeout. It gave them way too much time to go down and operate. Like I told the team, that’s on me, that can’t happen.”
As a result of this mistake, the Bears had just enough time to drive downfield and kick the winning field goal on the final play of the game.
The Packers Were Outcoached In All Three Phases of the Game vs Chicago: Defense
After Brandon McManus kicked the go-ahead field goal, the Bears got the ball back at their own 20 with 48 seconds left and had one timeout.
Chicago managed to drive the ball downfield until they faced a 3rd-and-11 at their own 49 with 15 seconds left and no timeouts remaining.
The Packers coaches understood that it takes roughly 12 seconds to line up and spike the ball to stop the clock. That meant that the Bears still had time to run a play anywhere on the field assuming they picked up a first down. There would barely be enough time to spike the ball and stop the clock to try a field goal.
Jeff Hafley called a curious defense. The Packers defense lined up with three defenders deep, almost like they were trying to prevent a Hail Mary. They also concentrated on taking away the sidelines, forgetting that the Bears still had time to complete the pass and spike the ball to then kick the winning field goal. The coverage on this play was passive and loose.
Caleb Williams easily found DJ Moore who was wide open for 18 yards on a slant, beating cornerback Carrington Valentine who didn’t understand the choice of coverage.
“I just did what I was told,” Valentine told the Green Bay Press Gazette after the game. “Play outside leverage, try to keep them in the middle of the field, so the clock. They didn’t have any timeouts. So, I just did what was asked of me.”
The Bears spiked the ball, and Cairo Santos kicked a 51-yard field goal to win the game for Chicago.
These three coaching errors proved costly to the Packers and contributed to their eventual loss. The Packers cannot afford similar issues against the Eagles in the playoffs.
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