The Packers seemed to have all the luck on their side on Saturday night. It didn’t matter.
Chicago found a way to win despite seemingly every single bounce of the game going against them in favor of the Packers. Those bounces helped Green Bay get out to a 21–6 lead in the fourth quarter, but when their luck ran out, the Bears were ready to cash in.
The first of the Packers’ lucky bounces came late in the first half. Wide receiver Christian Watson caught a short pass in the red zone and turned up the right sideline. With a defender closing in on him as he approached the goal line, he flipped into the air, losing possession. The ball was on the ground for anyone to take in the end zone for a moment, and had the Bears fallen on it, or even been able to shove it out of bounds, it would have resulted in a touchback with Chicago getting the ball. Instead, Romeo Doubs fell on the ball for the Packers, giving them a first down.Then in the third quarter with the Bears’ defense starting to come to life, Packers quarterback Jordan Love dropped back and dumped the ball off to offensive lineman Darian Kinnard while backed up in their own territory. Kinnard rumbled through two Bears defenders before coughing up the ball. Chicago had two players with a clear run at the ball, but it just squirted out of their grasp and out of bounds. The Packers kept possession and got a fresh set of downs.But even with those two tough breaks, the Bears kept fighting, and in the fourth quarter cut the Packers’ lead to a single score. On the ensuing kickoff, Packers running back Josh Jacobs served as the return man—a role he is not used to playing. Jacobs broke free for a pretty good return, but then had the ball punched out of his grasp by Elijah Hicks. Once again it was a free-for-all on the ground for possession, and once again the Packers left with the ball.Had any single one of these bounces gone in favor of the Bears rather than the Packers, Chicago might not have had to pull off such a ridiculous comeback. Luckily for us, they did. All three of these loose balls made it feel like the Packers were destined to win this one, but the Bears looked destiny in the eye and simply said “Not today.” While Green Bay scored off of that recovered fumble on the kickoff, the Bears pulled off back-to-back touchdown drives in the final five minutes to secure an absolutely stunning comeback win. DJ Moore played the hero with the 25-yard go-ahead score.The Bears are through to the divisional round, and next weekend will host yet another home game with a trip to the NFC championship game on the line. If they can do this when the bounces are going against them, imagine how good they could be when the breaks start going their way.Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.
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