Local Sports

Packers Surge Past Bears

Aaron Rodgers threw for 341 yards and four touchdowns to continue his mastery of the Bears as the Packers won 45-30 on Sunday night.

 

The reigning MVP went 29 of 37, throwing two TD passes to Davante Adams and one each to Allen Lazard and Aaron Jones. Rodgers has 61 career touchdown passes against the Bears, the most all-time against Chicago and one more than his predecessor, Brett Favre.

 

The Packers trailed 27-21 at halftime but scored the first 24 points of the second half.

Green Bay (10-3) took a four-game lead over the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC North and moved closer to its third straight division title. Chicago (4-9) has lost seven of eight.

 

Rodgers played through a broken toe that has limited his practice time over the last month.

 

Chicago led after a wild second quarter that featured a combined 45 points, the fourth time since 1991 that teams have combined to score at least that many points in a quarter.

 

But the Bears couldn't keep it up. Spurred by a halftime talk from Preston Smith, the Packers shut down Chicago the rest of the way. The Bears' only second-half points came on Cairo Santos' field goal with 1:22 left.

 

Chicago's Justin Fields went 18 of 33 for 224 yards with two touchdown passes, but he also threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. Jakeem Grant scored twice for the Bears, including a 97-yard punt return.

 

Jones scored a pair of touchdowns a minute apart to put the Packers ahead for good.

 

He capped the opening drive of the second half with a 3-yard run that gave Green Bay a 28-27 lead. On the Bears' next series, Smith sacked Fields and forced a fumble that Rashan Gary recovered at Chicago's 23-yard line.

 

On the next play, Jones caught a pass from Rodgers at about the 13 and ran into the left corner of the end zone to make it 35-27.

 

Chicago took a 10-0 lead in the first 20 minutes. The scoring really picked up after that as the teams combined for five touchdowns in a span of 5:18.

 

Green Bay scored on Rodgers' 2-yard pass to Lazard on fourth-and-goal, Douglas' 55-yard interception return and Rodgers' 38-yard strike to Adams. Chicago's touchdowns came on a 54-yard completion from Fields to Damiere Byrd and Grant's punt return.

 

Douglas joined Hall of Famer Herb Adderley as the only Packers to score on interception returns in back-to-back games. Grant's punt return was the longest for any Bears player since at least 1960, which is as far back as the team's data on that statistic goes.

 

The Bears host Minnesota next Monday while the Packers visit Baltimore on Sunday.

Townhall Top of the Hour News

Local Weather - Sponsored By:

CLINTON WEATHER

Local News

DeWittDN on Facebook