Setting aside James Jones’ two fumbles in the first half, the Packers led 20-10 with under five minutes to play in the third quarter when Brett Favre made his first horrible decision of 2007 by trying to throw across his body for a first down. With a 10-point lead and the defense playing well, there was no reason for him to make the throw, but Favre will do that from time to time, and as a Packer fan, I’ve learned to live with it.
On the ensuing play, Brian Griese threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Greg Olsen, which put the Bears within three points. On the next possession, the Packers ran the ball three straight times and failed to get a first down. They punted the ball away and the defense forced a Bears punt, which the Packers fumbled – their fourth turnover of the night. After a Robbie Gould field goal, the Packers next possession consisted of a run for no gain, a short incompletion and a 5-yard completion to Bubba Franks. It’s like the Packers suddenly forgot how to run an offense.
And so the fourth quarter went, with the two teams punting the ball back and forth. It’s understandable that the Bears couldn’t move the ball – they haven’t been able to move the ball all season. But the Packers, who racked up over 300 yards of offense in the first half, had no excuse. The defense picked off Brian Griese, but Green Bay failed to do anything with it. Finally, the Bears made a play, completing a 27-yard pass to Olsen, which set up a Desmond Clark touchdown on a third-and-two from the Packers 34-yard line. Nick Collins mysteriously bit on an already-covered route in the flat, allowing Clark to run right past him and get behind him for the score.
The Packers two-minute offense was pretty brutal. The team wasted a ton of time with a long snap count, instead of moving to a quick snap. The decision to challenge the spot on the Bears’ last possession came back to bite Mike McCarthy, since his team was without one of its timeouts. By the time Green Bay crossed midfield, they were in desperation mode and the Bears were just sitting back in their zone, waiting for an opportunity. Brandon McGowan picked off Favre in the endzone, sealing the game for the Bears.
This is the kind of game that could come back to haunt the Packers – a division loss, at home, to their archrival. They had the game in hand and just gave it away. They built a lead by spreading the field and letting their receivers make plays and they blew it by trying to run down the Bears’ throats out of the I-formation. For the first 22 minutes of the second half, Favre only targeted his receivers one time, on the Brian Urlacher interception. Given how easily they moved the ball via slants and deep routes in the first half, that’s just inexcusable.
