After a grueling regular season that saw expectations rise after adding Micah Parsons before crashing down amid a tide of injuries, the Green Bay Packers ended their post-season on Wild Card Weekend against the Chicago Bears in a playoff edition of the game’s oldest rivalry.
Jordan Love took his last regular-season snaps after suffering a concussion at Soldier Field almost a month ago. It was only fitting that he would get a chance to retain ownership of the Bears in the most historically significant version of this matchup since 2011, when Aaron Rodgers and Co. beat Chicago en route to a Super Bowl win.
After the first half, it looked like the Packers were by far the better team, holding a commanding 21-3 lead against a Bears team that couldn’t get anything going. But the Packers’ offense lost their rhythm in the second half, and with 10 minutes left they found their 18-point lead cut to just five. The Packers’ anemic second-half offense did find a spark in rookie Matthew Golden, who scored his first NFL touchdown on a screen pass where he broke four tackles on his way to the end zone.
But the Bears responded. After multiple instances when it looked like their defeat was one or two plays away from being sealed, thanks in part to an incredible fourth-and-eight throw in by Caleb Williams, they crawled back to a three-point deficit with just four minutes left.
The Packers offense battled right back, only for Brandon McManus to miss a 44-yard field goal to give the Bears the ball back with two minutes remaining. The Bears would give the Packers their first deficit since the first quarter with 1:43 left. The Packers came close but couldn’t close the deal on the Chicago side of the field in the final moments, capping off a brutal defeat.
Here are five numbers to break down this game.
4/4
The Packers started off clicking on third down, going four for four and scoring two touchdowns on their first two drives of the game. Coming into the game, there were some questions about how Love would start after missing the last 10 quarters of Green Bay’s season. However, he looked like he was in peak Toyotathon Love form early against a Bears defense that sought extra contact after the whistle.
Love is known as a relatively calm and composed character. Still, he took an extra second to stare down Austin Booker, the Bears defender who knocked Love out of the last matchup with a concussion, after Booker laid another hit on him.
He kicked off his third-down spree by finding Romeo Doubs on third-and-one for 33 yards. He would only get better from there, rolling out and finding Watson for the first score of the game to cap off the second drive.
CHRISTIAN. WATSON.
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— Green Bay Packers (@packers) January 11, 2026
Love kept the momentum up on the second drive of the game. He hit Doubs on another crucial third down to extend the drive. Then, he finished the second drive by hitting a wide-open Jayden Reed for an 18-yard score to make it a 14-3 game, putting a front-running Bears team down early.
Green Bay’s offense posted a +13.4 EPA on third- and fourth-down plays in the first half.
1982
Love threw three touchdown passes in the first half, the first time a Packers quarterback has done this in a playoff game since 1982, when Lynn Dickey did it. Any questions about Love being rusty were quickly put to rest. He operated with the precision of a surgeon, slicing and dicing Chicago’s secondary.
The offensive line did an exceptional job of protecting Love early, despite missing Zach Tom. They held Chicago’s defensive line to one pressure the entire first half, giving Love ample time to dissect their secondary.
In the last two matchups between these two teams, the Packers lost because they were unable to convert in the red zone. Today, it was the complete opposite as they went three for three in the red zone on their first three drives, with two of the touchdowns coming on third down and one on fourth down.
While they weren’t necessarily the most difficult throws, Love still needed to execute and get into position to make those plays. His execution in the red zone provided the Packers with exactly what they needed to make this game a rout early.
3
Green Bay’s special teams yet again added to playoff trauma with McManus missing three important kicks today. McManus has been shaky all season, and tonight his woes returned with a vengeance, as he missed an extra point and a pair of field goal attempts from 44 and 55, respectively.
The first miss, from 55 yards out in a cold, windy outdoor stadium, wasn’t egregious. It was the missed extra point that really hurt, preventing them from kicking a field goal to tie it in the waning seconds. However, the biggest miss of the night came when the Packers had a three-point lead late in the fourth quarter, a very makable opportunity.
Yet again, when the Packers needed their special teams to step up the most, they failed them. While McManus isn’t the sole reason for this horrific loss, he does bear a large part of the burden. Even more so, the special team coaching continues to be an issue; running back Josh Jacobs took returned his first kick of the entire season in a playoff game and nearly fumbled the ball away, which was close to being another pivotal play.
4
The Packers became just the fouth team to blow a 15-plus-point lead in the fourth quarter in the playoffs, joining the 28-3 Super Bowl catastrophe squad Atlanta Falcons, the 2002 New York Giants, and the 1972 San Francisco 49ers. The Packers have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet again.
Every time these two teams have faced off this season, it has been a back-and-forth affair that goes down to the wire. So you would assume that MLF and the offense would understand that no lead is safe against a Bears team that has made their identity comebacks and winning in unwinnable situations.
But the Green Bay offense that was able to move the ball at will in the first half was held scoreless for the entirety of the third quarter and failed to play with any sense of urgency until their lead was threatened.
On the other hand, the Packers’ defensive flaws showed up in full in the second half as they were unable to pressure Caleb Williams at all. They were also unable to stop Colston Loveland, the only pass catcher Williams seemed to have any connection with. On fourth-and-eight, on a play that could have been game sealing, the Packers allowed Williams to throw a pass 20 yards down the field to convert and bring the game closer.
While the rumors around MLF’s job security had been just rumors till now, a loss like this looks a lot more likely to bury him and make way for John Harbaugh, who has been linked to Green Bay (among other teams).
95.4%
At their peak, the Packers had a 95.4% chance of winning this game. Just to reiterate how absurd this loss was, the Bears for most of the game were teetering between 10-15% chances of winning.
While the Bears have made their identity as fourth-quarter comebacks, they have especially relished the chance to do this against the Packers. They nearly pulled off an incredible comeback in the first matchup, only stopped by a last-second interception, and they did pull off an even more miraculous one two weeks later when given a .5% chance to win, per Next Gen Stats.
If any team should understand that the Bears are never truly gone, it should be the Packers. And yet, they didn’t. In the third quarter, instead of looking to deepen their lead and demoralize the Bears’ already frustrated offense, they instead were lackadaisical. The Packers took their foot off the gas, and that is what cost this team the game, this season, and, potentially for LaFleur, his job.