The Packer-bear game the last week of the season would decide the division winner/playoff team and the team that would not make the playoffs. McCarthy and his staff continued to make the same mistakes that have cost the Packers all year. Since the Packers went into the game with many injuries, smart coaching was extremely important. Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times said “the Packers have so many guys on injured reserve, it’s silly.” They have 15 players on I.R., and that does not include key players who missed the game such as Clay Matthews and Brad Jones, and other hurt players, such as Eddie Lacy.
Let’s look at the coaching decisions the Packers made:
- They kicked deep to Hester on the opening kickoff, and he returned it 39 yards to the bear 40. Why teams continue to kick deep to Hester (or anyone) surprises me. After the bad-call personal-foul penalty on the Packers on the play, the bears started the opening drive in Packer territory.
- With no score in the first quarter, the bears had second-and-eight from the Packer 45. Shields was in press coverage on Marshall with no safety help. Prior to the play, I mentioned that, implying they would throw a bomb to Marshall, which they did. Of course, Shields, being in press coverage, couldn’t react well and Marshall caught the ball at the 13, and was tackled at the 8. The bears scored a TD to go up 7-0, and this was due to the ridiculous press coverage with no safety help, which continues to burn the Packers and other teams. You can see the QBs see this, and change the play to go to these receivers. This TD was a gift.
- The Packers were up 13-7, and on their first possession of the second half, threw a pass that was not high-percentage on third-and-one from their 29, resulting in a punt. This not only stopped a Packer drive, but the Packers punted to Hester allowing a return, and he returned it 49 yards to the Packer 31. The coaches stopped a drive and then decided to kick to Hester again. The bears scored a TD as a result, to go up 14-13. Another gift TD from the Packer coaches.
- With about 6:00 left in the third quarter and the Packers up 20-14, the bears had a third-and-four from their 31. Just prior to the snap, Shields started moving forward into press coverage, again with no safety help. In addition to the bad strategy of playing press coverage, he was moving forward while Jeffery started running a fly pattern, and he caught a 67-yard pass to just short of the goal line. This resulted in a bear TD, and another gift from bad coaching. The bears were now up 21-20, and all three TDs were the result of bad strategies that I have been talking about for years. This allowed the bears to stay in the game and almost win.
- With 6:38 left in the fourth quarter, the bears had a third-and-seventeen at the Packer 45, leading 28-27. A touchdown here would have made it difficult for the Packers. They again had Shields in press coverage on Jeffery with no safety help, and Jeffery could have caught the ball at the Packer 11, as it hit him in the hands. The Packer strategy again put them in a position that could have cost them a TD.
It’s obvious that even though I said prior to Hester’s first game that no one should kick to him, that NFL coaches will not get this. It’s also obvious that no matter how many times teams get burned by press coverage with no safety help, they will keep doing this. Marshall and Jeffery, who are both excellent receivers and tall, continue to benefit from this as teams play press coverage on them with no safety help, and the DBs can’t react to the ball.