Are the Pack back? Green Bay, Jordan Love erupt in dominant win vs. Bears behind retooled offensive line

The Chicago Bears (3-2) entered Lambeau Field in Week 5 looking to honor their recently deceased, former Hall of Fame player and head coach, Mike Ditka, against their archrival, the Green Bay Packers (3-2) on Sunday.

Sunday's matchup between the NFC North foes went a lot like it did in the Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers eras (1992-2022, 48-15 Packers, including the playoffs) than it did in Ditka's era as head coach (1982-1992, 15-5 Bears), with the Packers winning 31-7 behind a laser show from quarterback Jordan Love. Love completed 25 of his 31 throws for 367 yards and 2 touchdowns against Chicago, which makes him the Packers' record holder for the most passing yards in a game against the Bears at Lambeau Field. He beat the previous record of 345 yards passing by Lynn Dickey, set back in 1983. The victory, 24 points, ranks as the largest win against the Bears since 2014, the year Rodgers won the second of his four NFL MVPs. The Packers are now 5-3 against the Bears' in Love's eight career starts against them since 2023, including playoffs.

"We were flowing today. Executed at a really high level. I was proud of everybody. That's what it looks like when we play to our standard, and we got playmakers making plays down the field, O-line doing a great job," Love said postgame on FOX. That's the standard for us. ... This is huge. This is a win we needed at home, getting us rolling and keep building off this."

Most pass yards by Packers QB vs. Bears at Lambeau Field, since 1957, when the stadium openedPass yardsSeason

Jordan Love

367

2026

Lynn Dickey

345

1983

Aaron Rodgers

341

2021

Brett Favre

336

1995

Love went big-game hunting with regularity to both wide receiver Christian Watson (143 yards receiving and 2 receiving touchdowns on 6 catches) and wide receiver Matthew Golden (123 yards receiving on 6 catches), making Watson and Golden the first Green Bay duo with 120-plus yards receiving in a game since 2016. It last occurred when Davante Adams and Jordy Nelson accomplished the feat against the Tennessee Titans 10 years ago. Love hit Watson for gains of 42 yards (the game's first touchdown that made the score 7-0), 31 yards and 53 yards (Love's second touchdown pass that made the score 20-7 with 13:10 left in the third quarter). He connected with Golden on throws of 36 yards and 50 yards.

In total, Love connected on six of eight of his eight throws of 20-plus air yards for a career-high 258 yards and 2 touchdowns on his passes of 20-plus air yards. Per the league's Next Gen stats, only Russell Wilson (264 with the New York Giants in Week 2 of the 2025 season against the Dallas Cowboys) had more in the NGS era (since 2016). According to ESPN Insights, Love joined Ben Roethlisberger as the only players with five completions of 30-plus air yards in a game since ESPN began tracking the metric 20 years ago in 2006.

Much of the credit for Love's game ought to go toward Green Bay's reworked offensive line. The Packers overhauled their offensive line with the signing of three veterans entering Week 4 in the aftermath of their 35-14 blowout home defeat on "Thursday Night Football" in Week 3 against the Atlanta Falcons: guard Laken Tomlinson, guard Kevin Zeitler and guard/tackle Mekhi Becton. Love had a season-high 2.76 average time to throw on Sunday against the Bears, and in each of the last two weeks at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (13.3% pressured rate) and against Chicago (23.5% pressured rate), he registered his two lowest pressured rates of the season. Not so coincidentally, Green Bay used the same offensive line starting five combination in each of the last two weeks: Jordan Morgan (left tackle), Tomlinson (left guard), Sean Rhyan (center), Travis Glover (right guard) and Anthony Belton (right tackle). Zeitler, a 36-year-old Pro Bowl guard, was active for the first time in Week 5, but he didn't register any offensive snaps in Week 5. He did contribute six snaps on special teams.

Dominant defense

After the Bears were able to mount fourth-quarter comebacks with quarterback Caleb Williams in each of the last two meetings against the Packers, Chicago had nearly no offensive success against the Packers, averaging just 3.6 yards per play on Sunday, the lowest in a game for Bears head coach Ben Johnson in his career as an offensive coordinator and a head coach, which spans 73 games. They also tied their worst turnover margin (-5, five turnovers to zero takeaways) in a game since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger, per CBS Sports Research. Both Bears quarterbacks to enter the game, Tyson Bargent (87 yards passing and two interceptions on 12 of 21 throws) and Case Keenum (108 yards passing and an interception on 11 of 19 passing) threw interceptions, and Keenum also lost a fumble. Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze fumbling the football on a fourth-down completion accounted for the fifth giveaway.

"They were flying around today," Love said of his defense. "I don't even know how many turnovers they had, but it felt like four. They were flying around, making plays left and right. Getting us the ball back, and they have been doing that all season, so like we said, we got some losses, but ... guys just making plays."

With a rebuilt offensive line providing Love much more time to throw and a ball-hawking defense, the Packers' defense's nine takeaways are the fourth most in the NFL entering the Week 5 late afternoon games. Green Bay can envision being a playoff contender once again. On the flip side, the Bears definitely need Williams, who is out with a hamstring injury, back in the lineup. Williams' return may not be able to fix Chicago's leaky secondary on the other side of the ball.