Chicago Bears defeat Green Bay Packers 20 to 17 - Second Quarter
Monday night’s Bears vs Packers game was turning out to be quite the contest. The first half ended with a 7 point lead for the Packers and saw the Bears struggling to find their stride. Things would get better for Chicago but not before they got a lot worse.
The Bears picked up where they left off in the first quarter at the 35 yard line. Second play of the quarter saw Cutler getting sacked a second time in the game. Packer’s linebacker A.J. Hawk outflanked the quarterback’s protections forcing him to dash forward. Cornerback Tramon Williams was lying in wait and crashed into the quarterback. Cutler tried to cut right but didn’t notice Williams rushing into him from the right. The sack cost Chicago 5 yards.
Cutler tried to revitalize the drive in the next play. He was protected by his offensive linemen from the charging packers. Their charge opened up the field for Cutler to make a run for it. Cutler was pushed out of bounds on the 46 yard line. Cutler was visibly pleased with his run and needed the confidence boost after the sack. All was well and good except that the Packers had no intentions of going easy on the quarterback.
Two plays later the fierce Green Bay defence pounced on Cutler again. Defensive end Cullen Jenkins powered through Chicago’s offensive line. His first contact was guard Frank Omiyale who he pushed aside rather easily. Moving along, Jenkins ran into Olin Kreutz who was already engaged fighting off another of Jenkin’s teammates. With his attention diverted, Jenkins broke through the offensive line and sacked Cutler for 7 yards. After the play Kreutz and Omiyale just looked at each other having realized that they left their quarterback open. The coach was just frustrated and the little confidence that Cutler had gathered up vanished into thin air. The Bears took the punt and the Packers began their drive on the 7 yard line.
They had 73 yards to go into the red zone with the Bears defence on their case. Rodgers got Green Bay an early success with a 28 yard pass to Jermichael Finley but then slowed down significantly. In the next 8 plays the Packers moved just 34 yards. After their tedious effort to move up those 34 yards, the Packers lost 10 in one blow to an offensive holding penalty on Daryn Colledge. Cutler failed to complete the next two pass attempts but then the quarterback took back the lost yards with a short right pass to running back John Kuhn. Against the determined Packers defence, the Bears took the field goal at the 20 yard line which was good.
Four minutes were left in the second quarter while the scores stood at 10; nothing for the Packers. The Bears needed to turn things around and quick but it wouldn’t exactly be an easy task for Chicago. After an out of bounds kick from Crosby, the Packers started on the 40 yard line. On the first, Rush Matt Forte lost 7 yards in a rush followed by two incomplete passes forcing the Bears to punt. The Subsequent Green Bay drive is no more successful and ends in a punt after 19 yards.
The punt was returned 28 yards by wide receiver David Hester to start the Bears’ drive on Green Bay’s 44 yard line. Cutler, with just under 2 minutes left, threw a 31 yards pass to Johnny Knox. Johnny went deep left, putting distance between himself and cornerback Sam Shields and free safety Nick Collins while Cutler waited for him to be open. The pass brought the Bears 13 yards shy of the end zone. Two plays later they moved up to the 9 yard line and finally finished it off with a 9 yard touchdown pass to Greg Olsen. Cutler threw the pass low so Olsen had to get low to take it. He slid on his back into the end zone for touchdown and put the first points on the board for the Bears. The extra point was good and with that the second quarter ended Green Bay 10 to Chicago’s 7.
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