2025 Week 14: Chicago Bears 21, Green Bay Packers 28

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: December 14, 2025

Old Ryan understood the importance of a pass rush. I miss Old Ryan. [Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast, AP]

Player Grades

The grading scale goes from -2 to +2, in half-point increments, for each play. Screens are graded as runs. Penalties are counted in whatever phase they were committed. Pre- and post-snap penalties are in the “Misc.” column. “Short” throws are less than 15 yards, “Deep” is over 15 or more. Everything else (scrambles, throwaways, reads, etc.) is under “Miscellaneous.” Parentheses in a column denote grades/snaps from the opposite side of the ball and are not included in grades/snaps from the player’s usual side. Snap counts are from Pro Football Reference. Box score and other relevant info can be found at that link as well.

The defense stunk

The touchdown on the slant to Watson was pure coaching malpractice by Dennis Allen. It’s 3rd down and he’s showing blitz because I think he thinks it’s an NFL rule that you have to do that on 3rd down. Jordan Love was ready for it because it doesn’t fool anybody. He dials up the man beater and Watson’s off to the races. Byard is coming down to his left at the snap, so Gardner-Johnson has no help inside. Does CJGJ shade inside? Nope! Why? Dunno! The TD on the deep shot to Melton was more lousy coaching and lack of preparation. Byard comes down, Jaylon Johnson doesn’t cover deep and it’s a free six points. Dennis Allen deserves credit for making do with what he’s got given all the injuries and the fact that Ryan Poles did a horrendous job assembling this defensive line. But Allen deserves blame for the sloppiness and mental mistakes that continue to rear their ugly heads.

Any problems on the other side?

I’m glad Ben Johnson talked this week about understanding he needs to get Caleb in a rhythm early. In Detroit, he was great about scheming up simple throws for Jared Goff. Let’s see more of those here.

On the flip side, the clock management on the final drive was excellent. Not picking up the first down on 3rd and 1 and having to use a timeout hurt because that meant that a run up the middle on 4th down would either mean having to spike it or burn the last timeout. But then they got the play they wanted on that 4th down. Unfortunately, Caleb was just a little late on it and that gave Keisean Nixon enough time to catch up and make a play. But hey, at least we’ve fixed the “head coach doesn’t know how to manage a clock problem.” Next up: the “why can’t we just pick up a yard?” problem.

Other problems with other coaches

I’m tired of receivers not knowing what they’re supposed to do. This week, it was Burden’s turn to screw up, sitting down on a route where Caleb expected him to keep running.

Luther Burden

Caleb Williams likely expected Burden to continue tempo-ing his break across this open zone.

Burden settled. If correct, rookie mistake.

It has been a luxury to bring Burden along slowly in an O that Odunze said would take a yr+ to fully learn. #DaBears pic.twitter.com/FQdb1uDPHQ

— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) December 8, 2025

This keeps happening and it’s time to start looking sideways at receivers coach Antwaan Randle El. Caleb’s been doing the right thing when these issues come up, so the problem probably isn’t Ben Johnson, OC Declan Doyle, or QB coach JT Barrett. I like Randle El. I think he’s a good coach. But I’m tired of this. Fix it.

Do we finally have the better QB?

I’m not gonna say Caleb is outright better than Love just yet, but at the very least, for the first time in my life, I don’t want to trade our guy for their guy. Switch the two QBs and Green Bay wins going away. Love isn’t escaping the pressure Caleb was and not only not taking negative plays, but making positive ones. Caleb graded our very well and once we get the above problem figured out, the box score should start reflecting that better.

Monsters

Caleb, Swift, Loveland, Kmet Thuney, Wright struggled in pass pro, but mauled in the ground game, Dalman, Booker was the only member of the defense to be actually good.

Chipmunks

The rest of the defense, save Billings and Jackson. Not that they were good, but they weren’t awful. Jonah Jackson is back here.

Four Stars of the Game

Joe Thuney