Chicago’s Josh McCown stepped up in the absence of the injured Jay Cutler and led the Bears to a 27-20 win over rivals Green Bay on Monday, while the Packers also lost a first-choice quarterback to injury, with Aaron Rodgers hurting his non-throwing shoulder.
The win snapped a run of six straight defeats for the Bears against the Packers, while Green Bay’s four-match streak also ended, but the far larger concern is over Rodgers, who hurt his left shoulder when he was sacked on Green Bay’s first series by Shea McClellin.
After being examined by medical staff he went to the locker room and emerged in the third quarter, waving to fans.
Photo: AFP
The win moves the Bears into a three-way tie for first in the National Football Conference North with Green Bay and Detroit, all at 5-3.
Green Bay have been hit hard by injuries, with James Jones (knee) returning on Monday after a two-game absence and sackmaster Clay Matthews (thumb) and tight end Jermichael Finley still out. Wide receiver Randall Cobb (leg) is also on the injured list-designated to return, but a hurt Aaron Rodgers is Green Bay’s ultimate nightmare.
With the 2011 NFL Most Valuable Player almost as durable as his predecessor Brett Favre — he has not missed a game due to injury since 2010 — a backup quarterback has been little more than an afterthought in Green Bay, but as the Bears demonstrated on Monday, quality understudies can be vital.
Chicago signed McCown when Cutler was hurt two years ago, and his familiarity with his receivers and coach Marc Trestman’s system was evident on Monday.
While he may not have been dazzling, going 22 for 41 for 272 yards, he mixed his passes effectively to Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery and Matt Forte, and Forte ran roughshod on the Green Bay defense — scoring one touchdown.
Jeffery had five catches for 60 yards, including a six-yard grab for the go-ahead touchdown at the end of the third quarter.
Marshall, largely shut down in two games against Green Bay last year, had seven catches for 107 yards and a score. Forte ran for 125 yards and he also had 54 yards receiving.
Better yet, McCown did not do anything to hurt the Bears, which is more than Rodgers’ replacement Seneca Wallace can say.
Wallace had not played a game since the 2011 season finale and the rust was evident. He was intercepted on his very first series and was sacked twice.
The Packers had a second-and-goal from the Bears five-yard line late in the third quarter, but were forced to settle for a field goal after Wallace twice overthrew intended receivers. Green Bay would get no closer than the Bears 39 the rest of the game.
Wallace finished 11 of 19 for 114 yards and was unable to provide the passing game needed to complement another big night by Green Bay rookie Eddie Lacy, who ran for 150 yards and a touchdown.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier