The Green Bay Packers made amends for a surprise opening week loss with a dominant 23-10 victory over division rivals the Chicago Bears on Thursday, as visiting quarterback Jay Cutler endured a game to forget.
The home defense swarmed all over Cutler, who was given little protection from his offensive line as he completed just 11 of 27 passes for 126 yards and a lone touchdown, while getting sacked seven times and throwing four interceptions.
By contrast, his counterpart Aaron Rodgers completed 22 of 32 passes for 219 yards with one touchdown and one interception, helping the Packers improve to 1-1 following their shock home loss to San Francisco last weekend.
Photo: Reuters
The Bears (1-1) also suffered an injury blow when running back Matt Forte left the field with a damaged right ankle early in the third quarter.
“It was a good win for us, we’re one and one now, but it’s one game,” Rodgers told reporters. “We [have] got to get better on offense, the defense played incredible.”
The writing was on the wall for Cutler from his opening snap, as D.J. Smith cut a swathe through the Chicago line for the first of seven sacks on the night.
The quarterback was clearly agitated throughout at his protection and he is 0-3 as a Bear at Lambeau, with the loss also Chicago’s fifth on the trot at the hallowed field.
“I care about this, this isn’t just a hobby for me, I’m not doing this for my health,” Cutler said when defending his on-field berating of his teammates. “I’m trying to win football games, I’m trying to get first downs. If we’re not doing the little things consistently the right way, I’m going to say something. If they want a quarterback who doesn’t care, they can get someone else.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Green Bay grabbed their first points early in the second when Mason Crosby nailed a 48-yard field goal after Packers coach Mike McCarthy kept the drive alive when he successfully challenged the Bears defense for having too many men on the field.
With all the pre-game talk centered on the high-powered offense of both teams, it was the Packers special teams who claimed the opening touchdown.
The home side successfully fooled the Bears with a fake field-goal attempt, with Tim Masthay flicking the ball to Tom Crabtree, who duly romped the 27 yards for the touchdown and a 10-0 lead.
Cutler was intercepted by Tramon Williams with just over a minute remaining in the first half, allowing Crosby to tack on a 35-yard field goal to extend the lead to 13-0.
Chicago claimed their first points with a Robbie Gould 45-yard field goal midway through the third quarter, coming a play after wide receiver Brandon Marshall dropped a pass in the end zone while wide open.
Marshall, the big off-season signing for the Bears, failed to make a catch until midway through the final quarter.
Crosby slotted a 54-yard field goal early in the fourth to move the score to 16-3, before Rodgers hit Donald Driver deep down the middle for a 26-yard score, the play after another Cutler interception, for a 23-3 lead.
Kellen Davis scored a consolation touchdown for the visitors with little more than six minutes remaining.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to