Game recap

Bears @ Packers

2026 Wk 5 · GB 31, CHI 7

Christian Watson caught touchdowns of 42 and 53 yards, and Chicago gave the ball away five times.

FanIQ Research · October 11, 2026 · 6 facts, every one from the play-by-play

Watson's 53-yard score on third-and-22: Green Bay's first touchdown on third-and-20 or longer since 1999

Rare

Up 14-7 at 13:19 of the third quarter, Green Bay faced third-and-22 from its own 47. Jordan Love threw deep middle to Christian Watson, and the play went 53 yards for a touchdown. It was the Packers' 122nd pass play on third-and-20 or longer since 1999 and their first to end in a touchdown. League-wide, 43 of 3,955 such plays have gone for a touchdown in that span. Watson's first score, a 42-yard catch in the first quarter, opened the game's scoring; he finished with 6 catches on 8 targets for 143 yards.

Pass plays on third-and-20 or longer, 1999-2026

Team	Pass plays	First downs	Touchdowns
KC	128	8	3
LA	115	10	3
MIA	122	8	3
MIN	130	9	3
NO	129	11	3
PHI	127	10	3
GB	122	5	1
CHI	133	3	1
League	3955	249	43

Watson's two touchdowns

Qtr	Clock	Down and distance	Yards	Score after	EPA
1	5:57	1st and 10	42	GB 7, CHI 0	+3.57
3	13:19	3rd and 22	53	GB 20, CHI 7	+5.90

Why it matters. Third-and-22 is a down most offenses treat as a punt setup: across the league since 1999, only about 6% of these plays even move the chains. Converting it with a touchdown turned a one-score game into a two-score game early in the second half, and at +5.90 expected points it was the most valuable single play of the afternoon. For Green Bay it ended a 27-season run of zero touchdowns from this spot.

Love's 367 yards: the most by a Packers passer against Chicago since 1999

Milestone

Love went 25 of 31 for 367 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. In 55 regular-season meetings since 1999, no Green Bay passer had thrown for more against the Bears; the previous high was Brett Favre's 359 in 2002. It is the third-highest regular-season yardage game of Love's career, behind 389 against Minnesota in 2024 and 387 against Minnesota in Week 1 of this season, and the most efficient of the three by a wide margin: 11.84 yards per attempt.

Most passing yards by a Packers passer vs Chicago, regular season, 1999-2026

Season	Week	Passer	Comp	Att	Yards	TD	INT
2026	5	Jordan Love	25	31	367	2	0
2002	5	Brett Favre	22	33	359	3	0
2021	14	Aaron Rodgers	29	37	341	4	0
2000	5	Brett Favre	31	48	333	3	1
2016	7	Aaron Rodgers	39	56	326	3	0
2007	5	Brett Favre	29	40	322	1	2
2013	17	Aaron Rodgers	25	39	318	2	2
2005	16	Brett Favre	30	51	317	0	4

Jordan Love's highest-yardage regular-season games

Season	Week	Opponent	Comp	Att	Yards	TD	INT
2024	4	MIN	32	54	389	4	3
2026	1	MIN	21	42	387	2	1
2026	5	CHI	25	31	367	2	0
2025	8	PIT	29	37	360	3	0
2025	4	DAL	31	43	337	3	0

Why it matters. Across 55 regular-season meetings since 1999, neither Favre nor Rodgers got to 360 yards in a Bears game. Love did it on 31 attempts, fewer than any other passer-game in the top eight, where Rodgers needed 56 attempts for 326 and Favre 48 for 333. The yardage came from a small number of big throws rather than a long afternoon of dropbacks, which is why it arrived with no interceptions.

Five giveaways in one game, as many as Chicago had in its first four combined

Comparison

Chicago came in 3-1 with two interceptions and three lost fumbles across four games. At Lambeau it gave the ball away five times: Xavier McKinney picked off Tyson Bagent twice, Case Keenum replaced Bagent in the fourth quarter and threw an interception at the goal line on fourth-and-9 from the Green Bay 9, and Keenum lost two fumbles after that. The offense's -0.340 EPA per play was its worst of the season by a wide margin; its previous low was -0.125 in the 9-3 loss to Minnesota. It was Chicago's first five-giveaway game since Week 9 of 2023 at New Orleans.

Chicago offense by game, 2026 (pass and run plays)

Week	Opponent	Plays	EPA/play	Yards	INT	Lost fumbles	Sacked	Result
1	CAR	70	+0.409	552	0	1	2	W 59-37
2	MIN	69	-0.125	297	1	1	4	L 3-9
3	PHI	67	+0.093	377	0	0	0	W 27-7
4	NYJ	86	+0.058	495	1	1	1	W 23-12
5	GB	68	-0.340	246	3	2	4	L 7-31

Chicago's most recent games with 5+ giveaways

Season	Week	Opponent	INT	Lost fumbles	Score
2014	5	CAR	2	3	CAR 31, CHI 24
2016	16	WAS	5	0	CHI 21, WAS 41
2021	7	TB	3	2	TB 38, CHI 3
2023	9	NO	3	2	NO 24, CHI 17
2026	5	GB	3	2	GB 31, CHI 7

Why it matters. Chicago's first four games were played with three different passers, and the offense held up by not giving the ball away in bunches: never more than two giveaways in a game. That broke here. Keenum's interception came on fourth down at the Green Bay 9, so it erased a scoring chance as well as a possession, and the two lost fumbles after it came with the game already at 31-7.

Love on deep throws: 6 of 8 for 258 yards. On everything else: 109 yards

Split

Green Bay's passing day split cleanly in two. Eight of Love's 31 attempts were charted deep, and six were caught for 258 yards and both touchdowns, at +2.24 EPA per throw. The other 23 were short: 19 completions for 109 yards, no touchdowns, and a slightly negative -0.03 EPA per throw. Watson caught three of his four deep targets for 126 yards, Matthew Golden two of three for 86, and Tucker Kraft one for 46.

Green Bay passing by depth, this game

Depth	Att	Comp	Yards	TD	EPA/att
Deep	8	6	258	2	+2.24
Short	23	19	109	0	-0.03

Green Bay deep targets by receiver, this game

Player	Deep targets	Rec	Yards	TD
Christian Watson	4	3	126	2
Matthew Golden	3	2	86	0
Tucker Kraft	1	1	46	0

Why it matters. The short game here did what a short game usually does, keep the offense on schedule with completions, but it produced almost no value on its own. The whole margin came from eight throws: 70% of Love's yards on 26% of his attempts. That makes this a game decided by Chicago's coverage downfield more than by Green Bay sustaining drives, which fits Green Bay's lower second-half success rate (40.0%) despite doubling its first-half yardage.

Three missed kicks and still a 24-point win: the 10th team to do it since 1999

Anomaly

Trey Smack made a 35-yard field goal and missed from 43 and 47, and his extra point after Watson's 53-yard touchdown went wide left. Green Bay went for two after MarShawn Lloyd's second touchdown, and Love found Golden to make it 31-7. Since 1999, teams have missed three or more kicks in a game 118 times and won 54 of those games; only 10 of the wins were by 21 points or more, and this is the first since Tampa Bay at Detroit in 2020.

Wins by 21+ with 3+ missed field goals and extra points, 1999-2026

Season	Week	Game	Score	Team	FG	XP
2001	12	BUF @ SF	SF 35, BUF 0	SF	0 of 2	5 of 6
2001	15	DET @ PIT	PIT 47, DET 14	PIT	2 of 4	5 of 6
2014	11	PHI @ GB	GB 53, PHI 20	GB	2 of 3	5 of 7
2014	14	LA @ WAS	WAS 0, LA 24	LA	1 of 3	1 of 2
2014	16	SEA @ ARI	ARI 6, SEA 35	SEA	0 of 3	5 of 5
2017	12	LAC @ DAL	DAL 6, LAC 28	LAC	1 of 2	1 of 4
2019	2	NE @ MIA	MIA 0, NE 43	NE	1 of 2	4 of 6
2019	5	CLE @ SF	SF 31, CLE 3	SF	1 of 4	4 of 4
2020	16	TB @ DET	DET 7, TB 47	TB	0 of 1	5 of 7
2026	5	CHI @ GB	GB 31, CHI 7	GB	1 of 3	2 of 3

Scoring plays

Qtr	Clock	Team	Play	Score after
1	5:57	GB	Love 42-yd TD pass to Watson	GB 7, CHI 0
2	15:00	GB	Lloyd 7-yd TD run	GB 14, CHI 0
2	1:56	CHI	Swift 1-yd TD run, 4th and goal	GB 14, CHI 7
3	13:19	GB	Love 53-yd TD pass to Watson (XP missed)	GB 20, CHI 7
3	2:02	GB	Smack 35-yd FG	GB 23, CHI 7
4	15:00	GB	Lloyd 4-yd TD run, Love to Golden for two	GB 31, CHI 7

Why it matters. Missed kicks usually show up in close games because that is where they decide results. Here Green Bay left seven points on the field with two missed field goals and a missed extra point and still won by 24, which says more about the gap between the offenses (432 yards to 246) than about the kicking. Green Bay also appears in the table once before, the 53-20 win over Philadelphia in 2014.

Green Bay's biggest win over Chicago since the 55-14 game in 2014

Milestone

Chicago had won the last two meetings, including the 31-27 Wild Card game in January. The 24-point margin is the Packers' third-largest over the Bears since 1999, behind only 55-14 in 2014 and 37-3 in 2008, both also at Lambeau. Chicago is now 9-19 at Green Bay in the regular season since 1999.

Largest Packers wins over the Bears, 1999-2026

Season	Week	Game	Score	Margin
2014	10	CHI @ GB	GB 55, CHI 14	41
2008	11	CHI @ GB	GB 37, CHI 3	34
2026	5	CHI @ GB	GB 31, CHI 7	24
2000	14	GB @ CHI	CHI 6, GB 28	22
2017	4	CHI @ GB	GB 35, CHI 14	21

Most recent meetings

Season	Round	Game	Score	Winner
2024	Wk 18	CHI @ GB	GB 22, CHI 24	CHI
2025	Wk 14	CHI @ GB	GB 28, CHI 21	GB
2025	Wk 16	GB @ CHI	CHI 22, GB 16	CHI
2025	Wild Card	GB @ CHI	CHI 31, GB 27	CHI
2026	Wk 5	CHI @ GB	GB 31, CHI 7	GB

Why it matters. The four meetings before this one were all decided by seven points or fewer, and Chicago won three of them, including the playoff game that ended Green Bay's season. A 24-point result breaks that pattern of close games. At Lambeau the long-run record still favors Green Bay heavily: 19 wins in 28 regular-season home games against Chicago since 1999.

FanIQ answers any NFL stats question with receipts, on your phone.

Get FanIQ free Get it on Google Play