The Bears and Packers are playing a thriller at Soldier Field.
Bears tailback Matt Forte’s one-yard TD run gave the Bears a 21-20 lead with about five minutes left in the third quarter.
Forte’s score came one play after Alshon Jeffery’s 67-yard catch set up Chicago at the Green Bay one-yard-line. For Jeffery, it was the latest in a series of big plays that have defined his second NFL season. Moreover, it helped make up for a second-quarter fumble that set up a Green Bay field goal.
Forte’s one-yard TD — his second score of the quarter — came after the Packers took a 20-14 lead on a seven-yard TD Randall Cobb TD catch. Cobb’s score ended a seven-play, 80-yard drive highlighted by a 41-yard run by James Starks on a 3rd-and-1 play.
Earlier in the third, Forte’s five-yard TD run had given the Bears a 14-13 edge.
All five plays on Chicago’s first scoring drive of the period were Forte rushes. Devin Hester’s 49-yard punt return to the Green Bay 30 gave the Bears excellent field position, and Forte took it from there.
The Packers’ lone first-half touchdown came after Jarrett Boykin picked up a fumble and advanced it into the endzone in the second quarter. On the play, quarterback Aaron Rodgers was hit by Bears defensive end Julius Peppers, and the ball came loose. The ball plummeted to the ground, where it stayed for a few seconds, as some players apparently thought it to be an incomplete pass.
However, it was a live ball, and Boykin smartly gathered it and scored on a 15-yard recovery. It was the key play in a first half that saw Green Bay lead 13-7 after two quarters.