5 biggest reasons for the Packers' blowout win against Bears in Week 5

For the first time all season, the Green Bay Packers looked like the team many expected them to be.

Facing the Chicago Bears for the first time since two embarrassing losses against them last year, the Packers absolutely dominated their division rival in a 31-7 win. The victory pushed Green Bay to 3-2, and for the first time all year, we saw signs of what the team could look like when playing the way they've come to expect of themselves. It wasn't always pretty, but this was about as thorough a win the Packers have had in some time.

With the team back over .500 and looking ahead to the Dallas Cowboys next week, let's take a look at some of the biggest reasons for the win.

Five reasons the Packers dominated the Bears in Week 5

1. Jordan Love

Love has had success against the Bears throughout most of his career as a starter in Green Bay, but this might have been his best game yet. Love finished with 367 passing yards on 25 completions, two touchdowns, and a 137.5 passer rating, with a QBR of 95.2. Love had only six incompletions and was completely confident in nearly every throw he made against the Bears.

Better yet, Love was going for every deep ball he could find, with three of his longest passes going for 53, 50, and 46 yards.

With the Packers' offensive line having their second strong week (more on that soon), Love and Matt LaFleur dialed up an incredible game. It wasn't all deep balls, either, as Love routinely found some great windows to extend drives throughout the game. It was by far his best performance of the season, and it came at the right time.

2. Christian Watson and Matthew Golden

While Love was incredible, some love (no pun intended) goes to his wide receivers. Christian Watson, like Love, has had a history of performing well against the Bears, and that continued on Sunday.

He finished the game with six catches for 143 yards and two touchdowns, including a massive 53-yard snag on a 3rd-and-22 that extended the Packers' lead and flipped the momentum back in their favor after it looked like the team might be fading a bit.

As for Golden, he excelled as well. The sophomore receiver also had six catches, with 123 yards on seven targets. Golden didn't score a touchdown, but he got in the end zone on a two-point conversion and made several big plays.

Both receivers seemed to be Love's favorite targets so far throughout the season, and finally had a game to match that.

3. Packers defense

Caleb Williams didn't play despite receiving a surprise "questionable" designation on the injury report. With the caveat that the Packers faced what would eventually become two backup quarterbacks, the defense absolutely shined on Sunday.

They held the Bears to just 246 total yards and generated a whopping five turnovers, several of which came when the game was still in relatively close territory.

Safety Xavier McKinney, who had been playing a lot more up and down recently, had two interceptions and played a huge role. Javon Bullard continued to shine, and Danis Dennis-Sutton had an awesome game, with a sack, two QB hits, and two tackles for loss.

It was just against Tyler Bagent and Case Keenum, but the Bears had shown over the last two weeks that Ben Johnson was more than capable of scheming up offense with those guys. Instead, Jonathan Gannon called one of his better games to take the Bears' offense out of it.

It's clear the defense and Gannon feel most comfortable when they have the lead, but they played well enough in totality, regardless.

4. Matt LaFleur...sometimes

A lot of credit deserves to go LaFleur's way here. The head coach had faced constant criticism after the team's meltdowns last year and poor start to this season. While it wasn't against a Caleb Williams-led Bears offense, LaFleur got to exorcise some demons by calling an absolutely incredible game against Chicago and Ben Johnson.

It was clear this game was a bit more personal to LaFleur, as he played significantly more aggressively than he has in some time.

However, it wasn't always perfect. The score shows the Packers essentially dominated this game from start to finish, and that is true...mostly.

In the second quarter, after the Packers took a 14-0 lead, they endured some absolutely abysmal drives with some typically bad run calls from LaFleur. The Packers even received some boos heading into halftime. However, LaFleur came back with a much tighter game plan focused on the passing offense and put the game away. More of that, please.

5. Packers' offensive line

The Packers' offensive line wasn't the topic of conversation, which means it was a great game. Love took two sacks late in the first half, but otherwise had time to throw. According to PFF, the Packers allowed only six pressures and one QB hit.

The run game, which wasn't all that great, even looked pretty solid at times.

The Packers won't always be playing teams that struggle to generate pressure. However, these last two games were huge confidence builders for the group and should at least show they can play like this consistently moving forward.

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