Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson enjoyed a career-high receiving yards performance en route to helping his team defeat the Chicago Bears on the road.

(Photo: Mark Hoffman, USA TODAY Sports)

CHICAGO, Ill., —  The Chicago Bears were just seconds away from ending a six-year losing streak against their arch rivals in the Green Bay Packers when an unfortunate blocked kick sent them home with their fourth consecutive loss and first in the division, losing 19-20. While the special teams miscue will likely dominate much of the coverage coming out of this game, it’s worth paying attention to how the Packers offense was effective at finding holes in the Bears’ secondary to put together scoring drives, especially thanks to the career-best performance of wide receiver Christian Watson.

Watson finished Sunday’s contest with a staggering 150 receiving yards on just four receptions, which marks a career-high in single-game receiving yards for the former North Dakota State Bison. His contributions were felt throughout the entirety of the afternoon, including his first reception of the day which came with just under three minutes into the second quarter.

On a big 3rd-and-11 play, Packers quarterback Jordan Love barely got out a throw under heavy pressure that was hauled in by Watson despite being guarded by cornerbacks Kyler Gordon and Jaylon Johnson. The play exposed a usually stout Bears secondary that was sorely missing safety Jaquan Brisker due to injury.

His second reception came with just over seven minutes remaining in the third quarter with the Packers just outside of the red zone. On the play, Watson pretended to block on a play action concept that fooled Bears linebacker Jack Sanborn into playing soft coverage, leaving Watson open on the left side of the field outside the numbers and securing a catch that put Green Bay at the seven yard line. The play contributed to an eventual touchdown run by running back Josh Jacobs to give the Packers a 14-13 lead.

Watson’s third reception was arguably his most impressive from an athletic standpoint. With just under a minute into the fourth quarter, Love launched a deep pass on the right side of the field and placed it perfectly into the arms of Watson despite being heavily guarded by both Gordon and safety Elijah Hicks. On the play, Watson was able to secure the abll between his hand and his helmet as he impressively maintained possession heading to the ground. The 48-yard play put the Packers in the red zone and in scoring position.

Watson’s final pass was perhaps his most crucial in terms of securing the win for the Packers. With just three and a half minutes remaining in the game, Watson made a diving catch at at the Packers 46-yard line and immediately got back up after realizing he was untouched. He proceeded to use open field ahead of him to speed past defenders before being taken down by Gordon at Chicago’s 14-yard line. The play would set up an eventual rushing touchdown by Love to give the Packers their final lead of the game.

The catch by Watson was challenged by Bears head coach Matt Eberflus, who addressed the catch and Watson’s contributions in the postgame presser.

“Yeah we thought [Watson] was in good position, that’s what Jaylon [Johnson] said, and [Watson] just got tripped up,” Eberflus responded when asked about throwing the challenge flag late in the fourth quarter. “So, I threw the challenge flag because I thought the ball hit the ground and the hand was on the side. And that’s what we challenged and they [the officials] saw it differently.”

Sunday’s challenge marked Eberflus’s seventh since becoming the head coach of the Bears, and only two have been successfully overturned by the officials. Watson’s dominating performance was one of many ways that the Packers were able secure an 11th straight victory over Chicago. Despite the downward spiral the Bears are currently in, Eberflus reitered confidence in positive takeaways from Sunday’s performance.

“There’s a lot of positive here. We just need to move to the next opponent.”

That next opponent is another NFC North rival in the Minnesota Vikings. If the Bears struggled this week to contain receivers like Christian Watson from having a career day, things do not appear to be getting better as the Bears secondary will be tasked with covering one of the league’s premier wideouts in Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson. Preventing huge gains through the air will be critical to the Bears earning the first divisional win on the season.