CHICAGO, Ill. (WTVO/WQRF)–Most of us watched the Packers-Bears game Sunday. One local man was playing in it, Dean Lowry. No Rockford area man in the modern era of the NFL has participated in this rivalry as a player more times than Lowry has. The Boylan graduate took the field for the 14th time Sunday.
Once again Lowry was on the winning side with the Packers. In the 14 games that he’s played in, the Packers have won 13 of them. Lowry had three tackles in this latest game. His biggest moment came in the fourth quarter when he got a hand on Cairo Santos’ field goal attempt and blocked it.
“Yea, I got my hand on it,” said Lowry in the Packers locker room following the game. “My left hand is still pretty sore from the block too, just having my hands cold out there, but a big play in the game and it finally came through.”
Lowry’s biggest moment ever against the Bears happened in 2019 when he intercepted Mitch Trubisky, the only interception of Lowry’s career so far.
In this latest rivalry game, Lowry and his teammates had the task of trying to slow down Justin Fields. It didn’t work out well on Field’s early 55-yard touchdown run, but it got better from there for the Packers.
“We had some halftime adjustments,” said Lowry.” The first half they had a few plays on us, but we weren’t going to panic at all. We just kind of made adjustments and made the plays.”
It was just a week ago that Lowry and the Packers defense had to face another tremendous running quarterback Jalen Hurts. Facing quarterbacks of that caliber place a lot of stress on defenses.
“After last week our big challenge this week was keeping Fields in the pocket and containing him, and for the most part I thought we did that,” said Lowry.
“Was this Lowry’s last game as a participant in the Bears-Packers rivalry? He will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. He could wind up playing somewhere else next year. Lowry doesn’t think about that much right now, but he does cherish the thought that he has been a part of the greatest rivalry in NFL history.”
“I grew up watching this rivalry between the Bears and the Packers, all the great players and some are on my team now, so it’s pretty cool, but watching the great Bears’ defenses through the years, and now to perform in it means a lot.”
At 5-8 the Packers are long shots to make the playoffs, but Lowry isn’t giving up hope.
“At this point every game is a must-win. Right now, we’re in playoff mode. It definitely means more going against our division opponent, a team that has played really well the past few weeks, so it feels good. It’s a big win.”
Lowry says the bye week this week is much-need to help the Packers heal up and try to finish strong.
NOTE: Sunday’s game was the 109th NFL game of Lowry’s career. That’s the second most of a Rockford area man in the modern era of the NFL.
Most NFL games played in by Rockford area men (those who have played a minimum of 20 games, there are others who have played fewer than 20)
176-Preston Pearson (Freeport)
109-Dean Lowry (Rockford/Boylan)-still active
99-Sean Considine (Byron)
74-Ben Niemann (Sycamore)-still active
74-Carlos Polk (Rockford/Guilford)
54-Dan Arnold (Rockford/Boylan)-still active
51-Jerry Latin (Rockford/East)
39-James Robinson (Rockford/Lutheran)-still active
37-Ira Matthews (Rockford/East)
32-Troy Drake (Byron)
29-Nick Niemann (Sycamore)-still active
20-Mike Junkin (Belvidere)
