CHICAGO – With the Green Bay Packers off to a 1-2 start and their offense sputtering — ranked an uncharacteristically low 28th in the NFL — quarterback Aaron Rodgers offered a single word last week to try to calm their anxious fans.

“Relax,” he said.

Apparently, Rodgers knew whereof he spoke.

The Packers’ offense came alive and so did he, in a 38-17 victory Sunday over the Chicago Bears that was only the second game in NFL history in which neither team punted.

Rodgers completed 22 of 28 passes for 302 yards and four touchdowns and the Green Bay defense, which was shredded for more than 300 yards before halftime, held Chicago scoreless and made a pair of interceptions to dominate the second half. The Packers were so efficient that, early in the fourth quarter, they had scored their 38 points while running only 41 plays on offense.

“That just shows how good he is,” said Kyle Fuller, the Bears’ rookie cornerback who had three interceptions in the season’s first three games.

Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb each caught two of Rodgers’ touchdown passes and combined for 17 catches and 221 yards between them.

“I just knew it’s a long season,” Rodgers said, when asked about his message to the fans. “There’s always going to be many freak-outs along the way. Now (when you say that), you’ve got to back it up with performance.”

Green Bay, beaten 19-7 by Detroit last week, with Rodgers passing for only 162 yards, had “a good week of practice,” Rodgers said, adding, “You don’t go into a game thinking you’re not going to punt, or the other team isn’t, and you’re going to win by 21.”

The Packers scored on their first six possessions, failing to score only in the fourth quarter when Mason Crosby had 38-yard field goal attempt blocked with 4:47 remaining.

But until the Packers’ defense began to make plays, Chicago had a chance to match Green Bay score for score only to be done in by a series of mistakes both physical and tactical.

With the game tied 7-7 in the second quarter, the Bears had first-and-goal inside the Green Bay 1-yard line and lined up in the shotgun. Before the snap, guard Kyle Long was called for a false start, pushing the Bears back. They eventually had to settle for a short field goal by Robbie Gould.

Later in the half, the Bears failed on an onside kickoff attempt after taking a 17-14 lead. Green Bay recovered the ball and drove to a touchdown.

And just before halftime, Chicago had a first-and-goal at the Packers 9-yard line. On third down with nine seconds remaining – and Chicago out of time outs – Jay Cutler threw to tight end Martellus Bennett who was inches short of the goal line. Packers safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, spotting Bennett nearly 60 pounds, wrapped him up and held him inches away from a touchdown as the clock ran out.

“That was a big momentum play, obviously a huge play,” said Mike McCarthy, the Green Bay coach.

What the Packers said:

“We wanted to come in here and play fast.” — Coach Mike McCarthy. The Packers succeeded in that, winning by 21 points even though the Bears ran 30 more offensive plays (77-47) and had a near-13 minute advantage in time of possession.

–“Offensively, we wanted to make up for last week. We let our defense down when they played pretty well.” — Quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The Packers lost their previous game, 19-7, to Detroit.

What the Bears said:

“It hurt not having a lot of guys. There are a lot of guys that we certainly could have used.” — LB Lance Briggs, bemoaning the absence of four injured starters on defense.

–“They just out-executed us, and we let them make plays where we weren’t disciplined enough. We made more mistakes than they did.” –S Chris Conte.

What we learned about the Packers:

1. The Packers’ offense is still pretty good, despite some sputtering in the first three weeks. They averaged 7.6 yards per offensive play.

2. Green Bay still has some issues to resolve, particularly running and stopping the run. The Packers averaged only 3.1 yards a carry running the ball and they allowed 235 rushing yards to a Chicago team that had only 192 in three previous games.

–Chicago had to play without six opening-day starters, four on defense including its prized free agent signee, defensive end Jared Allen. But Allen did not make a sack in the three previous games and the only Bears’ sack in this one came on an Aaron Rodgers scramble when he ran out of bounds for zero yards.

–With 122 rushing yards on 23 carries and five catches for 49 yards, running back Matt Forte went over 10,000 scrimmage yards for his career.

–QB Jay Cutler has a 1-10 record against the Packers as a starting quarterback, including seven consecutive defeats. He has thrown at least one interception in each of those games.

What we learned about the Bears:

1. They will point to the absence of four season-opening starters on defense but the truth is that Chicago is not generating enough of a pass rush and too many receivers are running wide open in the secondary.

2. For all the talk about the improvement in the offense and all of their weapons, Jay Cutler still has a tendency to throw the wrong pass at the wrong time. He had gone two straight games without an interception but never has done that three straight games in his career.

–QB Aaron Rodgers can be counted on to come back after he has a game with a passer rating below 90. He was 88.8 against Detroit last week; his rating Sunday was 151.2. Since 2009, he is 10-0 in the games following a game in which his rating was below 90, and in those 10 games he has thrown 27 touchdown passes and 4 interceptions.

–TE Jordy Nelson already has had a good season for some players. In four games, he has caught 33 passes for 461 yards.

–RB Eddie Lacy, Green Bay’s leading rusher, has 161 yards on 53 carries in four games. The Packers are worried, rightfully, about their running game.