GREEN BAY, Wis. – If the Bears end up having a dream season, they’ll have to overcome a nightmarish start.

In a disastrous season opener Sunday night in Green Bay, Jay Cutler threw four interceptions for the first time in his NFL career and Brian Urlacher sustained a dislocated wrist in a discouraging 21-15 loss to the Packers.

Bears defensive end Adewale Ogunleye sacked Aaron Rodgers twice in the first half of Sunday night's loss to the Packers.

“It’s pretty simple what happened tonight,” said coach Lovie Smith. “Any time you have four turnovers, you’re normally not going to win the football game, especially against a good Packers team.”

Cutler was intercepted on three of the Bears’ first six possessions, marking the first time in 38 NFL starts that he had been picked off three times in a half. The only other time he had thrown as many as three interceptions in an entire game was last Nov. 2 in a loss to the Miami Dolphins when he played for the Denver Broncos.

“He was trying to make plays,” Smith said. “Sometimes when you get off to a tough start and you have a couple bad plays, you want to make amends for it a little bit.

“We needed to make plays throughout, but we have to protect the ball better than that, there’s no way around it. We’re not set up that way. No team is set up that way. Jay will play better next time out.”

Two of the interceptions came after Cutler had been flushed out of the pocket. Another occurred when he failed to see 6-3, 325-pound defensive tackle Johnny Jolly lurking on a screen pass.

“It was a rough first half,” Cutler said. “The three turnovers put the defense in a hole. [The defense] gave us a chance. We kind of bounced back, but ultimately [the turnovers] got us in the end.”

The injuries didn’t help. Urlacher, linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa (knee), tight end Desmond Clark (back) and cornerback Trumaine McBride (knee) all failed to finish the game.

Yet despite Cutler’s rocky performance, the injuries and a rare but very costly blunder on special teams, the Bears were still in position to win Sunday night’s game in the waning minutes.

Robbie Gould’s second field goal, a 21-yarder, capped a 14-play, 69-yard drive that burned 7:35 off the clock and gave the Bears a 15-13 lead with 2:35 left in the fourth quarter.

But Chicago’s defense, which had performed very well in harassing Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers for most of the game, faltered at the most inopportune time.

Rodgers faked a handoff on third-and-one and lofted a 50-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Greg Jennings with 1:11 remaining. Jennings ran right past cornerback Nate Vasher on the play.

“I lost my footing a little bit, but I definitely have to be on top [of the pass route],” Vasher said. “This was probably one of the roughest losses because as a team I felt like we really fought.”

The Bears got the ball back at their own 38 with 1:06 to play. But Cutler threw his fourth interception on the next snap when cornerback Al Harris stepped in front of rookie receiver Johnny Knox in the left flat. Harris returned the pick 29 yards to the Chicago 14 to seal the win for the Packers.

“It’s tough,” Cutler said when asked about struggling in his Bears debut. “I think probably the city of Chicago is disappointed. I’m disappointed. Ninety people in that locker room are disappointed; coaches and players. So it’s tough. But we’ve got 15 more games to play. There’s a lot of football left.

Devin Hester caught four passes for a team-high 90 yards in Sunday night's 21-15 loss.

“This team I think ultimately in the end we’re going to overcome this one and bounce back, and we’re going to be fine.”

Buoyed by the return of cornerback Charles Tillman to the starting lineup, the Bears defense played well—at least until Jennings’ game-winning touchdown. Up until that point, Green Bay’s only TD had come after cornerback Tramon Williams had returned a Cutler interception 67 yards to the Chicago 1.

After failing to sack Rodgers in both games against the Packers last season, the Bears registered four sacks—including two by Adewale Ogunleye and one by Danieal Manning that resulted in a safety.

But the Bears failed to generate a takeaway for the first time in 26 games, snapping the longest active streak in the NFL.

“The turnover ratio normally tells the story,” Smith said. “We turned the ball over and they capitalized on it, and on the other side of the ball we weren’t able to take the football away, and it’s tough to win when you do that.

“It’s not a good defensive effort if you don’t take the football away. You [media] guys concentrate on total yardage an awful lot. [But] you’ve got to take the ball away. We didn’t do that.”

After Mason Crosby’s 52-yard field goal had given the Packers a 3-0 lead midway through the second quarter, Knox flashed his speed and big-play ability in hauling in a perfectly thrown 68-yard pass from Cutler deep down the right sideline to the Green Bay 8.

But on third-and-goal from the 8, Cutler’s screen pass intended for Matt Forte over the middle was picked off by Jolly.

It was then Manning’s turn to display his speed and explosiveness. The Bears nickel back chased down Rodgers in the end zone on a perfectly-timed blitz, sacking the Packers quarterback for a safety that drew the Bears to within 3-2 with 5:52 remaining in the first half.

But Cutler followed with an interception on a second straight possession when he was picked off by Williams over the middle. The Bears quarterback scrambled out of the pocket and missed Knox, who had turned to run across the field after the play broke down.

Williams was finally tackled at the Chicago 3. Thinking the Packers cornerback had fumbled through the end zone for a touchback, the Bears challenged the play. But the decision backfired when officials ruled after a replay review that not only had Williams not fumbled, but he had reached the 1-yard line.

On the next play, Ryan Grant’s 1-yard TD run gave the Packers a 10-2 lead with 4:36 left in the half.

Cutler rebounded in the third quarter, tossing a 36-yard TD pass to Devin Hester and engineering another scoring drive on the Bears’ second possession as Gould’s 47-yard field goal put Chicago ahead 12-10.

But a major gaffe on special teams cost the Bears the lead. On fourth-and-11 from the Chicago 26, long-snapper Patrick Mannelly thought the Packers had 12 men on the field, so he snapped the ball to punt protector Garrett Wolfe, who was tackled after a four-yard gain.

The only problem was that the Packers’ 12th man had dashed off the field well before the snap, enabling Green Bay to take over at the Chicago 30. The Packers failed to pick up a first down but still were able to retake the lead at 13-12 on Crosby’s 39-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.