GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Bears gave up touchdowns on the Packers' first two possessions in Sunday's NFC North showdown and were unable to overcome the early 14-0 deficit in a 31-7 loss at Lambeau Field.
Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love completed 25 of 31 passes for 367 yards with two touchdowns and a 137.5 passer rating, while the Bears mustered 246 yards and 17 first downs after averaging 433.5 yards and 29 first downs in back-to-back wins over the Eagles and Jets the previous two weeks.
The Bears lost the turnover battle 5-0 and were limited to 81 yards rushing, 115 yards below their league-leading 196.3-yard average entering the game.
"The things that we had done well in the three victories that we had this year, they didn't show up today," said coach Ben Johnson. "We didn't take care of the football. We didn't execute at a very high level in the run game or the passing game. And then defensively, we let the ball over our head too many times; four passes over 40 yards or more."
The Packers took a 7-0 lead on their first possession of the game on Love's 42-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Christian Watson down the right sideline. The TD capped a 10-play, 91-yard drive midway through the first quarter.
On the second play of the Bears' subsequent possession, Tyson Bagent's pass over the middle intended for Luther Burden III was deflected by safety Javon Bullard and intercepted by safety Xavier McKinney at the Chicago 45.
The Packers capitalized on the short field, extending their lead to 14-0 on running back MarShawn Lloyd's 6-yard TD burst on the first play of the second quarter. It was Green Bay's first rushing touchdown of the season.
The Bears cut the deficit in half to 14-7 on D'Andre Swift's 1-yard TD run on fourth-and-goal with 1:53 remaining in the first half. It capped a 16-play, 78-yard drive that burned 9:10 off the clock and included four third-down conversions.
Looking to increase their lead, the Packers took over at the Bears' 49 with :39 to play in the half. But Austin Booker sacked Love on back-to-back plays.
On the opening possession of the second half, Love rainbowed an apparent 43-yard TD pass to receiver J. Michael Sturdivant. But Sturdivant was penalized for pass interference, nullifying the play. On the next snap, Love heaved a 53-yard TD pass to Watson, who caught the ball over Dillon Thieneman on third-and-22. Trey Smack missed the extra point attempt, but the Packers led 20-7.
"That's their MO; they do a nice job being aggressive there on third-and-long," Johnson said. "You know Love, when he's got a little bit of time, he's got a lot of trust in his pass catchers. So [they] had some space out there. We must have just taken a bad angle there."
The Bears responded by advancing to the Green Bay 20, but lost five yards on their next two plays, and Cairo Santos missed a 43-yard field goal attempt wide left.
"Credit to Green Bay," Johnson said. "We knew we were going to get their best shot, and we sure did. We had opportunities to get back in that game and we didn't maximize those opportunities. And so, we'll go ahead and look at this tape and we'll clean it up. and we'll keep it going from there."
The Packers extended their lead to 23-7 on Smack's 35-yard field goal late in the third quarter. The kick was set up by Love's 46-yard pass to tight end Tucker Kraft to the Bears' 16.
McKinney's second interception of the game set up Lloyd's 4-yard TD run on the first play of the fourth quarter. Receiver Matthew Golden had receptions of 36 and 15 yards on the drive and caught the two-point conversion pass to make it 31-7.
It was at that point that Johnson decided to replace Bagent with Case Keenum. Bagent exited after completing 12 of 21 passes for 87 yards.
"We felt like we just wanted a little spark there," Johnson said. "Tyson, just could never feel like he got in a rhythm here today. We'll look at why that was the case. Second interception happened, and we just felt like, 'let's give Case a chance out there and see if we get different results.'"
After Zavion Thomas' 61-yard kickoff return to the Packers' 31, Keenum completed passes of 23 and 5 yards to Burden on back-to-back plays. But on fourth-and-goal from the 10, edge rusher Lukas Van Ness forced Keenum to unload the ball, and his pass was intercepted by linebacker Ty'Ron Hopper at the goal line.
The Packers were in position to increase their lead in the fourth quarter, but Smack missed field goal attempts of 43 and 47 yards.
The loss snapped the Bears' two-game winning streak and dropped them to 3-2. They will look to rebound next Sunday against the Falcons in Atlanta.
