Bears Eliminated From Chase With Loss to Packers
The proverbial microcosm of the Chicago Bears season surfaced Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.
The Bears seemed incapable of competing with Green Bay early as Mitchell Trubisky struggled, the defense began to collapse, and just as they did this season with three straight wins, they battled back and refused to quit.
In the end, it didn't matter as the Bears didn't have enough to rally from a 21-3 deficit, fell 21-13, and were eliminated from playoff consideration by the Minnesota Vikings' win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
"I think we fought, just looking at today," wide receiver Allen Robinson said. "We've been banged up a little bit, things like that, that's not an excuse, but we've fought hard."
Maybe no one fought harder than defensive end Akiem Hicks, who twice had to leave when his injured elbow was banged up again, but he kept returning.
Trubisky fought back, as well, and the Bears piled up a lot of meaningless yardage He threw for 334 passing yards on 29 of 53, but with two interceptions. He threw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass of 2 yards to Anthony Miller, yet the Bears (7-7) couldn't make headway against the Packers (11-3) on three possessions after they pulled within eight.
A Stanford Band style play as time expired, minus the band, died at the 7-yard line with Jesper Horsted fumbling it and the Bears were eliminated from the playoff chase a few hours later.
"I just felt like it wasn't enough today but you're proud of the effort and how we were battling back and almost had a chance at the end," Trubisky said.
It was a common theme from all the Bears, who chose to dwell upon their good fight rather than their failures.
Yet, there were plenty of those.
"Obviously not the outcome that we wanted, coach Matt Nagy said. "We wanted to come here and play four quarters. I thought the way our guys fought back there at the end to give us a chance to win is good, but obviously the outcome is not good.
"So we've got to pick up the pieces and get better."
The struggle came early as their offense in the first half could manage only a late second-quarter drive to Eddy Pineiro's 30-yard field goal. They ran for only 36 yards in the first half, and were down 7-3 because Aaron Rodgers picked on Buster Skrine for a 29-yard first-quarter touchdown pass to Davante Adams.
"Every game's a little bit different," Nagy said. "We knew we wanted to come out the second half and stop them and get the ball back and so they got a couple touchdowns and went up 21-3."
Rodgers, held to less than 50 percent completions at 16 of 33 for 203 yards, did enough to lead a 73-yard drive to Aaron Jones' 21-yard TD run, and a 66-yard drive to Jones' 3-yard TD, and the Bears season seemed done while facing a 21-3 deficit.
"That's where, I think that for us, for the guys to not just give up and turn it into a 40-3 game, to fight back there at the end and have a chance those final two plays to maybe make something happen, but it didn't," Nagy said.
A 27-yard Pineiro field goal and Trubisky's TD throw got them within eight and they had the ball with five minutes left but he threw the big interception again as he did against the Packers in the first game. Lineman Dean Lowry batted a Trubisky pass into the air, juggled and caught it in Bears territory.
The defense gave them another chance with Leonard Floyd forcing a Rodgers intentional grounding penalty on third down, and then a punt. But the Bears had the ball twice more and couldn't score.
Trubisky threw incomplete from Green Bay's 49 on fourth down and the next time they ran the Stanford band play that ended with Horsed's fumble.
"It's always disappointing to not meet your expectations," Hicks said. "So I think for us as a group we have to be able to say we finish playing the rest of the season the way that we played great when we won four games, three games in a row.
"Just keep fighting. And I think that's the character of this team, anyway, is to never lay down."
Instead, they were simply put down by Green Bay, and in the end their ability to keep fighting couldn't overshadow the disappointment.
Twitter@BearsOnMaven
