Bears Can't Follow Up on Strong First Half

The Bears put up a strong fight for a half Sunday and scored more points than they have against the Green Bay Packers since Dec. 23, 2007.

They weren't even in the game after that as Aaron Rodgers exercised his rights of ownership in the second half and the Packers defense rose up for a 45-30 win at Lambeau Field.

"You see in those first two quarters what we can be regardless of who's not on that field, you know, for us with the injuries and stuff," Bears coach Matt Nagy said. "And so you get to see who you can be. And I was happy for the players that they got a chance to see who they can be.

"And then for us to end the game with the loss and to not finish it that's where I know it stings in that locker room. There's no consolation. We're 4-9 and that's the tough part."

The Bears had a team-record 97-yard punt return touchdown from Jakeem Grant, a 46-yard jet sweep TD by Grant and 54 yard TD reception by Damiere Byrd while building a 27-21 halftime lead. After the second half began, the Packers quickly regained the lead and totally dominated play on both sides of the ball as if they'd stepped up to another completely higher level.

Rodgers completed 29 of 37 for 341 yards and four touchdowns. Davante Adams had two of those TD receptions and 10 total catches for 121 yards and the Packers churned out 119 yards rushing.

"That first half was beautiful," Grant said.

Fields finished 18 of 33 for 224 yards with two TDs and two interceptions while also running for 74 yards on nine attempts despite playing with broken ribs. He also suffered an injured left hand but played through it.

"I thought the way he played the game today when you have an injury with your ribs, as coaches you're always making sure, you don't know how it's going to go, you don't know how it's going to affect him," Nagy said. "But he was smart when he ran the football, when he scrambled. He got down when he had to. He got out of bounds when he needed to.

"And I thought that for him being off a few weeks to play against that defense which is pretty good, I thought he did pretty good."

Fields lost the ball on a strip sack besides throwing a pick-6 to Rasul Douglas of the Packers.

"I know earlier in the year he wasn't starting but he's proven week-in and week-out that he can make plays," Fields said. "He's been jumping a lot of routes. On some other plays he was jumping routes."

An injury proved a key for the Bears on offense when left tackle Jason Peters left in the second quarter with an ankle injury and rookie Teven Jenkins came on. The running game never looked the same again, while Jenkins allowed a strip sack and committed three penalties.

"I mean that's a tough spot, that's a tough spot for Tev," Fields said. "And I know that he wanted to play great today. And you know the sack he gave up I just told him 'look it's your first game, prime time Sunday night, you're a rookie first-time-ever playing time right now."

The Packers outscored the Bears 17-0 in the third quarter and the Bears had a lost fumble on a strip sack of Fields to go with three straight punts coming out of the locker room in the second half.

All they had to show for the second half was a 43-yard Cairo Santos field goal. He had kicked field goals of 23 and 44 yards in the first half when they kept pace with Rodgers.

"It was simple," Fields said. "We knew coming in from the first half that we were up but the game wasn't over, especially with the quarterback they have on that side."

The Bears defense gave up 221 yards and 16 first downs in the second half, and gave up a 3-yard Aaron Jones TD run to wipe out the halftime edge, then a 23-yard TD pass from Rodgers to Jones to make it 35-27.

"It was just a bad, terrible half for us," outside linebacker Robert Quinn said.

Quinn added two more sacks of Rodgers to bring his season total to 14, the second-highest total of his career and third-highest for the Bears.

"I'm just having fun playing ball again," Quinn said.

It was a lot more fun for Quinn and all the Bears in the first half on Sunday night.

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