Bear Digest

The lesson learned by Bears with heartbreaking 28-21 defeat

A comeback by the Bears fails with an interception in the end zone on fourth-and-1 and Green Bay takes over first place to set up a rematch.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bo Melton beats Jaquan Brisker for a Green Bay touchdown just before halftime.
Bo Melton beats Jaquan Brisker for a Green Bay touchdown just before halftime. | Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Ben Johnson can still beat Matt LaFleur twice in a year, but the second one will have to come in the playoffs.

The Bears learned how to compete in a big game and bounced back from a terrible start to tie Green Bay Sunday at 21-21 in the fourth quarter, with Colston Loveland’s 1-yard touchdown catch. However, the Packers answered with a winning 80-yard march to Josh Jacobs' 2-yard TD run with 3:32 remaining.

The Bears had finally exhausted their comeback supply,  losing 28-21 as Keisean Nixon picked off a fourth-and-1 underthrown pass by Caleb Williams from the Packers' 14 on the same play call that produced a clinching TD to Cole Kmet against Philadelphia.

“I’ve just got to get him a better ball,” Willams said.

The Bears learned a valuable lesson about playing a full 60 minutes in big games.

“We’ve got to start faster, I’ve got to start faster,” Williams said.  

They were outgained 207 yards to 71 in the first half in falling behind 14-3 and never gained the lead, although they kept pursuing and finally caught the Packers with eight minutes to play on Loveland's TD.

”Really close at the end, give Green Bay a lot of credit,“ Johnson said. “They made a couple more big plays than us.”

Jordan Love completed 17 of 25 for 223 yards and three TDs, a 23  and 41 yards to Christian Watson and 45-yarder to little-used Bo Melton when the Bears' confused secondary blew coverage.

The Bears (9-4) fell out of the top seed in the NFC and into the seventh seed and last playoff spot, only a game ahead of Detroit at 8-5. 

“I think we’ve got a prideful group,” Johnson said. “We weren’t happy, we weren’t pleased with our first-half performance.”

It started poorly for the Bears' defense even before the game, when cornerback Kyler Gordon injured his groin for about the 27th or 28th time this season. The injury proved huge because Love beat Gardner-Johnson's coverage for three big passes.

The Bears, playing without injured Rome Odunze, had a pair of Cairo Santos field goals and a 1-yard TD pass to Olamide Zaccheaus as their offense awoke.

"I don't think that necessarily we missed a beat, but yet Rome is such a vital part of what we do," Johnson said.

So is DJ Moore, but Williams missed seeing him entirely only 6 or 7 yards downfield for an easy touchdown on the interception he forced into the end zone. Moore had one catch for -4 yards.

Williams went 19 of 35 for 186 yards and two TDs with an interception.  They passed for 186 and ran for 138 after the sluggish start and were within 14 yards of tying it or even winning.

They'll look to do that and regain the division lead if they can beat Cleveland (2-11) at Soldier Field on Sunday.

“I don’t care what their record says, they’ve got a damn good defense,” Johnson said.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.