Bears lose to Packers 28-21, but rivalry 'alive and well' after tight game, icy handshake between coaches
GREEN BAY, Wis. — This was not a success for the Bears. Not at all. Their standard needs to be higher, and thanks to Ben Johnson, it seems like it finally is.
There’s no question, though, that they revitalized the NFL’s most storied rivalry Sunday, despite losing to the Packers 28-21 at Lambeau Field. For years the Bears have been a punch line here, but there was much more relief than laughter in Green Bay when cornerback Keisean Nixon intercepted quarterback Caleb Williams’ pass in the end zone with 22 seconds left to close it out.
This was all drama, no comedy. And Act II is coming soon. The Bears host the Packers on Dec. 20.
“It’s awesome to have this rivalry alive and well right now,” Johnson said. “We get another chance at it in two weeks.”
They traded punches throughout the second half — the Bears tied it with eight minutes left, the Packers pulled ahead again on the next drive and the Bears fired right back to reach fourth-and-one at the 14-yard line — before Nixon knocked them out.
The loss sent the Bears staggering from the top seed in the NFC at the start of the day to the seventh spot at 9-4, with the Lions at their necks just one game back. It also vaulted the Packers to the No. 2 spot, putting the teams on course to meet in the first round of the playoffs.
Netflix doesn’t have a show as bingeable as Season 105 of Bears-Packers.
Johnson picked a fight with Packers coach Matt LaFleur in January by saying at his introductory news conference that one of his favorite things about staying in the NFC North would be beating him twice a year. LaFleur, with a stunning .677 career winning percentage, brushed it away like a gnat.
Johnson has his attention now, no doubt. Their postgame handshake, if it could even be called that, was approximately one millisecond and as cold as icy air.
Yep. pic.twitter.com/iaSkRO3iGe
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LaFleur said, “It was a quick handshake, and we’ll see them again in two weeks.” When asked if there was any satisfaction in shutting Johnson up, he replied, “Absolutely not. It’s Packers-Bears.”
Had the Bears scored at the end, Johnson said it was on the table to go for the two-point conversion and the win. It’s going to be feisty between these two.
Even in defeat, this was progress for the Bears in the big picture. They were down 14-3 at halftime, and they saw plenty of games slide into catastrophe in this stadium under former coaches.
Matt Eberflus lost his first two games at Lambeau Field by a combined score of 44-19 and didn’t make it to a third. Matt Nagy’s last appearance here was when he proclaimed with a six-point lead at halftime that he was “having so much fun,” then lost 45-30.
This was hardly so hopeless. The Packers are championship contenders and have the No. 5 defense in the NFL, and the Bears scored more points and put up more yards (315) on the Packers than any visiting team this season.
“That was a winnable game,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said, adding that the upcoming rematch was, “the first thought when we play them that close.”
Ben Johnson kept finding ways to keep the Bears in the game, and that has been an obvious strong point early in his tenure.
Regardless of who has been missing this season or which part of his offense hasn’t been functioning at the time, he has continuously come up with solutions on the fly. His passing attack sputtering early against the Packers and the Bears were trailing most of the game, but he never ran out of ideas.
He was going up against a dynamic defensive force in Packers pass rusher Micah Parsons with a rookie left tackle, so he schemed up some help and kept him from getting a sack. Top wide receiver Rome Odunze was out, so rookie Luther Burden played a bigger role in the offense. Williams was out of sync until the third quarter, so Johnson rode a gritty rushing attack until he found his way.
It’s unrealistic to avoid problems altogether. The real skill is solving them on the fly.
His most important task is getting Williams on track, and while that was a wild ride yet again, there still were signs of high potential in their pairing. Williams opened the game 7-for-15 for 42 yards, then went 12-for-20 for 144 yards and two touchdown passes before the fateful interception.
The ground game was powerful for the Bears, especially in the fourth quarter when D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai combined for 44 yards on eight carries, but Johnson stood by his call on fourth-and-one. It appeared tight end Cole Kmet was open in the back of the end zone, as well as DJ Moore underneath and Colston Loveland in the middle of the field, but Williams underthrew the pass. “Made it a game, but fell short,” Johnson said.
It was a letdown after the raucous celebration of beating the Eagles and standing atop the conference for a week, but stumbles are inevitable. The difference between Johnson and his recent predecessors is that losing at Lambeau was part of an unstoppable slide for them. Disappointing as it was, nothing about this suggested it’s going to send the Bears spiraling.