OK. Well. Yikes.

That is certainly going to leave a mark.

[ [Don’t miss] Week 1 recap: Chicago Bears blown out 38-20 by Green Bay Packers as Jordan Love throws for 3 TDs in his 1st start in rivalry ]

A season-opening loss to the rival Green Bay Packers? Those Packers? The Aaron-Rodgers-and-Brett-Favre-less and seemingly middle-of-the-road Packers?

In that manner? In that flat and sloppy and-destroyed-at-home fashion?

Whoa.

Whatever that was the Chicago Bears put forth as their Week 1 performance Sunday at Soldier Field best be a one-off, a never-to-be-experienced-again disappointment that is promptly buried and forgotten.

It wasn’t just that the Bears lost their season opener 38-20 to the Packers, it was how poorly they played across the board. They committed costly penalties. They seemed to slumber for long stretches on offense. The defense was gashed for big play after big play in big moments.

The final 45 minutes felt funereal with the home crowd clearing out and the Packers laughing their way to the final whistle.

Said Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson: “This doesn’t sit well. For me? This was (expletive). We want to come out and play at a high level. Not doing that isn’t OK.”

Three touchdown drives allowed over a crucial 17-minute stretch to start the second half? Not OK.

Seven offensive series without picking up multiple first downs? Not OK.

Two Justin Fields turnovers after halftime, including a loss-sealing pick six with more than 12 minutes remaining? Not OK.

OK. Well. Yikes.

This was a performance that was as ugly as it was disappointing. Just a horror show.

“We can’t ever let this happen again,” safety Eddie Jackson said.

Added receiver DJ Moore: “This is definitely a wake-up call. The wins start counting now.”

That pick six Fields threw early in the fourth quarter? It was a poor decision and a late throw as the quarterback did not sense Packers linebacker Quay Walker lurking as he tried to hit Darnell Mooney over the middle against a Cover-2 look.

Walker looked like he was in individual drills at training camp, easily catching the gift-wrapped giveaway and racing 37 yards into Soldier Field’s south end zone.

Fields knew almost immediately he should have gone to Moore on a corner route earlier in his progression.

“That’s on me,” Fields said. “If anything, I have to give DJ a shot on the sideline on that. It’s him or nobody. Or maybe just check the ball down to Roschon (Johnson) or Cole on that. I was trying to fit it into a window there. And the window closed.”

Did it ever. Slammed shut actually. Walker’s TD gave the Packers a 24-point lead with a little more than 12 minutes remaining. Game over.

Fields certainly wasn’t at his sharpest Sunday. Far from it. He completed 24 of 37 passes for 216 yards and dropped a beautiful 20-yard touchdown pass into Mooney’s mitts that gave the Bears life at the end of the third quarter.

But at that point, they were already in a chase game because of the difficulties the defense had after halftime, most notably on a 35-yard Aaron Jones touchdown reception from Jordan Love. That came on fourth-and-3 with the Packers ahead 17-6.

Packers coach Matt LaFleur opted against trying a 53-yard field goal with rookie kicker Anders Carlson. Instead, he put the game in the hands of his offense.

The Bears could have seized momentum. But they didn’t. Love didn’t need to do anything heroic. He simply watched his top playmaker run a crisp arrow route. As Jones knifed back across the middle, linebacker T.J. Edwards was left in the dust.

Jones caught the pass at the 30-yard line and was never touched as he raced to the end zone.

“He ran a good route and I got beat,” Edwards said. “That’s how it goes sometimes, man. That guy’s a really good player. And sometimes you’ve got to take your lumps.”

Even when things went wrong for the Packers, they somehow went right. Love’s 37-yard completion to rookie tight end Luke Musgrave early in the fourth quarter came after the Packers quarterback fumbled the snap. Somehow, Love collected the football, gathered himself, and then threw to Musgrave, who was uncovered deep.

“When you see the ball on the ground, people naturally want to gravitate to the ball,” Johnson said. “We’re taught to run to the ball. At times, it’s just habit.”

From a fumbled snap, the Packers got their second-longest play of the game. That was a microcosm of the day, wasn’t it?

Where will the Bears even start Monday with their cleanup efforts? This wasn’t just a small accidental mess. It was an uncontained oil spill.

Right tackle Braxton Jones committed four penalties.

Moore caught back-to-back passes on a second-quarter field goal drive but didn’t touch the ball at any other point in the game. He wasn’t even targeted on any of the Bears’ 46 other passing plays.

“We have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what we’re good at,” Moore said.

On seven of their 12 possessions, the Bears slipped behind the chains.

Costly penalties. Missed blocks. Unfortunate sacks. A first-and-20 here. Second-and-17 there. Third-and-18. Fourth-and-14.

“It’s hard to get stuff going and overcome that consistently when you’re doing that drive in and drive out,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “We have to clean that up. … When you get into those backed-up situations, it limits some of the stuff we can call. Strategically, now you’re just trying to get breathing room for the punt or just trying to get away from (our) end zone.”

Overall, the Bears failed to convert on 10 of 13 third-down attempts. Meanwhile, the defense recorded just one sack and never took the ball away.

Remember that brutal season-opening loss to the Packers four years ago when months of anticipation and excitement all across Chicago were so dramatically crushed on the Week 1 stage? Somehow this felt worse. Much worse.

[ [Don’t miss] The Bears and Packers have played 207 times in the past 100 years. Here’s the history of how the rivalry has unfolded each decade. ]

The Bears are supposed to be much better in 2023 than they were in 2022. They were supposed to present undeniable evidence of that Sunday with an effort that convinced everyone — most importantly the Packers — they were to be taken seriously as a much-improved team ready to be far more competitive.

Instead? They were outcoached and outperformed, outhustled and outclassed, and seemed to have so little collective fight in them after the game got away.

Yikes.

“This is disappointing,” Johnson said. “We all compete to win. Not winning and then losing in that fashion? It just felt like they whooped our ass in the second half.”

Now comes the next step, the big challenge on the bridge from Week 1 to Week 2. Regardless of Sunday’s result, the Bears were always going to have to quickly find a way to re-center, to draw all the meaning they possibly can from their season-opening performance while also keeping it inside the appropriate frame. There are 17 weeks ahead and 16 more games. There’s a trip to Tampa next. There’s an opportunity to shake Sunday’s mess away like a haphazard Etch-A-Sketch illustration. There’s a level of urgency that’s needed.

“Nobody should have their head down,” linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said. “This is not about putting our head down, man. I’ve been in this game for a long time. And I understand how it goes. You can’t let one game define you. And this game is definitely not going to define us.”

That’s the mission now. But it also feels like that effort may be far more difficult than it should be. Sunday was just that sloppy, just that deflating, just that miserable.

“It’s tough,” Kmet said. “It is. Look, this game means a lot to me personally. I really wanted to win this one. I haven’t won one of these (rivalry games) yet. And now we have to wait until Week 18 to get back at them. It hurts. It does. But this is one of 17 (games) and this league has a ton of parity in it. We have to be able to bounce back and move on.”

Easier said than done.

Originally Published: Sep 10, 2023 at 8:44 pm