No singular Green Bay Packers villain emerged as the replacement for Aaron Rodgers on Sunday at Soldier Field.

New Packers quarterback Jordan Love made some big plays while throwing for 245 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-20 victory over the Chicago Bears. Running back Aaron Jones did plenty of damage, including 127 yards from scrimmage and two scores. And the Packers defense sacked Bears quarterback Justin Fields four times, forced a fumble and had a pick-six.

It always was easy to zero in on Rodgers’ dominance in the rivalry the last decade and a half as the major problem. But with Rodgers gone, the real bad guys in the Packers’ ninth straight win in the rivalry were the Bears and their not-good-enough showings virtually across the board.

“It was nothing (Love) did to surprise us,” safety Eddie Jackson said. “It was everything we did. Not to take anything from him, but today’s loss is on us, every man individually, especially myself giving up a touchdown (to Romeo Doubs). So we’ve just got to get better at it.”

Some fans offered their first boos of the season when the Bears went three-and-out on their first drive of the second half. But it got worse from there. Fields lost a fumble in the third quarter, and in the fourth quarter linebacker Quay Walker intercepted him and ran 37 yards for a touchdown for a 38-14 lead.

Fields finished 24 of 37 for 216 yards with one touchdown and the one pick and rushed nine times for a team-high 59 yards. New wide receiver DJ Moore had two catches for 25 yards.

“It definitely hurts, not only because it’s the first game of the season and it’s a loss, but it’s a loss to them,” Fields said. “Just want to say sorry to my teammates and all the fans that were rooting for us. We’ll bounce back and be good.”

Fields said the most frustrating part of the loss was the “self-inflicted penalties.” The Bears had seven penalties for 61 yards. That included four penalties on left tackle Braxton Jones: two false starts and two holding penalties.

“It’s hard to have success, hard to put yourself in good position to convert on third downs and score in the red zone if you’re hurting yourself, if you’re first-and-15, third-and-10,” Fields said. “And we were backed up for a good period of the game. So overall, we just have to straighten that out and if we do get in the gold zone, we have to score a touchdown.”

After the Packers went into halftime with a 10-6 lead, Jones scored on a 1-yard touchdown run on the first drive of the third quarter to give the Packers a 17-6 lead.

Earlier in the drive, Jones took a short Love pass 51 yards to the 7 before cornerback Tyrique Stevenson pushed him out of bounds. The Packers scored three plays later.

Jones followed on the Packers’ next drive by taking a fourth-down Love pass 35 yards for a touchdown and a 24-6 lead.

Fields’ 20-yard touchdown pass to Darnell Mooney and Khalil Herbert’s two-point conversion run cut that lead to 24-14.

But the Packers quickly responded on the next drive. Love fumbled but recovered it and turned the broken play into a 37-yard pass to tight end Luke Musgrave. He then hit Doubs for a 4-yard touchdown, the second score for the Packers wide receiver.

Walker had the pick-six on the next drive.

Bears rookie running back Roschon Johnson scored on a 2-yard run late in the fourth quarter, but the 2-point conversion pass failed.

Bears nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon left with a hand injury in the second half and didn’t return.

The Bears haven’t beaten the Packers since the 2018 season. They will get another chance in the final game of the regular season at Lambeau Field.

“This game means a lot to me personally. I really wanted to win this one,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “I haven’t won one of these yet, and now you have to wait until (Game) 17 at the end here to get back at them.

“It hurts, but it’s just one of 17. This league has a ton of parity in it, and we just have to be able to bounce back and move on from this.”

Here’s how the game unfolded.

Bears wide receivers Velus Jones Jr. and Equanimeous St. Brown are inactive for the season opener against the Packers.

Both are healthy scratches as the Bears have five other wide receivers active: DJ Moore, Darnell Mooney, Chase Claypool, Trent Taylor and Tyler Scott.

Jones had been one of the main kickoff-return options, but the Bears could use the rookie Scott in that role. They already said Taylor, whom they signed after training camp, would be the punt returner.

Tight end Robert Tonyan is active after being listed as questionable with a back injury Saturday. Tonyan spent his first five seasons with the Packers.

Defensive lineman Khalid Kareem, tight end Stephen Carlson, safety Quindell Johnson and quarterback Tyson Bagent also are inactive. Bagent can be used as the emergency third quarterback if both Justin Fields and Nathan Peterman are injured.

For the Packers, wide receiver Christian Watson, running back Emanuel Wilson, safeties Anthony Johnson Jr. and Zayne Anderson, linebacker Brenton Cox Jr. and offensive linemen Caleb Jones and Sean Rhyan are inactive.

Packers wide receiver Romeo Doubs is active after being listed as questionable.

Jordan Love threw his first touchdown pass in the rivalry against the Chicago Bears to help boost the Green Bay Packers to a 10-6 halftime lead Sunday at Soldier Field.

The Bears outgained the Packers 147-100 but managed only two Cairo Santos field goals.

In his first start in the post-Aaron Rodgers era, Love completed 7 of 16 passes for 81 yards and a touchdown. Bears quarterback Justin Fields completed 10 of 14 passes for 96 yards and ran five times for 36 yards.

Love’s 8-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Romeo Doubs on third-and-goal gave the Packers a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

After the Bears turned the ball over on downs at their 40 on their first drive, the defense got off to a good start by pushing the Packers to third-and-13. But Love hit Doubs for a 13-yard pass to convert it.

The Packers were 3-for-3 on third down on the drive, with Aaron Jones rushing for 7 yards on third-and-2 at the 12.

Santos made a 47-yard field goal to cut the Packers lead to 7-3 in the first quarter.

That drive suffered setbacks on back-to-back false start penalties, one on left tackle Braxton Jones and the other on multiple offensive linemen.

In the second quarter, the Bears marched to the Packers 8-yard line with four straight plays gaining double-digit yardage: a 10-yard Fields run, an 11-yard D’Onta Foreman run and catches of 11 and 14 yards by DJ Moore. The last gave them first-and-goal at the 8.

But Fields took a sack by Packers rookie Lukas Van Ness for a loss of 7 yards on second down and threw a pass to Cole Kmet in the end zone that Rasul Douglas deflected on third down.

The Bears settled for Santos’ 29-yard field goal to cut the Packers lead to 7-6.

Packers kicker Anders Carlson made a 52-yard field goal just before halftime to increase the lead to 10-6. Bears defensive end Yannick Ngakoue sacked Love for a loss of 8 yards as the Packers tried to drive to end the half.

Here’s a look at our pregame coverage.

Justin Fields can’t wait to get the season started.

The Bears quarterback can’t wait to see how an improved supporting cast sparks the offense’s productivity. He can’t wait to gauge his progress under game conditions. He can’t wait to take the test that all of Chicago and most of the NFL has been eager to put him through.

Is he, in fact, the guy for the Bears, a star on the rise who can return one of the league’s charter franchises to championship contention?

GM Ryan Poles provided a checklist of what he wants to see from Fields in his second season under offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.

“We want those sack numbers to come down, interceptions to come down, make good reads, protect himself,” Poles said. “Just see him take that next step.”

What Jordan Love will become after three seasons of sitting behind future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers is a big uncertainty for the Packers.

He steps into the spotlight of a town that for decades hasn’t had to think about the quarterback carousel common for so many NFL teams. He will be just the third quarterback to start a season opener for the Packers since 1993, following Brett Favre’s 16 seasons with the team and Rodgers’ 18, including 15 years as the starter.

The Packers are one of 14 teams that will have a different starting quarterback in Week 1 than they did in the 2022 opener.

“We just know that it’s not Aaron Rodgers,” Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “He’s a Hall of Fame type of guy, so there’s obviously going to be a drop-off. But we still respect Jordan Love and know he can do some good things in the air and on the ground.

“And they’re well-coached, have a really good run game and have some young, explosive receivers. It’s not going to be an easy task now that 12 (Rodgers) is gone, but we’re definitely looking forward to this matchup.”

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles needed three words to define his expectations as his team tries to reach the next level this season: “Win more games.”

That shouldn’t be difficult given that the 2022 team won just three. The question, then, is how many more games?

The Bears’ over/under win total is 7.5 games. But this team has enough variables in the second year of Poles’ rebuild to think it could win a few more or less.

So are you an optimist or a pessimist? Might the Bears be a 10-win team and make the playoffs? Or might they be a 10-loss team, leaving questions about what’s next?

From a fan’s point of view, what are the areas of concern — and what’s the level of optimism. We spoke to three die-hards.

Everything inside Soldier Field is cash-free. So that means credit, debit, prepaid card or mobile payment for concessions, retail gear and roving food and beverage vendors. Fans can transfer cash to a Visa prepaid card for no fee at the ticket office window at Gate 0 pro shop, the “Water Wall” pro shop and the pro shop in the Club 100 Level.

Here’s the new food and drink options at Soldier Field, including FrankenWurst, miniature pizza cup with fall vegetables and the SackAttack Burger.

Except for two years — 1922 and 1982 — the Bears and Packers have played each other every season since 1921.

They are the two oldest teams in continuous operation in the National Football League with a rivalry spanning 204 regular season games and two playoff meetings. The Packers hold a slight lead in the series with 105 wins to the Bears’ 95, with six ties.

As the Bears kick off a new season Sunday, so much has happened in the team’s search for a new stadium, yet with so few definitive results.

In the past year, the franchise paid $197 million to buy Arlington International Racecourse, with plans to build an indoor stadium there as part of a $5 billion entertainment and housing complex. Then several roadblocks sprang up.

Originally Published: Sep 10, 2023 at 7:37 am