GREEN BAY — If only the Chicago Bears could’ve bottled up whatever moxy they showed in the second half and used some during a dreadful first half.
The Bears were outgained 207-71 yards and outscored 14-3 in the first half, but they found a spark in the second that led to a 244-130 edge in yardage and a 20:13 to 9:47 advantage in time of possession.
It amounted to too little, too late — the Green Bay Packers still won 28-21 — and after the game, the Bears weren’t in the mood for moral victories. Just lessons.
“We’re a prideful group,” said Ben Johnson, who called the offense in his first game against the Packers as Bears head coach. “We weren’t happy, we weren’t pleased with our first-half performance on offense. Sometimes it’s just coming in and catching your breath for a second, (which) allows you to hit that reset button. And our guys responded the right way.”
The Bears scored 18 points in the second half and were driving for a game-tying score when Caleb Williams looked to tight end Cole Kmet in the end zone — drawn up identically to the touchdown play that helped beat the Philadelphia Eagles — but Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon snagged an interception in front of Kmet to seal the win.
On fourth-and-1 with 27 seconds left, there was no margin for error.
Bears players felt like they left a lot of points on the board in the first half, where Williams threw for just 32 yards on 6 of 14 passing.
And the running game couldn’t bail him out — just 48 yards in the first half.
“We need to start faster. I need to start faster,” Williams said. “I think that will do us well as a team and as an offense, especially. That’s something that they did better than us today. And they made plays at the end of the day, a few more plays than us.”
It was tough to sustain drives.
Williams missed his first five pass attempts and the Bears went 1 for 7 on third down (14.3%).
“It’s just like first- and second-down efficiency,” receiver Olamide Zaccheaus said. “We weren’t able to consistently get that first down in the first half. I think we had one good drive and it ended up just resulting in three points.”
Kmet added, “When you’re behind the stick the way we were, it’s hard to get a rhythm going.”
Even when you get a break.
Bears defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson intercepted Jordan Love in the first quarter and returned it 28 yards to the Green Bay 36-yard line, but the Bears couldn’t do anything with that gift.
In fact, they lost five yards on Colston Loveland’s false start and went three-and-out.
“It’s frustration, just because we shot ourselves in the foot more than anything,” Williams said.
“We had a great shot early in the game with the interception, defense doing a good job, and then we kind of let them get going. They put up some points on the board. We had to try and rally and it’s not always going to work in our favor.”
The Bears committed to the running game in the second half, and it started to pop.
“I do know our backs were running hard, I did feel that,” Johnson said. “I feel like we kind of picked it up as the game went.
“The first half, we weren’t hitting at the same clip, we were probably more 2s and 3s (yards per carry) than we were those 5s and 6s” in the second half.
Running backs D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai combined for 43 yards in the first half, but combined for 77 yards in the second.
The run game, along with Williams finding his stride, gave the offense a foundation to sustain drives.
“We just started wearing them down a little bit. It wasn’t anything crazy,” Kmet said. The Bears backs running downhill effectively began to tire Green Bay’s defenders, he said, and that opened up the play-action pass.
In the third quarter, after Chicago’s defense forced Green Bay to punt, Williams led a 10-play, 64-yard touchdown drive.
During that march, Williams made another patented “wow” play — a 26-yard rope to Kmet along the right sideline.
“Just saw Cole do a good job being aggressive and trying to make a play for the team,” Williams said. “He got in front of and stacked the defender and (I) just gave him a shot.”
Williams capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown pass to Zaccheaus, and Monangai scored on a 2-point conversion to pull the Bears within three.
“Caleb was rolling out and he gave me a chance and I made a play,” Zaccheaus said. “We talked about that, just being able to make a play when everything may not be there.”
The Bears defense didn’t fare much better in the second half than they did in the first, still giving up explosive plays and 14 points in each half.
The Packers answered the Bears’ drive on Christian Watson’s 41-yard catch-and-run for a score, with Gardner-Johnson trailing him the whole way.
The Bears still made it a game.
In the fourth quarter, they marched 83 yards on 17 plays, with Williams finding Loveland for a 1-yard scoring reception after the tackle-eligible play designed for Theo Benedet — “Big Man,” as Johnson called the play — broke down.
But the Packers mounted a 65-yard campaign of their own to go up 28-21 on Josh Jacobs’ 2-yard plunge. About three minutes later, Nixon intercepted Williams.
The Bears were missing one of their top weapons on offense: wide receiver Rome Odunze, who was out with a foot injury.
Johnson said, “I don’t think we necessarily missed a beat, but yet Rome is such a vital part of what we do.
“In a lot of ways, for Caleb, it’s his blankie. They’ve got such a great natural rapport that when a guy like that’s out, other guys have got to step up. But he is a big part of what we’re doing.”