Packers Leave Little Doubt by Shutting Down Bears

If the Bears wanted confirmation with the season finale, they got it.

They confirmed for everyone they have plenty more work to do before they can be considered a threat in the NFC North.

The four wins in five weeks was nice but Sunday the Bears closed the season by learning they still hadn't advanced far enough to even give the rival Green Bay Packers a real scare.

In losing 17-9, Justin Fields and the Bears offense scored their fewest points since a 12-7 loss to Washington in 2023 while the defense they used to forge a late run this season was laid to waste by Jordan Love's arm. Their 192 net yards of offense were the fewest since Matt Eberflus became coach.

"We improved this team, learned how to win," Eberflus said, summing up his second season as coach.

If they did improve, it obviously wasn't enough to keep the young Packers (9-8) from making the playoffs. It wasn't enough to keep anyone from asking questions afterward about the future of their quarterback or the coaches for that matter.

Those questions only met with the decision to be made later routine.

The Bears (7-10) were outgained 432 yards to 192, they gave up 27 of 32 passing and 316 yards to Love and never got the lead back after a second-quarter 10-yard TD reception by Green Bay's Dontayvion Wicks.

It's the closest the Bears came to beating Green Bay since Fields became quarterback and, yet, they never really had the Packers in danger.

"I felt like their D-line did a good job of getitng pressure on me and getting to the backfield pretty well so that's how it went," Field said.

Even after Green Bay foolishly squandered a field goal before halftime by letting time expire, missed another short field goal off the uprights and Love fumbled the ball at the end of the third quarter near midfield, the Packers went on to prevail and make the playoffs.

They drove 75 yards to a Wicks 12-yard TD catch 5:13 into the third quarter and the Bears trailed 14-6. 

The Bears had two possession with chances to tie but got only Santos' 35-yard field goal to get within 14-9. An Anders Carlson's 25-yard field goal after a 59-yard pass from Love to Jayden Reed pushed the deficit back to eight. 

The Bears drove to Green Bay's 34 but a holding penalty on center Dan Feeney and sack of Fields ended their last chance. Green Bay got the ball back on a punt with 6:08 left and ran out the clock on the Bears season.

Their 13 first downs to Green Bay's 24 said the offense didn't get it done and the defense played hard to keep from falling more than one score behind. But it was like watching someone swim upstream all afternoon. 

They converted only 3 of 11 third downs and allowed 7 of 10 on third downs as the Packers controlled the ball all game.

"It's really about converting on those critical downs," Eberflus said. "That's what this is about. When you get to midfield and you have third downs and fourth downs tries in that part o the field and you have to convert. You have to convert on those and that gets you in the scoring zone.

"That's where we fell short today."

Where they fell short on the season is another topic entirely and one they'll hash out in the next few days when the fate of the coaching staff is decided.

The fate of Fields is something that could go on until the draft.

Fields threw only 16 times for 11 completions and 148 yards while taking five sacks. The Packers held him to 27 yards rushing and 3.4 yards a carry while shutting down Khalil Herbert (28 yards) as well.

"Of course, there were a lot of ups and downs," Fields said. "But I grew a lot, learned a lot this year. This is going to do nothing but help me in the future."

Wherever he's playing.