Final Word: The Chicago Bears were impressive on Sunday. One problem: The Green Bay Packers
CHICAGO - The Chicago Bears would have beaten plenty of teams in the NFL on Sunday.
Not just those struggling teams, either.
The Bears were structured and near mistake-free offensively. Defensively, the Bears made two goal-line stands.
But those plays aren't going to be discussed.
There was so much good the Bears did on Sunday, which was notable coming off a week when they switched offensive coordinators and had productive
But that's not going to be the headline.
This is because it's the Green Bay Packers.
Everything that goes awry gets magnified exponentially when it comes to the oldest rivalry in the NFL, especially on the Bears side.
Sunday's 20-19 loss was just the latest chapter in the horror novel the Bears and Bears fans keep reading. This book began when Brett Favre became the first of two hall of fame quarterbacks the Packers had from the 1990s to 2022. Each year seems more horrible than the last.
It might not have more of a sting than Sunday's loss where the Bears didn't just have an opponent on the ropes. They had the Green Bay Packers on the ropes, and they slipped away.
"This is a game I've wanted to win for a while now and haven't won this one yet," Bears tight end Cole Kmet said. "Obviously, we get them one more time this year, but definitely a hard one, especially when it felt like we had it in the bag there at the end."
Kmet speaks for Bears fans worldwide.
The Bears have now lost 11 straight games to Green Bay. That's a Green Bay franchise record for wins in a row over Chicago. Jordan Love is just continuing what Aaron Rodgers started.
That losing streak just tantalizes the Chicago Bears. One of the most enjoyable games in the past 20 years was when the Bears beat Green Bay 35-7 in the 2007 season. The Bears were out of the playoffs, but kept Favre's Packers from homefield advantage with a 28-point win.
Oh, the memories.
Those kinds of wins over Green Bay just don't happen. The losses like Sunday where so much goes wrong – a blocked kick and All-Pro corner Jaylon Johnson tripping up on a 60-yard pass play in a game where they did so much correctly – are more closer to the norm.
Especially considering how that blocked kick came three weeks after the Commanders' Hail Mary.
"It's almost comical," Johnson said. "The luck of the draw at this damn point.
I know how badly Bears fans wanted that 46-yard Cairo Santos kick to sail through the uprights. But it's the Packers. So, of course, it feels like voodoo, some sort of crossroads deal or some magic that lifted Karl Brooks' hand into the path of Santos' kick.
That would've meant things really could really be different. Caleb Williams can engineer drives to slay the green and yellow dragon. Love might not be a third consecutive hall of fame quarterback to suit up for Green Bay.
Instead, here we are, headlining the decision to settle for a 46-yard kick instead of moving the ball closer for an easier kick.
Bears head coach Matt Eberflus defended the decision to trust Santos' leg. Santos himself said he didn't have any issues with the distance.
Yet, that decision will be questioned all week.
"You're also going to risk fumbling and different things there," Eberflus said. "We felt where we were, if we're at the 36 or 35, you definitely want to do that because you want to get it inside there. I felt very confident where we were at that time with the wind and where we were on the field."
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - NOVEMBER 17: Cairo Santos #8 of the Chicago Bears reacts as Karl Brooks #94 of the Green Bay Packers celebrates with teammates after blocking a potential game winning field goal at the end of the fourth quarter of a game at Soldie
As if the Bears horror story needed another page to it, there were plenty of lopsided losses, heartbreaking game-winning drives by Favre or Rodgers and the one-score games that just never went the Bears way.
Sunday was a new one.
Williams, who had a good game with 231 passing yards, a 72 percent completion rating and no turnovers, was in decent spirits after the game. When asked about handling the loss and the recent changes at Halas Hall, Williams referenced a chat he has with his former college coach Lincoln Riley recently.
Riley called him to catch up, and he mentioned to
"It's something that he told me my freshman year when I wasn't in a position I wanted to be in, which was I wasn't starting at the time," Williams said. "He told me to ‘keep going.’ At that time, I didn't necessarily know what those two words meant. I wanted to hear a little bit more than that, and that's what he told me. I use those words to this day."
The Bears need to keep going. They can't dwell on this heartbreak as much as they did the Hail Mary in the loss to Washington. That proved disastrous in a blowout loss to Arizona the following week.
But the Bears can keep going. Minnesota is next. The Bears have played the Vikings well the last handful of years, and next Sunday promises to be a good one.
After all, it's not the Packers next week.
The voodoo, dark magic or whatever you want to call it won't be there.
"It was a roller-coaster game, but that's this league. And you have to be resilient. Not everything is always going to go your way, and you have to keep battling, keep battling, keep battling, keep battling and try to block out the scoreboard."
Who said that? None other than Packers head coach Matt LaFluer.