The slow-motion replay aired again and again on the video board and TVs around Lambeau Field.
On fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line with the Chicago Bears trailing the Green Bay Packers by two touchdowns, Bears quarterback Justin Fields caught a shotgun snap and clawed his way toward the goal line. A wall of Packers players stopped his progress, and officials ruled him short.
Bears coach Matt Eberflus threw the challenge flag, but after several minutes of looking at the replay, the call stood.
The Bears could not make it a one-score game, and they couldn’t recover. The Packers pulled off a 27-10 win, their seventh straight in the rivalry.
One play earlier, Fields was ruled to have scrambled for a 6-yard touchdown, but that replay showed his knee was down before he hit the pylon with the football. That set up the fourth-and-1 play, a big moment after a rough start.
The Bears’ offensive production dried up in the first half after they scored on their opening drive. But they found momentum in the second half behind running backs David Montgomery and Khalil Herbert.
Montgomery topped 100 rushing yards for the eighth time in his career, totaling 122 yards on 15 carries. That total included carries of 9 and 11 yards on a drive that ended in Cairo Santos’ 44-yard field goal and carries of 11, 14 and 28 yards on the drive in which Fields came up short.
Fields completed just 7 of 11 passes for 70 yards with no touchdowns and an interception by cornerback Jaire Alexander with 2 minutes, 9 seconds to play.
The Bears spent the week leading up to the game talking about how they didn’t believe the idea of “gloom and doom” in Green Bay after the Packers lost their opener.
The scene at Lambeau Field was far from gloomy. After Aaron Rodgers threw his second touchdown pass to put the Packers up by 17 late in the first half, fans whipped around white towels and danced to Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!).” Late in the fourth quarter, a chant of “Bears still suck” echoed across the stadium.
All is well in Packers land, courtesy of another big Rodgers performance.
Rodgers bounced back from the Packers’ 23-7 loss to the Minnesota Vikings by completing 19 of 25 passes for 234 yards and two touchdowns. Aaron Jones rushed for 132 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries and also had a touchdown catch.
Halftime: Rodgers leads Packers back from early deficit
Aaron Rodgers threw for 164 yards and two touchdowns, and Aaron Jones rushed for 54 yards and a score and also had a touchdown catch to push the Green Bay Packers to a 24-7 halftime lead against the Chicago Bears on Sunday night at Lambeau Field.
Quarterback Justin Fields led a touchdown drive on the Bears’ first series, but the offense went three-and-out on their next three drives. Fields completed 5 of 6 passes for 45 yards in the half.
Rodgers threw his 450th career touchdown pass in the second quarter on a short pass to Jones, who turned it into an 8-yard touchdown to put the Packers up 17-7.
The Bears had the Packers pushed back to second-and-28 at the 42-yard line after a holding penalty and Trevis Gipson’s second sack. But Rodgers quickly hit Romeo Doubs for a 20-yard gain and Randall Cobb for 9 yards. Jones’ touchdown catch came two plays later.
Rodgers added touchdown pass No. 451 late in the second quarter, hitting Allen Lazard for 5 yards. That drive included a pretty play in which Rodgers escaped pressure and hit Cobb on the run.
Rodgers got the passing game going on the Packers’ second drive with a 9-yard pass to Christian Watson. Two plays later, Packers wide receiver Sammy Watkins got behind Kyler Gordon and Kindle Vildor for a 24-yard catch.
Jones ran for a 15-yard touchdown to push the Packers ahead 10-7.
Fields put the Bears ahead 7-3 late in the first quarter on a 3-yard touchdown run to cap a 71-yard drive on the offense’s opening series.
David Montgomery keyed the drive with four carries for 38 yards. He also took a handoff and pitched the football back to Fields, who threw it 30 yards to Equanimeous St. Brown.
But the Bears struggled after that. The next drive included Preston Smith’s sack of Fields and a minus-4-yard pass from Fields to Darnell Mooney. The second drive included two penalties, one on Fields for throwing an illegal forward pass about 3 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
Mason Crosby made a 40-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead on the Packers’ first drive. Gordon broke up Rodgers’ pass intended for Lazard in the end zone, and Gipson sacked Rodgers for a 4-yard loss on third down to force the Packers to kick.
Inactives
Bears rookie wide receiver/returner Velus Jones Jr. will miss his second straight game as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
Cornerback Lamar Jackson, safety Elijah Hicks, offensive linemen Ja’Tyre Carter and Michael Schofield and tight end Jake Tonges are also inactive.
The Packers will get a little more help on the offensive line and at wide receiver this week.
Right tackle Elgton Jenkins and wide receiver Allen Lazard are active after missing the season-opening loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
But left tackle David Bakhtiari will sit out his second straight game with a knee injury. Also inactive for the Packers are safety Tariq Carpenter, offensive linemen Caleb Jones and Sean Rhyan, wide receiver Samori Toure and defensive lineman Jonathan Ford.
Bears-Packers history
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 203 games, including two playoff meetings. The Packers hold a slight lead in the series with 103 wins to the Bears’ 95, with six ties.
Here’s a look back, decade by decade, at how the teams have fared and the highlights — and lowlights — of their matchups. Read it here.
Pregame report
Bears defensive end Robert Quinn stated the team’s mentality for their “Sunday Night Football” meeting with the Packers in five words: “Last week is last week.”
The Packers may have made costly mistakes in their 23-7 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1. But the Bears are preparing for the usual challenge at Lambeau Field against their NFC North rivals, who have won six straight and 11 of the last 12 meetings.
“I’m sure they’ve got a little chip on their shoulder coming off a loss,” Quinn said. “We’re not really concerned about them. We’re concerned about ourselves and what we have to do to win the game. They took a loss, and we won last week. But last week is last week. We’ve just got to prepare for this week and see if we can keep something great going in this locker room.”
So much about this game is in Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ element. He had a 113.8 passer rating in eight home starts last year, owns a 109.1 rating in Sunday night games and has a 141.5 rating in his last four starts against the Bears, according to the NFL.
And after not throwing a touchdown pass last week as he adjusts to playing without wide receiver Davante Adams, Rodgers could get some offensive help with the potential returns of offensive linemen David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins and wide receiver Allen Lazard, who all missed the opener.
Meanwhile, the Bears are trying to build on their scrappy 19-10 win over the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1, when they scored three second-half touchdowns for the win. But quarterback Justin Fields would like to get off to a better start this time.
“We know that that’s not the product that they wanted to put on the field or put on tape,” Bears quarterback Justin Fields said. “We know this week they’re going to come with something to prove, just because they didn’t have the game they wanted to have last week. We’re prepared for that. They’re probably not going to make as many mistakes as they did last week, so we’re just going to have to come out with a fast start and just put points on the board.”
Luke Getsy’s confidence
When the Bears left the field at halftime of Sunday’s season opener against the 49ers down 7-0, the offensive coaches and players didn’t have a lot of positive stats to discuss on the rainy day.
The Bears didn’t reach 49ers territory until there were 2 minutes, 17 seconds left in the second quarter and even on that drive failed to get points because of an odd towel penalty on a field-goal attempt. Bears quarterback Justin Fields had completed 3 of 9 passes for 19 yards with an interception and a 2.8 passer rating. The Bears had 68 net offensive yards, and no wide receiver or tight end had a catch.
Yet as the Bears regrouped in the locker room for what would become a 19-point second half in a comeback win, Fields saw body language from offensive coordinator Luke Getsy that “brought everybody (to) their feet.”
Getsy was smiling. Read more here.
Will Aaron Rodgers rebound from a bad Week 1?
It was music to Aaron Rodgers’ ears.
The four-time MVP quarterback has been impressed with Watson’s burst and figured it would be cool to give the newcomer from North Dakota State a chance to start his NFL career with some sizzle.
“We had talked about it. ‘Do you really want to start off with a bomb shot?’” Rodgers said. “I said, ‘Yeah. What the hell? Why not? Ya know? This kid can really fly. Let’s give him a chance.’”
By now, we all know what happened when that vision didn’t go as planned. Read more here.
Miss anything this week? Catch up before kickoff (7:20 p.m., NBC-5).
- 5 things to watch in Bears-Packers — plus our Week 2 predictions
- Column: From college QB to receiver and now defensive end, the Bears might have found a gem in rookie Dominique Robinson. ‘You can play him anywhere.’
- Aaron Rodgers says Luke Getsy’s next stop is ‘probably head coach.’ But first Getsy must unlock Justin Fields’ potential and revive the Chicago Bears offense.
- Aaron Rodgers’ Week 1 struggles were notable. Can the Bears pounce and expose more of the Packers’ vulnerability?
- 12 eye-catching numbers as the Bears prepare to face the Packers in prime time in Week 2
- Column: If it’s possible to catch Aaron Rodgers and the Packers at the right time, the Bears are doing so in Week 2
- QB rewind for Week 1: Justin Fields’ 1st TD — and the Bears’ 1st win — show how to turn an ugly day into something beautiful
- Bears Q&A: Was Cole Kmet’s Week 1 usage a result of the miserable weather? When will Lucas Patrick be able to play center?
- Justin Fields gets the Bears rolling with a special, off-script play: Brad Biggs’ 10 thoughts on the Week 1 win
Latest from Arlington Heights
Concerns over traffic, noise, property taxes, the impact on schools and the village’s thriving downtown, topped the list of concerns expressed by a half dozen Arlington Heights residents Monday night about a proposed Chicago Bears stadium and community development on the Arlington Park Racecourse property.
In a special meeting of the Arlington Heights Village Board, meeting as a Committee-of-the-Whole Monday night in the theater at Forest View Educational Center, village staff presented an overview of the village’s discussions with the Chicago Bears team officials regarding the team’s plans for Arlington Park. Staff also outlined next steps in the process. Read more here.
- Will the Bears leave Soldier Field for Arlington Heights? Here’s what to know.
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