The defense, however, ultimately allowed Love to throw TD passes of 45 yards to Bo Melton and 41 and 23 yards to Christian Watson. The Packers quarterback finished the game completing 17 of 25 passes for 234 yards and a 120.7 passer rating.
“Their offense was explosive,” Johnson said. “They found some big plays, [that] resulted in touchdowns on us. Fortunately, there in the second half our offense was able to find its footing a little bit, both in the run game and the passing game and it felt like we had a little bit of rhythm. So [we] made it a game but fell short.”
The Bears rushed for 90 of their 138 yards in the second half. Swift ran for 63 yards on 13 carries and Kyle Monangai added 57 yards on 14 attempts in the game.
With receiver Rome Odunze inactive due to a foot injury, Luther Burden III made the most of expanded playing time, catching four passes for a team-high 67 yards.
The loss snapped a five-game winning streak and dropped the Bears (9-4) into second place in the NFC North, a half game behind the Packers (9-3-1), with four games remaining. The Bears are one game ahead of the Lions (8-5) and will host both Green Bay in two weeks and Detroit in the season finale at Soldier Field.
Next Sunday the Bears will host the Browns at Soldier Field, the Packers will visit the Broncos and the Lions will travel to Los Angeles to face the Rams.
After the loss in Green Bay, Williams lamented the early struggles on offense, including a three-and-out that came on a drive that began at the Packers’ 36 following Gardner-Johnson’s interception.
“It’s frustration because we shot ourselves in the foot more than anything,” Williams said. “I need to start faster. We need to start faster. I think that will do us well as a team and as an offense, especially.”
After the Packers took a 7-0 lead on Love’s 23-yard TD pass to Watson early in the second quarter, Cairo Santos’ 33-yard field goal cut the deficit to 7-3 with 1:14 left in the first half. But Green Bay answered immediately, extending their lead to 14-3 on Love’s 45-yard TD pass to Melton.
The Bears closed the gap to 14-11 midway through the third quarter on Williams’ 1-yard TD pass to Olamide Zaccheaus coupled with Monangai’s two-point conversion run. The TD was set up by Williams’ 26-yard pass to Kmet down the right sideline to the 11. The quarterback eluded a defender in the backfield, sprinted to his right and hit Kmet in stride.
