The Morning After...the Bears' abysmal Week 5 loss vs. Packers

The Chicago Bears were blown out by the Green Bay Packers, 31-7, in a Week 5 game that dropped them to 0-2 in the NFC North in a game where they were out-coached and outplayed.

The Bears committed five turnovers, including turnovers on four straight possessions late in the second half, while being held to a single touchdown. The defense allowed Packers quarterback Jordan Love to carve them up with a lack of pressure and injury-riddled secondary. That included allowing six plays of 30-plus yards. This game felt over long before the second half even started.

There’s plenty to discuss from this game, including Ben Johnson’s worst game as a head coach, Tyson Bagent’s abysmal showing, the defense’s collapse and the need for Caleb Williams to return as soon as possible. Our Bears Wire staff is sharing their thoughts on Chicago’s Week 5 loss vs. Green Bay.

Well, that was as harsh as a reality check that I could’ve imagined. There’s always a part of me that feels nervous heading into Packers week, especially given that Green Bay has dominated the rivalry for pretty much the entirety of my fan-hood. But Ben Johnson’s passion for this rivalry and Mike Ditka’s passing felt like this was setting up to be the Bears’ third straight win over the Packers. Then, the first drive happened, and I had the sinking feeling that this game was not going to end well. But it was so much worse than I could’ve imagined — although, I should’ve known better, because these games always happen against Green Bay.

I’ve been firm on the fact that Chicago shouldn’t have benched Case Keenum for Tyson Bagent after his impressive performance against the Eagles. Bagent’s performance against the New York Jets the previous week was cause for concern, and I knew that if he wasn’t near-flawless on the road against the Packers that things could get bad — especially after he threw four interceptions (one that counted) the previous week. Bagent never looked like he belonged on the field yesterday. It was the worst performance by a Bears quarterback in the last decade-plus, and there’s a reason he’s a backup quarterback.

But the most egregious part of the whole Bagent situation was Ben Johnson’s stubbornness and refusal to abandon a sinking ship and turn to Keenum before the game was out of hand. Eventually, Johnson did bench Bagent for Keenum, but the score was already 31-7 and even Caleb Williams couldn’t have saved them from that situation. There’s plenty of blame to go around with this loss, but I put the onus on Ben Johnson, who is responsible for this embarrassment. He needs to be better, and we know he is better than what he displayed on Sunday.

And we haven’t even discussed the defense. Man, they really had us fooled for the last three weeks. The weaknesses that they were able to disguise, thanks to the offense’s dominance in time of possession and takeaways, was exposed by the Packers. Austin Booker and Devin Bush were the only defensive players who showed up, and this defense continues to make Jordan Love look like Aaron Rodgers when we know he is a mediocre quarterback. The secondary, expected to be a strength, was Swiss cheese, and Jaylon Johnson might officially be done in Chicago after this season. Allowing six explosive plays of 30-plus yards against this Packers offense that’s been mid for the entire season is unacceptable for Dennis Allen’s defense.

But this is just one game. It’s not going to define this team or the season, but it highlighted the importance of Caleb Williams to this team, as well as the different areas that need to be cleaned up — both players and coaches. This team has shown an ability to bounce back after rough losses in the Ben Johnson era, and they have a good chance to do that against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 6.

There’s no need to sugarcoat it or lead into my main thought here. This game was awful. A true butt kicking on all sides of the football and perhaps the first truly humbling experience of the Ben Johnson era. Unlike last year’s 31-point loss to the Detroit Lions, this Bears team was established and had momentum on their side. And instead, they were outcoached, outplayed, outschemed, outsmarted, and outlasted by the Green Bay Packers. And worst of all, it came on the weekend of Mike Ditka’s passing. Shame on this organization for failing to step up to the challenge after all of the talking that went on since January. This was such an important game to have for so many reasons, and every single person blew it.

Everything was a problem with very few positives to take away from the game. Tyson Bagent made sure to show everyone who he really is and ended any fairytale stint for the Shepherd University product. His 24.7 passer rating was the worst for a starting Bears quarterback in 15 years, and he didn’t even crack 85 yards passing before he was pulled. Bagent was all over the place with his throws and looked completely overmatched. Not that he got much help from his supporting cast and playcalling anyway. And having nearly as many turnovers (5) as you do points (7) really makes things difficult when you’re trying to win a football game. Again, everything was a problem.

When it comes to the defense, it appears I vastly overrated them after a couple of good games. Water always finds its level, and apparently so does the Bears’ defense. Matt LaFleur knew exactly how and where to attack them, and they turned themselves into pretzels trying to deal with the deep ball. Everyone gets a turn in the blame game, but Jaylon Johnson’s performance stands out the most with how often he got picked on. Johnson was burnt to a crisp and folded like a lawn chair during MarShawn Lloyd’s touchdown run. The once top defensive back appears to have fallen off considerably. It also doesn’t help that Christian Watson is officially now a certified Bears Killer. Did I mention everything was a problem on Sunday?

Everyone needs to look themselves in the mirror this week while watching the tape. Then it needs to be burned and never spoken of again. My confidence in Ben Johnson and this group is still high, and the head coach has done a fine job moving on from disastrous performances. But more wins need to start coming over divisional opponents. It’s a glaring weakness in Johnson’s resume up to this point. But like I said, everything was a problem.

That was quite the embarrassment. The worst part about the loss is I’m not sure where to start. Jordan Love looked like an absolute All-Pro who was playing pitch and catch all day with Christian Watson. 

The Bears survived multiple weeks with multiple backups, but eventually the fairytale ends. Caleb Williams can’t return soon enough, the same can be said for Kyle Monangai. After the outpouring of points in Week 1, the Bears offense has looked extremely hot and cold. There is little to no confidence that this offense will ever become the history making one that Ben Johnson proclaimed he wanted before the season started. 

Speaking of Ben Johnson, this will go down as the worst game he has had as a head coach in Chicago. Not exactly the tribute to Mike Ditka that he had said he wanted to do. Tyson Bagent should have been pulled much sooner than he was, but in all honesty, with how awful the defense played, it wouldn’t have mattered who was at quarterback. 

As for the quarterback position, the watch begins to see if this is the week that Caleb Williams returns. 

It really felt like the Chicago Bears were going to come out with an honorable performance in honor of the legend, Mike Ditka. Instead, they were undeniably horrible against their arch nemesis, the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. 

The 31-7 final score doesn’t even begin to describe the monstrosity that took place on the gridiron. The were no positives for the Bears, other than the fact that it got to a point that it couldn’t get much worse. 

They say that a team takes on the personality of the head coach. Well, Ben Johnson is arrogant. He is pushing elite very early in his head coaching career, but he believes that the team is ahead of where they actually are, and this was a wake up call. Nobody is perfect in the NFL. Right when you think you’re on a roll, you get smacked with reality. 

Winning three in a row with a backup quarterback is borderline impossible for any team in the league. The Bears run of success without Caleb Williams came to a screeching halt. The expectation is that he will be available next week against the Atlanta Falcons, but that remains to be seen. This game proved that they need him sooner than later. Everybody is better when he is under center. 

This game was going downhill from the start. Chicago had to punt on their first drive, Green Bay had a 91-yard touchdown drive on their opening drive and then Tyson Bagent threw an interception two plays into the second drive to set up the Packers’ second touchdown. That was pretty much the story of the game. The Bears could not do much of anything except turn the ball over which they did a total of five times. That was the most turnovers they had in a game since their loss to the New Orleans Saints in 2023; Tyson Bagent was the starting quarterback in that game as well.

It is clear that the Bears cannot win with Bagent at quarterback. Case Keenum was not much better when he came into the game in the fourth quarter, but it is not like there was much he could do at that point anyway. Perhaps Chicago should have just stuck with Keenum all along, but it is too late for that now. Still, this seems like a decision that royally backfired on head coach Ben Johnson and cost the Bears their Week 5 game against their greatest rivals right after one of their most beloved icons, Hall of Fame tight end and Chicago’s Super Bowl-winning head coach Mike Ditka died.

If Caleb Williams is at least back for the Bears’ Week 6 game against the Atlanta Falcons, Chicago could at least get back on track. The Bears really need a win next week since they are now in a three-way tie at the bottom of the division, the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings are on bye and the Green Bay Packers are favored to win against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. Chicago cannot afford to get in solo last in the NFC North.

Perhaps we all should have known better than to expect the Bears to continue on their positive trajectory, the Packers to continue on their negative one, and for a statement to be made at Lambeau in early October. That’s not the way of the world. On paper, this was a game in which the Bears had an edge before the fact. After? Now one almost has to worry about a potential spiral. 

Such is the nature of losing any game in the NFL. It’s not a long season, and an absolute throttling at the hand of your rival certainly lends itself to long-term concerns. Especially because virtually any issue that manifested over 60 minutes — poor quarterback play, uneven playcalling that ranged from overly complex to completely terrified, a defense that couldn’t help but give up five yards at a crack in between Jordan Love heaves, turnovers, etc. — was already something that was in place at one point or another through the first four games. For head coach Ben Johnson, in particular, who had to eat a big ol’ heap of deserved humble pie after his last couple of interactions with Matt LaFleur. His team simply was not ready, his playcalling was ineffective, and he pulled Tyson Bagent far too late for it to carry any meaning. 

Regardless of whether Caleb Williams is back next week, going into Atlanta is hardly going to be an easy task. On the outside, it’ll be hard to drum up confidence after what we watched on Sunday. If Johnson is the coach we think he is, though, he should be able to, internally, turn this disaster into something productive by Sunday.

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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: The Morning After…the Bears’ abysmal Week 5 loss vs. Packers