The Chicago Bears suffered a brutal 38-20 defeat to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, which wasn’t the start Bears fans were hoping for following an offseason of optimism.
While the Packers led 10-6 at halftime, things quickly spiraled out of control in the second half, where Green Bay scored 28 points and embarrassed Chicago.
Quarterback Justin Fields completed 24-of-37 passes for 216 yards with one touchdown, one interception and a 78.2 passer rating. He also rushed for a team-high 59 yards on nine carries and was sacked four times.
Fields committed two costly turnovers as the Bears looked to rally during the second half, including a fumble and pick-six by Packers linebacker Quay Walker, which put the game out of reach at 38-14.
The Bears have now lost nine straight against the Packers, with their last win coming in Dec. 2018. Fields didn’t hold back about the disappointing loss, but he did go on to say that he thinks the team will be fine moving forward — although there’s plenty of work to be done.
“It sucks,” Fields said. “Rivalry, Week 1, going against the Packers, I mean it sucks. Nobody’s in good spirits. This one hurts, I’m not going to lie to you. It definitely sucks, but in the grand scheme of things, you’ve got to look at the bigger picture. We have 16 games to go in the regular season. We’ve got a lot of room to improve, a lot of room to grow. And I think that’s what we’re going to do as long as we keep that positive attitude, keep our mentality, keep pushing for greatness each and every day.
“We’ll be fine, but it definitely hurts—not only because it’s the first game of the season and it’s a loss, but it’s a loss to [the Packers]. I just want to say sorry to teammates, all the fans that were rooting for us. But we’ll bounce back, we’ll be good.”
Things don’t get easier for Chicago in Week 2, when they travel to Tampa to face a Buccaneers team that just beat the defending NFC North champion Minnesota Vikings.