The Packers’ victory vaulted them into the NFC North lead and the No. 2 seed in the NFC, while the Bears slipped to seventh in the conference playoff picture.

At 9–4, Chicago largely hurt itself — a point Caleb Williams emphasized afterward — with miscues across offense, defense, and special teams.

Ben Johnson’s offense never found a rhythm in the opening half, managing only 32 passing yards and a lone field goal. Cairo Santos also kicked the ball out of bounds late in the second quarter, handing Green Bay advantageous field position that set up a 45-yard touchdown just before halftime. Defensively, the Bears surrendered far too many chunk plays.

Johnson highlights defensive breakdowns

During his Monday conversation with ESPN 1000’s Jeff Joniak, Johnson detailed why the defense struggled.

“By our count, we gave up eight explosive plays,” Johnson said. “That’s not winning football — not when you only face about 50 snaps. We’ve got to clean that up. A lot of it comes back to technique, alignment, and those details. Those things can tighten it up. It definitely hurt us.”

Green Bay’s scoring outbursts included Bo Melton’s 45-yard touchdown and two more long scores from Christian Watson — a 23-yarder in the second quarter and a 41-yarder in the third.

Johnson added that Chicago didn’t disrupt Green Bay’s early down rhythm often enough. The Packers converted eight of 12 third downs and were perfect (7-for-7) on situations of third-and-three or shorter.

“If we could’ve forced more third-and-longs, that would’ve been in our favor,” Johnson explained. “Our defense has typically excelled in those situations this year. We just didn’t get them there often enough.”

One of the few times they did, it paid off — C.J. Gardner-Johnson picked off Jordan Love on a third-and-19 in the opening quarter.

With Cleveland up next at Soldier Field in Week 15, and a rematch against Green Bay looming the following week, the Bears have plenty to address.