Nothing went right for the Chicago Bears in their 31-7 loss against the Green Bay Packers today. It was as demoralizing of a defeat as you will ever see, and both teams now sport 3-2 records.
Despite coming into the contest with all the momentum in the world and the experts fully on their side, they fell completely flat on both sides of the ball. It was actually much easier to sift through the lousy performances to find winners than it was narrow down the losers from the game.
Which players stand out as the most significant on both fronts?
Loser: Tyson Bagent
The Packers' defense hasn't shown much promise this season, but they had their best performance today. Following a promising performance (aside from turnover-worthy plays) against the Jets, Tyson Bagent looked like an inexperienced backup quarterback playing in a hostile environment. In fact, he was downright terrible.
His two interceptions were completely unacceptable. First, he forced a pass to Luther Burden III blanketed in double coverage, rather than taking the wide-open checkdown to Colston Loveland. His second was potentially even more egregious, as he didn't even see the defender sitting directly in the passing lane.
Bagent eventually got benched early in the fourth quarter for Case Keenum. He unfortunately tarnished any opportunity the Bears would have to trade him for quality draft capital in the offseason.
Winner: Austin Booker
Austin Booker was easily the best player on Chicago's defense today. He brought down Jordan Love for two sacks in the span of three plays to end the first half, and nearly got to him a handful more times throughout the contest. Green Bay's makeshift offensive line had no answers for him.
Booker now has four sacks over the first five games. He's enjoying a pretty substantial year-three leap. You could make a case that his performance was the only real positive performance today.
Loser: Rome Odunze
Rome Odunze is coming off one of the best performances of his career. Unfortunately, he failed to build on it. He dropped a pass over the middle on a third-down in the second quarter (it was a tough catch, but it hit him square in the hands) and fumbled the ball midway through the fourth.
To Odunze's credit, nothing, and I mean absolutely NOTHING, went right on offense. Odunze's fumble was one of five turnovers. Odunze had a chance to stop the bleeding, though. He (literally) fumbled away that opportunity.
Winner: Zavion Thomas
Rookie receiver Zavion Thomas finally showed some promise in the return game. He nearly broke a much-needed touchdown early in the fourth quarter before Green Bay's return unit brought him down after a gain of 61. Who knew it would only take six kick return attempts to get him going? Chicago's defense should play like this more often if they want to get the most out of their third-round pick.
Thomas took his lone rushing attempt for 11 yards on an end-around. He also hauled in his only target for 11 yards. It really didn't take much to stand out as one of Chicago's biggest winners today.
Loser: Jaylon Johnson
Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson has lost his touch. The rough start to his season continued against Green Bay, and today's performance might've been the worst of his career. After getting run over on the goal line for Green Bay's second touchdown, he gave up 40+ yards on back-to-back plays early in the third quarter.
The first was negated by an offensive pass interference, but that doesn't change the fact that Johnson got beat on the play (against undrafted rookie J Michael Sturdivant). Christian Watson then beat him for a 53-yard TD on the next play. Johnson got completely left in the dust. He might be a cut candidate in the offseason if his early performances are a sign of things to come.
Winner: D'Andre Swift
D'Andre Swift was the Bears' lone bright spot on the offensive side of the ball. The veteran running back rebounded strongly after a rough performance against New York, finishing the game with nine attempts for 43 yards and Chicago's lone touchdown.
There was an obvious disparity between him running the ball and backup Roschon Johnson running the ball. The latter, who finished the game with five attempts for six yards, consistently fails to find running lanes when they're there. The former shows flashes whenever he gets any room to operate.
Loser: Dennis Allen
Simply put, Green Bay didn't need a running game today. I'm going to try to avoid Jordan Love's passing chart at all costs this week. He was hitting throws all over the field, and they were occasionally wide open. It's been an overwhelmingly positive season for defensive coordinator Dennis Allen's unit after a rough Week 1 performance, but today's game couldn't have been worse.
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur clearly came out on top in the schematic battle against Allen. They'll be licking their wounds this week and will be extra motivated to bounce back next week against Atlanta.
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