Takeaways from the Chicago Bears' dreadful 31-7 loss to the Packers

The Bears were thoroughly whipped at Lambeau Field on Sunday.

After winning two games with back-up quarterbacks, the Green Bay Packers made sure the Bears know what it looks like when the offense is completely healthy.

Green Bay tuned up the Bears 31-7. They played like they had something to prove. The Bears played like they had no answer, even though they kept trying.

"Credit to Green Bay, they came out, we knew we were going to get their best shot and we sure did," Bears head coach Ben Johnson said. "I thought we had our opportunities to get back into that game and we didn't maximize those opportunities. We'll go ahead and we'll look at this tape and we'll clean it up."

Here are our takeaways from the Bears’ gut-punch, blowout loss to the Green Bay Packers.

Bears don’t know what their identity is

The Bears have been adamant their offensive identity is built through running the football. They gained 81 rushing yards on Sunday between D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson.

They’re adamant their defense is one that can take the football away. 

After they got into a hole because their defense kept struggling, the Bears committed to throwing the ball more. Getting away from the run also meant getting away from their identity. The Bears know what they want to be but they’re not doing it consistently.

Now, having lost their starting quarterback and having lost by 24 to their bitter rival, the Bears need to discern just who they are right now.

"Your identity is getting forged sometimes through fire, and it was in the fire today," Bears quarterback Case Keenum said. "We'll see what kind of identity we have coming out of the back end of this thing."

Getting Williams back will be paramount, especially with Atlanta, New England, Seattle and Tampa Bay next up.

Even then, the Bears’ identity has been sporadic this year so far. They’ve won games by controlling the ball and taking the ball away, but they’re now 0-2 in the NFC North. One of the aspects the Bears are proud of is the way they don’t wave the white flag.

"There’s always time on the clock no matter what the score is," Bears running back D’Andre Swift said. "No matter what it looks like, you gotta finish."

But, bouncing back from this will be different. They’re banged up on defense and the offense looked lost without Williams or Keenum leading it. The Bears need to find their identity, and Johnson believes that identity lies in its belief.

"I believe in this coaching staff, I believe in our players and I believe in our process. So, the process doesn't change," Johnson said. "It's Week 5. I know we'll respond the right way. We got the right guys in this building."

The run game is vastly different without Monangai

Kyle Monangai missed Sunday's game after he injured his toe last week and is considered week-to-week.

Without him, the Bears turned to Roschon Johnson, who had six yards on five carries.

There’s a difference between Monangai and other backs, which is he does what running backs coach Eric Studesville teaches. Studesville said earlier this year he wants his running backs to pick their lane and hit it. Don’t hesitate, don’t wait, pick the highway and drive down it.

Johnson wasn’t as decisive as Monangai has been. Swift was, but the Bears’ offense is better with a two-back system that offers a change of pace.

Without Monangai’s pace, the Bears struggled. Perhaps this means Salvon Ahmed or another running back is given another shot next week if Monangai can’t go.

Case Keenum has a strong case to be QB2

The Bears were debating playing the hot hand after they beat the Eagles on Monday Night Football.

Case Keenum tuned the Eagles up to the tone of a 27-7 win. Should the Bears have kept playing him, or turned the Tyson Bagent.

Now, it might be Keenum’s chance to learn that spot. Bagent was benched after throwing his second interception of the day.

He wasn’t reading the defenses properly, he wasn’t accurate with his throws and he was throwing into crowded areas. 

"We felt like we just wanted a little spark there. Tyson just could never feel like he got in a rhythm here today, and so we'll look at why that was the case. The second interception happened, and we just felt like let's give Case a chance out there and see if we get different results."

Keenum didn’t fare much better, but the Bears were out if it by the time he took over.

But, Keenum has a stellar game on his Bears’ resume. If Caleb Williams is out for another week, it might make the most sense to give Keenum the keys to the Bears’ offense. He made it look very good before hand.

Keenum just processes plays much better than Bagent, which is to be expected with how many offense and teams Keenum has played in. Experience is the best teacher.

That might be the quarterback who gives the Bears the best chance to win.

Bears let the Packers create a spark

The chirping back and forth between the Bears and Packers was there this week. Of course, the two teams have a rivalry sparked with two Bears comeback wins that were devastating losses for the Packers.

The Packers heard some of that.

"We definitely flipped that on their head," Packers wide receiver Christian Watson said.

The Packers did and flipped their script.

The Packers had an uninspiring game against the Buccaneers last week which followed a loss to the Falcons where the Pack got run over by the likes of Bijan Robinson, Brian Robinson Jr., Drake London and Michael Penix.

Plenty marked the Packers as an afterthought. The Bears gave them a chance to build momentum and the Packers capitalized. They looked like the more motivated team, one that was ticked off and decided to take it out on the Bears who dealt them two awful losses last year, including a playoff loss to end their season. The Packers did a lot of things right, but the Bears didn’t do the things they believed were their strengths. 

 "We didn't take care of the football, five turnovers on offense. We didn't execute at a very high level in the run game or the passing game," Johnson said. "Then defensively, we let the ball over our head too many times. We got four passes over 40 yards or more."

The Packers rolled and ran away with bragging rights. The Bears got smacked.

They need to find the same spark the Packers found.