GREEN BAY, Wis. — Bears defensive lineman Akiem Hicks balled each meaty paw into a fist and pushed them against each other, grinding his exposed knuckles.
“Just imagine bone just doing like that,” he said Sunday. “Moving a little bit when you don’t want it to.”
That’s what Hicks’ elbow — dislocated in Week 5 and put in a brace in his return from injured reserve — felt like in the 21-13 loss to the Packers on Sunday. He went to the Bears’ injury tent twice, trying to figure out how to make the blinding pain stop, but returned each time.
Hicks provided the emotional lift the Bears desperately needed, recording four tackles and two quarterback hits, including one on his first play.
But — and see if this sounds familiar — it wasn’t enough. A defense tasked with covering for the offense’s inconsistencies all season was forced to again and couldn’t.
“I know when we come up here, we have it on our mind to come out here and play the best football, not just for us but for the city of Chicago,” Hicks said. “We know we need to win this rivalry.”
Outside linebacker Khalil Mack, whom the Bears gave $141 million over six years to torture quarterback Aaron Rodgers, didn’t have a single statistic to his name until he forced Rodgers to throw the ball away on third down 90 seconds into the fourth quarter. Mack finished with one garbage-time tackle, of Rodgers, with 1:31 to play and the Bears out of timeouts.
“When you go against a guy like Khalil Mack,” said Packers tackle Bryan Bulaga, who was flagged for holding Mack once, “you’ve got to be ready to play.”
The Packers were. Rodgers controlled the game, though his numbers were uncharacteristically ugly. He went 16-for-33 for 203 yards with one touchdown and one sack. His 78.2 passer rating was his second-lowest mark of the season.
His touchdown came on a short field. The Packers inherited the ball at the Bears’ 35-yard line after Cordarrelle Patterson’s phantom kick catch interference flag in the first quarter. Four plays later, on fourth-and-four, Rodgers adjusted wide receiver Davante Adams’ in-breaking route at the line of scrimmage to an out-breaking one. He threw deep to Adams, who beat slot cornerback Buster Skrine down the left hash for a 29-yard touchdown.
Leading 7-3 at halftime, the Packers needed only five plays to score on each of their first two drives of the second half.
Adams caught a 34-yard pass on the second play of the half, and three plays later, running back Aaron Jones ran for a 21-yard score. On their next possession, Rodgers threw his longest pass of the game, a 49-yarder to Jake Kumerow. Two plays later, Jones ran for a two-yard touchdown.
The Bears had tackling issues on both drives.
“There were a few that I think you go back and you see that I know those guys will want back,” Nagy said. “None of them are ever for lack of effort.”
They clamped down on the Packers eventually, but only when Rodgers began nursing an 18-point lead. The Bears forced punts on the Packers’ last five drives, four of them three-and-outs, in a mad scramble to get the ball back .
“That was kind of our mindset going in,” inside linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski said. “Give the offense a chance, give the offense a chance. We said it every time we took the field.”
The offense rewarded the defense with, in order: a field goal, a touchdown, an interception, a turnover on downs and a fumble as time expired.
Hicks, who said he’ll play the next two games despite the Bears being eliminated, liked what he saw in the fourth quarter.
“You could see the fire in guys’ eyes,” he said. “We felt that. Nobody anticipated coming back out at the half and having them rally that way. We kept fighting.”
It was too late. It has been all year.
