Bears’ post-Ditka-era misery at Lambeau Field resumes as Packers revel in 31-7 beatdown

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Well, that was a real kick in the keister.

“Green Bay sucks,” does it?

Chicago sports fans can chant that until they’re blue in the face. Bears coach Ben Johnson can “hate” the bleepin’ Packers all he wants. Anyone still pointing to the Bears’ two wins in this rivalry last season, the second one coming in the playoffs, can knock themselves out.

But we all just saw the same thing — a 31-7 Packers beatdown of the Bears that might as well have been by 100 points.

Maybe Mike Ditka saw it too. Imagine what the Bears coach who made Lambeau Field his personal playground would’ve thought about his old team’s no-show performance.

The Packers rubbed the Bears’ faces in the dirt. Their coach, Matt LaFleur, took Johnson’s lunch money, gave him a swirly and stuffed him in a locker. The better team out of these two? Please. The 3-2 records might be the same, but it isn’t even close.

Perhaps Johnson sensed it when he said at halftime to ESPN 1000 sideline reporter Jason McKie, “We gotta play f——ng better. We gotta be f——ng better.” Then again, the Bears trailed just 14-7 at the time and still had four second-half turnovers to commit and loads of long completions by the Packers to suffer through.

Who knew Packers quarterback Jordan Love (25 of 31 for 367 yards and two touchdowns) was better than Bart Starr, Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers? Who knew receivers Christian Watson (six catches, 143 yards, two touchdowns) and Matthew Golden (six catches, 123 yards) put Don Hutson, Sterling Sharpe and Donald Driver to shame? Who knew safety Xavier McKinney (two interceptions) should have his name immortalized on the Lambeau facade instead of LeRoy Butler?

Or maybe they were all just lucky to be toying with the Bears on a miserable day for the visitors.

“That was a great display that we had out there,” Watson said, puffed with rivalry pride. “It definitely felt a little extra.”

“I’m not gonna say it wasn’t big for us,” McKinney said. “I’m not gonna say we didn’t have the intensity and the urgency this whole week knowing [whom] our opponent was going to be.”

Ditka lost his first game here as Bears coach, in 1983. After that, it went completely the other way, Ditka’s teams winning eight of nine while one Packers offense after another could barely score. Even his last team, in 1992, blew out the Packers 30-10 at Lambeau, raising the Bears’ record to 4-3.

“Let me tell you something here,” Ditka said that day. “If we keep improving like we are, we have a chance to make something happen.”

Yeah, well, no. Those Bears ended up 5-11 and Ditka got fired. But then the Packers won 12 of the next 13 games, and 20 of the next 23, head-to-head. At Lambeau, the Bears are a pathetic 9-25 since the Ditka era.

“Got to love the excitement around the rivalry and all that,” LaFleur said, his record against the Bears — 13-2 — looking mighty impressive.

And the beatdowns go on.

TOMORROW’S HEADLINES

A Caleb Comeback? Williams could return for the Bears’ next game, in Atlanta on Sunday — otherwise known as not a minute too soon.

Bagent or Keenum? Somebody has to be QB2 on this team — and maybe even the starter against the Falcons. Bagent was bad enough to be knocked down a peg, but will he be?

Defense in Disarray: The Bears have serious coverage issues, especially if they can’t rely on having more of a pass rush. Where have we heard this story before?