Bears 'flat' in 19-16 loss to Lions, but coach Ben Johnson sets course to win Super Bowl

One game isn’t enough to outweigh everything the Bears have shown this season, but what was that?

With plenty at stake Sunday as they chased the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs, the Bears looked deficient and uninterested for most of their 19-16 loss to the Lions and closed the regular season at 11-6.

They earned the No. 2 seed nonetheless, thanks to the Eagles’ 24-17 loss to the Commanders, and will open the playoffs at home against the Packers at 7 p.m. Saturday. That assures the Bears of playing at home in the division round, too, if they advance.

The teams played two thrillers last month, with the Packers escaping by intercepting a pass by quarterback Caleb Williams in the end zone to win at Lambeau Field, then Williams rallying the Bears to a 22-16 overtime victory two weeks later at Soldier Field.

‘‘Good opponent, and we’re fairly evenly matched,’’ coach Ben Johnson said. ‘‘I have a lot of respect for how well they’re coached and the talent level they have in that building. I expect it to be another exciting game.’’

The Packers tumbled from being a Super Bowl favorite when they acquired star pass rusher Micah Parsons to a team that looks shaky heading into the playoffs. They closed the regular season with four consecutive losses, resting starters Sunday in a 16-3 defeat at the hands of the Vikings.

Parsons is out for the season after tearing the ACL in his left knee last month, and quarterback Jordan Love hasn’t played since suffering a concussion Dec. 20 against the Bears. Love has cleared the concussion protocol and is expected to start Saturday.

Johnson and quarterback Caleb Williams weren’t in the mood to discuss the Packers — or much else. Both gave short answers and were visibly annoyed by an all-around ugly performance in what should have been the Bears’ on-ramp toward the playoffs.

‘‘It’s aggravating,’’ Williams said. ‘‘It’s frustrating. The good thing is we’re going into the playoffs, and we’ve got to find ways to get better. The focus has to level up. The urgency has to level up. The play has to level up.’’

He got hot at the end, but Williams had completed only 9 of 18 passes for 66 yards until late in the third quarter, and the Bears trailed 16-0.

The offense also had a false start by wide receiver DJ Moore in the third quarter, an intentional-grounding penalty by Williams that saddled the Bears with a third-and-20 as they were going for the victory in the final minutes and a botched shotgun snap from center Drew Dalman to Williams in the fourth quarter deep in their end of the field.

Johnson sounded a lot like he did early on, when he was warning the Bears virtually every week during training camp and well into the regular season that their sloppiness would cost them games.

‘‘The stakes are a lot higher going forward,’’ he said. ‘‘We can’t afford to have one of our three phases play like [the offense] did today. We’re going to have to pick it up. I get fired up just thinking about it.’’

The Bears looked nothing like the team they did in winning the NFC North as they matched their season low in points. All the problems that flared up on both sides of the ball Sunday are worrisome heading into the wild-card game against the Packers.

That was particularly troublesome, given what was riding on the game and given that Johnson — the former Lions offensive coordinator whose Bears got clobbered in Week 2 in Detroit — talked all week about the importance of reestablishing momentum after the loss to the 49ers.

‘‘It was flat,’’ safety Jaquan Brisker said. ‘‘It was bad. We were at home, playing against Detroit. They beat us 52-21 last time. Ben just came from there. I would think we’d be a lot more motivated, but we came out flat.’’

The defense, which finished 29th in the league, was leaky throughout the game as the Lions repeatedly went on extended drives.

They had scoring opportunities on five of their first six possessions, but the Bears stayed within in reach by holding them to field goals three times in the red zone and by Lions kicker Jake Bates missing a 53-yarder. The Lions never went three-and-out, converted six of their 13 third downs and pushed into Bears territory on all but one drive.

Star wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown was free to do as he pleased in the Bears’ secondary and caught 11 passes for 139 yards as quarterback Jared Goff finished 27-for-42 for 331 yards with a touchdown and an interception for an 86.5 passer rating.

‘‘They schemed us up,’’ Brisker said. ‘‘They got us in the right calls.’’

That certainly will be enticing to Love and Packers coach Matt LaFleur. Even when Love has had rough patches during his career, he has torched the Bears. He has a 116.6 career passer rating against them, including 106.4 this season.

For all that, however, Johnson remained undaunted. He said the Bears would be ‘‘quickly turning the page’’ from the loss and locking in on the Packers.

And, as always, he’s thinking much bigger than just winning a single playoff game, which the Bears haven’t done since 2010. Even after watching one of their worst games, he was confident the Bears could win the Super Bowl.

‘‘It’s a new season, so we’re starting fresh,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘If we want to make the most of this new season, then we need to go on a four-game winning streak, which we’ve done twice already this year.’’