Packers self-inflicted wounds prove cause of loss to Bears

GREEN BAY — Though many people wrote off the NFC-North rivalry game between the Packers (11-6) and Bears (5-12) as superfluous, the loss proved detrimental to the team’s postseason seeding. 

Packers Safety Xavier McKinney said that the loss was not the way they wanted to wrap up their regular season. 

“Mentally we know we’ve got one game. One chance. If we don’t do it right, we’ll be bounced. That’s just the reality of it. I think that’s where we’re at. We’ve just gotta move on from this game,” said McKinney. 

According to McKinney, the loss to the Bears was easily preventable and he believes that everyone on the team needs to take accountability and find a way to perform better next week. 

“Same stuff every week. I think all of the guys have to look at themselves and say, ‘Okay, what are we going to do. How far do we want to take this?’” said McKinney. 

McKinney also said that each of the detrimental mistakes that were made all culminated to create a losing story and there is no one to blame but themselves for the poor performance and decision-making. 

“We’re up against ourselves. It’s us against us. Whoever we are going to play is whoever. These games that we’ve lost —- it’s been about us. These are self inflicted wounds and until we get it corrected we’ll keep seeing the same results. We can all watch this film and see what we need to do and come to work,” said McKinney. 

Despite the team’s efforts to prepare for the matchup, McKinney said that none of that matters if they can’t take care of business on the field. 

“All that prep is cool, but at the end of the day, you still have to come in here and play on Sunday. You can say everything in the world about how you’re going to do this and you’re going to do that, but when you get to the fight you’ve got to fight,” said McKinney. 

“We just need to look ourselves in the mirror and correct what we need to correct. On to the next.”

McKinney said he has full faith in his team’s ability to come back next week and find a way to get the result they want. 

“I’ve got all the confidence in the world. We’ve got the right guys to do it. We just need to do it. We have the guys, we have the coaches. We’ve got everything we need right here. Mentally, we’ve just got to lock in. It’s as simple as it gets,” said McKinney. 

Backup Quarterback Malik Willis said that he, too believes that self-inflicted wounds led to their demise on the field. 

“You put in the work all week to win games. People say this game doesn’t really matter —- it matters to me,” said Willis. 

“All wins and losses count the same and it’s unfortunate how many plays we left out there.”

As the Packers prepare to take on their first postseason game, Willis said that they have to be able to put this loss behind them and move on. 

“This is going to hurt today, but tomorrow we’ve got to watch the film on our next opponent,” said Willis. 

“This was a hard-fought game and a good opportunity for us to realize that those little mistakes are what is going to separate a good team from a great team.”

Willis said that he believes his team’s drive will carry them through to the next post season game. 

“We’ve got a week of preparation and I know these guys in this locker room are going to fight their heart out,” said Willis. 

Quarterback Jordan Love expressed his desire to see the Packers rally together and find a way to see success on the field in their next game. 

“Everything that we want is still out in front of us. The Super Bowl is still out in front of us. We’ve got to go in games and win and advance. We can control our destiny,” said Love. 

The Packers’ loss to the Chicago Bears dropped them to the No. 7-seed in the postseason. They are set to face the No. 2-seeded Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Jan. 12 at 3:30 p.m. in the NFC Wildcard round.