National Football League

Bears leave Lambeau frustrated

Published Sep. 13, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

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Jay Cutler wasn't happy, and he made sure everybody around him knew about it.

Cutler threw four interceptions and was sacked seven times in the Chicago Bears' 23-10 loss to the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on Thursday night. As frustration mounted, Cutler vented with emphatic gestures throughout the game, saying afterward it was simply a sign of his desire to win.

"When we're not doing the little things or not doing things the right way consistently, I'm going to say something," Cutler said. "If they want a quarterback that doesn't care, they can get somebody else."

Cutler was particularly upset with his offensive line, a position group that did not see a significant addition during the Bears' offseason makeover of their offense.

"I'm not going to just walk to the sideline and act like everything's OK," said Cutler, who was 11 for 27 for 126 yards. "It's just not going to happen."

The loss was a significant step backward for the Bears, who were filled with confidence after steamrolling Indianapolis in their opener.

"Maybe we're not as good as we thought we were," linebacker Brian Urlacher said. "We've got a long ways to go, that's obvious. We didn't play like we did last week. Maybe Green Bay's just that good, I don't know. We just didn't play well and they played good enough to do what they did to us."

The Bears also lost running back Matt Forte to an ankle injury. Bears coach Lovie Smith said it wasn't clear how severe the injury was.

In all, Smith expected better out of his team.

"Of course it was a disappointing effort," Smith said. "I thought we would play better. We're better than we showed tonight."

New Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall was held to two catches for 24 yards.

Earlier in the week, a confident Cutler wished the Packers' defensive backs "good luck" in trying to match up physically in man coverage with a new-look wide receiver corps led by Marshall. Stalked by Williams for much of the night, Marshall didn't see much of the ball. And he couldn't convert his one big opportunity, dropping a potential touchdown.

Asked if the Packers said anything to him about his "good luck" comment, Cutler noted that they didn't play man coverage.

"Why would they say anything?" Cutler said.

And on a night when defenses dominated the NFL's most storied rivalry, the Packers got creative with a gutsy call — and it worked.

Punter Tim Masthay and backup tight end Tom Crabtree combined for a touchdown on a fake field goal in the second quarter.

"It was just a good call on their part," Charles Tillman said. "We were trying to block it and I think that would have been a good game-changer for us if we would have blocked it. And, obviously they got the better end of it by running that fake on us. Great call on their part, great scheme. It was a good call for that particular style of block that we had set up."

Smith said the play caught his team flat-footed.

"Good call by them," Smith said. "They executed the play to perfection. What else can I say?"

The Packers left the door open for a potential comeback when Aaron Rodgers threw an interception to Tim Jennings and the Bears finally cashed in.

Facing fourth-and-7 at the Green Bay 21, Cutler threw a touchdown to Kellen Davis, cutting the lead to 23-10 with 6:49 remaining.

But the Bears couldn't mount a comeback as Matthews and the Packers kept turning up the heat.

Rodgers finished the game 22 of 32 for 219 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

He got roughed up, too, getting sacked five times. Green Bay got a scare when the NFL MVP appeared to hurt his right arm early in the game, but he stayed in.

"It's a combination of everything tonight," Smith said. "We didn't have good enough protection. Probably made a couple of bad decisions. Receivers didn't get open and we didn't get the running game going."

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