Packers give away their perfect start

By Sam Farmer

Oct. 8, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Through the first four games of the NFL season, the Green Bay Packers took, took, took. They took advantage of their opponents’ weaknesses, took the all-time record for touchdown passes, and -- with four consecutive victories -- took control of the NFC North.

But on Sunday, with the struggling Chicago Bears fighting to stay relevant, the Packers finally gave something back.

Namely, the football.

Chicago took advantage of five turnovers and overcame a 10-point deficit in the second half to swagger away with 27-20 victory and deny the Packers (4-1) a slice of history. Green Bay’s last 5-0 start was in 1965.

The winning play came with 2 minutes, 5 seconds remaining, when Chicago tight end Desmond Clark found a seam down the middle and caught a 34-yard touchdown pass from Brian Griese. It quieted the crowd at Lambeau Field, although not entirely -- thousands of Bears fans made the three-hour drive north for the unusually balmy night game.

In the final two minutes, Packers quarterback Brett Favre did his best to direct another of his hallmark comebacks, getting deep into Chicago territory before his final jump-ball toss was intercepted in the end zone with a second to play.

Afterward, Favre stressed that, although they came into the game with an unblemished record, the Packers were far from perfect. On top of their turnovers, they couldn’t sustain their ground attack in the second half -- no shocker for the league’s least-effective running team -- and committed 12 penalties, twice as many as the Bears.

With singers Justin Timberlake and “American Idol’s” Taylor Hicks watching from the quarterback’s luxury suite, the Packers pulled a football falsetto, getting all squeaky and knock-kneed on the national stage.

“Like I said last week, we can’t keep winning like this,” said Favre, who was astoundingly crisp in the first half and far more human in the second. “We’re not a bad football team, but we’re not great either.

“When we help Chicago out like we did tonight -- put the ball on the ground, make stupid penalties -- we’re going to get beat.”

After connecting on all but three of his 22 passes before halftime -- and two of those incompletions were clock-stopping spikes -- Favre finished a pedestrian 29 for 40 for 322 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.

It sure looked like Green Bay was the better team in the first half. The Packers built a 17-7 lead that might have been bigger had receiver James Jones not fumbled away catches on consecutive drives, the first at Chicago’s 5-yard line.

The Bears (2-3) went 18 minutes before getting a first down. By halftime, they had given up 341 yards of offense.

Then, there were the taunts. The crowd, confident their Packers had the game in hand, chanted derisively at the Bears.

At the end of the third quarter, members of the University of Wisconsin band paraded into the end zone and, using their tuba covers, spelled out: “Nice clipboard Rex.” It was a jab at Bears quarterback Rex Grossman, demoted to backup because of his shaky play. Bit by bit, however, Chicago was gnawing away at the deficit.

“We didn’t play well in the first half, it’s as simple as that,” Bears Coach Lovie Smith said. “We couldn’t play the run or the pass. But our offense showed some life late. The second half was a totally different story.”

Turnovers made the difference. One play after Brian Urlacher intercepted a Favre pass at the Green Bay 19-yard line, Griese threw a touchdown pass to Greg Olsen to cut the lead to 20-17.

Then, early in the fourth quarter, on a drive that started when Green Bay’s Charles Woodson fumbled a punt return, Robbie Gould made a 36-yard field goal to forge a tie. Twelve minutes later came the winning pass to Clark.

It was a huge win for the Bears, who were in danger of slipping four games back in the division with scarcely a quarter of the season completed. So far, they’ve fallen victim to the post-Super Bowl hangover so common among teams coming off that championship game.

“This was as much of a must-win as you can get for us,” Smith said. “We needed the momentum, and we needed the confidence. I thought our guys on both sides of the ball came out and played with heart and character. That’s what I’m most excited about.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com

SCOREBOARD

Houston 22, Miami 19

Tennessee 20, Atlanta 13

Washington 34, Detroit 3

N.Y. Giants 35, N.Y. Jets 24

Pittsburgh 21, Seattle 0

Arizona 34, St. Louis 31

Carolina 16, New Orleans 13

New England 34, Cleveland 17

Jacksonville 17, Kansas City 7

Indianapolis 33, Tampa Bay 14