Bears DE Austin Booker Discusses What Went Wrong in Blowout Loss to Packers

The more you look into the defensive statistics from the Chicago Bears' 31-7 loss to the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, it becomes even more alarming. 

Packers quarterback Jordan Love dissected Chicago's defense, throwing for 367 yards and two touchdowns. Love gained a majority of his yards on explosive passing plays, completing six of his eight deep pass attempts for a career-high 258 yards and two scores to wide receiver Christian Watson, who finished the day with six catches for 143 yards. 

Green Bay finished with 428 yards of total offense, averaging 7.3 yards per play. The Packers reached season-highs in points, total yards and rushing touchdowns (2) in the Week 5 win over the Bears. 

Bears defensive end Austin Booker was one of the few players on defensive coordinator Dennis Allen's unit who made some impactful plays against the Packers offense. He believes last Sunday's performance wasn't an accurate depiction of the team's defense.

"Yeah, I don’t think it was a full representation of us as a team for sure," Booker said. "Which we talked about. We’re going to correct it, come back next week full swing."

A good place to start for correcting the defense's mistakes is finding solutions to limit explosives. Love completed a 53-yard touchdown to Watson on third-and-22. Booker provided his insight on how to prevent that type of play going forward. 

"The obvious one is to just keep the top on the defense," Booker said. "But then we could have had more pressure. We could have had … There are just endless things we can improve on."

Just like Johnson will shoulder the blame when something goes wrong on offense, Allen will do the same with his defense. 

"He’ll be the first one to tell you when there’s a bad call," Johnson said. "But also a combination of bad rushes mixed in there and bad coverage mixed in there, so really all three things showed up over the course of the game.”

The only option left for the Bears is to learn from the mistakes and get ready for next week's opponent, a road matchup against the Atlanta Falcons. The Bears will have to prove they can play better all-around defense on the road. Through two games this year, Chicago has allowed 68 points, compared to just 28 points in three games at Soldier Field. 

To correct this issue, Booker simply thinks the defense needs to "play better on the road," and the unit will be tested against one of the best running backs in the league in Bijan Robinson, who leads the NFL with 580 rushing yards and five total touchdowns.

"Yeah, I think he's a great player, but I think we have great players as well and a great defense," Robinson said. "So we just have to get out, get off the ball, stop the run and make them pass, and I think we'll be just fine."