Ominous finish to first half for Bears

There have been worst moments in the final seconds of a half for the Bears.

Remember the Atlanta Falcons punching Lovie Smith's visiting squad in the gut with a stunning win in 2008, after Bears quarterback Kyle Orton hit Rashied Davis for the go-ahead score with 11 ticks left in the game?

On a sunny day at Soldier Field on Sunday, the Bears trailed the Packers 21-17 late in the opening half.

With the ball at its own 20 with 1:03 on the clock, the home team marched to the Green Bay 9. After an incomplete pass on first down, Jay Cutler took the snap from shotgun formation with nine seconds to go and four receivers on the field.

"We called a play where everybody's headed to the end zone," coach Marc Trestman said.

Cutler fired a strike to tight end Martellus Bennett, who curled in the middle of the field and snatched the football near the end zone. While wrapped up by rookie safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Bennett lunged, ball extended.

Green Bay gang-tackled, denying Bennett the end zone as precious seconds ticked off the clock. Bears guard Kyle Long joined the scrum "trying to make a play for his team," he claimed.

For the Bears, the play ended badly. By the time it was whistled dead, the game clock showed all zeros. Long was flagged for unnecessary roughness.

No touchdown. No time to kick a chip-shot field goal. No smiles on the Bears' sideline.

"Martellus made a catch bordering on the goal line," Long said. "I saw his chest was still up, so I didn't realize he was down. I just saw a pile of green and yellow on him, so I went to try to clean up the pile and get Marty into the end zone before the half."

A review of the play confirmed the ball never broke the plane of the goal line. Long's penalty was assessed on the second-half kickoff, meaning Bears kicker Robbie Gould teed the ball up from the 20. Micah Hyde's 25-yard return set the Packers up at their own 30, and eight plays later Mason Crosby's 53-yard field goal extended the visitors' lead to 24-17.

And the Packers kept adding on.

"It's tough when you leave points on the field, especially when you make such a good drive down the field," Long said. "It's football, though, man. It's a game of inches. It really is."

When the Bears play their rival, they rarely have inches to give.

"I thought we made the right call (at the end of the half)," Trestman said after the Packers won for the fifth straight time at Soldier Field, 38-17. "We had plenty of time. Really, an excellent play defensively to be able to make that stop at the 1-yard line."

"I liked the call. I liked the throw," Cutler said. "I thought the defender made a heck of a play."

In the end, did it matter? The Bears lost by 21 points. But if there was any momentum to be lost, it might have been on the final play of the first half.

"Three points there didn't win or lose us the ballgame," Cutler said.

Bennett wound up having his best ballgame, statistically. He caught 9 passes for 134 yards, both career bests for the seventh-year pro. By game's end, however, his stats didn't mean a whole lot to him.

"A loss is a loss," Bennett said. "(Whether) you lose by 1 point (or) you lose by 100 points, it is still not a victory. You never want to lose to the Packers at home. Those guys came down here and beat us in our home."

Again.

• Follow Joe's Bears reports on Twitter@JoeAguilar64.