Orton: My ankle's fine but 'I stunk it up'

By the fourth quarter, with their men in dark green and gold beginning to pour it on a Bears team that was as frigid as the Green Bay air, many of the frozen 71,040 faithful at Lambeau Field did something that probably made them feel warm and fuzzy,

They started chanting their version of "Bears still stink."

Kyle Orton wouldn't have disagreed with them, especially if their jeers were aimed specifically at him.

Starting at quarterback after missing last week's defeat to Tennessee with a sprained ankle, Orton looked a lot like, well, Rex Grossman.

Orton completed just 13 of 26 tosses for 133 yards, had 2 passes swatted at the line of scrimmage and, on what mercifully was his final play of the game, fumbled away a perfect Olin Kreutz snap out of the shotgun formation.

Green Bay defensive end Jason Hunter scooped up the ball and raced 54 yards for the Packers' final touchdown in their 37-3 win Sunday.

Grossman replaced Orton after that play with 7:31 left.

"You can go around to every position or group on the entire team and we stunk it up," said Orton, whose 65.1 passer rating was a season low. " I stunk it up."

At least Orton accepted accountability. He even refused to use his ankle as an excuse for his ineffective play. He supposedly wore a more protective turf shoe, but downplayed it, calling it "just a shoe and some tape."

"It was good to get Kyle back out on the football field," said Bears coach Lovie Smith. "Did the ankle have a big effect on what happened? (Green Bay) played better than we did."

"Things just weren't clicking," right tackle John Tait said. "You got to play together. Offense is tricky. You just need to be firing on all cylinders, and for whatever reason on certain plays some things worked, some things didn't. We just had a hard time getting a rhythm."

Running back Matt Forte was about the only bright spot for the Bears offense.

While the rookie wasn't spectacular, he rushed for 64 yards (4.0 average) and caught a team-best 6 passes for 40 yards.

Bears wide receivers had just 4 receptions - 2 by Brandon Lloyd and 1 apiece by Rashied Davis and Devin Hester.

Credit goes, in part, to Green Bay cornerbacks Charles Woodson and Al Harris, both of whom have been selected to Pro Bowls.

"I'm a huge fan of Woodson and Harris," said Lloyd, who was back on the field after missing five games with a sprained knee. "I think those guys are awesome. They get paid a ton of money to do what they do. So it is a lot of work to get open against them."

The Bears managed just 234 yards of offense and 9 first downs.

"Just the whole day, no rhythm, no first downs," Orton said. "In this offense, if we don't get first downs, it's tough, especially (against) this team. It's tough to make big plays against this defense. They're keeping safeties back there and had man coverage underneath."

Offensive coordinator Ron Turner wasn't blaming the defense, which for the second week in a row couldn't get off the field. Green Bay controlled the ball 37 minutes, 28 seconds - compared to the Bears' 22:32 time of possession.

"It's not a matter of where you get the ball, it's what you do with it," Turner said.

"When we get the ball back, we got to do something with it. We got to help our defense. We got to help change the field position. Even if we don't take it 90 yards and go down and score, we got to get some first downs and change the field position."