Bears bench Bagent for Keenum as both contribute to 5 turnovers in loss to Green Bay

Over the last two weeks, Tyson Bagent and Case Keenum each got to live the dream as backup quarterbacks who led the Bears to wins.

But both of them experienced the same recurring nightmare Sunday — the one in which the Bears ran into an all-too-familiar buzz saw at Lambeau Field.

Bagent threw two interceptions before getting benched, only for Keenum to throw a pick and lose a fumble during the Bears’ 31-7 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

“Obviously super disappointed, but really can’t look any further than the mirror,” Bagent said. “Got to get better. Got to take it face on, see where I need to get better, see where we need to get better as a team.”

It was part of a five-turnover day for the Bears, who last coughed up the ball that many times at Lambeau on Dec. 7, 2003, when they lost 34-21.

The Bears didn’t get anywhere close to putting up that kind of offense Sunday.

A week after they posted more first downs (34) than the New York Jets had offensive plays (32), the Packers took the steam out of Ben Johnson’s running game (81 yards on 24 carries) and preyed on his passers.

“When you can’t get in a rhythm offensively, like today, I’ve got to look at myself and what did we have in and did we prepare the right way,” Johnson said. “They had a nice plan. (Packers defensive coordinator) Jonathan Gannon has been doing this for a long time, and he did a great job today keeping us off balance.

“And yet we simply didn’t execute at the level that we expected to going into the game.”

Despite trailing the entire game, the Bears put up just 195 yards through the air. Bagent accounted for just 87 of those with a 57.1% completion percentage (12 of 21), a career low for any of his six starts — and coming a week after his career-high 73.5% in the 23-12 victory against the Jets.

In the first quarter, the Bears faced second-and-10 from their 26-yard line when Bagent threw into double coverage to Luther Burden III. Nickel cornerback Javon Bullard tipped the ball backward into the waiting hands of safety Xavier McKinney for the first of McKinney’s two interceptions.

“I’ve just got to go through my progressions and trust it,” Bagent said. “They were getting a lot of depth at the second level, so got to come down and dump it down to (Colston) Loveland on that one.”

On the second interception, in the third quarter, Bagent tried to hit Loveland over the middle on first-and-10 but was a bit off target, and McKinney grabbed his second pick.

“They gave us a (Cover-0) presentation,” Bagent said. “They gave us the zero signal that we’ve been looking at all week. So I’m just late. They ended up popping to Cover-2. I was just late to it.

“But once again, just forcing the ball. Bad ball on my part.”

Johnson had seen enough.

For the second time in his head coaching career, Johnson benched his starting quarterback. The first was sitting Caleb Williams during a 52-21 road loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 2 last season.

“I didn’t receive any conversation from Ben,” Bagent said, “but (quarterbacks coach) J.T. (Barrett) just let me know that ‘Sticks’ (Keenum) was going in. And then it was all just how much I could support him once they made that decision.”

The Packers capitalized on Bagent’s second interception with running back MarShawn Lloyd’s second touchdown of the day to start the fourth quarter.

After Zavion Thomas’ career-high 61-yard kickoff return — part of a 192-yard day for Thomas, third-highest by a Bears rookie returner since at least 1948 — Keenum got the Bears’ best start of the day at the Green Bay 31-yard line. He immediately connected with Burden on a 23-yard pass.

The Bears drove to the 3, but Burden lost 6 yards on a third-down rush, leaving the Bears with fourth-and-goal from the 9. Edge rusher Lukas Van Ness bore down on Keenum unblocked, and Keenum threw a desperation heave to Rome Odunze that linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper intercepted.

“You’re not getting sacked on fourth down, down there,” Keenum explained. “You’re trying to throw it up and give somebody a chance.”

The next two Bears series ended with fumbles, making it four straight second-half possessions that ended with giveaways.

With 8:36 left in the fourth quarter, Odunze lost a fumble, forced by Zaire Franklin, after picking up first-down yardage on fourth-and-3. On the next series, Devonte Wyatt strip-sacked Keenum with 4:20 left, and Dani Dennis-Sutton recovered.

“We’ve got to do a good job taking care of the football,” Johnson said. “Three interceptions as a whole, and that’s too many. So hard to overcome five turnovers.”

Before Sunday, the most giveaways the Bears had in Johnson’s tenure was three (two interceptions, one fumble) during the divisional playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

Johnson might have options to weigh this week. Williams practiced Friday for the first time since leaving late in the Week 2 loss to the Minnesota Vikings with a hamstring injury, and he warmed up before Sunday’s game. However, the Bears listed him as inactive.

“He’s on track,” Johnson said. “We’ll see if that’s (Week 6 in) Atlanta or after. It’s going to be close.”

If Williams isn’t an option, it’s unclear if Bagent would get another start or if the Bears would turn back to Keenum, the starter in a 27-7 Week 3 win against the Philadelphia Eagles. Johnson said he’ll discuss who starts with his staff, the same as they do every week.

Bagent said he’s looking toward Monday, when he’ll get a chance to review tape with the rest of the team.

As far as putting Sunday’s performance behind him, “it’s really just a goldfish mentality, short-term memory,” Bagent said. “Because we’ve got a good Atlanta team that we’ve got to go beat next Sunday.”

When asked about Bagent shaking off a day like Sunday, Keenum said, “You don’t last very long in this league if you don’t know how to get back up when you have your ass kicked.”

He added that he offered words of support to Bagent, who at 26 is 12 years his junior.

“Just encouraged him, loved on him,” Keenum said. “Told him that I’ve had my ass kicked plenty of times. Nobody I’d rather have it kicked with than him.”