GREEN BAY, Wis. — If this is what it takes to win heavyweight fights in the NFC North, the Bears aren’t ready.
For everything the Lions have built in their impressive rise from punching bag to title contender, the Packers and new weapon Micah Parsons knocked them down in a 27-13 victory Sunday at Lambeau Field.
The Lions struggled offensively in their first game without Bears head coach Ben Johnson as their offensive coordinator, but they aren’t going away. Johnson’s Bears will be underdogs when they visit Ford Field next week after opening the season Monday against the Vikings.
The Lions are pushing toward what they hope will be the Super Bowl, so going against one of their former coaches is merely one step in what they expect to be an epic journey.
‘‘Ben’s going to be ready; he’s a smart guy,’’ wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown said. ‘‘I’m excited to go against the Bears. But bigger than that, we’re just trying to get back on track as a team.’’
There was little fretting as the Lions were peppered with questions about the change from Johnson to new offensive coordinator John Morton. Head coach Dan Campbell thought it would be a ‘‘cleaner’’ performance, but he was far from panicked, and that attitude spread throughout the team.
Campbell recalled the Lions’ 1-6 start in 2022, when they rallied to 9-8 and almost made the playoffs, and said: ‘‘People were asking me to fire Ben at 1-6. It took us awhile to get our bearings.’’
So while Sunday was ugly for a team that ranked among the top five in the NFL in scoring the last three seasons under Johnson, the Lions have earned the credibility to call their mistakes correctable and go forward.
‘‘Anytime you’re with a coordinator for the first year, that doesn’t mean we can’t be great right now — we should be — but there are hurdles you’re going to have to face,’’ quarterback Jared Goff said. ‘‘That’s where the urgency to improve on those things needs to be there, and I intend to lead that.’’
Even if it turns out to be a regrouping season in Detroit, the Bears have a lot of ground to make up. But the Packers might be the bigger concern in the long term.
They swung big on the Parsons trade because they thought they were close enough to make a run at the Lions after going 11-6 last season. It’s similar to how the Bears felt when they traded for Khalil Mack just before the 2018 season.
Parsons’ energizing effect was undeniable. He was the last player introduced with the defense before the game, and the crowd erupted when he ran out of the tunnel. He said it gave him chills.
He wasn’t full-go because of a back issue, but when he took the field for the first time on third-and-seven on the Lions’ opening drive, he drove into the pocket against All-Pro right tackle Penei Sewell and pressured Goff into a quick pass for a two-yard loss.
Parsons got his first sack with the Packers in the fourth quarter, sprinting at what coach Matt LaFleur clocked as ‘‘the speed of light’’ to chase down Goff.
‘‘The fact that I was traded a week before the season was really outrageous and rough,’’ Parsons said. ‘‘I could have been with these guys getting better and better, and we could have had probably an even more dominant start.’’
In the NFL’s toughest division, players such as Parsons are an absolute necessity.
Look at what each team brings to the table at key positions: The Packers have a coach (LaFleur), quarterback (Jordan Love) and game-changing defensive star (Parsons) for years to come, and the Lions have Campbell, Goff and Aidan Hutchinson in those spots.
Meanwhile, the Bears have a first-time head coach in Johnson, a work-in-progress quarterback in Caleb Williams and a defensive end in Montez Sweat looking to bounce back from one of his quietest seasons. That combination might work eventually, but the trios in Green Bay and Detroit already do.
Bears general manager Ryan Poles has made progress on the roster heading into his fourth season. He has some good players. The Packers and Lions, however, have great ones. Their starting lineups Sunday featured 14 players picked for the Pro Bowl or All-Pro team within the last three seasons.
Poles’ mission statement of, ‘‘Take the North and never give it back,’’ looks more difficult to achieve now than when he said it the day he was hired in 2022. At that time, 38-year-old Aaron Rodgers loomed over the rest of the division, and it looked as though it would be up for grabs soon.
The Bears promptly tumbled to three consecutive last-place finishes, which no other team has done during that span.
If the Lions and Packers are legitimate championship contenders now — and that doesn’t even account for the Vikings coming off a 14-3 season — the climb from the bottom is steeper than ever.
The Packers made it a miserable afternoon for Goff, who passed for 225 yards with a touchdown and an interception for an 88.6 passer rating. He was at 75.6 before a touchdown drive near the end with the Packers decisively ahead.
That defense will present quite a challenge for Williams. The upside is that he won’t see the Packers until Week 14 and then again in Week 16, which should give him enough of a runway to adapt to Johnson’s play-calling.