(670 The Score) It's not so much football anymore as it is a kind of dinner theater. The audience takes their seats for Bears-Packers, the curtain rises and it all unfolds as we expect one way or another. This latest production of such reliable and venerable source material ended like it always does, this time 45-30 in favor of the Packers on Sunday night.
We were entertained mightily during the salad course, at least, celebrating a 45-point second quarter that featured a bravura turn from understudy Jakeem Grant -- a 46-yard scamper for a touchdown on a forward flip from Justin Fields and then a 97-yard punt return for a score that recalled vintage Devin Hester's daring reversal of field. We picked at our gray iceberg lettuce and soggy croutons while smiling, which was nice.
Just going to the break celebrating a lead at Lambeau Field was a remarkable moment of awareness. We had actually just spent the better part of two hours enjoying Bears football for the first time in seemingly forever, even in games that ended more favorably. We didn't have to think about the bigger picture while the football was finally enough.
And by remarkable, I mean mostly sad.
The thrill of an whole entire first act of wacky and riveting football can be allowed to lower the bar of expectations temporarily amid the suspended disbelief afforded by well-presented drama, despite the outcome ultimately just reinforcing our previous weeks' themes of misery, angst and rumor chasing about whatever will come next for this woebegone franchise. There will still probably be a new coaching staff and maybe even some new people in suits moving names around a board on a wall, if not a change in -- ahem -- ownership.
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Aaron Rodgers is indeed still in control of this action, with his spirits possibly empowered by an entire NBC broadcast choosing to whitewash his recent sociopathy as if executive-produced by Kim Jong Un. Rodgers did what he does and what was done before him: 341 yards and four touchdowns. And his young counterpart has yet to embody the role of formidable foil.
When intermission ended and the lights dimmed again, we were confronted with relentless reality as we tucked into our wan and tepid chicken milanese. This wasn't the time for any grand reimagination of the plot points we find so comfortably familiar, no alternate universe in which these characters can create story arcs that challenge what we know.
Not Fields yet, particularly as hampered as his throwing seemed to be by broken ribs. Not young Teven Jenkins in his debut at left tackle, though he was willing and aggressive when not being beaten by speed or called for holding. Not the indefatigable Roquan Smith, who can only do so much.
Matt Nagy was fine as Matt Nagy, hitting the right notes of groundless positivity and underwhelming decision-making. The lack of blocking help for two rookie tackles and a late punt on fourth-and-1 may have been a bit too on the nose, however.
We knew how this ends. We did when we decided to watch.
The Packers are better on so many levels, is the story. No matter our presumption that such losses cut deeper for those few in the Bears organization who still think and do the important things, the truth is that they must not -- not with a record that now stands at 15-44 against the Packers since 1992.
It's in the script, seemingly, the ongoing confirmation that whatever is supposed to be meaningful or sacrosanct about a primordial rivalry is now reduced to something bleak and trite.
But other than that, Mrs. McCaskey, how was the play?
Dan Bernstein is the co-host of the Bernstein & Rahimi Show on middays from 9 a.m. until noon on 670 The Score. You can follow him on Twitter @Dan_Bernstein.