When linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper intercepted a fourth-and-1 pass from the Green Bay 6-yard-line by Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams with 3:11 left in the third quarter on Saturday night, the Packers appeared to have a ticket to the second round of the NFL playoffs nearly in hand.

The Bears hadn’t punted but had only six points and trailed by 15. With its two field goals, Chicago had been stopped on downs twice and Williams had thrown an earlier interception.

Green Bay didn’t stop Chicago again. On the Bears’ three fourth-quarter touchdown drives, Williams completed 10-of-19 passes for 184 yards with two touchdowns as he rallied his team to a 31-27 victory. He had six completions that gained at least 21 yards, including a fourth-and-8 throw for 27 yards with 5:07 to play and Chicago trailing by 11 points.

“We had the opportunity, and we didn’t seize it,” Packers safety Xavier McKinney said on Monday. “Sometimes it happens like that. It’s not going to be perfect all the time. You’re not going to have success all the time. Failures are a part of not only football, but life. You got to be able to figure out ways where you can become successful. And I think in order to do that, you need your failures. You need to take those losses. You need to take those lessons because that’s how you learn from them. That’s how you grow from them. And that’s how you become better, you know, a better team.”

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

When the Packers defeated the Bears 28-21 on Dec. 7, Green Bay had a 9-3-1 record and passed Chicago for the lead in the NFC North. The Packers didn’t win another game, finishing the campaign with five losses in a row, including a 22-16 overtime setback against the Bears on Dec. 20.

“It don’t always happen how you want it to happen, unfold how you want it to unfold,” McKinney said after Saturday’s season-ending defeat. “But it’s a part of it sometimes. You need that. It’s unfortunate, but, you know, sometimes you need a loss like that to be able to learn from it, and I think that’s what that’s going to do. That’s going to help us learn from our mistakes and what we can do better.

“And then, like I said, like, that’s not the last time we’re going to be able to play the Bears, so we’re going to have plenty more opportunities to be able to get our get-back and do what we need to do.

“But congrats to them. It’s a good team. They’re well-coached, and you just got to tip your hats to them. But, you know, for us, we just got to look in the mirror and figure out what we need to do better and find better ways to go out there and finish these games.”

McKinney received second-team recognition on The Associated Press All-Pro team for the 2025 season after making the first team in 2024. The former Alabama standout played his first four NFL seasons with the New York Giants before free agency brought him to Green Bay in 2024.

“Same as any offseason — figuring out ways where I could be a better player, a better leader, a better teammate, just better in general, better in life,” McKinney said of his offseason plans. “That’s what I’m striving to do, so, obviously, I get this time to kind of get away from the game a little bit, so take a little bit of time to enjoy my family, my loved ones that are around me and try to be better for them as well.”

McKinney has played in a postseason victory, but it came with the Giants. On Jan. 15, 2023, New York defeated the Minnesota Vikings 31-24 in the first round. In each of McKinney’s seasons with the Packers, Green Bay has lost in the wild-card round.

“I see it as if you didn’t win, everybody lost,” McKinney said. “It’s only one winner. It’s 32 teams.”