After an entire offseason of speculation, the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears finally got to settle 6 months of talking smack.
And boy did it get settled.
The Packers defeated Chicago 38-20 in one of the most demoralizing losses the Bears have suffered since Brett Favre became quarterback in 1992. Following an offseason with plenty of roster turnover and hope from the fanbase, Justin Fields and the Bears were unable to back up any of the claims made from fans this summer.
Just to highlight, here were a few tweets that topped my list of outrageous comments from Bears' fans this offseason.
QB1 of the entire NFC? That would be really hard after starting off at such a statistical advantage following a poor week one performance.
Now Peyton, you're just being silly.
WOOF WOOF, JUSTIN FIELDS IS STILL LOST, WOOF WOOF.
Anyway...
Jordan Love looked significantly better in his debut as the starting quarterback for Green Bay. While he did miss a few deep balls, Love was incredible on 3rd and 4th down converting 10 of 16 opportunities and converting all three red zone attempts into touchdowns.
The Packers were last in the NFL in 2022 in opening drive touchdowns, and they scored one today. The Packers were incredibly useless in the red zone in 2022, and they were perfect in the Gold Zone today. Green Bay and Matt LaFleur showed an incredible attention to detail on their flaws last season, and made clear strides in the first week to improve their weaknesses from the previous year.
The big highlight was Aaron Jones. The veteran running back dominated on the first drive, including a rushing touchdown to start Green Bay off hot. After failing to use Jones in the second quarter, Matt LaFleur unleashed a flurry of touches for Jones that ended in a 51 yard screen pass that led to a touchdown. After that, Jones was out with a tweaked hamstring, but the veteran running back proved the value he has for the Packers offense.
Defensively, the Packers made improvements, but I would hold those with a grain of salt. Green Bay had three defenders, Rashan Gary, Devonte Wyatt and Lukas Van Ness, that were in the top 10 in the NFL today in pressure rate. Gary's 50% pressure rate is the highest rate of pressure by a player since 2018.
But... the Bears offensive line is not good. Teven Jenkins was not active today, they played a rookie at right tackle and Lucas Patrick is a offensive lineman that Green Bay let go without an issue. Justin Fields played terribly, but he was not at all aided by an offensive line that made the game look more like schoolyard football than an NFL affair.
Now, there absolutely were positives defensively for Green Bay. Darnell Savage led the team with 10 tackles, and after a terrible 2022 campaign, the young safety made play after play on Sunday. Additionally, Quay Walker gave himself the best possible start to his sophomore season with a pick-six on Justin Fields to seal the game and send Bears fans home for the day.
Green Bay will face the Atlanta Falcons in Atlanta next Sunday at 1PM EST. Atlanta won an important divisional game 24-10 against the Carolina Panthers, and their young offense led by Desmond Ridder and Bijan Robinson will definitely be a better test than the Bears. With some injuries lingering on the offensive side for Green Bay, namely Aaron Jones and Christian Watson, look out for the injury report this week.
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