Let Love Make Mistakes
Packers fourth year QB Jordan Love will start in week one for the first time in his career. Love has been riding the bench behind superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers for his first three seasons and hasn’t gotten much experience. He’s started one game and appeared in only ten overall. There is no way to tell whether or not Love will be good. One thing is pretty much certain though, and that’s the fact that he hasn’t played much at the NFL level. He is bound to make mistakes and the Bears need to act on them. Rush the passer and make Love scramble. Get pressure on him and force bad throws. Coverage doesn’t have to be perfect but just making it good enough to force Love to make great throws is the goal. Overall the defense doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to force Love into uncomfortable positions, whether it be a throw under pressure or a throw into tight coverage. Letting him make his own mistakes will make it much easier for the Bears to win the game.
Cover, Cover, Cover
While the Bears don’t need to be perfect in the secondary to win, it shouldn’t be too difficult to cover the Packers receivers. Out of all of their receivers, tight end Josiah Deguara has the most experience, having played three years in the NFL. Their best receiver is likely Christian Watson, who broke out late last season, posting 423 receiving yards and seven touchdowns after week nine. On Friday, Watson was ruled out for the game due to a hamstring injury, leaving second-year player Romeo Doubs as the Packers’ number one receiver. As a rookie, Doubs posted 425 yards and three touchdowns on 42 catches. Besides Watson and Doubs, most of their receiving core are rookies, including two of their four tight ends. This doesn’t mean they won’t be good but it’s their first ever game in the NFL. There is bound to be mishaps and bumps with all of them. While the Bears defense might not have too much trouble covering the receivers, they need to stay vigilant in covering the backfield.
Aaron Jones is a sneaky good pass catcher. He has over 350 receiving yards in the past four seasons and over 390 receiving yards in three of the last four seasons. That might not sound like a whole lot but any of those four seasons would make Jones the third best receiver on the Bears last year. That’s mostly indicative of just how bad the Bears were last year, but it’s still quite impressive. Overall they need to play good all around coverage against the Packers. They need to blanket the field and they cannot fall asleep on Jones out of the backfield . If they can do that, they’re one step closer to an opening day win.
Attack Early and Finish Late
Throughout the 2022-23 season, the Bears had leads or were neck and neck with their opponent early in the game. In the first, second and third quarters, the Bears scored 4.6 points/game, 5.8 points/game, and 5.1 points/game, respectively. In the fourth quarter, the Bears were ranked 31st, scoring only 3.6 points/game. The only team below them was the Tennessee Titans, who scored 2.2 points/game. The Bears showed the most promise in their opening drives, scoring on 70.6 percent of their opening drives(best in the NFL over teams like the Eagles, Chiefs, and 49ers). If the Bears want to beat the Packers (and all the other teams they play for that matter) they need to continue to attack early. However, they also need to finish late in the game. They have to continue to score points throughout the game, especially in the fourth quarter. The Packers are an unknown offensively, seeing as though they have a vastly different offense than last year. This stems from long time QB Aaron Rodgers leaving for the Jets, leaving fourth year QB Jordan Love to start. The Packers might score six touchdowns or they might score one. Either way, the Bears need to be aggressive and continue to score throughout the game. They cannot be content with a few points in the first quarter. If they can do this, they will be looking at a 1-0 start to the season and a huge win over the longtime rival Green Bay Packers.
