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| The Green Bay Packers hosted the Chicago Bears in the first Thursday game of the season. It was the 185th installment of the rivalry. |
I only watch the Bears under four circumstances: (1) they
are playing the Redskins, (2) they are playing a nationally televised game, (3)
they are in the postseason, and (4) when they are playing the Packers. I never miss a Bears/Packers showdown, and
I made certain I would not miss last night’s game.
The Bears defense looked good. They rattled Aaron Rodgers
with 3 sacks in the first half. They consistently got Rodgers and his receivers
out of sync. The Packers didn’t find their way into the end zone until late in
the second quarter when they faked a field goal try and punter Tim Masthay
hooked up with backup TE Tom Crabtree.
Clay Matthews was undoubtedly the player of the game,
notching 3.5 sacks to bring his season total to 6 after two games. Yet even his
high sack count in the game accounted for just half of his team’s total. Green
Bay never gave Jay Cutler much time in the pocket, and surprisingly excellent
secondary coverage kept receivers from getting open for Cutler.
Despite my somewhat limited exposure to the Bears, I feel I
can rightfully find fault with Chicago for this loss. In fact, I think the
Bears were asking to be put in their place by the Packer defense, which has
struggled since having a fantastic 2010 season on the way to a Super Bowl
victory.
The Bears looked the same. Green Bay defenders said after
the game that they saw it, but even I saw it. I didn’t see anything I haven’t
seen from Chicago. I still am not convinced that the Packers secondary is where
it needs to be, but the Bears made it easy on them by not throwing any
changeups their way. The Bears’ one touchdown came on a nice throw by Cutler
into pretty good coverage. The only slip in coverage was literally a slip by
Tramon Williams that allowed Brandon Marshall to get wide open for a great pass
from Cutler, only to drop it in the end zone.
Williams made up for that near game-changing moment by
recording a pair of Green Bay’s 4 interceptions on the night. In three career
starts in Green Bay, Cutler is now 0-3 with 2 touchdown passes and 10
interceptions!
But I can’t be too hard on the Bears. Green Bay’s defense
played like they were possessed. They wanted to prove a point, and prove a
point they did. They are clearly still capable of playing on a high level. But
with showing that, expectations follow. I look forward to seeing if they can
rise to them.
I don’t think the Bears are in trouble yet. Cutler’s numbers
are significantly worse in Lambeau than just about anywhere else in the league.
And when your offense hasn’t changed, you will struggle against division
opponents. But the Bears will do fine in their out-of-division matchups, and
they could give the Vikings their playbook and still beat them 9 of 10 times.
The Packers will likely win their second matchup, and the Lions will give the
Bears trouble. But I think the Bears will do well enough outside of the NFC
North to be the second place team in the division at the end of the year, and I
expect the NFC North to send two teams to the playoffs.
The Bears get 10 days off now, before hosting the Rams on
Sunday, September 23. Green Bay’s next game will be Week 3’s Monday Night game,
when they visit Seattle.
Next week’s Thursday Night matchup will be the New York
Giants at the Carolina Panthers.
If you have any ideas for what to add to my weekly posting
schedule, feel free to make recommendations. I am always looking for more to
write, but I don’t want to write simply for the sake of writing. As of now, I
will be taking weekends off of writing until Week 16 when we have our first and
only Saturday game of the season. I will be back Monday with two posts (one for
the 1:00 games and another for all the other Sunday games).
Quick notification: The All-Sports Crew now has their podcasts published on iTunes. Just go to the
iTunes Store, search “The All-Sports Crew” in the search bar, and it is the
only podcast that shows up. And,
of course, listen to us live on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. on WMUC Sports.
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