Defense Dominates for the Packers as They Top the Bears 10-3 to Kickoff the 2019 Season

It may have been ugly and not the game many wanted to see to start the NFL season, but for the Packers and their cheeseheads, they will take it.

A 10-3 win against their most bitter rival on the road, a team that boasted they would again win the NFC North, could anything be better than that to start a season?

There is plenty to digest in the teams huge win in Solider Field against Chicago, but the bottom line is that the the Pack are 1-0, while the Bears are 0-1.

Here’s a couple quick observations from the Thursday opening night win in Chi-Town.

1. How Bout that D?

The Packers D for a long time has been the butt on many jokes, but on this night they looked more like the 85 Bears than the boys on the other side of the field.

They came up with big play after big play, stopping the Bears and at one point forcing them into a 1st and 40 after a bunch of Chicago penalties.

They made the play of the night at the end, when former Bears DB Adrian Amos picked off Mitch Trubisky in the end zone to all but seal the win.

This unit was downright nasty on opening night.

2. Rodgers’ Night

Aaron Rodgers was hurried most of the night by the Bears pass rush, and only put up one scoring drive resulting in a touchdown, but it was enough.

Rodgers was 18-for-30 with 203 yards and a score, and he was sacked five times and pressured a lot more than that.

The gamer though came through with a huge throwing score to Jimmy Graham, and smartly didn’t force balls in and got another field goal drive later that put the Pack up by seven.

3. Run Game Stunk

Both the Bears and Packers didn’t run the ball well at all, but more of that credit has to go to the play of the two defenses in this game than the Packers and Bears offenses.

Aaron Jones showed some late spark with 39 yards on 13 carries, but really it was a night were rushing for 3-4 yards was a win for the Packers O-line.

On the night in total the Pack ran for just 47 yards on 22 carries, an ugly 2.1 yards per carry average. It goes without saying this has to get better.

4. The Penalties

Maybe it was an off night for the officials, but in total this game was tough to watch, and having to sit through 20 penalties for 178 yards didn’t make it any easier.

And to think those were the ACCEPTED penalties. Both teams have a lot of work to do in this department, but considering the fact both teams were flagged 10 times shows that at least it wasn’t all that one-sided when it came to the laundry on the field.

Up Next: The Pack will have plenty of time to work out any issues as they won’t play again till the 15th of September against another divisional rival at home in the Minnesota Vikings.

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