What Went Right Against the Packers

The time has come to walk away from the ledge, cease all wailing, blubbering and finger-pointing.

The second game arrives quickly in the NFL and there's no time to dwell upon how utterly devastating yet another loss to Green Bay was, especially with someone as inexperienced at quarterback as Jordan Love administering the defeat.

Not everything is doom and gloom in a 38-20 loss, even to the Packers, and there are five good reasons for Bears fans to have optimism as the team begins working toward going to the heat and humidity in Tampa.

They're probably not enough to actually smile about. The only reason for this came when the Green Bay bus left Chicago and the Bears knew they wouldn't see that team again until the season finale.

But maybe wearing an amused expression while reading this will suffice.

1. T Darnell Wright

He managed to hold his own in his debut without holding one of the Packers edge rushers. No penalties or sacks allowed in his first game against NFL pass rushers, and better than that, Wright was strong getting into the open field on the wide zone scheme or in paving the way on screen blocks. Pro Football Focus graded him 12th overall among all tackles in Week 1, which has to make Ryan Poles smile. PFF's article analyzing how first-round picks did mentioned he did allow five pressures in pass rush, though.

2. CB Tyrique Stevenson

The cornerback from Miami and Georgia picked up where he left off in preseason with two really big hits and PFF graded him 25th against the pass and 26th overall among 92 cornerbacks graded for Week 1. Stevenson showed determination and good speed by coming all the way across the field to track down Aaron Jones on a 51-yard screen pass. It was the kind of play that should score him big points in coach Matt Eberflus' HITS principle for hustle.

3. DE Yannick Ngakoue

Sure, he had the sack and that's fine. He's expected to make sacks. What the Bears really should be smiling about is he had two tackles for loss. Who said Ngakoue is disinterested in stopping the run? His play and that of Andrew Billings were about all the Bears defensive front seven had to be happy about on the day.

4. RB Roschon Johnson

It was only the end of the game and they trailed but their rookie from Texas got the ball almost as many times as Khalil Herbert while showing he can be very productive in the passing game. He had six receptions in his first game. This can only encourage offensive coordinator Luke Getsy to get him more involved.

5. No More Cole Kmet Sneaks

What on earth told the Bears tight end Cole Kmet was an effective player to put under center for a quarterback sneak? Eberflus said they had tried some of that before with Kmet. Well, lots of people have tried haggis before too and wouldn't do it again. Kmet is a tight end. He's not the player to put under center on third-and-1, especially in your own end of the field. Poles signed a power back in D'Onta Foreman, drafted another one in Roschon Johnson, has a quarterback who is possibly the best or second-best runner in the league at his position, and they're running the tight end from behind center on third-and-1 from their own 40-yard line on their first possession of the season. The worst thing about the play was it opened the way for Eberflus to gamble on a fourth-and-1 sneak from his own territory because it was backed by the "percentages." I'm not quite sure why percentages would say it's intelligent to gamble on fourth-and-1 from your own end of the field on the very first drive of the season. It's a little like going on a Vegas vacation and laying all your chips for the entire trip down on red or black at the roulette wheel. Slow down there big guy, there's plenty of spins yet to come and no reason to blow it all on the very first attempt.

Fortunately, the really good thing about all of this is it should make Eberflus more wary of using Kmet on TE sneaks or gambling on fourth down early in games from his own territory.

And the really scary thing about all this is he actually had confidence in his offensive line to win this. He's been around that line all training camp and thought they were actually good enough to win that battle for a yard in a game when the Packers defensive line totally dominated the line of scrimmage.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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