Packers at Bears: Insider Knowledge
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers (4-1) will face the Chicago Bears (3-2) on Sunday at Soldier Field. Get to know the foe with Bear Digest’s Gene Chamberlain.
All summer, all I heard about was the greatness of Justin Fields. He probably fed into that a little bit when he talked about how “slow” the game was following a preseason game. He might wind up being great – he sure as heck was at Ohio State – but, like all the other rookie quarterbacks, he’s off to a slow start. How’s he done, what’s his upside and how will he challenge the Packers?
The comment about the game being slower was a statement he was making about how great his own defense was, just saying they move so fast in practices that he feels others he faces are slow by comparison to what he sees daily and not that he was so fast. Some social media misanthrope turned it into a statement about how he thinks the pro game is slow compared to his abilities. Probably me.
As for how has he done? He's doing like almost every other rookie first-round quarterback. He struggles to pick up what defenses are doing initially. Blitzing and disguised coverages should work well against him the first time a team sees him. Ultimately, he's a kid learning the pro game, and he has a better won-loss record as a starter than any other rookie quarterback at the moment. So, the Bears can't be unhappy with this, as he learns the NFL in his first year instead of sitting out his entire first season as a third-stringer.
First-round pick serving as third-string quarterback? Not sure I know of any. Anyway, to exaggerate to make a point on injuries, the Packers don’t have any cornerbacks and the Bears don’t have any running backs with the injuries to David Montgomery and Tarik Cohen. That doesn’t seem ideal with a rookie quarterback. Is there anything good about Chicago’s offense?
The Bears don't have Montgomery or Cohen but have Damien Williams, who would have been a Super Bowl MVP if not for Patrick Mahomes. Rookie running back Khalil Herbert was even more impressive than Williams in his first game playing extensively. One of the good things Ryan Pace did this offseason was fortify depth at running back, tackle and linebacker. But if he would have also taken care of cornerback, they'd be a lot better off right now.
As for Packers and cornerbacks, Eric Stokes' speed alone would make him a starter for the next decade for the Bears, who can use one other respectable cornerback themselves.
Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn have a combined 9 1/2 sacks. I think they had 11 all last season. Mack is Mack, but what has gotten into Quinn after a lackluster first season in Chicago? On the other hand, do the Bears have the manpower in the secondary to stop the Aaron Rodgers-led passing attack?
Quinn is healthy finally. He had a reported case of drop foot and also a back injury last year that wasn't bad enough to sideline him but still enough to slow him down. Also, he didn't work well in the Chuck Pagano scheme that tried to turn him into a linebacker who dropped into coverage at times. He seems to be at ease now playing the way defensive coordinator Sean Desai has asked, and that includes more creative uses of both Quinn and Mack. They line the two up next to each other sometimes and dare offenses to double-team one and pick their single-block poison on the other.
As for stopping Rodgers? Of course not. The Bears don't have a secondary that can stop an average passer let alone Rodgers. They're getting by with the pass rush creating all the problems and helping the secondary. Duke Shelley and Kindle Vildor are inexperienced starters. Only Jaylon Johnson has had a good start to his season, rated 11th currently among cornerbacks in the NFL by Pro Football Focus. Unless that pass rush gets to Rodgers early and consistently, they'll never be able to succeed in coverage.
Green Bay’s special teams were OK until a miserable performance against Cincinnati. Can you talk about Chicago’s units, and specifically about the addition of Jakeem Grant?
Grant has played only one game and really showed some spectacular speed and moves on a couple returns. But he was fielding punts at the goal line and no one was happy about that. Their kick returns had been above average when Herbert was doing it, and Grant makes it a breakaway threat. Their coverage on punts had struggled until last week's game. Kicker Cairo Santos is about as dependable as it gets. He's at 34 straight field goals now, the NFL's longest streak.
I know it’s early in the week, but who wins and why?
The Packers will win because the Bears can't really offer much of a passing attack themselves with Fields ... yet. It's obvious he has the arm strength and accuracy. He just needs to learn more about the offense and defenses. Remember, he wasn't even supposed to be ready to play yet. The plan was to let him watch and let Andy Dalton play if not for all of this season, then for most of it. He had to play too soon due to Dalton's knee injury.
Unless Fields hits on a few deep balls early in the game, the Packers’ defense will crowd the line to stop the running game, dare Fields to throw and blitz him out of the slot to force him to get rid of the ball.
It will be enough so that even if the revived Bears defense has better success against Rodgers than Chuck Pagano's defenses did, the Packers should have enough points to prevail. Make it 24-17 Green Bay.
