The Jordan Love era starts on a familiar note with a resounding Green Bay Packers victory over the Chicago Bears
CHICAGO – New quarterback. New era for the Green Bay Packers. Still the same outcome in the NFL’s oldest rivalry.
The Packers opened their 2023 season, and the Jordan Love era, handing the Chicago Bears a 38-20 loss. It was the Packers’ ninth straight victory against their NFC North rival, continuing coach Matt LaFleur’s unbeaten streak against the Bears. Given the setting, it was as deflating a defeat the Packers could have delivered for a Bears franchise that has been dominated for decades.
This wasn’t the same significance as the 2010 NFC championship game at Soldier Field, but it was a momentum killer anyway. All offseason, the Bears had to be looking at this opener as a chance to make a signature statement. Aaron Rodgers is gone, and with him the perceived ownership of a rivalry that has been lopsided for what seems like forever in Chicago. Instead, the Packers showed just how far their rival still has to go, that the gap hasn’t closed nearly as much as the Bears hoped.
It took a half for the Packers to get untracked, but they throttled the Bears in the second 30 minutes. The Packers scored touchdowns on their first two possessions of the second half after taking a 10-6 lead into halftime. They led 38-14 early in the fourth quarter.
The game might say less for the Packers than it does the Bears. Fluky things happen throughout the NFL in Week 1. It’s hard to determine how good the Packers will be over the course of Love’s inaugural season as starter. What happened Sunday afternoon was anything but fluky. It was a beatdown, one team that owns its rival opening a new era continuing where the last ended.
Here are some observations from the Packers’ season-opening win:
Jordan Love shows poise in debut
Jordan Love completed 15 of 27 passes for 245 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a 123.2 rating. Pretty good for a first start replacing Aaron Rodgers. It wasn’t perfect. Love had a chance to connect on two deep balls in the first half, but overthrew an open Samori Toure and Luke Musgrave. The Packers still need to work on the downfield passing game. He did the little things well throughout Sunday’s opener, notable for a quarterback making only his second career start. He sold a play-action fake on a screen pass to Aaron Jones to perfection, fooling the Bears defense to allow Jones to scamper for 51 yards down the right sideline. He fumbled a snap, but recovered it and found rookie tight end Musgrave wide open for 37 yards, setting up a touchdown. He converted his initial third down of the game – a third-and-13 – with a 13-yard strike to Romeo Doubs. Love still has a lot of development to go, but he clearly outplayed Bears quarterback Justin Fields. The former first-round draft pick Fields completed 24 of 37 passes for 216 yards, one touchdown and one interception, including a pick-6 to Packers linebacker Quay Walker to put the game on ice in the fourth quarter. His passer rating was only 78.2.
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Aaron Jones still electric
Father Time is undefeated, but it might have to wait at least another season before catching Aaron Jones. Through the third quarter, Jones touched the ball on three of the Packers’ seven possessions. They just happened to be their three touchdown drives. Jones had five carries for 24 yards on the opening possession of the season, matching his carries from last year’s opener against the Minnesota Vikings. He didn’t touch the football again the rest of the first half. The Packers corrected that in the second half, riding Jones on their first two possessions. He finished the first with a 1-yard touchdown run, which he set up with a 51-yard reception off a screen pass. On fourth-and-3, Jones ended the next drive with a 35-yard touchdown pass from Love on a slant from the left side. Two weeks ago, general manager Brian Gutekunst called Jones the “heart and soul” of his team. He’s certainly the engine to this Packers offense. Jones had 127 yards and two touchdowns on 11 touches, including two catches for 86 yards. He was their leading rusher. Their leading receiver. The only thing that could slow him was a hamstring injury late in the third quarter he did not return from. Wherever the Packers go this season, Jones will be leading them – so long as he stays healthy.
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Packers show pass-rush depth
The Packers defense entered Sunday believing it had a deeper pass rush than years past. For one game, that showed. One reason Justin Fields played so poorly was because the Packers pressured him relentlessly. The Packers had four sacks from four different defenders, including 1.5 from second-year defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt. Rookies Lukas Van Ness and Karl Brooks had their first career sacks. Kenny Clark added a half sack, but he also stripped Fields for a fumble cornerback Rasul Douglas recovered. Fields was hit six times, and the Packers had seven tackles for loss, relentlessly playing behind the line of scrimmage. The Bears, meanwhile, had just one sack and one quarterback hit on Jordan Love.
Quay Walker becoming a playmaker
Quay Walker has always had the athleticism to be a playmaking linebacker. It’s why the Packers drafted him in the first-round last season. The problem, as a rookie, was how many plays Walker let slip away. He had a nasty knack for dropping potential interceptions, an area he needed to improve entering his second season. Walker showed he’s taken a step as a playmaker Sunday, intercepting a terrible pass from Justin Fields over the middle. Fields threw directly to Walker, a play the second-year linebacker needed to make. Walker then showed his athleticism, breaking two tackles on his way to a 42-yard return for touchdown. If the Packers defense gets playmaking at its second level, it’ll be a different unit this fall.
Matt LaFleur coaching conservatively
Matt LaFleur is likely to coach more conservatively with a new quarterback, and he showed that late in Sunday’s first half. The Packers had a fourth-and-4 from Chicago’s 43-yard line with less than three minutes left before halftime, a situation LaFleur likely would have tried to convert with Aaron Rodgers. Instead, he took a delay-of-game penalty after leaving the Packers offense on the field in an attempt to get the Bears to jump offside. The Packers punted, pinning the Bears inside their 10-yard line with two timeouts and the 2-minute warning left, expecting their defense to get a stop. The Packers got possession back at their 44-yard line with 1:12 left before halftime and closed with a 52-yard field goal from rookie Anders Carlson. They scored a touchdown on their opening drive of the second half, taking a 17-6 lead. It’s a different approach for LaFleur, but the right one for a young team.
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