Grading the Pack: Packers 38, Bears 20
The new season is upon us. The Green Bay Packers started their year by doing what they always do.
They took a 10-6 lead into halftime before winning the second half 28-14 and beating the Chicago Bears 38-20 on Sunday at Soldier Field. The season-opening win moves them to 9-0 against their most storied rival in the Matt LaFleur era.
In what will be a season-long series, we'll take a look at the game and grade how each phase of the team performed before assigning a grade.
Here's our first installment for Week 1.
Pass Offense
This phase of the team is the most important one. The NFL is a passing league. The Packers have taken advantage of that for the past 30 years with Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers giving them an unprecedented run of great quarterback play.
Sunday marked a new era with Jordan Love taking the reins after Rodgers was traded to the New York Jets this offseason.
Love's final stat line wasn't gaudy. He finished 15-27 with 245 yards passing and three touchdown passes.
Love's good qualities were on display for most of the day. He's comfortable in the pocket. He remained poised even on what might have been play of the day.
The Packers drew up a backside pass for rookie tight end Luke Musgrave that nearly turned out to be a disaster. Love fumbled the snap, but didn't panic. Instead, he picked the ball up before finding Musgrave.
Had Musgrave not cramped up while catching the ball, he probably would have scored. Instead, Romeo Doubs caught the second of his two touchdowns on the day.
The questions about Love reared their ugly, head as well. Love had a couple issues with ball placement, including two passes to Jayden Reed on third downs that ended in punts.
To be fair, Love was playing without his best receiver, Christian Watson. Romeo Doubs was limited due to a hamstring injury.
Love's 15 completions went to six different receivers, but the offense stalled too often in the first half.
The pass protection was excellent. The starting offensive line of David Bakhtiari, Elgton Jenkins, Josh Myers, Jon Runyan Jr. and Zach Tom only allowed one sack, which was mostly due to coverage down the field.
Love was kept clean for most of the day. As a result, Love did not turn the ball over.
"I think that's the quarterback's No. 1 responsibility," LaFleur said.
"We talk about it all the time, you gotta take care of the ball, I thought he did that. Anytime you got a quarterback that takes care of the football, you've got a chance to win games."
Grade: B-
Rush Offense
Aaron Jones looks to be the backbone of this Packers offense. On the first drive of the season, Jones had five carries for 24 yards to set up a touchdown.
The first drive of the second half, he touched the ball five times, including a screen pass that went for 51 yards. He capped that drive with his first rushing touchdown of the season.
Later in the game, he added a 35-yard touchdown on a fourth-and-3 with Green Bay leading 17-6.
Those were passing plays, but the Packers should take a lesson from this game in that they cannot get Jones enough touches.
He sat most of the second half with a hamstring injury that he sustained on the touchdown reception. He finished with nine carries for 41 yards.
AJ Dillon had a paltry 13 carries for 19 yards. The offense looked drastically different when Dillon was on the field as opposed to Jones. Patrick Taylor outrushed him in less than half the carries.
That's something they'll need to clean up if Jones misses time. Dillon is a former second-round pick. The Packers are expecting big things out of him.
Today, the run game had its issues with playing off of blocks and also getting guys blocked. For as well as the Packers protected in the passing game, their run blocking left a little to be desired.
Grade: C-
Pass Defense
This was probably the strongest phase of the game for the Packers. They finished the day with four sacks but lived in Chicago's backfield.
A good portion of Justin Fields' 216 passing yards came well after the game was decided.
Lukas Van Ness, Devonte Wyatt and Karl Brooks recorded sacks. Wyatt and Kenny Clark combined for a forced fumble.
D.J. Moore, the Bears' prized offseason acquisition, was held to two catches for 25 yards. Jaire Alexander dominated what was mainly a one-on-one matchup.
The only hiccup was a 23-yard touchdown pass to Darnell Mooney to make the score 24-14.
The defense made up for that later in the game with Quay Walker returning his first career interception for a touchdown to make the score 38-14.
They'll face much better offenses as the season progresses, but their first test was a resounding win.
Grade: A
Quay Walker (Photo by Dan Powers/USA Today Sports Images)
Run Defense
This phase of the team is the one that had the biggest questions on it coming into the season.
They made a statement on the first drive of the season.
With the Bears facing two short-yardage plays on their first drive, the Packers stuffed Chicago's sneak attempts on consecutive downs. The stop gave the offense a short field and, eventually, the defense had a lead it would never relinquish.
Maybe that feels like a small moment, but the Packers were horrendous against the run a season ago. They finished 31st in the league in yards given up per carry.
Justin Fields is one of the top running quarterbacks in football. Khalil Herbert averaged 5.7 yards per carry. A run against the 2022 Packers would have been automatic.
Instead, they stuffed the Bears, and that theme would carry for the rest of the day. Fields took off nine times for 59 yards, with a long run of 10. Khalil Herbert ran nine times for 27 yards.
Overall, the Bears had 122 rushing yards, but most of it was from Fields. It's just one game, and a big test awaits next week with Atlanta Falcons super-rookie Bijan Robinson on deck, but Sunday was a massive success for the Packers' defense.
Grade: B+
Special Teams
The Packers are breaking in a new snapper, holder, punter and kicker. Their field goal operation today was flawless, highlighted by Anders Carlson drilling a 52-yard field goal just before halftime.
Carlson didn't miss any kicks, going 5-for-5 on PATs and 1-for-1 on field goals. He was the first kicker other than Mason Crosby to attempt a kick for the Packers since 2006. He passed his first test.
Daniel Whelan didn't have any holding gaffes, and hit a punt 68 yards for a touchback.
The kick return combination of Keisean Nixon and Jayden Reed had above-average days. Nixon averaged 27.5 yards per kickoff return and Reed averaged 18 yards per return on punts.
Kick coverage was solid. Overall, special teams was above average on the day.
Grade: B
Coaching
Matt LaFleur's first drive as a play caller for Jordan Love ended in a touchdown. He gave the ball to Aaron Jones five times. They converted a big third down with Love hitting Romeo Doubs to get the offense moving. The drive ended with Love hitting Doubs in the back of the end zone for the first touchdown of the season.
The rest of the first half was uninspiring. The coaching staff did not get Jones the ball for the rest of the half, a recurring theme throughout his career.
The sequence before the end of the half when Love took a sack and 20 seconds came off the clock before they called a timeout was not a banner moment.
LaFleur's redemption moment came in the second half. With the team leading 17-6 on the Chicago 35, he could have attempted a field goal to give the team a 20-6 lead.
Such a move would be understandable but show some wavering confidence in the offense. Instead, LaFleur made the call to go for it. Jones rewarded the decision with a 35-yard touchdown to put the Packers firmly in control.
LaFleur had some moments to go with some gaffes. Overall, his game plan was solid.
This day, however, belongs to Joe Barry. The much-maligned defensive coordinator's unit had a banner day. It sacked Fields four times and returned an interception for a touchdown.
Most importantly, the Packers were solid against the run, something that has plagued them for years. Barry gets a ton of flak when the defense doesn't perform well. He deserves some credit since they played well today.
Grade: B
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