Packer Central

Packers at Bears in Week 1: Who’s Favored?

Opening lines are out for the first few games of the season, with the Green Bay Packers visiting the Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons before hosting the New Orleans Saints.

Bill Huber

Packers at Bears in Week 1: Who’s Favored?
Packers at Bears in Week 1: Who’s Favored? /
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Matt LaFleur’s fifth season as Green Bay Packers coach will begin on the road for a fifth consecutive season.

When the Packers open the 2023 NFL season at the Chicago Bears on Sept. 10, it will mark the first time in franchise history that it’s started on the road five consecutive seasons.

“That’s something I thought was going to change,” LaFleur told Packers.com’s Larry McCarren. “There’s nothing like having an opening-day game at your home stadium with your crowd behind you but, again, the schedule-makers said that’s not the case and we’ll be prepared to play against a Chicago Bears team that certainly looks on paper much improved. So, it’ll be a great challenge for us.”

The Bears, indeed, are improved. Last year, with Aaron Rodgers dealing with injured ribs and a broken thumb and the Packers saddled with a 4-8 record, they were 3 1/2-point favorites at Chicago. Following the offseason trade of Rodgers, the early line at DraftKings Sportsbook is Chicago by 2 for Game 1 of the Jordan Love era.

With Rodgers, the Packers returned victorious following 12 of their last 13 trips to Soldier Field.

Green Bay is opening the season with back-to-back road games for just the third time. The Week 2 matchup is at the Atlanta Falcons, with the Packers opening as 1-point favorites.

Love will make his first home start the following week against the New Orleans Saints. The Packers are 1-point favorites in that game, as well.

Green Bay will open the season against three teams that are coming off losing seasons, with the Bears finishing 3-14 and the Falcons and Saints winding up 7-10. The first opponent with a winning record will be the Thursday night game in Week 4 against the Detroit Lions, who swept the Packers last season en route to a 9-8 record.

“I think each year is a new year and you’ve got to reinvent yourself each and every year,” LaFleur said, “whether you’re a great team the year before or you weren’t as great as you wanted to be. That’s the case every year in the National Football League. Nothing’s more evident of that than looking at the teams that make the playoffs that didn’t make it the previous season.”

(Interested in getting in on the action? If you live in a state where sports gambling is legal, check out this great deal from DraftKings.)

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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