The Green Bay Packers come from behind win over the Chicago Bears in week one remains their best win of 2018. Aaron Rodgers exited the game with what appeared to be a serious knee injury, but returned in the second half to throw for three touchdowns. His heroic performance brought the Packers back from a 20-point deficit and had them looking like the team to beat this year.
Since that game, though, Green Bay’s season has been a complete disaster. Mike McCarthy is no longer the head coach and the offense is a shell of itself. If they have one thing going for them it’s that the offense will look nothing like what the Bears saw in week one who did not experience running back Aaron Jones.
If the Packers want to keep postseason hopes alive, they have to win out and their toughest remaining hurdle comes this week when they visit Chicago. The Bears are flexing after their best win in years over an ultra-talented Los Angeles Rams team last week.
And what led to that possibly season-defining win? Turnovers.
No team in the NFL is been better at creating turnovers than Chicago who lead the way with 25 takeaways. They were menacing against Jared Goff forcing four interceptions while constantly getting pressure.
The Packers only turned the ball over twice in their first meeting and both were on backup quarterback DeShone Kizer. His first drive ended in a strip sack by Khalil Mack who later returned an interception for a touchdown on the very next drive.
If Green Bay has any hope of winning it will require them to take care of the football. On Sunday Rodgers broke Tom Brady’s record of consecutive passes without an interception. Now is not the time for that streak to end.
Remember, the Packers comeback almost ended abruptly when corner Kyle Fuller had a clean look at an interception on what would be the game-winning drive but dropped it. Fuller leads the NFL with seven interceptions and is probably looking forward to another chance against Rodgers.
Rodgers and the offense will have to do their best to protect the ball and not surrender easy points or the season could be over.
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Brandon Carwile was a Cheesehead at birth. His dad grew up attending games at Lambeau and passed on the legacy. He has covered the Packers for over five years and currently works with packerstalk.com. Find him on twitter at @PackerScribe.
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5 responses to “Protecting the Ball Is Green Bay’s Only Chance vs Chicago”
Rodgers, Jones, and Williams take care of the ball pretty well.
Be boring. Double TEs. Run it 40 times. Try to win 17-16 game.
Bottom line. Bears have swag and confidence, Packers do not. Packers hoping for a perfect game to win, and the Bears saying they will crush the Packers. There you have it. Confidence.
Here’s hoping we can run the football with Jones. That will help slow down the pass rush. Bears have the advantage this year and won’t be easy to beat at home. A loss will end our season.
This will be Spriggs last chance to show he belongs with the team. I really like the guy and would love to see him not give up a sack protecting Arod.
Bears