Green Bay Packers: Top 5 lessons learned in Week 1

No, it wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t quite the offensive shootout most of us expected it to be and for good reason—it’s Week 1.

Look around the league and try to find more than a handful of offenses that played a clean brand of football in which the quarterback consistently had enough time to hang in the pocket and survey the field.

Instead, this year’s opening Sunday was a banner week for defensive lines and outside linebackers that padded their stat lines with an abundance of pressures, sacks and, yes, turnovers.

As for the Packers and their less-than-ironclad pass protection in a hard-fought 17-9 win, some devoted fans may continue lamenting how Aaron Rodgers tends to hold on to the ball too long.

And while that gripe may hold water in some instances, very few quarterbacks would have been able to make plays and persevere against Seattle’s penetrating defense that brought the heat from start to finish.

So, we’ve learned that Week 1 is by and large an extension of the preseason, a time when far too many key members of all 32 teams are served with far too few reps to be in peak form entering the 16-game regular season.

In fact, it may take some teams up to four weeks to get settled and derive a more accurate barometer of their potential going forward.

The lack of conclusive statements, however, shouldn’t prevent us from highlighting several important first impressions that can offer clues to not only how far the Packers are headed, but the road they’ll need to take to get there.