Packers: What we learned from Week 1 win over Bears

Three things we learned from the Green Bay Packers’ Week 1 victory over the Chicago Bears.

Week 1 was an interesting way to start the 2018 season. After the long offseason, this year was the most anticipated in recent memory.

Every fan remembers the struggles from last year after quarterback Aaron Rodgers went down with a broken collarbone. The feeling almost happened again when Rodgers went down with a knee injury against Chicago.

The game was an emotional roller coaster, so let’s get into what we can take away from Week 1.

Mike Pettine isn’t Dom Capers

Packers fans have become used to having the defense not be able to make adjustments. If teams were able to throw against the defense, they were going to be able to all game.

Dom Capers would stick to his gameplan without being able to stop them. Mike Pettine did not let that happen last night.

Head coach Matt Nagy has been deemed an offensive guru, much like head coaches Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay. It seemed things were going that way after the first two drives.

The Bears offense went down and scored 10 unanswered points without much resistance.

Then, Pettine went to work. Disguising his blitz packages while confusing quarterback Mitch Trubisky with zone or man-to-man coverages.

Bottom line: Pettine proved it was long overdue for a change.

The offensive line needs help

Right tackle Bryan Bulaga started off rusty, to say the least. Given he’s not even a year removed from an ACL injury, it was a miracle he was out there.

The biggest question mark is the guard position. Right guard Justin McCray seemed to be bullied the whole first half while left guard Lane Taylor seemed lost.

As good as they were in the second half, they were twice as bad in the first half. With Rodgers banged up, the line becomes even more important than it already was going into the season.

Mike McCarthy

As much change that happened, McCarthy proved he’s still the same play caller and strategizer. The questionable play calling came back, as well as his use of timeouts before halftime.

At the time, Rodgers was questionable to return for the second half. The Bears were leading 10-0 and quarterback DeShone Kizer just took a sack. The Bears were out of timeouts with 56 seconds left before the half.

Instead of taking a knee, McCarthy took a timeout to run another play. That play turned into a pick-six, making the game 17-0 at the half.

The best offense is the no-huddle offense. Give Rodgers three plays and make the call at the line of scrimmage. It took an injury and being down 20-0 to finally get into the no-huddle.

Week 1 was nothing short of entertaining. Rodgers gave Packers Nation a scare with the injury but came back to give fans hope.

Other than Rodgers injury, the team came out of the game relatively healthy. They will need everything for Week 2 against the arch-rival Minnesota Vikings.