Packers: Three takeaways from Week 1 victory over Bears
2. After slow start, defense responds in big way
The Bears were having it all their way.
On their opening possession, Chicago moved the ball at ease, completing a 10-play, 86-yard touchdown drive with Mitch Trubisky rushing into the end zone for the score.
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It was a statement by new Bears head coach Matt Nagy, who was throwing just about everything he had in the playbook at Green Bay’s defense. The Packers had no answers.
But defensive coordinator Mike Pettine, in his first game for the Packers, adjusted and swung the momentum back Green Bay’s way. Nagy won the early battle which gave the Bears a 10-0 lead, but Pettine’s defense responded, and the new-look secondary deserves a lot of credit for that.
After giving up 10 points on the Bears’ opening two possessions, the Packers limited them to just six points from their next eight.
With Aaron Rodgers out for a quarter due to injury and then trying to make an incredible comeback, Green Bay needed its defense to step up. And it did.
While the focus will be on Rodgers’ spectacular touchdown pass to Geronimo Allison at the start of the fourth quarter, then the Davante Adams touchdown that quickly followed, the defense deserves a lot of credit for forcing two three-and-outs in between.
The Bears did put together an impressive 14-play drive that wiped six minutes off the clock late in the fourth, but the Packers held them to a field goal which kept the game alive.
And when it mattered most, the defense closed out the improbable victory.
It wasn’t a perfect performance, but the defense looks much improved under Pettine.