Bears vs. Packers: Five Takeaways From Week 1 Match-up

Sep 13, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte (22) runs past Green Bay Packers cornerback Sam Shields (37) during the second quarter at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

The Chicago Bears opened the 2015 NFL regular season with a 31-23 loss to their division rivals, the Green Bay Packers. Despite the loss, the Bears played better than expected on Sunday afternoon. Their effort was not good enough to topple Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, but it was not a performance to be ashamed of.

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Defensively, the Bears struggled throughout the afternoon, but who doesn’t against Rodgers and his host of weapons in Green Bay? Rodgers is almost in-arguably the best quarterback in the NFL right now. On top of that, even without Jordy Nelson, they have an impressive group of receivers, the Packers’ offensive line has grown into one of the best in the league and Eddie Lacy leads an extremely powerful running game.

With a seemingly unlimited supply of weapons, Rodgers leads arguably the best offensive unit in the entire NFL, and the Packers are among the Super Bowl favorites because of that. We knew the Bears were likely heading into a rebuilding year in 2015, and simply keeping it close against this powerful team is something to be proud of.

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The key to this game was always going to be quarterback Jay Cutler and the Bears’ offense ability to keep up against a beatable Packers’ defense. While they were far from perfect, running back Matt Forte led a mostly impressive showing by the Bears’ offense, as they were able to put 23 points on the board.

Their drives stalled deep on the Packers’ side of the field too many times, resulting in three Robbie Gould field goals. Obviously three points is nice, but if you are going to keep up with Rodgers’ well-oiled machine from Lambeau, you need to score touchdowns. They weren’t good enough, but the Bears’ offense was able to move the ball up and down the field with some consistent success. If nothing else, that was nice to see.

Before we move on to Week 2, I would like to take some time to look back at this Bears’ performance against the Packers. I have watched and re-watched the game, and have pin-pointed five takeaways that I think we can use to help predict how the Bears will perform going forward in 2015.

Here are five takeaways from the Bears’ Week 1 performance against the Packers.

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