Predicting the Chicago Bears record through the first quarter of the season
Chicago Bears @ Detroit Lions
There is no question that Mitch Trubisky has shown great success against the Detroit Lions over his career. It will be interesting to see if he can maintain that level of play this season. The Lions have made some changes to the defense but will it be enough to shake things up against the Bears this year?
Some standout additions the team made were bringing in free agents Jamie Collins, Danny Shelton and Desmond Trufant. Ex-Bear Nick Williams is also now on the roster and looks to be the starter next to Shelton. Will he find the same success in Detroit as he did in his breakout year with the Chicago Bears last season? The one standout from the draft on defense is Jeff Okudah, but rumors are he might see limited snaps in this game.
Here’s the thing though, with these additions, the team saw some serious subtractions on defense too. Losing Darrius Slay will not be easy to overcome. He is one of the better corners in the league. Trufant is a consistent player but does not bring the same level that Slay brings at this point in his career. He also has injury concerns too but should be fine for this game. Honestly, I do not see enough of an improvement on defense to think that Trubisky should not find success once again in Week 1.
As far as the Lions offense is concerned, playing against Matthew Stafford in Week 1 will make the game more difficult. Stafford will not be banged up or out of the game as he has been over the last two years. The team did not make any big offensive moves outside of Halapoulivaati Vaitai. Good luck to Vaitai and any other lineman trying to block the likes of Akiem Hicks, Khalil Mack, Robert Quinn and even Bilal Nichols and Roy Robertson-Harris. Yikes.
The Chicago Bears must win this game because the season only gets harder from here on out.