I feel like the defense is at a similar growth point that our '06 Bears were in with Lovie in his 3rd year of implementing his defense...Young talent, hungry for a title, and competing hard.
And oddly, while i'm typing this up i was curious how they fared while opening that season.. Chi - 26 GB - 0
Except in this scenario that we are faced with in 2019, we have better coaching, offensive talent, and a QB!...my gut tells me that they are going to be nasty this year
It's going to be interesting to see what kind of a team Green Bay puts out there this season. If they are healthy they have to be a much improved team from last year. The Bears also should be better if healthy. I hope our players come through training camp without any key players getting injured seriously.
As far as this opener against GB, I figure Nagy and the coaching staff will have had an entire off-season to prepare for this game in particular. They understand the rivalry and importance of winning this first game. Yes, all wins are important, but this one takes on a bit of extra importance. We've seen the razzle dazzle Nagy like to bring to the table, so I expect to see some of that in this first game.
On the flip side, I expect Aaron Rodgers will be amped up for this one after a rough season last year & he particularly enjoys destroying the Bears in prime time. He has humiliated the Bears time and again and feeds on that I think - more so than other games. He has shown in the past that he can get the ball out before the pass rush can get to him... at least consistently enough to bury a team.
So it will be interesting.
Assuming both teams are healthy coming out of TC and preseason, I think it may come down to a game where both teams score between 24 and 28 points. I think this Pagano D will hold them to ~24 points.
Our offense? I know GB defense should be better this year but in the first game I expect the Bears offense to put up ~28 points. I just expect the Bears offense to be that much better than the GB defense will be in the first game of the season and put up 28 points. So maybe the final score is 24-28 Bears win.
i don't know what Rogers has to work with, but it's a huge game for the division in w1. if you are right and the bears blow out GB it's going to start a national hype wave. at home, i think the bears win.
How good do you think Green Bay will be this year? They have added a lot of talent on defense in particular.
GB is such a big unknown this season. Just how bad a coach was McCarthy? Was he really holding the team back? Is the new guy going to get more out of the team in his first year or is it going to take a season to get things working? They have a HOF QB obviously but after that it's hard to figure how much talent they have beyond that. Maybe they're like the Bears and actually have a whole bunch of talent that just isn't being exploited by the coach properly. I'll be curious to see how they look in preseason when their ones are out there.