Packers vs. Bears Preview & Prediction - 100th Season Kickoff

Graphic copyright 247 Sports

It's the start of another exciting season of Green Bay Packers football. It's the best time of the year!

But this is not just any season. It's the Pack's 100th season!

Over the course of the first 100 seasons, the Packers have become the most-storied franchise in the NFL, if not in all of professional sports.

Green Bay has become Titletown. Thirteen world championships...Curly Lambeau, Johnny Blood McNally, Don Hutson, Vincent Thomas Lombardi, ALL the Glory Years Packers (Nitschke, Starr, Hornung, Taylor, Davis, Adderly, et al), Bob Harlan, Ron Wolf, Mike Holmgren, Brett Favre, Reggie White, Uncle Ted Thompson, Aaron Rodgers, Donald Driver...where does the list start and where does it stop when it comes to the Packers?

A big piece of this amazing team history, of course, concerns that team from south of the border: the ... eeeewwww ... Chicago Bears. Da Bearz. The longest running rivalry in all of football. The Pack leads this century-long dogfight 96-94 with 6 ties. Oh, in a more current timeframe, QB Aaron Rodgers is 15-4 against Chicago, and 8-1 at Lambeau Field. (How does that make you feel about the chances tonight, Packer fans?)

What do we expect this evening? The Packers are favored by 7 points. In an opening match such as this, where the starters on both teams haven't actually played much in the preseason, hard to tell. There are new coaches on both teams, including a new head coach in ChiTown, so how all that plays out...your guess is as good as mine. But since this is my blog, I'll give you my best guess right now.

The Prediction

Let's make this short and sweet, shall we? I know my good friend, Bill Da Bearz Fan, is waiting for my predication and I don't want to hold up his afternoon nap.

So here it is: Packers 27 - Bears 17.

Go Pack Go!!!

A Postscript

I took the entire offseason off, as you can see from the date of the last post prior to this one. Like many fans, the wind was pretty much out of the sails after that clunker of a 2017 Rodgers-less season. Not an excuse, just how it was.

Didn't really cover the draft (was traveling at the time) or opine on it (thought it was a good draft for the new GM, though), OTAs, mini camp, summer training camp, preseason. Yes, I slacked off. So it goes. Hope to at least do weekly game posts and updates if they seem needed. Hope you'll check in once in a while. And thank you if you do so. Your readership is appreciated. I have a much more active presence on Twitter these days so if you wish to follow us there, you'll find us at @packfansunited. 

Packers take down Bears 26-10

The Green Bay Packers have finally put together two good halves of football this season. OK, they weren't actually in the same game, but still. The first good half, as you may recall, was during the game and win against the Detroit Lions. Thankfully, the second good half came on Thursday evening against the Chicago Bears.

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth following the disappointing loss to the Dallas Cowboys the prior Sunday evening. But despite a extremely sluggish first half against Chicago, the Packers offense finally started clicking -- to the tune of a record-setting night.

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers lit up the Bears in a record-setting peformance.
Photo by Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wis

QB Aaron Rodgers was just shy of 60 pass attempts -- OK, 56 to be exact -- and set a franchise record with 39 completions. For the first time in a long time he had more than 300 yards passing. Davante Adams had a career night, with 13 catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns, just one catch short of tying the franchise record of the legendary Don Hutson. For the first time in Packers history, a receiver had 10 or more catches in the same game for 100 yards or more with 2 touchdowns.

The offense controlled the ball for nearly 40 minutes of the game, and racked up 32 first downs. It was quite a night for the offense.

And that was with missed opportunities. WR Randall Cobb had a chance for two additional touchdowns: one pass was stripped from him in the endzone early in the game as he was bringing the ball in for a completion; the second, later in the game, came when he couldn't get his second foot down inside the back line of the endzone while being forced out by the Bears' defender.

In addition, in a "Well, there's something you don't see everyday, Wilbur" moment, kicker Mason Crosby missed two fields and an extra point.

So...a lot of points were left on the field. This has been a disturbing trend for the Packers this season. In this game, against a woeful Bears offense, and with a dominant Packers defense, those points were not needed to secure the win. But the Pack certainly can't count on that every game.

As for the Packers defense, they pitched a touchdown shutout. Wait...what?...you say. Clearly a touchdown was scored by Da Bearz. Well, that came on a fumble by Rodgers recovered in the endzone by Chicago. Other than that, the Packers D made a nice return to form following its dismal performance a few days before against Dallas.

The Packers now have 10 days off (from the time of the game) to take a small break and get a bit healthier before they play at Atlanta on Oct. 30. That will hopefully also give the Packers time to integrate newly-arrived RB Knile Davis more fully into the offense.

But it's likely, based on his outstanding performance in the backfield against Chicago, that WR Ty Montgomery will also be seeing his share of playing time coming out of the backfield for a quite a while. That's because RB Eddie Lacy was placed on injured reserve with his ankle requiring surgery the day of the Bears game and James Starks is still a few weeks a way from returning from his knee surgery. RB Don Jackson, who was on the practice squad and promoted to the active roster the day of the game, sustained a left wrist injury on his second carry. Figures, doesn't it?

It's a strange season, indeed. But at least the Packers are 4-2, just behind the ViQueens in the NFC North standings.

What to make of the Packers 2015 schedule?

The Green Bay Packers and their fans learned about the 2015 schedule on Tuesday evening. Actually, bits and pieces started to leak out before the evening NFL announcement, particularly the fact that the game at which the Pack will retire former QB Brett Favre's number will be a Thanksgiving evening game against Da Bears. What could be better? Oh, and that home Thanksgiving game will be the first such game the team has played since 1923. If memory serves, that was just four years after the founding of the Packers and just two years after the team joined the fledgling National Football League (then called the American Professional Football Association). Yowza!

Photo of Brett Favre from officialbrettfavre.com
So...there's that. Actually, Favre's number will be officially "retired" at his induction into the Packers Hall of Fame on July 18. The Thanksgiving ceremony will see that number go up inside Lambeau Field. Favre's name and number will go up alongside such legendary names as Bart Starr, Tony Canadeo, Don Hutson, Ray Nitschke and Reggie White. See Favre announce the number retirement on his SQOR page here.

Back to the schedule...upon full release we found the following schedule (you can also always find the Packers 2015 schedule in our "Links" area in the righthand column):

PRESEASON
(WEEK DATE OPPONENT KICKOFF TV)

• 1 - Thursday, August 13 at New England Patriots 6:30 p.m. state
• 2 - Sunday, August 23 at Pittsburgh Steelers 7 p.m. state
• 3 - Saturday, August 29 PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (Midwest Shrine Game - GOLD PKG.) 7 p.m. state
• 4 - Thursday, September 3 NEW ORLEANS SAINTS (Bishop's Charities Game) 6 p.m. state

REGULAR SEASON
(WEEK DATE OPPONENT KICKOFF TV)

• 1 - Sunday, September 13 at Chicago Bears 12 p.m. FOX
• 2 - Sunday, September 20 SEATTLE SEAHAWKS 7:30 p.m. NBC
• 3 - Monday, September 28 KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (GOLD PKG.) 7:30 p.m. ESPN
• 4 - Sunday, October 4 at San Francisco 49ers 3:25 p.m. FOX
• 5 - Sunday, October 11 ST. LOUIS RAMS *12 p.m. CBS
• 6 - Sunday, October 18 SAN DIEGO CHARGERS *3:25 p.m. CBS
• 7 - Sunday, October 25 BYE
  
• 8 - Sunday, November 1 at Denver Broncos *7:30 p.m. NBC
• 9 - Sunday, November 8 at Carolina Panthers *12 p.m. FOX
• 10 - Sunday, November 15 DETROIT LIONS (GOLD PKG.) *12 p.m. FOX
• 11 - Sunday, November 22 at Minnesota Vikings *12 p.m. FOX
• 12 - Thursday, November 26 CHICAGO BEARS (Thanksgiving - BRETT FAVRE NUMBER RETIREMENT CEREMONY) 7:30 p.m. NBC
• 13 - Thursday, December 3 at Detroit Lions 7:25 p.m. CBS/NFL
• 14 - Sunday, December 13 DALLAS COWBOYS *3:25 p.m. FOX
• 15 - Sunday, December 20 at Oakland Raiders *3:05 p.m. FOX
• 16 - Sunday, December 27 at Arizona Cardinals *3:25 p.m. FOX
• 17 - Sunday, January 3 MINNESOTA VIKINGS *12 p.m. FOX

* Start time and broadcast may shift due to NFL flexible scheduling ** All times are Central

What's the early take on the schedule?

The ESPN pundits have the Packers winning the NFC North Division with an 11-5 record. They have the ViQueens coming in second at 9-7, the Lions being their middling selves at 8-8 and Da Bears bringing up the rear at 7-9. To the last we can only say (in best Seinfeld voice), that's a shame. If you want to see what ESPN's Packers reporter, Rob Demovsky, predicts game-by-game, you can do so here.

For yours truly, it's far too soon to make the game-by-game picks. And actually, regular readers of this blog will know we don't make game-by-game picks anyway, at least prior to the start of the season; we do make weekly game picks during the regular season. Instead, just prior to the start of the season -- after we've had a look at the team in preseason, know who is on the roster, what the injury status is, etc. -- we make our season win-loss prediction by breaking the season up into quarters. It's just an easier way for this prognosticator to look at the season as a whole. And we've typically been pretty darn close in our season projections. So come back in early September for that post. OK, if you'd care to, please stop back in more often, before then, because we'll have a lot more coming in the days, weeks and months ahead. In fact, next up will be commentary on the upcoming NFL Draft. Lots of fun in store. Stick with us.

Go Pack Go!!!

Packers' shareholders meeting and training camp in week ahead

Here it is, Packer fans, the week we've waited for since the end of last season's great run. In the coming week, Packers' shareholders will gather on Thursday morning (and, yes, you need a ticket to get in) at the currently un-frozen tundra of Lambeau Field to hear from Packers' management and coaches about the status of the team on and off the field. They'll also hear a bit from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell who'll be on hand, as well. No doubt, a major area of interest will concern the current and upcoming contract negotiations with the NFL Players Association.

While the annual shareholders event certainly is an important part of things, what most fans wait for, of course, is the start of training camp. That gets under way Saturday, July 31, at 2 p.m. with players in full pads on Ray Nitschke Field and is open to the public. If weather doesn't allow outdoor practice, things move inside to the Don Hutson Center where, because of space limitations, the practice is closed to the public. You can check out a day by day practice schedule here. You can also download a PDF version of the schedule here.

Now, if your green 'n' gold juices aren't flowing already, check out this article in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel which begins the talk about the Packers' Super Bowl hopes and chances this season. The key, which is the same every year, really, is to start fast. No surprise there. With a tough schedule and questions on defense given Johnny Jolly's year-long (indefinite) suspension and Al Harris' return from his major knee injury, that means the offense has to come out with guns blazing. Barring injury, that will be a given.

But with camp a week away from today, it sure is nice to be able to realistically talk about the goal: Super Bowl.

Freeman Signed -- to Retire

Remember Antonio Freeman? The guy with the fifth most catches in Packers history? The guy who played a good chunk of the 1996 championship with a cast on his broken left forearm? The guy who made that miraculous catch on his back, in the rain, on Monday Night Football at Lambeau in 2000 to win the game in overtime against the ViQueens? The guy most of us thought was already retired?

Yeah, that Antonio Freeman.

Freeman was last signed in 2004 by Miami but was released during training camp. Other than the Dolphins (no playing time) and playing for the Eagles in 2002 before one last year with the Pack in 2003, Freeman was always a Packer...is a Packer. And that's why he wanted to retire as one. The Packers signed Freeman yesterday to make that happen.

Freeman was not always the fastest receiver on the field, but he was one of the most sure-handed, reliable, and wiliest receivers the team has ever had, as evidenced by catching 431 passes in his eight years with the Pack, making him number five on the team's all-time receptions list. "Free" was also Brett Favre's favorite receiver during the mid-90s Super Bowl runs, and led the Packers in receiving from 1996-99.

Glad to have you back, "Free." Even if it is only so you can retire. Next stop for Freeman will be the Packers Hall of Fame, where he will then become part of a fine quintet of the Packers' all-time reception leaders along with Sterling Sharpe, James Lofton, Don Hutson and Boyd Dowler. Now that's fantasy football!