In what will become a weekly feature, I am going to take you around the NFC North so you can keep up on what the Vikings, Bears, and Packers are doing. Each week I will briefly recap those teams' games and will give you a look at what the bloggers for those teams are saying.
Bears - 29 :: Colts - 13
Chicago stunned NFL fans everywhere as they went into Indy and ruined the first real game for the Colts in their new stadium. The Bears' defense made Peyton Manning look confused for much of the night and were absolutely dominant. In fact, not only did the Bears' defense pick up a safety, but they also returned a fumble for a touchdown after Marvin Harrison fumbled the ball right after a catch.
If Chicago can play like this during the entire season they will be a playoff team for sure. Many people had actually said the Lions would finish ahead of Chicago, but assuming their win over the Colts wasn't a fluke, I'd say the chances of that happening are very slim.
Here is Windy City Gridiron's take on the game and what it means:
We can't get ahead of ourselves. We played very well, but the Colts did shoot themselves in their foot on a number of occasions. They completely misused their timeouts. They challenged plays that they shouldn't have.
But we could not have asked for more. A number of people thought a 0-4 start was a very real possibility. The Bears have gotten off to a great start. There are not many more teams on their schedule who can match the combination of the Colts offense and defense. The Bears need to keep their noses down and continue to improve.
Packers - 24 :: Vikings - 19
Aaron Rodgers' first start as a Packer couldn't have gone any better than it did. With Brett Favre's great performance in his first start as a Jet, Rodgers really had to look good to get some of the critics off his back. Well, he did just that. Rodgers threw only 4 incompletions and passed for 178 yards and a touchdown. He also scored the winning touchdown on a QB sneak and got a chance to do his first ever Lambeau Leap.
Although the Vikings didn't win, they didn't look terrible, either. Tarvaris Jackson will have to play better in the future if the Vikings want to be a playoff team, but even if he doesn't play well Minnesota can still come close to winning thanks to Adrian Peterson. Peterson rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown last night and looked just as impressive as last year when he was running the ball.
This is what Acme Packing Company had to say about the game:
Hopefully everyone saw that QB Aaron Rodgers is looking great. And RB Ryan Grant is going to be fantastic again this season. The offense did a great job moving the ball, creating big plays, and not turning the ball over (although they had a couple fumbles that could have been lost). The offense's big problem was penalties. I'd love to say that was due to sloppy week 1 play, but they had a lot of penalties last season too. [...]
Overall it was a comfortable opening win. The Packers took the lead early in the 2nd quarter and Minnesota never got closer than five points. It wasn't the prettiest game, but winning the divisional games are always important.
And this is what Daily Norseman had to say:
The most important thing to keep in mind here is that this is, still, just one game. Yes, it hurts worse and sucks more because it was a loss to Green Bay. But there are still 15 more of these to go this season, and I have a feeling that things will be getting better the rest of the way. Having my theory proven true hinges on the abilities of one man.
Brad Childress.
As of this moment, I've given up trying to figure out how Brad Childress constructs his offensive game plans. The first half of last night's game was one of the single worst first halves of football I've ever seen. Tarvaris Jackson had 7. . .yes, SEVEN. . .pass attempts in the entire first half, and only completed two for 16 yards. Yes, we have Adrian Peterson at our disposal, and he was his usual God-like self last night, given the circumstances. . .but during the pre-season, we saw an improvement in Jackson's play. Brad Childress told us all off-season about how Jackson had improved and was going to be a big surprise this year.
And then you go out in the first half and give him, basically, zero opportunities to make plays.
Looking ahead to Week 2, Green Bay comes to Detroit, Chicago heads to Carolina to battle the Panthers, who are fresh off a last-second win over the Chargers, and Minnesota will play a Colts team hoping to rebound from their loss to the Bears.