Notes: Enjoying the Chicago Bears’ flat debut vs. the Green Bay Packers

Last night, the defending NFC North champion Chicago Bears hosted the Green Bay Packers to kick off the season in style. In case you missed the game, we at Pride of Detroit want to ensure nobody missed out on the explosion of joy experienced during the magnificent start to the Bears’ division title defense.

Chicago’s defense was actually quite good in their 10-3 loss at Soldier Field. Tallying five sacks on Aaron Rodgers and allowing just 47 yards rushing, the home team did a great job against the new offense rolled out by Green Bay coaches Matt LaFleur and Nathaniel Hackett. Unfortunately on the other side of the ball, the visiting team’s Mike Daniels-less pass rush somehow also sacked Mitchell Trubisky five times (one of which was on fourth down on the last drive of the fourth quarter to essentially end the game), and the Chicago offense managed to get itself into a first-and-40 while trying to mount a late-game comeback:

The Bears eventually drove deep into Packers territory near the two-minute warning to potentially tie the game, but safety Adrian Amos (formerly of the Bears) came up with a superb interception in the end zone to squash the comeback.

Now, it is tough to be pleased about any win for the Packers, but at least we got this money quote from cornerback Tramon Williams:

This has been your early Week 1 NFC North standings update. We now return to today’s regularly scheduled Notes:

• Justin Rogers at the Detroit News offered a sober look at franchise quarterback Matthew Stafford, and suggests the Lions may have to think about serious competition at the position if there is no postseason success this year. The article lays out the situation pretty well, and is definitely worth a look even if you don’t agree with his conclusion.

• From the touchdown helmet taps to Fortnite, Pride of Detroit loves Graham Glasgow. You should, too, and Kyle Meinke at mlive.com has a great article detailing why that is the case:

• ESPN’s Mike Rothstein wrote about how “60 percent of the Lions secondary came from the same high school” on the north side of Brunswick, Georgia. Really cool to see the background ties between Justin Coleman, Tracy Walker, and Darius Slay.

• Dave Birkett at the Detroit Free Press wrote about Devon Kennard’s Arizona hometown roots and learning as a young player by watching tapes of another local product who went on to become a Sun Devil and NFL great: the Cardinals’ Terrell Suggs.

• Hrm. Great work charting all this by @RNBWCV, but just... hrm.

Edit: LATE ADD!!!