Chicago Bears: 5 keys to beating Green Bay Packers

Run the ball

Most of you may read this and think to yourselves, “Duh.”

Well, it’s the absolute truth, and it means a whole lot more to this team than it would have last year. The Bears come into this season with more weapons on offense than they have had in recent memory. In order to use them to the best of their ability, it all starts with the run game.

Getting shots down the field to Taylor Gabriel and Anthony Miller are going to happen much easier when the defense understands the Bears are a run-first team. When you get Jordan Howard going, the defense is forced to play closer to the line of scrimmage. When Matt Nagy decides to pound the football early and often, Howard will make the defense focus on him, first and foremost.

https://twitter.com/packers/status/809442517930348544

Howard is used to running against 8-man boxes and still gaining good chunks of yardage. Getting him into a rhythm is going to not only open up shots down field, but it will spread the middle of the field wide open for guys like Trey Burton, Allen Robinson and Tarik Cohen. Giving players like that some space to work with will prove to be lethal against Green Bay.

Let’s not forget the Packers are going to be without a couple of linebackers for at least the first week of the season. Both Oren Burks and Jake Ryan will not play in Week 1, with Ryan being out for the season. Being down two starting linebackers should spark a lightbulb for both Nagy and Mark Helfrich.

Run the ball and run it well, and you swing the doors wide open for Mitch Trubisky to go to work.