Chicago Bears: The good, bad and ugly from Packers game

Mack and Co.

Watching Mack dominate the first half last night, there were plenty of superlatives (and a few expletives) flying around. His performance in the game, and particularly the first half, was nothing short of remarkable.

There were questions about how much he would play given the fact that he had not participated in the preseason at all. Turns out, it didn’t matter. Mack is a special, other-worldly talent and it showed up in droves Sunday night.

While Mack made a huge, direct impact on the game, he affected the game in a number of ways, to include making life easier for his teammates. Both Akiem Hicks and Roy Robertson-Harris had terrific games, aided largely by the fact that the Packers’ offensive line was focused on Mack. This bodes well for the defense going forward, especially as Mack gets more comfortable in the defense. It does not bode well for Jonathan Bullard who was outplayed by Robertson-Harris.

The opening drive

The other highly encouraging sign was the offense’s performance on their opening possession. After forcing a three-and-out, the Bears offense took the field and marched 86 yards down the field to score the game’s first touchdown.

During that drive, the offense displayed a nice balance of run, pass, and RPO plays. They kept the defense off-balance, and Trubisky surveyed the field for the open receiver. It was an offense that Bears’ fans have been clamoring for.

In that opening drive, we saw how creative Matt Nagy’s offense can be, and how explosive some of its weapons are. While that didn’t carry through to the rest of the game, there were still plenty of positives to draw from that drive alone, if nothing more than hope for what the offense has the potential to be.