Some may refuse to refer to Caleb Williams as 'Iceman,' and that's fine. Maybe they'll feel more comfortable calling him Jon Snow, because the Chicago Bears are, until further notice, the true Kings in the North.
While Ben Johnson's team crushed the Carolina Panthers on the road, the rest of the division went 2-1, but that positive record should be taken with a fistful of salt. The Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers played each other, and the Detroit Lions barely beat a lesser team.
Upon further review, and after looking at the tape and the numbers, the Bears look like the only real Super Bowl contender in one of the toughest divisions in football. It's still too early, but for now, they just have to bow.
The Chicago Bears are the best team in the NFC North
We already know what the Bears did in Week 1. The 37 points and struggles in the secondary were a concern and whatnot, but there's not much to complain about when your team scores 59 points, especially with Colston Loveland and Rome Odunze being non-factors. Now, let's take a look at the rest.
Let's get rolling with the Detroit Lions. Dan Campbell's team had the easiest Week 1 matchup in the division, hosting the New Orleans Saints as seven-point favorites. Talking about seven, that was the grand total of points they scored in the first half.
The Lions' secondary made Tyler Shough look like Peyton Manning in the second half. They had to resort to a failed two-point conversion to escape with a one-point overtime win over one of the weakest teams in football. That's not what a contender looks like.
Now, let's move on to the Twin Cities.
The Packers looked poised to steal an easy win against the Kyler Murray-less Vikings after their new QB1 — who was picked off in his first passing attempt — left with a conclusion. Then, Matt LaFleur did what Matt LaFleur does: Choke.
Green Bay's laughable IOL collapsed under pressure, with Brian Flores blitzing in over 80 percent of dropbacks to collapse the pocket. As a result, the Vikings started two late-game series deep into Green Bay territory. They scored 22 (!) unanswered points to secure a 39-22 win.
The Vikings' defense might not look impressive at all, but that's until you realize that they did that against one of the worst offensive lines in the game. Jordan Love didn't have Josh Jacobs, and even still, they were just 15 minutes away from securing a double-digit win.
The Bears weren't perfect, but they should feel great about themselves, especially after watching everyone else.
And even though this is a marathon and not a race, the rest of the NFC North might need to turn to the Night King's army for help to dethrone Caleb 'Jon Snow' Williams.
| More Bears on DaWindyCity |
Add us as a preferred source on Google