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The Chicago Bears have been haunted by the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers for years, but Bears defensive coordinator Alan Williams doesn't want his team worrying about the past against the new-look Packers and quarterback Jordan Love in Week 1, as he told Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times.
“What we’re trying not to do is hunt up too many ghosts,” Williams said. “What we have to focus on is what Green Bay has done up until this point … and then look at Love in the preseason and see what he does well. He gets the ball out of his hand, he throws a phenomenal deep ball, outside he has great touch, it seems like he makes good decisions — fast decisions, fast processor.”
Williams knows the Bears are no longer preparing for Rodgers and what the Packers used to play like with Rodgers behind center. That's a welcome relief for most of the members of the Bears roster who have never beaten Green Bay before.
For some reason, I looked up the players on the #Bears' 53-man roster who have been a part of a team that have defeated the Green Bay Packers.
From my count, there are 12 players:
– Trent Taylor on IR (49ers in 2019)
– Patrick Scales (Bears 2018)
– Eddie Jackson (Bears 2018)…— Nicholas Moreano (@NicholasMoreano) September 6, 2023
While Love still poses a very real threat, he's a different quarterback than Rodgers, and the Packers offense could look very different because of that. It sounds like Williams doesn't want his team to focus on past matchups with Rodgers by “chasing ghosts” that are no longer relevant to this 2023 Week 1 tilt.
The Bears are looking to snap an eight-game losing streak to Green Bay in the season opener. The last win for Chicago over Green Bay dates back to December of 2018, when the Bears pulled out a 24-17 win.
Despite the long losing streak, the optimism around the Bears and quarterback Justin Fields is palpable. The Bears are currently favored to win against Jordan Love and the Packers in Week 1 at Chicago in the continuation of one of NFL's premier rivalries.
