Aaron Rodgers laughed when reports came out that the Chicago Tribune had refused to put his name in the title of their article that regarding his massive contract extension. He made it clear that the Green Bay Packers had owned the Chicago Bears for a long time. Why should he care what anybody from that town said? It’s probably going to be more of the same. Then the Khalil Mack trade dropped.
Suddenly the optimistic feeling up in Wisconsin took a considerable downturn. Green Bay wasn’t exactly going into this game healthy. Rodgers hasn’t played a full game since breaking his collarbone last year. Not only that but right tackle Brian Bulaga is still recovering from a torn ACL. Now they must ask him to block arguably the best edge rusher in football?
Another key part of this development is the time. The Packers likely had most of their game plan for the opener on Sunday set. They knew what they wanted to do offensively, having good knowledge of the Bears personnel since most of their starters were returning from last year. All of that had to be thrown out the moment Mack arrived.
Head coach Mike McCarthy admitted as much.
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McCarthy on Khalil Mack being with #Bears: Once the deal was done, that was a big part of our meeting last night. We spent a lot of time watching tape on Mack yesterday. Extraordinary player.
— Tom Silverstein (@TomSilverstein) September 3, 2018
Khalil Mack could solve a vital issue in Bears-Packers rivalry
One of the reasons the Packers have owned the Bears in their rivalry for quite some time is they have Rodgers and know what to do with him. All they have to do is keep him well-protected from too much pressure and he’ll do the damage necessary to win. Only when they’re able to fluster him can they open that window. Here’s a stat breakdown of Rodgers’ five most recent games against Chicago and the amount of pressure he was under.
- Week 4, 2017: 179 yards, 4 TDs, 0 INTs (pressured 10 times)
- Week 15, 2016: 252 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs (pressured 25 times)
- Week 7, 2016: 326 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs (pressured 24 times)
- Week 12, 2015: 202 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT (pressured 26 times)
- Week 1, 2015: 189 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs (pressured 9 times)
It would seem based on the stats that the magic number for the Bears is 25. Whenever they’ve harassed him with hurries, hits or sacks 25 total times in a game, Rodgers has not played his best football with just one touchdown and one interception to show for it. Anything below that and he has a staggering 10 touchdowns to zero interceptions.
Flipping the script
Last year the Bears defense had a serious problem getting to the quarterback. Rodgers was only flustered 10 times in his lone appearance against them while Brett Hundley, who beat them later in the year endured 17 pressures. That’s a total of 27 in two games. It’s hard to beat a good team under those conditions.
No doubt Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy had that in the back of their minds when they executed the plan to go get Mack. Suddenly the Packers have to deal with a combination of the All-Pro edge rusher, Leonard Floyd, and Akiem Hicks. Probably the best they’ve faced in the past five or six years. This alone won’t lead to success, but it will make things a lot easier.
That’s all Chicago can ask for.
