The Green Bay Packers, coming off of an exhilarating 27-24 overtime win over the Cincinnati Bengals, will welcome the Chicago Bears into Lambeau Field for a Thursday Night showdown this week. The Packers and Bears met on Thursday Night Football last season, which resulted in a 26-10 Packers victory. The Bears, who are expected to be in rebuild mode this season, will come into this game riding high after a surprising upset victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Chicago has been a scrappy team all season and they’ll be looking to deliver an upset this Thursday Night. Here are three keys to victory for the Packers to avoid the upset this Thursday.
Week Four Green Bay Packers Keys To Victory
1- Play Fast In The First Half, Too
The Packers have had an immensely hard time scoring in the first half this season. They were shut out in week one and only mustered 14 points altogether in the first half of their next two games. They seem to come into games tense and nervous and conservative in their play-calling and seem to lack any sort of aggressiveness or motivation. The Packers can’t continue to win games playing like that. It’s essential that Green Bay plays fast in the first half as well as the second half. The sense of urgency in the first half of all three games this season compared to the second half is like you’re watching an entirely different game.
Sure, Sunday’s comeback win was crazy and exciting. But no team can win games that way every week. Utilizing the hurry up offense earlier in the game and playing with a sense of urgency would throw the defense off like it does in the second half and instead of the Packers having to climb out of holes, they’ll be the ones piling up the points. If Green Bay wants to avoid digging themselves into holes, they need to play like they do in the second half from start to finish.
2- Get Ty Montgomery Going
Ty Montgomery has had a relatively quiet start to the year. Some of that can be attributed to the fact that Green Bay continuously finds themselves in situations that call for throwing the ball. But the numbers don’t lie: on 41 carries through three games, Montgomery has only gained 124 yards and averaged a paltry 3.0 yards per carry. Last season, Montgomery’s two best games of the year came against the Bears, where he ran for a combined total of 222 yards on 25 carries and an 8.8 yards per carry average.
If Montgomery can do on Thursday what he did to the Bears last year, it would take an immense load of pressure off of Aaron Rodgers, who has thrown at least 42 passes in each of the first three games of the year. It’d be nice to have a game where Rodgers doesn’t have to be the hero, and with Montgomery’s past success against the Bears, this could be just that kind of game for Rodgers.
3- Shut Down Tarik Cohen and Jordan Howard
Tarik Cohen and Jordan Howard have been a fantastic duo for the Bears so far this season. The two have combined for 354 yards on 69 carries, an average of 5.1 yards per carry. Cohen, who primarily serves as a pass-catching threat, already has 20 receptions on the year. These two have been the heart and soul of the Bears’ offense, and if they’re able to get going, the Packers could be in trouble.
Green Bay’s run defense, while ranked 21st in the league, hasn’t looked that bad this year, and they could get a huge boost should Mike Daniels return this week. If the Packers are able to clog up the lanes, that would force a mediocre Mike Glennon to beat the Packers. While Glennon hasn’t been horrible this year and could certainly put up some yards on a subpar Packers pass defense, the Packers would be better off trying to win a shootout against a mediocre quarterback like Glennon than watch the Bears control the clock and keep Rodgers off the field with a strong running game.
Overall, after seeing how poorly Green Bay played in the first half against the Bengals, this game doesn’t seem like as much of a pushover as it once was. The Bears looked good against the Steelers on Sunday and they’re going to bring it against the Packers. A win in this game would assert Green Bay’s dominance over it’s rival and build up even more much-needed confidence heading into Dallas for week five.
