Still owned: Bears fall to Packers, new QB Love 38-20

Every NFL season begins with a sense of anticipation and hope for the 32 fan bases across the country.

Chiefs fans are hoping for a repeat championship. Eagles fans are hoping for redemption. Bengals and Bills fans hope their team can take the next step.

And Bears fans? Well, they are expecting to see at least some improvement off a tough 3-14 campaign. Some - like yours truly - even had the audacity to predict a playoff berth.

So it's little wonder that the pregame atmosphere at Soldier Field was truly electric. Tailgaters were out in force, jammed in so tight that you could barely move through the sea of tables, grills and coolers.

Nearly every seat was filled for Jim Cornelison's rousing rendition of the national anthem.

And when the Bears' offense hit the field, there was plenty of belief that Justin Fields was about to carve up a suspect Packers' defense.

Truly, it had to feel like Christmas morning to most of the 62,000-plus in attendance.

But in true green-and-gold Grinch fashion, the Packers' stole the early momentum with an impressive fourth-down stop and rode off with an easy 38-20 victory that left the crowd wondering just "Who? Who? Who?" are these Bears?

This ranks as perhaps the worst opener in franchise history. If not, it's neck-and-neck with the 49-7 throttling San Francisco handed the Bears in 2003, just two years after they went 13-3.

"This hurts," said coach Matt Eberflus. "This is a division opponent. All the guys in there are sick to their stomachs - all the coaches, everybody.

"But we also know it's the first game and we've got to get better."

You don't say.

It's difficult to know where to begin, but it's first fair to wonder if every healthy player should have seen more preseason action. Justin Fields threw just 9 passes, playing twice. RBs Khalil Herbert had 6 carries, D'Onta Foreman 8 and wideout DJ Moore caught just 2 passes.

Meanwhile, Packers QB Jordan Love threw 33 passes while playing in all three games.

So was that the difference?

Tight end Cole Kmet balked at this logic, pointing out that San Francisco barely played any starters in the preseason and trounced Pittsburgh 30-7 on Sunday.

"There's no correlation between guys that get reps vs. don't get reps," Kmet said. "I get what you're saying. I don't know how much correlation it truly has to effectiveness when you go out there - and I just say that from a statistical standpoint."

Regardless, the Bears were certainly outplayed and out-coached - especially in the second half when Green Bay's lead ballooned from 10-6 to 24-6 in less than four minutes.

Where was the defense on that 51-yard throwback screen to Aaron Jones with 12 minutes left in the third quarter? Too many were following QB Jordan Love, who was rolling out.

How did Jones turn a short pass on fourth-and-3 into a 35-yard TD to make it 24-6? By turning new LB T.J. Edwards inside out with a sweet cut fake after he passed the line of scrimmage.

How did Packers WR Jayden Reed run a long-developing route on third-and-8 on the first play of the fourth quarter to pick up 11 yards? Because there was no pass rush.

And how - HOW? - did tight end Luke Musgrave end up so ridiculously wide open on the next play for a 37-yard gain?

We'll let Eberflus explain that disaster.

"That was a fumbled snap and that was a hideout play," Eberflus said. "So the tight end blocks, hides out and goes up the numbers. The (defenders kept) their eyes on the quarterback. We've got to stay back in coverage. We've got to do a better job there."

Yes. Good call.

Where else can the Bears be better? Just about everywhere.

The 7 penalties for 61 yards were killers. Two were holding calls by second-year tackle Braxton Jones. Two others were back-to-back false starts - the second by THE ENTIRE OFFENSIVE LINE.

There was little, if any, pass rush by the D-line. Fields was 16-for-23 for a meager 148 yards before some garbage-time throws added 68 yards to his total.

Yuck, yuck and yuck.

"It hurts, man," Kmet said. "I actually thought there were some things we did well when we went back to the sideline. But it's like, 'Yeah, but we were in second-and-20.'

"You get an 8-yard play and it's third-and-12. That's not us.

"We've got to come back, figure that stuff out and be able to get going against Tampa."

Asked what he needs to see going forward, Eberflus broke out the Football 101 handbook - an item you'd think most players wouldn't need.

"Just the basic of football," Eberflus said. "Eliminate the penalties. That's gonna help us out a lot.

"Protect the football. That's gonna help us out a lot.

"Take the football away. That's gonna give us short fields and give us opportunities. And we've done that really well in practice, both sides.

"So I plan on seeing (all of) that in the future."

He'd better. Or this is going to be a long - and awfully painful - season.