The Chicago Bears defense already has plenty of motivation going into the opener on Thursday night. For one, most of the starters haven't played an actual game since January. Needless to say they're anxious to get out there and hit somebody. Then there's Aaron Rodgers. Playing against one of the best in the NFL always gets the blood flowing. Last but not least, it's the Green Bay Packers. Their greatest rival. It doesn't get much bigger than this.
How much more could a defense ask for to get hyped for a game? Well, they didn't necessarily ask for extra motivation but that didn't stop one Packers player from giving it to them anyway. Rodgers has been the one providing little snippets of juice from his tripping of Matt Nagy at a golf tournament over the summer to his declaration that he's won plenty of times at Soldier Field in the past. He can and plans to do so again.
However, the prize has to go to running back Jamaal Williams. He seems to be feeling good about where the Packers are at the moment. So much so that he openly jabbed at the Bears defense during an interview for Packers.com.
“They’re a good defense, but nobody is scared. Everybody bleeds red. Everybody is mortal. We’re going to play our game. We’re going to play Packers football.”
Chicago Bears defense now has their nitrous
It's rather fascinating that Williams is acting so cocky. Maybe it's because he averaged 5.5 yards per carry last year and the Packers plan to run the football more in 2019. Perhaps he conveniently forgot that he has averaged just 3.53 yards per carry in his four games against the Bears since 2017. Chicago, for all the talk about Khalil Mack's pass rush and Eddie Jackson's coverage skills, had the best run defense in football last year.
They allowed just 80 yards per game. Nothing has changed regarding that front seven since last season too. If anything it's even more dangerous because young standouts like Roquan Smith and Bilal Nichols are no longer rookies. This is a young, fast, and hungry group that flies all over the field. So for a backup running back to come out and talk trash like that to them? It's likely the Bears won't say much about it.
Rest assured though. They're fully aware of it and no doubt plan to use it as extra juice to make the Packers pay dearly.
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