The Green Bay Packers will open the 2019 season with a trip to Chicago to play the Bears at Soldier Field. The Thursday night game between the old rivals will also open the NFL season as part of the league’s 100th season celebration. Here are a few quick thoughts on the Packers opening the season against the Bears: – Tough opponent, tough location, tough opener. The Bears won 12 games (7-1 at home) and the NFC North title last year and were a short field goal away from winning a playoff game. The Packers’ quest to reclaim the division crown will get a big test from the champions right out of the gates. – Playing in Chicago in early September beats playing in Chicago in December. Soldier Field should be in good shape, and weather won’t be a factor. The Packers are now likely to get the Bears at Lambeau Field late in the year. – Playing a tough, talented and physical defense away from home won’t be easy for a team starting from scratch on offense. – Then again, the Bears will playing against a brand new offense and won’t know the scheme like the back of their hand. Plus, the Bears face an adjustment going from Vic Fangio to Chuck Pagano. – In 2006, a young coach named Mike McCarthy coached his first ever NFL game against a good Bears team. It ended in a 26-0 defeat at Lambeau Field. Matt LaFleur, who will also be coaching his first ever NFL game against the Bears, will hope for a much different result Sept. 5. – Aaron Rodgers in his career against the Bears: 45 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. The Packers are 16-5 in his 21 starts. – Adrian Amos’ first game as a member of the Packers will be against the Bears, his team for the first four seasons of his career. – Ha Ha Clinton-Dix’s first game as a member of the Bears will be against the Packers, his team for most of the first five seasons of his career. – Amos, Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith and Billy Turner will be in the spotlight for their Packers debuts. A year ago, Khalil Mack made a big impact in his Bears debut at Lambeau Field. – The last time the Packers opened the NFL season was in Seattle in 2014. They lost, 36-16. – Week 1’s matchup will mark the third time in the past five years that the Packers and Bears have played the first week in a season. The Packers won the last two, including last season’s big comeback. – The Packers had won seven straight games at Soldier Field before last season’s defeat in Week 15, which clinched the division title for the Bears. – Hard to imagine a better opportunity for the Packers. Want to set the tone for the 2019 season? Then go into Chicago and knock off the Bears to start the Matt LaFleur era. Getting a one-game jump on the champs with a game at Lambeau Field later in the year could be huge. – Even if things go poorly in Chicago, the Packers will get 10 days to recalibrate before Week 2. That could be an important time of adjustment and self-reflection for Matt LaFleur and the Packers.<doc-sep>The @NFL will open its 100th season with the league’s oldest rivalry. Packers 🆚 Bears on Thursday, Sept. 5, at Soldier Field! 📰: https://t.co/82JeWgP2q9 #NFL100 #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/F6TvxUqVem — Green Bay Packers (@packers) March 25, 2019 The Green Bay Packers will officially open the 2019 season against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on Thursday, Sept. 5. The 199th meeting between the Packers and Bears will kick off at 7:20 p.m. CT and be televised nationally on NBC as part of the league’s 100th season celebration. It will also mark the first regular season game for new Packers coach Matt LaFleur. According to Packers.com, the Packers and Bears have played against each other 14 straight years in prime time, the longest active streak in the NFL. Last season, the Packers came from behind to beat the Bears in Week 1 at Lambeau Field. The Bears returned the favor in Chicago, clinching the NFC North title with a win over the Packers at Soldier Field in Week 15.<doc-sep>The NFL is starting off its 100th season with something special. In recent seasons, the Super Bowl winner has hosted the first game of the following season, but in 2019, the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers will take the spotlight. The league’s most historic rivalry will mark the beginning of the season, as was long rumored this offseason. Of course, the Bears and Packers played in prime time in Week 1 last season, ending with one of the top comebacks of Aaron Rodgers’ career. Chicago got the last laugh in Week 15 on their way to the NFC North division title. The Packers hold a slight advantage in the all-time series, with the Bears now 94-96-6 against Green Bay. Rodgers and company have won 15 out of the last 18 matchups between the two teams, but Matt Nagy will enter 2019 at .500 against his team’s archrival.<doc-sep>Over the last few years, the NFL has had the defending Super Bowl champion open up the season with a home game (unless the Orioles screw things up), but for the league's 100th anniversary season, things will get changed up a bit. Instead of the Patriots hosting a game on Thursday night, it will be the Bears and Packers kicking off the season on Thursday, Sept. 5 at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC. We've been hearing these rumors for months now, but it is finally official -- Chicago will host Green Bay in Week 1 to begin the historic season. The matchup between the two blue-chip franchises will be the 199th meeting in their long-standing NFC North rivalry. The Westgate has the Bears favored (8-5) to win the division, with the Packers (2-1) and Vikings (2-1) right behind them. FanDuel Sportsbook in New Jersey set the opening line for this matchup at Bears -4. It's nice timing too, with the Packers rebooting a bit over the last two years and now looking to take advantage of the final years of Aaron Rodgers' career by adding Matt LaFleur as their new head coach. Several high-profile defensive additions as well as a pair of first-round picks have the Green Bay faithful excited for a bounce-back season. Chicago couldn't be more thrilled for the Bears: in Matt Nagy's first season, Chicago traded for Khalil Mack and stormed to a stunning division title. Mitchell Trubisky enters his third season with plenty of weapons and the prospect of taking another leap and really delivering on his draft status. The Bears were dominant in 2018 but might not have flashed their full upside. Putting that matchup in prime time in Week 1 to open the season only adds to the juice that already comes with every Bears-Packers game. For the Patriots, they will open up their title defense on Sunday night, also on NBC as the first game in the network's "Sunday Night Football" package. New England will raise yet another championship banner ahead of the game, which will begin at 8:20 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 8. The Patriots' opponent will be announced with the rest of the schedule when it is released closer to the draft. The Giants, Browns and Chiefs all loom as possible opponents for the Patriots.<doc-sep>
The NFL season opener has traditionally featured the winner of the previous year's Super Bowl, but that will all change during the 2019 regular season. The NFL announced on Monday afternoon that the Chicago Bears will host the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field to begin the 2019 season on Thursday Night Football. This will mark the second year in a row the Bears and Packers have squared off in Week 1 against each other. There have been rumblings for the last couple months suggesting the two long-time NFL rivals could kick off the upcoming season. The 2019 season will mark the 100-year anniversary for both the NFL and for the Bears organization. The Packers celebrated their 100-year anniversary in 2018 and hosted the Bears at Lambeau Field in Week 1 on Sunday Night Football. The full NFL schedule typically does not get released until sometime in April. The first NFL Kickoff game was introduced in 2002. The first game was between the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Giants. Since 2004, the game has featured the reigning Super Bowl champion. The Baltimore Ravens are the only defending Super Bowl champion that did not host the first game of the year due to a conflict with parking. A game between the Bears and the Packers would be an interesting way to begin the 100-year celebration. Chicago and Green Bay have the oldest rivalry in the NFL, dating back to 1921. Chicago won that first contest by a score of 20-0. The Bears and Packers have played each other 198 times with Green Bay leading the all-time series with a 97-95-6 record. The two squads faced each other in Week 1 of the 2018 season with Green Bay walking away with the victory. That contest featured Khalil Mack's first game in a Bears uniform. Despite his strong performance, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers returned in the second half from an injury to knock off the Bears. Chicago got revenge in Week 15 by knocking off the Packers to claim the NFC North title. The playoff berth was the first for Chicago since the 2010 season. The Bears ended the season with a 12-4 record under NFL Coach of the Year Matt Nagy. The Packers fired head coach Mike McCarthy during the season and ended the year with a 6-9-1 record. The team hired Matt LaFleur as their head coach this offseason. The Packers also added a lot of new players to their roster at the start of free agency, including former Bears starting strong safety Adrian Amos. Green Bay also added offensive lineman Billy Turner and linebackers Preston Smith and Za'Darius Smith to the roster. Recent history has favored the Packers with Green Bay holding a 15-4 record against Chicago dating back to 2010. Chicago's win in Week 15 of the 2018 season was the team's first over the Packers since Thanksgiving night in 2015.