TODAY’S SPORTSTAT — For openers, Packers have been impressive

By JERRY TAPP

The Green Bay Packers open their 2018 regular season on September 9 hosting the Chicago Bears. The game is a Sunday Night contest.

The Packers in the Super Bowl era are 20-16-1 in season-opening games played at home and they have won five of their last six games to start the season as the home team.

Here are a handful of stats for the Packers in the first game of the season as the home team

• The last season-opening game played at home that the Packers won was last season when they defeated the Seattle Seahawks, 17-9.
• Of the 37 season openers at home since 1966, the Packers are 3-0 on Monday, 1-0 on Thursday, 1-0 on Saturday, and 15-16-1 on Sundays.
• The last first game of the season loss at home was in 2012 when Green Bay lost 30-22 to San Francisco.
• The 2018 game against the Bears is a 7:20 p m  (Central) start. The Pack is 0-5 in season-opening games at home since 1970 that started at 1 p.m.; 2-4 in contests that started from 3 p.m. to 6:59 p.m.; 4-0 in those games that started between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• The Packers have played three overtime games in the season opener played at home: They were 2-1 in those games.
• Green Bay since 1966 is 10-7-1 in season openers at home that were decided by eight points or less; they were 10-9 in games that were decided by more than eight points.

Aaron Rodgers will start his 11th season opener as the Packers starting QB. He has a 7-3 record in season openers. Here’s a trio of stats regarding Rodgers season-opening starts for the Packers since 2008:

1. Rodgers, Tom Brady and Joe Flacco have each won seven season-opening games since 2008, topping the league in that category. Matt Ryan, Alex Smith, Matthew Stafford and Jay Cutler follow, each with six wins in opening-season games.
2. Rodgers is third in the stat for most opening game touchdown passes since 2008 with 19, Drew Brees tops the list with 25. Here are the Top 10 in this category since 2008:

Drew Brees, 25
Philip Rivers, 20
Aaron Rodgers, 19
Tom Brady, 18
Peyton Manning, 17
Matthew Stafford, 17
Jay Cutler, 16
Tony Romo, 16
Matt Ryan, 16
Ben Roethlisberger, 14
Alex Smith, 14

3. Rodgers’ Passer Rating in season-opening games is just under 100. Brees tops this stat at 106.5. Here are the QBs with the best Passer Rating in season openers since 2008 (based on a minimum of 100 pass attempts in season opening games):

Drew Brees, 106,5
Peyton Manning, 104.9
Matt Ryan, 102.1
Tony Romo, 100.1
Aaron Rodgers, 99.9
Derek Carr, 99.0
Tom Brady, 98.6
Philip Rivers, 96.6
Ryan Fitzpatrick, 94.9
Alex Smith, 94.6

Follow Jerry on Twitter @StatsonTapp