The Chicago Bears left Sunday with a 9-3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, a game that was messy in just about every way possible. The football was ugly, the weather was ugly, and Caleb Williams’ injury was ugly. Still, one bad afternoon does not suddenly change the entire shape of this season.
Williams’ injury news did bring some relief. The quarterback is dealing with a hamstring injury and is week-to-week.
That is obviously better than the worst-case scenario, and even if the Bears had to lean on Tyson Bagent for a stretch - or, in a more extreme case, Case Keenum - there would still be reasons to stay afloat. Not as many, sure, but enough to avoid tossing the whole year aside.
Before Williams went down, though, the Bears were already having a rough time against Minnesota. They struggled to get anything going on the ground or through the air, and Ben Johnson’s offense looked stuck against a Brian Flores-led defense that came after Chicago all game long.
That same Vikings unit had already flustered the Green Bay Packers in Week 1, and it looked every bit like one of the league’s best. The rainy conditions only made life harder, with passes slipping and the ball looking difficult to handle.
It was also a far cry from what Chicago showed in Week 1, when it put up 59 points against Carolina. On Sunday, the Bears managed just one field goal in four quarters.
That kind of drop-off raises questions, no doubt, but it does not automatically mean Johnson has lost his touch. It could just as easily be a bad matchup, bad weather, poor execution, or some combination of all three.
There were real issues, though. Johnson and the coaching staff did not have an answer early for the Vikings’ pass rush, and the adjustments never seemed to come cleanly.
The Bears’ blockers were often out of position or getting shoved backward. Penalties were a problem too, just as they were in Week 1.
Even so, this is still only Week 2. The Bears are not the dominant team they looked like against Carolina, and they are not as broken as they looked on Sunday.
There is still a strong running game here, a defense that has flaws but can also punch above its weight, a deep receiving corps, and a coaching staff that should be able to learn from this. Bagent, too, is a serviceable backup.
The Bears will see the Vikings again, and Johnson and his staff will have to take something from this loss. The players will need to do the same.
But there is no reason to hit the panic button, even if Williams misses a few weeks. Even if the Eagles beat the Bears on Monday Night Football next week.
In Other News...
Bears Fans Have Every Right To Be Frustrated By Gervon Dexter Decision
The Bears interior pass rush has been a sore spot early this season, and Gervon Dexter Sr. only made the decision to move on look harder to explain. Through two games, Dexter has piled up eight quarterback pressures, a sack and six hurries, production that has already topped Chicagos entire interior defensive line in pressures while he settles in with Atlanta after the trade.
Chicago sent Dexter to the Falcons for Clark Phillips and a draft pick, but the timing has invited plenty of second-guessing because the Bears are still searching for consistent push up front. The move also comes with a bigger roster-building question hanging over it, since the team chose to commit to Grady Jarrett instead of holding onto a younger lineman who was already showing signs of growth. [Read more 🡒]
Ben Johnson's Bears Explanation Will Only Frustrate Fans More
Rainy, messy games at Soldier Field have a way of stripping football down to its ugliest parts, and the Bears got a full dose of that in a 9-3 loss to the Vikings. Ben Johnson pointed to the weather as a major reason the offense never found rhythm, which is understandable on a night when execution across the board was hard to come by. Still, Chicagos problems went well beyond slick footing and a wet ball.
The Bears piled up penalties, threw an interception, allowed four sacks and had a field goal blocked, a combination that made the offensive collapse feel bigger than the conditions alone. Even with more total yards than Minnesota, they produced far less than they did a week earlier, leaving the bigger question unchanged: how much of this was the rain, and how much was a unit that simply didnt handle the moment well enough? [Read more 🡒]
Caleb Williams Just Sparked A Bears Debate He Did Not Need
Caleb Williams early-season start for the Bears has already come with the usual rookie pressure, but a minor hamstring injury in Week 2 pulled him into a side debate he probably did not need. After Williams showed some emotion over the setback, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy took aim at the quarterbacks reaction, turning a routine injury concern into a public back-and-forth that quickly spilled beyond the field.
Williams answered by reposting a tweet that called Portnoy soft, including a reference to a past incident involving a college student and Portnoy. Portnoy pushed back by denying he personally had anyone arrested, then kept mocking Williams injury and reaction, leaving the Bears quarterback caught in a noisy off-field dispute when the only thing Chicago really wants is a clean path forward on the field. [Read more 🡒]