The Bears head into Week 2 at 1-0, and the Minnesota Vikings are waiting with the kind of defense that usually makes life miserable. Brian Flores has earned every bit of the praise that comes his way, and Minnesota’s roster looks loaded on both sides of the ball. Still, this matchup carries a strange little wrinkle: Ben Johnson has had Flores’ number.
That history is hard to ignore. Johnson is 5-1 against Flores’ defenses overall, including a 1-1 mark as a head coach. Flores did steal the first meeting in Johnson’s head-coaching debut with a late comeback, but Johnson got the better of him in the rematch.
The numbers back up the trend. Johnson’s teams have averaged 27.5 points against Flores’ defenses.
Even when Minnesota threw a heavy dose of pressure at Caleb Williams in 2025, it didn’t fully shut Chicago down. In the first meeting, the Vikings blitzed at about 40 percent and used masked shells to throw off Williams’ timing, yet the Bears still scored 24 points.
In the second game, Flores ramped it up even further, blitzing on nearly 80 percent of Williams’ dropbacks, but Chicago still came away with the win despite posting its second-lowest scoring output of the season.
That’s why the Bears’ Week 1 performance matters here too. They erupted for 59 points, and while nobody should expect that kind of fireworks every Sunday, the offense looks capable of getting into the 30-point range no matter who’s lined up across from it. Williams has already shown he can handle pressure, which puts Flores in a tough spot.
He tried that approach against Jordan Love in Week 1, blitzing on more than 82 percent of his dropbacks, and it nearly backfired. Doing that against one of the game’s best quarterbacks is a different challenge entirely.
Flores deserves the respect. He’s a top-tier defensive coordinator and, as the source puts it, probably should have a team of his own.
But Johnson has been the one coach who keeps finding answers. Sunday gives him another shot to prove that Flores’ defense is still his kryptonite.
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For a team trying to settle the left side of its offensive line, that matters. Braxton Jones handled left tackle in Week 1, but Trapilos return could give Chicago another option in front of Caleb Williams and potentially shift how the Bears piece together protection moving forward, especially as the schedule begins to tighten in a divisional stretch. [Read more 🡒]