Brian Flores does not need a reminder that Ben Johnson can make life miserable for a defense. He already has plenty of those. What changed in Week 1 was the scale of the problem waiting for him in Chicago on Sunday.
Johnson’s Bears steamrolled Carolina for 59 points and piled up 291 rushing yards with six touchdowns. D’Andre Swift did most of the heavy lifting, running for 124 yards and three scores.
Kyle Monangai added 100 yards and another touchdown, while Caleb Williams chipped in 65 rushing yards and two scores of his own. Carolina’s defense is not Minnesota’s defense, but that is still a massive day on the ground.
And Flores is walking into that matchup fresh off one of his most aggressive game plans yet. According to Pro Football Focus’s Week 1 blitz rates, Minnesota blitzed on 82.1 percent of its defensive snaps against Green Bay, 55 of 67 plays.
Washington was next at 50.9 percent. Flores spent the afternoon hammering the gas, and now he has to deal with a coach who has spent years hunting the space that kind of pressure can leave behind.
The key point is that this is not just about blitzing being risky. Minnesota held Green Bay to 66 rushing yards and no rushing touchdowns even with all that heat coming. So Flores has proof his defense can attack without completely blowing up its run integrity.
Chicago is a different kind of test.
When linebackers crowd the line, safeties rotate down, and defenders show pressure from multiple gaps before the snap, Johnson can lean on motion, option looks, and misdirection to make those defenders show their hand. If someone gets overeager, Swift has room to cut back.
If contain slips, Williams can turn a broken play into 20 yards. If motion or a puller washes a defender out, Monangai is already into the second level.
That is why Minnesota cannot let that 82.1 percent blitz rate become a calling card.
Flores has felt this before while facing Johnson’s offenses in Detroit. The Lions went 4-0 against Flores’ Vikings in 2023 and 2024 and scored at least 30 points in every one of those games. In the 2023 finale, Minnesota blitzed Jared Goff on 26 of his 33 dropbacks, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, and Detroit still came away with a 30-20 win.
Flores did get the better of Johnson once in 2025, when Minnesota beat Chicago 27-24. So this is not a story about Flores having no answers. It is about Johnson repeatedly showing he can punish a defense when it gets too comfortable with the same level of aggression.
That is why the best version of Flores’ defense has never been about sending everybody on every snap. His edge is uncertainty. Minnesota brought him back for 2026 because of that schematic advantage, not because the blitz rate itself is the prize.
Show Williams six rushers and bring four. Mug both linebackers in the A-gaps, then drop one into the passing lane. Force Chicago to sort out pressure without making life easy on the ground.
The Vikings can be better than Carolina and still get caught on Sunday. After watching Chicago run for 291 yards, Flores has to make sure his own aggression does not become Johnson’s favorite part of the game plan.
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