Interesting that the Bears decided to keep Noah Sewell at middle linebacker and leave Tremaine Edmunds at weak side linebacker with TJ Edwards out. Apparently, they decided to leave Edmunds at his position of strength rather than return him to his old position where he has a wealth of experience. That may be a measure of how much the change has benefited him.
The Vikings went right at Nashon Wright. Wright played for the Vikings in 2024, so they know who he is. As far as I’m concerned, they would have taken their pick of the corners to pick on. Apparently, Wright was the guy. He made a pretty good play to make them pay when he intercepted McCarthy in the end zone at the end of the second half. He also broke coverage on the go ahead touchdown for the Vikings within the final minute of the game.
The Vikings also picked on Sewell as a weak spot in the defense. They had good success running the outside zone (as they did in week 1) and went after him in coverage underneath with Aaron Jones.
Kudos to the Viking offensive line. They did a great job of blocking the Bears in the run. Andrew Billings wasn’t a big factor, and if you can effectively block a load like that, you’re going pretty well.
The Bears had a hard time getting pressure on McCarthy early on, but in fairness, the Vikings were trying to get the ball out quickly.
Give credit to Grady Jarrett for getting pressure on McCarthy on a stunt on Kevin Byard’s second-quarter interception.
I was very much worried about the offensive weapons that Minnesota brings to the table: Justin Jefferson, Jalen Nailor, Aaron Jones. But I underestimated how much having a rookie quarterback just getting comfortable with the speed of the NFL was going to hamper them. McCarthy was reportedly wearing a bandage on his right hand when he was warming up, and whatever was behind that couldn’t have helped. Eventually, their patience may pay off. But for now, McCarthy is holding them back. The Vikings very evidently came out in the second half trying to run the ball better to take the pressure off McCarthy.
Justin Jefferson was wearing a double strand of large pearls or diamonds or something today. Isn’t there a rule against that? Shouldn’t there be? At least a rule against fashion?
Offense
Caleb Williams was killing me with his deep ball accuracy on third down early. Man, the thought of where they’d be if a decent percentage of those were completions.
The offense was just not running well. It was a stuttering, stop-and-start affair that just wasn’t smooth enough in the passing game to cleanly move the ball down the field. No one looks comfortable right now, especially when Williams is trying to connect with his wide receivers.
The Bears keep missing those free blitzers, especially off the edge. Williams keeps pulling rabbits out of his hat and escaping, but you wonder how long he’s going to get away with that with any consistency. They need to work this out.
About midway through the second quarter, it occurred to me that the Bears were underutilizing their tight ends again. Right about that point, they threw subsequent passes to Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland. It’s a nice job by Ben Johnson.
I particularly liked seeing Kmet in the backfield, where he can either block or become a receiver.
The Vikings started to get a disturbing amount of penetration from their defensive line in the second half. I’m not sure why, but Noah Jackson was behind at least some of it. He had a pretty bad half of football to my eye. In any case, the Bears need to take a close look at whatever changed. It’s hard to run the ball that way, and the Bears found it to be rougher going after that.
Theo Benedet also struggled at times in pass protection. He’s getting pushed back into Williams too often. On the other hand, like most of the line outside of Jackson, he did a good job of run blocking.
I’m not sure whose snaps he took, but we certainly saw more of Luther Burden today.
Miscellaneous
It was nice to hear one of the all-time greats in Tom Brady doing color commentary and being so patient with two young quarterbacks on the field in Williams and McCarthy. I’m sure a guy like that could have torn both of them apart relentlessly for 3 hours. But no one wants to hear that right now so early in their careers when they are both so obviously just developing.
I continue to worry about the Bears’ coverage units. Statistically, they were near the bottom of the league coming into the game.
I’m not sure what’s behind this spate of dropped and juggled balls. Last week, I thought perhaps it was the cold weather. Hard to figure that as the reason this week in a dome.
The Bears did a pretty good job on third down today both offensively and defensively.
You always want 0 penalties, but realistically, they weren’t a big issue.
The Bears have taken advantage of some weaker teams on the schedule and pulled out wins in the final minutes thanks in large part to Williams. It’s been their year to this point. But that isn’t going to be the case every year, and it’s covering up some real deficiencies, especially when it comes to depth. I think this team will continue to get better, but, to be honest, it wouldn’t hurt them to lose some games toward the end of the year to keep the organization grounded. As the schedule continues to get tougher, I think that’s likely. It’s worth remembering that getting into the playoffs and losing in the first round isn’t the goal. They may get there eventually, but they aren’t a Super Bowl contender, and they need time and resources to build.
