Not long ago, everyone was raving about the great situation Caleb Williams found himself in with the Chicago Bears.
There was a team in the NFC North that took great care to ensure a new quarterback would have immediate success. It just wasn’t the bears.
The Minnesota Vikings weren’t challenged by the Bears on Monday night, and that wasn’t a huge surprise. At this point in the season, everyone can see that the 12-2 Vikings are way ahead of the 4-10 Bears and that was reinforced by Minnesota’s 30-12 victory. Williams’ rookie struggles continued as the Vikings tied the Lions for first place in the NFC North and the Philadelphia Eagles for the best record in the NFC.
While we’ve gone on and on about the Bears’ receivers, none of them are Justin Jefferson, and Jordan Addison isn’t bad himself. The Bears signed running back D’Andre Swift, but the Vikings got a better deal for Aaron Jones. Williams has talent, but Sam Darnold also has draft pedigree and has been the much better quarterback this season. Everyone pointed to the Bears’ defensive improvement late last season and ignored how good the Vikings were with coordinator Brian Flores. And the coaching generally turned out to be no contest.
The Vikings are the surprise team in the NFL. Perhaps part of the surprise is that too much time was spent congratulating the Bears this offseason.
Bears are off to a rough start
The Bears have been a mess for most of the season, and that’s how Monday night started.
Chicago went for it on its first possession on fourth-and-1, and Swift was stopped for no gain. The Vikings got a field goal out of that.
On the Bears’ second drive, a leaky offensive line was again a problem, as Williams was hit from behind by defensive end Jonathan Greenard and fumbled. Minnesota recovered and turned that into a touchdown pass to Jefferson. Before the second Monday night game even started, it was already 10-0.
The Vikings then helped keep the Bears in the game. Jefferson shockingly dropped a touchdown pass. Minnesota passed on a field goal attempt on fourth-and-3, and Darnold threw incomplete under pressure. A running back against the gambler penalty kept a Bears drive alive and kept the Vikings from a drive that would have started in good field position.
And that usually didn’t matter. The Bears were not good enough to take advantage and trailed 13-0 at halftime.
Vikings slowly move away
The Bears’ sloppiness showed on what should have been their first touchdown. Offensive lineman Doug Kramer came in to play fullback and lead blocker for Swift. Swift scored, but Kramer never declared eligibility, so it was a 5-yard penalty instead of a touchdown. Sharp, well-coached teams rarely make these types of unforced errors. There’s a reason why the Bears will be looking for a new head coach this season. The Bears’ drive was further pushed back by a holding penalty and they had to settle for a field goal.
When the Bears didn’t turn that sequence into a touchdown, the Vikings finally woke up for a ride. Darnold led Minnesota downfield and made a nice pass to Jefferson down to the 1-yard line, and Jones scored on the next play to put the Bears in a 20-3 hole.
Monday’s Bears game looked familiar. Williams ran around trying to do too much, often getting hit hard. There didn’t seem to be much of a plan for the offense, or perhaps the starting quarterback wasn’t experienced enough to execute it. The Vikings weren’t great for most of the night, but the defense was good as usual and Minnesota was never in danger of losing.
The Vikings continued their roll and no one expected them to be 12-2 at this point in the season. No one expected the Bears to go 12-2 either, but given the offseason hype, it should have been a lot better than what we saw.
