Matt Nagy Has Had Answers for Vikings

One of the great unexplained mysteries of the Matt Nagy coaching era is how the Bears have been unable to do much against the Green Bay Packers, yet they have dominated their series with the Minnesota Vikings.

The Vikings conversely have a 7-4-1 record with Green Bay in their last 12 games and have won the last two. They haven't been embarrassed against the Packers the way Nagy's Bears, John Fox's Bears and Marc Trestman's Bears have.

Meanwhile, the Bears are 5-1 against Minnesota under Nagy, also 7-1 against Detroit but that's easily explained by the Lions' downtrodden state since foolishly firing coach Jim Caldwell.

The truth is, the wins by the Bears over Minnesota came in every manner, so there is no system beater involved or key. The Bears outscored the Vikings 33-27 in a critical win last year to help their playoff drive. David Montgomery had a career-high 146 yards rushing in that one.

They did something similar in 2019 when the Vikings were using backups, but the same game meant nothing to the Bears, either, and it was played in Minneapolis.

The Bears defense dominated the Vikings in a 16-6 win with Chase Daniel playing most of the game in 2019 and they had a pair of close, interesting games in 2018 that the Bears won.

Nagy was asked about the way they've handled the Vikings and understandably he seemed a bit reticent when he addressed this. He didn't want to dwell on their victories and infuriate anyone in purple.

"I think that for us we've had some big games against them, there's been some close games," Nagy said. "We've struggled like you said against the Packers, but the Vikings games that we've had have been close.

"They're a good football team every year. It's the same thing this year. They're always good on both sides of the ball. I don't know if there's a coincidence or not, other than we've had a good record against them. They're well-coached and they're a great football team."

The Vikings haven't been great, but have been explosive on offense. They've also been prone to giving up big plays.

They have also made plenty of big defensive plays, but most have been in the pass rush since they lead the NFL in sacks.

"They disguise coverages really well," Fields said. "They bring a lot of blitz packages on third downs. We just have to stay out of long third downs and execute on third down."

Fields had trouble with this sort of thing against Cleveland in his first start, then against Tampa Bay in a blowout loss.

Minnesota will blitz the A-gap, as it has always been Mike Zimmer's signature tactic, and they also have safety Harrison Smith playing all over the field. Smith frequently caused trouble for Mitchell Trubisky over the years with five passes defensed and an interception against him.

"He's a great player," Fields said. "Of course he can do a lot of things on defense. He can play in coverage, play man-to-man and also he's a great blitzer off the edge.

"So, he's definitely a key player that we're going to be looking towards in this game plan and making sure where he is on the field at all times."

The teams play again in the regular-season finale at Minneapolis in what could be an interesting wrap to the year because both Nagy and Zimmer have been subjects of constant speculation over job security.

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