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Bear Digest

Painful Chicago Bears Report Card for Week 2 Loss to Minnesota Vikings

The Bears suffered through ineffective play and mistakes near the goal line but even worse was losing Caleb Williams to a hamstring injury.
Gene Chamberlain|
T.J. Hockenson looks for yardage as Xavier Woods closes in for the Bears in Sunday's 9-3 Vikings win.
T.J. Hockenson looks for yardage as Xavier Woods closes in for the Bears in Sunday's 9-3 Vikings win. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

Caleb Williams' injury is the kind of bad break that can send a season into a downward spiral.

Just ask the Washington Commanders. Last year they had misfortune with Jayden Daniels injury and next thing they know they've gone from an NFC championship game appearance to 5-12. Cincinnati had the same type of disaster with Joe Burrow's injury.

It's happened to the Vikings last week, but they've sure leaned to deal with it. Carson Wentz had no problem generating the plays he needed to in order to go 5-0 against the Bears in starts for his career.

A Ben Johnson-coached team that couldn't get out of its own way Sunday helped him. Some credit goes to the Vikings but silly penalties, the turnover at the goal line, a blocked chip shot on a field goal after a high snap from center and a running game that struggled with inconsistency all made for a terrible day at Soldier Field for the home team.

The coach was even second-guessing himself and the way he handled the blitzing of Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

"There's some things, looking back on it, I'd love to do a little bit differently," Ben Johnson said. "And yet I mean that's what makes it so challenging to go against this guy. I think he did a great job.

"You know we get a little bit of momentum coming out of halftime there and we make it all the way down and then we kind of give it up. We had some points in the bag, I thought."

It was typical of what happened to the Bears on this Sunday in the rain at Soldier Field. Here are the soggy grades from this disaster.

Running game: D

It was maybe the worst 134-yard rushing performance in history as no one had more than 47 yards and the backs accounted for only 92 yards on 26 attempts. The rushing total wasn't the worst of it. D'Andre Swift's fumble at the 1-yard line came on first-and-goal from the 1. They were going to get three more cracks at the go-ahead touchdown, and he couldn't maintain possession. There was one run they shouldn't have attempted. That was one by Caleb Williams.

Passing game: D-

Williams 56.2 passer rating pretty much said it all in terms of how he and the Bears offensive line handled the pressure from Minnesota's front. Rookie tight end Sam Roush had a nightmarish game. He dropped what might have been a touchdown pass on first-and-goal from the 17. At worst, it could have set up a TD. He dropped another pass. And he committed a false start penalty. That's an eventful day for someone who was supposed to be a blocking tight mainly drafted to work out of the 13-personnel packages. Center Garrett Bradbury committed two of his four penalties in the passing game, a holding and a false start from the shotgun no less. How does a center even commit a false start when he begins the play? Bears wide receivers were led for the second straight week by 32-year-old Kalif Raymond with five catches. What happened to Luther Burden, Colston Loveland and Rome Odunze, their really big threats? Odunze made three catches, Burden three catches and Loveland one. What's DJ Moore doing these days, anyway?

Run defense: C-

Until the final drive they had been so-so at stopping the run. Then allowing 25 yards to Aaron Jones' old bones on a final 67-yard march to Will Reichard's field goal left almost no time for a final Bears two-minute drill. Jones had 108 yards, his first 100-yard game since Nov. 24, 2024 when he had a 106-yard game. That came against the Bears, as well.

Pass defense: B-

If someone told you ahead of the game that Justin Jefferson would catch three passes for 55 yards, and Carson Wentz would barely hit the 50% mark and throw for 143 yards with a 77.7 passer rating, no one with the Bears could have turned it down. Dillon Thieneman with a PBU at the back of the end zone, Tyrique Stevenson with one at the sidelines and Devin Bush with another all combined to reverse last week's Bears efforts against the pass. They also found a pass rush, with even motivated Dayo Odeyingbo getting involved and joining Austin Booker and Malik Muhammad in making sacks.

Special teams: D

No field goal from 23 yards out should ever be blocked. The high snap by Beau Gardner didn't help, but the Bears have a history now of getting field goals blocked by the Vikings. They had it happen in 2024, too. Kalif Raymond's 24-yard punt return and a 50-yard Cairo Santos first-half field goal provided all of their special teams output.

Coaching: C-

This one might have been lost when the Bears were talking about how they wanted to be the highest-scoring team ever. Blame Ben Johnson for letting that one out. The Bears were all talking about it within the last week. They now have 62 points on the year after 59-point and three-point performances. They only need 535 more points or about 36 per game to reach their goal. It might prove difficult if they're going to go by field goals without scoring touchdowns. They'd need about 179 more field goals for that.

Overall: D

So much for taking the NFC North and not giving it back. The Bears won the division with a 2-4 in the division last year and are already 0-1 this year in it. At least there was one possible bit of speculative good news afterward when Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio said it might be a minor grade-one hamstring injury for Williams. While Florio isn't a team doctor, at least the report didn't come from Rome Odunze, whose positive comments on the severity of Bears injuries have yet to prove correct or even close to correct.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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