2026 Week 2: Chicago Bears 3, Minnesota Vikings 9

Nothing about this game was pleasant to look at, so here’s John Fogerty instead. He, too, has seen some rain. [Photo: johnfogerty on Instagram]

Player grades can be found at the Qwality Sports Substack.

The grades aren’t exactly what I would expect from a 9-3 game

If the story of the Bears’ week 1 game was PFF jumping the shark in regards to Caleb’s grade, the story of this game is why PFF came to be in the first place. Because, yeah, if you see a team gave up only 9 points and 248 total yards, you would think that the defense had played really well. These guys mostly did not. The run defense was just okay. The pass defense was the beneficiary of playing Carson Wentz in a rain storm. On the other side, if you see a team scored just 3 points, you would think the offense was a disaster. This was in that the team kept shooting themselves in the foot (more on that later), but the story here is that several plays were one block away from being really good. And therein lies the strength of Brian Flores and the Vikings defense. All game long, the Bears had trouble with the Vikings’ slants and stunts. Guys were repeatedly a step late on a block after a slant or a stunt caused confusion or they would just block the wrong guy altogether. I’m not exactly sure how much of that was the fault of the coaching staff and how much was Bradbury blowing the line call, but either way, the Vikings definitely won the coaching battle.

Not Ben Johnson’s finest hour

Brian Flores is a very good defensive coordinator, but you know who is and what he’s gonna do. He’s gonna fling guys at the line over and over. He’s gonna disguise which guys he’s flinging, but there will be guys flung. This worked on Sunday for two reasons. One is that the heavy rain made deep passing extraordinarily difficult, which we can’t control. (Well, actually, we can. *glares at Kevin Warren*) The other is that Ben Johnson kept trying to pick up blitzes instead of countering them, and that, we can control. I expected to see a steady diet of screen passes until Blitz McGee chilled out; an amount of screen passes that would have Luke Getsy watching the game like the gif of Leonardo DiCaprio watching TV. They did not do that. 

The other offensive coaching issue I had was not getting guys open. Too often, routes were run right into zones instead of working together to clear out zones and create space. A couple times Caleb missed a chance to go somewhere with the ball, but he did a mostly good job going through his reads and avoiding happy feet. There just wasn’t much there.

Please stop pointing the gun at your own feet

Bad penalties were drive killers; one drive in particular saw penalties keep points off the board. Swift’s fumble at the one-yard line cost the team at least 3 points. A sloppy operation on a field goal attempt cost 3 more and the only reason they were even going for a field goal there was that Caleb got hurt on what would’ve likely been a TD run otherwise. (The Bears released long snapper Beau Gardner and brought back Scott Daly, so that should answer who was at fault there.) All of this is to say that the opportunities were there and everything that had to go wrong for the Bears to lose did. It still sucks blowing a game that was winnable, but that’s the NFL.

The big bad thing

Caleb’s injury looked awful when it happened. Then experts on Twitter weighed in opining that it may be some weeks rather than the season. Then Ben said Caleb would be week-to-week and wasn’t even explicitly ruled out for Monday. Then he was explicitly ruled out for Monday. Then Adam Schefter reported that people around the league think he could be out 3-4 weeks. In any case, a hamstring is the kind of injury that can linger, so even once he’s back, his mobility could be affected. There’s no way to spin this positively: it hurts. I think Tyson Bagent is a capable QB, but this defense is going to give up 30 a game to anyone with a pulse and I don’t know that Bagent can overcome that. After the Eagles on Monday, the Bears have the Jets, Packers, and Falcons and the only team any of them has beaten other than each other is the Titans. If they can manage 4-2 going into the games against last year’s Super Bowl teams and get Caleb back for those games, everything’s still on the table.

The defense, though

Yeah, 30 to anyone with a pulse. Guys were getting wide open, Wentz just couldn’t hit them. The run defense wasn’t anything to write home about and that was with them playing against Carson Wentz in heavy rain. When they have to respect the pass more than they were, they’re really in trouble. One thing that really stood out was that at times throughout the game, the Bears went to a 4-3 Under look, with D’Marco Jackson at SAM. It didn’t work. Stop doing it, please and thank you. Repeatedly, Jackson lost on the edge and opened the door for a solid Minnesota gain on the ground. If you’re going to go to that Under look, put Sanborn at SAM until Noah Sewell gets back. Is Sanborn a liability in coverage? Sure is, but if you’re going 4-3, you’re accepting not being optimized in coverage already. Might as well go with the guy who can at least set an edge.

Anything positive on the defense

Thieneman and Muhammad both had good games again. James Lynch was decent. Jordan van den Berg made a couple plays in limited action. Stevenson had one of his better outings before getting hurt.

What does it mean for Monday against the Eagles?

The Eagles are 2-0 after squeaking out wins against a Washington team that, even with Jayden Daniels, looked very meh and a Tennessee team that looks awful. That said, Hurts has played well, especially passing the ball. This space forecasts a frustrating night for the defense. Whether it’s Bagent or Case Keenum on Monday night, the task is the same: run the ball well and control the clock. If they can turn this into a low-possession affair, they can win.

Monsters

Loveland, Wright, Jonah Jackson

Chipmunks

Kmet lost too many blocks. Roush dropped multiple passes. Bradbury stunk altogether. He stunk before the snap. He stunk after the snap. He stunk in the run game. He stunk in the pass game. He should be thankful I’ve watched Sam Mustipher and Hroniss Grasu play for this team because otherwise, what he did Sunday would be one of the worst performances I’ve seen.

Anyway, much of the defense goes here. Sweat, Street, Gallimore, D’Marco Jackson, Jaylon in coverage.

Four Stars of the Game

Colston Loveland

Darnell Wright

  Jonah Jackson

  Malik Muhammad

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