The Chicago Bears will face a daunting challenge in their Week 2 matchup against the Minnesota Vikings. Bears offensive coordinator Press Taylor highlighted the problems that defensive coordinator Brian Flores presents to the offense.
When talking about the Minnesota Vikings defense, it's common not to single out one player. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores sends waves of Vikings in his blitz-happy scheme, all with the intention of confusing the opposing offense in hopes of disrupting the quarterback.
Bears quarterback Caleb Williams said head coach Ben Johnson described Flores' defense as a "mental war." At any moment, the Vikings' defensive coordinator may bring a full-on blitz and do so from many different variations or it can all be for show, creating mind games for everyone on offense.
The Bears may defeated the Carolina Panthers, 59-37, but this week presents an entirely new challenge. It's offensive coordinator Press Taylor's job to prepare Williams for everything and anything that could show up on Sunday at Soldier Field.
"You can find a little bit of everything in the defense through years of tape with him," Taylor said. "Every game looks like a little bit different with the playbook, maybe, call sheet, whatever it is from him. Going back to, not just every single game you watch of his but every time he’s faced Ben or when he’s faced Caleb. They all look a little different, so you’re trying to look and see what do they do well that they might want to go back to? You’re trying to figure out how can we best utilize our time in practice, how can we plan for everything that can possibly come up that’s been shown before? ..."
Taylor mentioned the team must be extremely thorough and at the same time create flexibility in the game to pivot to whatever Flores decides to throw at Williams. The two matchups last year illustrate the vastly different approaches Flores could take against Johnson's offense.
In the Week 1 matchup last season, Flores blitzed Williams on 37.2% of his dropbacks, and then ramped up the pressure to 66.7% in the Week 11 rematch. Flores' defense wants opposing offenses to slow down and think -- and that is a recipe for disaster for any quarterback.
Flores blitzed Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love on 78.3% of his dropbacks -- No. 1 in the NFL last week. The Vikings generated 23 quarterback pressures, 15 quarterbacks hits and four sacks in the 39-22 win.
The blitz is inevitable, and the first thing Williams must be aware of is his pre-snap recognition, knowing what the answers are within each play. Taylor said he sees Williams "very locked in" with his approach, must like it was last week before the Week 1 matchup with the Carolina Panthers.
There's only so much preparation that can be done within the week to face Flores' unique and challenging scheme, and it's job of the Bears' coaching staff to simplify Williams' thought process as much possible.
"And then they’re going to throw wrinkle at us, so now you’ve got to fall back on basically the standard operating procedure we set in place right here," Taylor said. "We may have to adjust on the sideline of what that play is, but I think we’ll do our very best to give him a clear, concise process for each play and then it’s on him to execute that and it’s on us to adjust if things change.”
