Caleb Williams faces Brian Flores' blitz-heavy Vikings defense in Week 2. Can the Bears' quarterback navigate the pressure to lead Chicago to a 2-0 start?
Caleb Williams is no stranger to facing Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores. The Chicago Bears' quarterback is 1-3 against his NFC North rival since 2024.
In the four matchups against Flores' defense, Williams has averaged 233.5 yards passing and has thrown four touchdowns to zero interceptions. Williams secured his first victory against Flores in the Week 11 matchup last season, completing 16 of 32 passes for 193 yards.
The Vikings' defensive coordinator makes life difficult for opposing offenses, but that is also what intrigues Williams about Flores.
"As a competitor, these weeks are obviously super tough, five or six days out of the week you’re just spending as much as you can trying to figure out anything to be able to give your team the advantage," Williams said. "That’s the phase that we’re in right now. We’re going throughout the week. You’re getting a little less sleep and all of that. This week is not fun during the week, but when you get to game day and you get to get out there, all the reps throughout the week, all the film, to be able to get out there and compete versus their defense—they’ve got great players over there, but also that scheme is one of a kind, and so as a competitor, as a challenger, it does get you going a little bit early in the week and so it’s exciting and we’ve got a really big challenge ahead of us."
The challenge comes in many different ways with Flores' defense. Depending on the down and distance, matchup or point in the game, Flores can call a wide-array of blitzes to try and confuse the Bears' offense. Williams said that Johnson calls it a "mental war" when go against Flores. Minnesota's scheme will try and create one-on-one battles, something Williams and the offensive line must prepare for on Sunday.
Bears head coach Ben Johnson is 5-1 against Flores' Vikings, and his offenses put up 30 or more points in the first four matchups when he was offensive coordinator in Detroit. Those numbers drastically reduced last season -- the first year with Johnson and Williams together.
Flores completely overhauled his game plan between the two matchups last season. After blitzing Williams on 37.2% of dropbacks in the Vikings' 27-24 Week 1 win, Flores dialed up the blitz rate to 66.7% in their Week 11 rematch, which the Bears won 19-17.
How do you game plan for Flores unpredictability?
"You don't," Johnson said. "You try to have answers for everything. So yeah, I mean it's, he's been in this division three years now, and yeah, I mean you'd like to think he's put everything he could possibly do on tape until you play him next and you realize he hasn't yet. So it'll be something new. There always is with him and that's what makes him such a good coordinator. It's a great challenge. It really is. You have a lot of fun on game day. Now the week of preparation is not so much fun, but you know, there's a lot of back and forth that goes into it."
Now in Year 2 of Johnson's system, Williams has a much stronger feel for his playcaller's intent. That chemistry will be put to the test on Sunday against a difficult Flores defense, where fast processing will be necessary to leading Chicago to a 2-0 start and an early divisional victory.
