Fresh off a historic scoring outburst, Caleb Williams and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson must now navigate Brian Flores’ aggressive blitz schemes to snap a losing divisional streak.
The Chicago Bears are moving on from the Carolina Panthers to their first divisional game of the year in Week 2.
Sunday was a great way to open the year. The Bears dropped 59 points on the Panthers, which was the most they've ever allowed in franchise history.
Now, the team is preparing for a tough defensive matchup against the Minnesota Vikings, led by defensive coordinator Brian Flores. Flores has been with the Vikings since 2023 and hasn't made things easy on Bears quarterback Caleb Williams.
Williams hasn't been awful against the Vikings, but the wins have been tough to come by. Since he joined the league in 2024, he has a record of 1-3 against them.
Flores has been a big reason why that is.
In the last four games featuring the Bears, the Vikings have averaged 19 points allowed, 2.25 sacks and 0.5 turnovers. Still, Williams has thrown for 934 passing yards and four touchdowns combined from the four meetings with Flores' defense.
Flores' defense is one of the toughest in the league to have success against. He is not afraid to live and die by the blitz. Johnson has already coached against that defense three times before the matchup in Week 2.
He was asked about falling into the trap of overthinking himself and his game plan based on what he thinks Flores will try to do. Johnson joked that he's stuck trying to figure out how to avoid falling into that trap at Wednesday's press conference.
"I'm in that path right now," Johnson joked. "No, I mean there's a lot of that. Man, end of the day, our guys, I want them to go out and play fast. I want to make sure we're sound. It's not very different than what we talked about a week ago. Making sure we have a hat for a hat as often as we can. And if he gets us on something, that's fine. Then we go to, you know, come together and make sure we get it corrected, and we'll move on from there. So this game will end up being some adjustments going on over the course of it. Might be in the tablet a little bit more than I'd like to over the course of a game, but that's how these ones have tended to go in the past."
Last year, the Bears opened the regular season with the Vikings and nearly pulled off a fourth-quarter comeback, falling 27-24. Then, it got tougher for the Bears.
They had to travel to Minnesota to face the Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Vikings weren't going to let the Bears get an easy win on the road. The Bears held a 16-10 lead early in the fourth quarter after Jordan Mason scored a Vikings touchdown.
Then, the Vikings took the lead with a touchdown pass to Jordan Addison with 50 seconds left. The Bears needed another last-minute drive from Williams and the offense.
Thankfully, return specialist Devin Duvernay had a great return, putting the team in great starting field position. He returned the kickoff to the Minnesota 40-yard line.
At that point, the Bears just had to run the ball and get things centered for kicker Cairo Santos.
Santos attempted a 48-yard field goal to win it, and nailed it as the Bears survived on the road.
It may raise the blood pressure of Bears fans everywhere, but that's just how these matchups have gone since Johnson became the head coach.
Expect another close meeting with the Vikings on Sunday. There's a reason that Johnson has been losing sleep over preparing for this game.
Flores is going to make sure his defense is tough to beat.
Kickoff is at noon CT on Fox live from Soldier Field.
