Minnesota Vikings vs. Chicago Bears Preview & Prediction | PFF

Minnesota Vikings vs. Chicago Bears Preview & Prediction | PFF

All right, we’re finishing things off uh as week one caps off with a NFC North matchup. The Minnesota Vikings take on the Chicago Bears in Chicago. What are we talking about here, dog? Well, of course we’re talking about Caleb. Let me guess, we’re talking about Caleb Williams. We’re talking about Caleb Williams. But Trevor, Trevor, Trevor, listen. Yes. You know, you know, I’m not even a homer. I’m not even a Commander fan, but you know, I love me some Jaden Daniels. And you know, I get on Caleb Williams sometimes. I’m going to talk about a lot of things he did right against the Vikings last year. Now, the Bears lost both of these games. The first one was close, second one not so much. And the idea is when you’re dealing with Brian Flores in playing against him, you’re dealing with pressure and you’re dealing with heavy pressure, especially in obvious passing situations, guys coming from all different angles, simulated pressures, zero blitzes, all sorts of nonsense, whatever Brian Flores feels like drawing up that week. But you know what? He blitzed Caleb Williams on over half his drop backs last year. And Caleb was really, really good against it. Look at this. 88.9 passing grade in these two games against Minnesota last year against the Blitz. 27 of 39, three touchdowns, four big time throws, and that last number is the big one there. No turnover worthy plays. The entire idea, look, you bring this much pressure this often against a quarterback. Are you expecting to get a sack on half of an opposing team’s drop backs? Well, you hope so, but that’s not how that works. You want to force him into mistakes, right? We’ve seen Brian Flores do this to good quarterbacks. I remember he’s done it to Aaron Rogers and CJ Strad and every other guy you can think of recently, right? It’s just that’s how it works. It’s a lot of confusion. It’s a lot to pick up. But the Bears I thought actually did a pretty nice job of picking up these blitzes last year. Now you’ve got Ben Johnson who’s already been seeing this. You know, last year Detroit beat Minnesota both times. But I think the idea Caleb in these situations keeping us cool, getting to the right read, stepping up in the pocket instead of trying to escape all the time. This is going to be a big key. Once again, I fully expect, especially with a new system and an interior offensive line that’s trying to gel and even two young tackles, that Flores is not going to step off the gas. He almost never does, right? So, he’s going to keep bringing the pressure, he’s going to make Caleb Williams see the field. Last year, he did it. I’ll be honest with you, under pressure. It was Caleb Williams actually when they sent when Minnesota sent a standard rush last year is when it was a lot worse. Okay. When he blitzed him, it gave him that space to operate. It allowed him to find the open guy and here and there allowed him to improvise also because we know he can. But you don’t want him to do it too much. I think that’s a big key. If when the if and when the Bears get in a lot of obvious passing situations, Brian Flores is going to bring the heat. If Caleb can beat it again, then you’re talking about the Bears having success. I think that’s a it’s a big thing that we’re going to talk about a lot this year with Brian Flores and with Caleb Williams dealing with pressure. Can you step up and make the throw or are you constantly running around and taking too many sacks? Uh we have some uh very level-headed predictions for the score in this game already. Uh 35-10 Bears, 46-3 Vikings. It’s good. It’s good. JJ Billy is actually saying 23 to 20. So going to be close. 46-3 in the NFL. That’s You don’t see those too often. No, not uh unless you’re the 20 Tampa Bay Buccaneers traveling to Soldier Field to take on the Chicago Bears. There you go. Uh a game that was, I believe, 38 to nothing Chicago at half. I was still working for Peter Report at the time and I got to cover that beauty of a game in person. Um I don’t think that it’s going to be like that this time around in Soldier Field Field on Monday night. For the Vikings, is the interior offensive line ready? And what do they look like? Right. I mean, love the idea of Donovan Jackson playing at one of the starting guard spots. You pay a lot of money to Will Fry to bring him over, but you know, he’s coming back from injury. And uh Ryan Kelly, the new starting center, okay, he’s been good throughout his NFL career. Still 32 years old. Do they have that chemistry together? Obviously, Kelly and Fry do from playing a little bit when they were in Indianapolis, but Fry missed most of last season as well. So, he missed a lot of that chemistry time there, too. Are they ready for it? Because it’s three new starters, and it’s a good thing that it’s three new starters because they gave up 127 pressures on the interior last year. That was the second most in the NFL. Only the New England Patriots uh had more interior pressures that were allowed. I agree with the people in the chat that are saying that I think JJ McCarthy is going to be fine. I think that he’s going to be fine. and he’s going to gradually get more and more confidence with Kevin Oonnell in that offense. Certainly throwing to Justin Jefferson doesn’t hurt. But the way that you derail that really quickly is through interior pressure is when you lose up front. When your guards and your center lose very quickly because that gives your quarterback no time to think at all. You can’t step up in the pocket. You have to get the hot reach very quickly and you’re just trying to digest and take in as much as you possibly can just as a rookie who is starting. So, all of that, in my opinion, goes into J.J. McCarthy having a successful debut, being able to go into Soldier Field and defeat the Chicago Bears, which I don’t have happening. I have the Chicago Bears winning this game. Now, I have the Minnesota Vikings winning this division. All right. But I have the Chicago Bears winning this game. I think that giving Ben Johnson multiple weeks to prepare is not a good thing no matter who you are on the other side of it. And I really do think that Caleb, you mentioned how confidently he played against Brian Flores last season. I think it’s going to look confident once again this year and sorry in this game specifically and I think the Bears win this one. So I’m going Chicago 24 to 20 here. Even though I do think the Vikings will be just fine. Uh couple keys for the Bears if that’s going to happen. A they’re going to have to get a pass rush going against that offensive line. I think the pass rushes is a big question, right? You’ve got new pieces. You’ve got Dio Dayingbo, you’ve got Grady Jared, you’ve obviously still have you’ve got Montes Sweat, they’ve got to be able to get home and get pressure on JJ McCarthy. The other thing for me too, if this game is going to be a lot of this game is going to be decided in the first quarter because the Vikings are so good in the first quarter games offensively last year in the regular season, second in the NFL in points scored in the first quarter, only behind your Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Kevin Okonnell and his game plan, the scripted plays, the first 15 plays such a huge part. And I think that’s where JJ McCarthy could be the most comfortable in this game is with the game plan going into it. And the Vikings have made a habit of getting ahead of the Bears early in games and making them come back. I actually have Minnesota in this game 27 to 21. I think the Bears there is to me on both sides of the ball, but especially offensively, there’s an adjustment period. I don’t think it’s going to be perfect from Caleb Williams right off rip. I think it’s going to take maybe five, six, seven, eight games to really get in the groove and all of the details of this offense. You also have an extremely talented offensive line, but one that’s still trying to gel, especially in the interior. And I do question still what the Bears have at running back if they try to run through the teeth of this defense. I like Minnesota. I think they’re a little more talented. They just need McCarthy to keep his composure and I think play well in the first quarter. Vikings 27, Bears

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Minnesota Vikings and The Chicago Bears.

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