Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings Preview & Prediction | PFF

Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings Preview & Prediction | PFF

the Bears and the Vikings and NFC North showdown here between these two teams. You want to talk about Caleb, you want to talk about JJ McCarthy, which team and which offense you want to start with here. You know, looking at this Vikings offense and there’s so much talked about, okay, JJ McCarthy and how he’s struggling and the accuracy and everything like that and just the offense as a whole and why it’s not clicking on all cylinders. And I think, you know, there was a similar factor to this last year. It wasn’t quite as drastic, but it wasn’t as noticeable either because their defense was so good and everything was rolling so well with Sam Darnold. Oh, this year in the first quarter, the Vikings ranked 12th in both offensive grade and EPA per play. Okay, so they’re the 12th best offense in football in the first quarter. This is regardless of quarterback. The rest of the game, it peters out. 29th in offensive grade, 29th in EPA per play. They’re a bottom five offense, which is ironic because when you look at the first time they played the Bears, they were terrible for the first three quarters and then took off in the fourth. But basically the rest of the season, this is what it’s looked like. and they just haven’t been able to keep the rhythm and get into the depth of the playbook and sustain that level of production. We know Kevin Oonnell is one of the best scripted play callers in the league, right? Two, three drives, first 15 plays, he’s outstanding. It was the same way with Sam Darnold last year. He comes in with great opening game plans on the first two or three drives, but they’re not able to sustain it, right? The offensive line isn’t physical enough in the run game. McCarthy’s accuracy, especially last week, really waned in the second half. He got kind of erratic and things started to speed up on him a little bit. So, the Vikings are having issues playing all 60 minutes on offense. I could see them getting off to another good start in this game against a Bears defense that is suspect a lot of weeks, but you have to be able to sustain that for the entire game. If Minnesota can’t do that, they’re giving the Bears a lot of opportunities. And lately, the Bears late in games have been excellent on offense, especially with Caleb Williams improvising outside the pocket. The Vikings have to find a way to sustain offense for the entire game. So for the Bears, you know, you look at Caleb Williams, who’s played incredibly well over the last two weeks. Specifically, I think that Ben Johnson has done sort of what everyone has wanted Caleb Williams coaches to do at the NFL level, and that is harness what he did really well at USC and just turn that into sort of a pro offense, if you will. And that’s been a really tough code to crack, I think, over the last two years. is even really to start this year. I feel like there was some struggles there. But over the last two weeks specifically, Ben Johnson’s done a great job of getting Caleb in positions where he’s able to make plays outside of the pocket, which is a big reason why he was a Heisman Trophy winner and one of the best playmakers in all of college football for two straight years. 78.7 passing grade when rolling out of the pocket over the last two weeks. He’s got two big-time throws and zero turnover worthy plays when that has been the case. So, you know, whether it’s been just him being a little bit more confident in what he’s seeing downfield, whether it’s been something that they’ve worked on in practice where, hey, they go, they tell the receivers, they’re maybe kind of like working on these fire drills where it’s like, hey, if we get to 3 4 seconds into a play, Caleb is going to roll out and he’s going to roll out obviously to his throwing side. So, he’s going to roll out to his right. This is sort of where we want you guys to go. we want you to make sure that you are the person getting deep that we want somebody to be in the middle almost like creating a little bit of a stale concept there for him to be able to read and throw to as he runs to the sideline. It just feels like the chemistry is really there when Caleb has been rolling out. Specifically though, I think this this Chicago team has just been run blocking and running the ball very, very well. Last two weeks, again, specifically 84.9 rush grade as a team that’s fourth best in the NFL over the last two weeks. 82.1 on power run concept. So, we’re talking about between the tackles, being able to move a man against his will. Now, this Viking matchup is an interesting one because the Vikings, their defensive line, if we’re looking at just handling power, I know you could throw linebackers in there as well, but handling power, I want to see how you handle things up front. So, the edge rushers and the defensive tackles for the Vikings this season, they have the they have a top 10 run defense grades for just their defensive line, and they are top 10 in average depth of tackle. So, they’re not yielding a lot of of yards. They’re not getting pushed back too far. They’re making tackles near the line of scrimmage. That’s something that I think could force the Bears into those passing scripts maybe a little bit more than they’re normally comfortable with. It It’s kind of a tossup in this game for me. It’s funny. I I was as you were talking I was like, “Who did I pick in this game?” And this is actually a box that I forgot to fill out. This is the one game that I forgot to fill out here. So, that actually makes sense that I couldn’t remember who I picked in this game because I didn’t pick them. You picked the Bears 27 to 23. I think the Bears are on a roll. I’m going to do that as well. I’m going to go Bears 24, Vikings 21. I just have a little bit more confidence in where the Bears are right now. I think the Vikings are going to play a little bit better and a little bit more consistent than they have over the last couple of weeks. So, I think it’s going to be close. But give me the Bears. I think they’ve warranted me picking them here in this game with how they’ve played. Agreed. They’ve won six out of seven and Ben Johnson’s really found the wheelhouse of this offense. I think the biggest difference right now between this year and last year is that last year Caleb Williams had to control the entire offense and really had to spearhead it. This year it’s Ben Johnson and it’s this offensive line first and foremost and then Caleb has to take over when he has to right in the fourth quarter last week. But you’ve seen in a lot of these games recently where it is not just hey Caleb you’re you have the wheel, you have the keys, do everything for us. They’re running the football well. You mentioned the last couple weeks but for the season now they are top five in both rushing grade and run blocking grade. So the running backs Swift and Manungai have been really good. I think that balance is really going to help them and Drew Dolman and that offensive line are going to carry them to another win. Like you said, I have it 2723 Chicago. Man, Chicago’s getting three points in this one. I didn’t even notice that until right now. Books don’t believe. I like that one. They don’t want to believe. I like I like Chicago getting three points there. I really do. I think that that could uh that could be a solid bet. famous last words, but I feel like that could be a solid

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

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