The Chicago Bears took care of business on Sunday in Minnesota. It wasn’t pretty, but they escaped with a 19-17 victory. Clearing that first hurdle in what is the hardest part of their schedule is so important. Now comes the next step. This coming Sunday will mark their only home game of a month-long stretch. Fittingly, it comes against their old nemesis as Aaron Rodgers brings the Pittsburgh Steelers to town. Except it might not be that simple. News out of Pittsburgh leaves his status for the game in question.

Rodgers exited the game on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals with what was called a hand injury. Later, it was corrected to a wrist issue. He didn’t return to the game, instead watching backup Mason Rudolph lead the Steelers to an easy win. This leaves Rodgers’ status for next Sunday uncertain. Keep in mind, he wasn’t playing well before the injury. He was brutal last week against Los Angeles and had little success outside of the opening drive against Cincinnati. It is fair to wonder how he’d be dealing with an ailing wrist, even if it’s to his non-throwing arm.

Aaron Rodgers hopes to cement his legacy one last time.

His famous words echo in Bears fans’ heads, “I still f**ckin own you.” It haunts them because it’s true. In his long career, Rodgers has only lost to the Bears five times. One of them was when he left the game early with an injury. He has lorded over Chicago to an even greater extent than Brett Favre did. This upcoming matchup represents the Bears’ likely last chance at revenge. It would be fitting if they could send him into retirement in style.

Remember, Pittsburgh is clinging to its division lead. They are 6-4 with the Baltimore Ravens breathing down their necks at 5-5. This is an important game for the Steelers to help maintain that lead. Chicago would love nothing better than to add insult to Aaron Rodgers’ injury with a decisive victory in front of those fans he tortured for so many years.

***************************UPDATE*************************************

Shortly after posting this, Adam Schefter revealed that Rodgers had a “slight break” in the wrist. Further tests are expected to determine the full extent of the injury. However, based on the initial indications, there is a chance the future Hall of Famer may not play next week.

By now, we’ve gotten to know how Caleb Williams handles wins. He’s a passionate player. He often runs off the field screaming, pumping up the fans as he heads to the locker room. One would think it’d be more of the same after another last-second rally, this time to take down the Minnesota Vikings. It was a huge victory, marking both the first win in the division and an important step in the NFC playoff picture. Yet when watching the final sequence, you’d have thought the Bears lost the game.

That was how Williams looked.

Video shows Cairo Santos hitting the winning 48-yard field goal to clinch a 19-17 win. Everybody is celebrating. Then, as the camera pans to Williams, he’s not smiling; instead, he’s shaking his head.

It is evident Williams wasn’t happy with how the game played out. Once again, the Bears were in control, leading 16-3 in the 4th quarter. Once again, the offense couldn’t put any more distance with points, allowing the Vikings to rally once again with two unanswered touchdowns. This time, Chicago had enough time to salvage the game, but it was another reminder of this team’s ongoing issues with not putting opponents away when they should.

Caleb Williams knows the Bears should be better than this.

Yes, they’re winning. That is a great thing. However, his ambitions extend beyond that. He believes this team is capable of challenging in the playoffs. They’ve shown glimpses of it throughout the year. The ongoing problem has been consistency. First, it was too many penalties. Then it was poor execution in the red zone. Over the past two weeks, it has been drops from the receivers. This miniature breakdowns make executing offense at a high level more difficult. It is why opponents are often able to slow Caleb Williams down for long stretches during a game.

The Bears quarterback isn’t dumb. If this team wants to win a championship, they must be considerably sharper than they’ve been for much of the season. That is why he was so frustrated. The opportunities are there. They must take advantage of them. Seeing the quarterback understand this reality is no small thing. His leadership is evolving. It isn’t about what he does anymore.

It is about everybody.

Ryan Poles gets a lot of heat. Much of it is understandable. He hired Matt Eberflus, who became arguably the worst coaching disaster in Chicago Bears history. There have been quite a few rough personnel moves in his time as GM, headlined by the trade for Chase Claypool and the signings of Nate Davis and Dayo Odeyingbo. However, one must be fair. Poles has his share of victories too. He engineered the blockbuster trade that landed the Bears Darnell Wright, D.J. Moore, Caleb Williams, Tyrique Stevenson, and Luther Burden. Rome Odunze looks like a stud. Gervon Dexter is a good player. Colston Loveland is already showing positive signs.

Yet this year Poles’ biggest wins have come on the bargain market. Most people will say the late addition of C.J. Gardner-Johnson to the secondary was a home run. That is true, but there is another name who has been fantastic this year that not nearly enough people appreciate. Nahshon Wright was a castoff from Dallas who’d done little in Minnesota last year. He signs with the Bears at the urging of secondary coach Al Harris, and immediately gets thrust into the starting lineup after Jaylon Johnson gets hurt.

He recorded his fourth interception of the season on Sunday.

Ryan Poles continues to demonstrate his willingness to be flexible.

There is a strong likelihood the Bears never would’ve looked in Wright’s direction if Harris hadn’t pointed the way. To his credit, Ryan Poles heeded that advice and made the move, trusting the coaches knew what they were doing. This is why the best teams often have a harmonious relationship with the coaching staff regarding personnel. Wright was only ever supposed to be the fourth or fifth cornerback on the roster. Yet the team believed enough in him to hand over the starting job when Johnson was out.

He rewarded that trust with one of the best seasons a Bears reserve corner has ever had. He’s also forced a respectable 88.9 passer rating when targeted this season. That is exactly the same as Stevenson. He is a solid football player and an absolute steal.

The Chicago Bears remade their wide receiving corps extensively in the offseason. Most of the focus was on their two big additions. It started with veteran Olamide Zacchaeus, brought over from Washington to play the slot in Ben Johnson’s new offense. Then it was Luther Burden, a 2nd round pick out of Missouri. It was easy to forget the team made another notable addition that faded into the background after training camp started. That was Devin Duvernay, a former 3rd round pick of the Baltimore Ravens, who earned two Pro Bowl nods as a special teams player.

However, he seemed to have regressed in the past couple of seasons, failing to do much in Jacksonville last year. This opportunity in Chicago felt like one of his few remaining chances. For almost three months, his name was almost never spoken. Then on Sunday, with the Bears in desperate need of a spark, Duvernay answered the bell with a 57-yard kick return.

That huge play enabled the Bears to drain the rest of the clock, inching the ball inside 50 yards, which is the preferred range for kicker Cairo Santos. On a 48-yard attempt, he took care of the rest, pushing the Bears to 7-3 and all but crushing Minnesota’s playoff hopes.

This is why judging every Chicago Bears move immediately is never wise.

People thought that because Duvernay didn’t make an instant impact, he was a wasted move. That spot would’ve been better served with a younger player. This guy didn’t have it anymore. However, Duvernay didn’t suddenly forget how to return kicks. All he needed was the right opportunity. Inexplicably, the Vikings gave it to him right when they’d finally taken control of the game. It was a backbreaker. Rather than risk doing something stupid, Coach Johnson did something he usually doesn’t. He played clock ball. The Bears ran it twice, forced Minnesota to burn their timeouts, and left it to Santos with four seconds left.

Like it or not, it was the right call. The Chicago Bears managed the situation beautifully, leaving no room for the Vikings to slither their way out of it, as they did on opening day two months ago. It was a fitting bit of revenge for the team as they continue pushing toward their first winning season in seven years.

MINNEAPOLIS — The Chicago Bears eclipsed their 2024 win total last Sunday in yet another scintillating comeback. This time against the lowly New York Giants, the Bears found themselves at Jaxson Dart’s mercy for the middle two quarters before Caleb Williams put on his cape and rescued them at Soldier Field.

At 6-3 and occupying a playoff spot coming into today, the Bears were in somewhat uncharted territory lately. And today was their first divisional rematch — taking on the pesky Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium.

We remember the Week 1 disaster. The Bears led 17-6 in the third quarter before they collapsed in J.J. McCarthy’s hometown return. These teams have taken different paths since then, with the Bears ahead in the division and racking up wins thanks to their offense.

Today’s game was critical: falling to 0-3 in the division wasn’t an option if the playoffs were a realistic goal for Year 1 under Ben Johnson. Win, and go to 7-3 and essentially bury the Vikings. Lose, and things tighten up yet again and they start to look unserious again.

In the end, the Bears refused to take control of a game the Vikings tried to give them repeatedly, blew a 16-3 lead in the fourth quarter, and somehow eked out a last-second field goal to win the game anyway. An insane football game that they deserved to win and lose at the same time. But they are 7-3.

I shared my in-game reactions, thoughts and observations from the game below. Follow me on X @DhruvKoul to continue the conversation.

Thoughts and Observations

1. (PREGAME) — The Vikings didn’t blitz Caleb Williams much in Week 1, opting for sounder coverages. I expect more of the same today. Williams has been good against the blitz overall, and the Vikings likely will want to focus on disguising coverages to confuse him post-snap. I expect Chicago to counter with their running game that’s taken off since their bye week.

On defense, I expect Chicago to focus on stopping Aaron Jones and heating up J.J. McCarthy. The Bears have really found something with C.J. Gardner-Johnson taking on a more fluid role, and I expect him to continue wreaking havoc.

2. Fairly rough start on both sides of the ball after five drives – and Chicago is fortunate to only be down three points. On the Vikings’ three drives, McCarthy has missed a wide open Addison deep, Addison has dropped a deep dime from McCarthy, and then they finally cooked their way to to red zone where the Bears held them to a field goal.

On offense, the running game has been fairly stagnant and Caleb Williams missed two third down deep balls to a wide open Rome Odunze and DJ Moore, respectively. Not the start Chicago wanted, and they gotta overcome their sloppiness quickly.

3. Bears took half the second quarter on a 15 play, 74 yard drive that resulted in a touchdown. On the first play, Caleb Williams spun out of a DB blitz and escaped for seven yards. And after that, Chicago methodically marched down the field, mixing in some really nice runs, moving pockets, and various designs to keep Minnesota on their heels.

The Bears’ rookie class of Colston Loveland, Luther Burden, and Kyle Monangai came up huge on that drive with big plays – capped by Monangai’s first down pickup right before his touchdown. That’s a really nice response to put Chicago ahead 7-3. Ben Johnson with a masterclass on that drive.

4. Nahshon Wright is the Bears’ CB5 — you have to remember, he’s the definition of a depth piece. And it shows in every game, man. He gave Justin Jefferson a huge cushion on a 3rd and long on the Vikings’ last drive before halftime, to convert into field goal range. And then a couple plays later, he intercepted McCarthy on an underthrown deep shot to Jordan Addison in the end zone to turn away Minnesota before halftime. The ultimate boom/bust depth piece.

Bears had a chance to double up before halftime but Caleb sailed a deep shot to Odunze on 3rd and 1 from the Bears’ own 30-yard line. I understand trying to pick up chunks, but Caleb’s just been off on non-heavily-schemed plays today. Other than his brilliant sack avoidance, of course.

5. I’d love to see Chicago recommit to the ground game to open the second half. They can take control and put Minnesota back on their heels. You don’t want them to dictate things on defense, and they’ve largely been able to do that today.

<HALFTIME>

6. The Bears continue to be an annoying football team figuring things out. Second half started with a hot throw to Odunze on a blitz that became a pile-pushing 17-yard play. A couple of nice throws under pressure got Chicago to the +34, but then a bad drop by Durham Smythe and a weird 3rd and 5 sweep-ish run by Travis Homer (?!) resulted in a FG attempt.

Third down in general today has been a rough go — following a bad third down performance last Sunday against the Giants.

Bears ruined their momentum on that drive a bit but fortunately got points on it anyway. 13-3.

7. The boo birds came out at U.S. Bank Stadium as the Vikings got a false start on 3rd and 2 and then McCarthy airmailed a pass on third down to lead to a punt. This is his fifth career start and he’s struggling. Hearing boo birds in his home stadium isn’t something he’s used to. Have to see how that impacts his confidence going forward.

8. The Bears’ offense is so good between the 20s — sometimes due to scheme, and sometimes due to playmakers just doing really good shit.

The red zone continues to confound. They need to start figuring this out. Field goals keep you in games, and touchdowns win games.

The good news: Caleb looks much more comfortable in this second half has played well.

9. The boo birds are out again at U.S. Bank Stadium. McCarthy launched a deep ball on a 2nd and 2 that was woefully underthrown again and should’ve been picked. Lucky for him, Jaquan Brisker ran into a perfectly positioned Tyrique Stevenson and knocked them both out.

On 3rd and 2, he was late and high over the middle and was lucky it wasn’t picked there, too.

Honestly feel bad for the kid. But this is one of the worst games I’ve seen from a QB since… I watched Bo Nix last Thursday night.

10. The Bears closed the third quarter with a first down after a run by Kyle Monangai. And they opened the fourth quarter with a sack, a throwaway and another big sack.

And then Myles Price returned it 48 yards to the Bears’ 24, after which the Vikings scored a touchdown in two plays.

16-10.

Total combustion from Chicago after an opportunity to put the game away.

11. The Bears started the next drive the right way – dominating on the ground en route to Vikings territory. But they couldn’t go too far and a 45 yard field goal attempt from Santos sailed wide left.

Still 16-10 with 8:08 left in the game. The Bears have not taken advantage of their opportunities to put this game away and are now one drive away from losing. Just not good. Special teams disasters all around.

12. Thankfully, a Jordan Addison drop and a Tremaine Edmunds tipped pass lead to a punt from Minnesota. Bears get one more opportunity somehow to put this game away…

…The Bears burned a couple minutes but an illegal formation ruined the drive. I’d have gone for it on 4th and 5 from the Minnesota 43-yard line. Go win the game. But they punted.

And after the McCarthy connected with Addison on 4th and 4 to save the drive, they walked the Bears down the field for a quick touchdown to put them ahead 17-16.

Horrifying result here as the offense and special teams are 100% responsible for this meltdown.

13. Some redemption on special teams for Chicago! Devin Duvernay took the kickoff to the Minnesota 40-yard line. Johnson opted to run the ball three times — gaining a total of nine yards — to set up a 48-yard field goal attempt from Santos (who had already missed from 45 earlier).

It didn’t make sense, and I wholeheartedly believe this was Johnson’s worst game of the season.

And it didn’t matter. I was 100% expecting Kevin O’Connell to ice the kicker, and he didn’t. And Santos’ kick snuck just inside the left upright to win it for Chicago 19-17.

The defense was excellent for most of the game, and the offense just couldn’t get out of its own way in various spots. But they eke out a divisional road win, somehow, someway.

Another game the Bears of old 100% lose. And the Bears of new tried to lose. But they pull it out.

7-3 is 7-3.

14. The Bears return home to host the Pittsburgh Steelers next Sunday. If he plays, it might be Aaron Rodgers’ swan song at Soldier Field — and one last opportunity to beat the historic Bears killer. I don’t think the Steelers are a great team, but the Bears have plenty to figure out and get cleaned up. But I think they can pull it out.

Early prediction: Bears 24, Steelers 23.

Caleb Williams is 1-7 against the NFC North in his career, including 0-2 this season. That should give you an idea of how important the upcoming game against the Minnesota Vikings is. If the Chicago Bears want to make serious headway in the race for a playoff spot, they must start beating some divisional opponents. That won’t be easy. Minnesota has had their number the past few years, especially since hiring defensive coordinator Brian Flores. Williams knows this. His visit to Minneapolis last year didn’t go well, as he completed barely 58% of his passes for 191 yards and a touchdown, while also losing a fumble.

The Bears will need more than that from their young quarterback if they want to win this game. ESPN believes they will get it. Their experts believe there is a strong chance Williams has a big day against the Vikings’ defense. The reason stems from how vulnerable they’ve been to throws down the field.

Bears quarterback Caleb Williams goes off

The Bears nearly missed on several potential big plays last week against the Giants in snowy Chicago. Now, Chicago takes its offense — which leads the league in explosive plays — to the dome in Minnesota, where the Vikings are allowing the league’s highest completion percentage on throws 20-plus yards downfield. Williams has been teetering on the precipice of a true breakout performance for weeks now, and a divisional win against a defensive coordinator like Brian Flores would be the ideal spot.

Chicago leads the NFL in big plays this season. Williams is 8th in the league with 32 passes of 20 yards or more and is tied for fourth with five completions of 40 yards or more. Essentially, experts believe that if Minnesota cannot consistently pressure him, Williams will make them pay for it.

Pressuring Caleb Williams won’t be easy.

Part of that is due to how much he has improved at getting the ball out on time. Another is that Minnesota lost its best pass rusher. Jonathan Greenard is out for the game with a groin injury. He had seven pressures against Chicago in the previous meeting in September. There is nobody on the roster who can replace him. That almost certainly means Flores will blitz more to cover the loss. Unfortunately, that may not help. Williams has been great against the blitz this season, throwing eight touchdowns and no interceptions.

The key for the Bears is getting off to a strong start. This has been their biggest issue this season, as they often struggle to find their groove until late in the game. That isn’t something you can get away with on the road. Caleb Williams needs this game. The schedule doesn’t get any easier in the next two months. This is one they can win. It starts with the quarterback.

The Chicago Bears activated the 21-day practice window for star cornerback Jaylon Johnson. It was a highly anticipated move. Fans had hoped the former Pro Bowler could get back for the final stretch of the season. His presence would give the defense a massive boost at just the right time. The only remaining question is when Johnson will officially return. He was briefly listed as questionable this week, leading some to wonder if he might actually play against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. However, he was then downgraded to out, which wasn’t a surprise.

Still, that could mean Johnson might have a shot to play next week when the Pittsburgh Steelers come to Chicago. Getting one last chance to beat Aaron Rodgers is something he’d love. While possible, sources informed SM that the target date for Johnson and the team is the big November 28th battle with the defensive champion Philadelphia Eagles. That makes sense. It gives Johnson ample time to reacclimate to the team and gets him ready for what could be an important game in the NFC playoff picture.

Jaylon Johnson would be instrumental in that game.

Philadelphia might be a run-first team, but they employ two of the best wide receivers in the league: A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. Having a healthy Jaylon Johnson to lock up at least one of them would make life so much easier for defensive coordinator Dennis Allen. The only question left to answer is whether things progress quickly enough to where Pittsburgh becomes a possibility. Even in his 40s, Rodgers is a dangerous threat throwing the football. Putting Johnson on DK Metcalf would make his life much more difficult.

Whatever the case, this plan makes sense for the Bears. They should with their handling of Austin Booker that they are willing to use the entire 21-day window if need be. The player’s health is more important than anything. Everything depends on how Johnson looks in practice over the next several days. If he looks like the guy who finished last season, things will get interesting fast.