This game was not close at all. The sad thing is that the Vikings didn’t have the best game either. The Bears are falling apart and players are starting to just play for themselves. At this point of the season we start to see some of the character of not just the players, but the team as a whole. Let’s get into the details…
Our Defense vs Their Offense
I saw no pass rush at times again. When a QB has almost 2-3x more time to pass the ball, it is a huge problem. Many secondary’s in the NFL would not be able to defend that long. When we did see some pass rush happen in the 2nd half, then the secondary and linebackers were out of position. We had the Vikings in 3rd and long consistently, and they converted most of them! 3rd and 15 should not be easy to convert, but we could not stop them.
Justin Jefferson this time was a bigger factor in the passing game and even snagged a TD pass. Jefferson should have had another TD, but he dropped it. The Vikings also were effective in the run game as well…scoring 2 TDs on the ground.
I noticed some good. Tyrique Stevenson intercepted a pass! He later made a boneheaded pass interference penalty in the end zone though. Demarcus Walker had some nice pressure on QB Sam Darnold, but he needed more help. I saw Montez Sweat get a sack, but he was offsides. Good followed by bad all day…yikes.
Our Offense vs Their Defense
I am not going to lie here folks. Our offense looked pretty bad, with the exception of some hope for the future in our running game. We got to see DJ Moore actually act like a running back…which is fun, but not necessarily a great thing either. We should really have our WR focus on catching the ball not acting like a running back in the backfield.
I saw a couple of nice passes from Caleb, but a lot of misses too. Part of this was because he was under siege all day. Viking DC Brian Flores really turned up the pressure on Caleb this time and the Bears did not have an answer. In fact, our rookie left tackle that started nearly got Caleb killed on one play. Caleb got nailed from the blindside and fumbled the ball. Caleb had one TD pass, but should have had another if WR Rome Odunze caught the ball that hit him directly in the hands.
Conclusion
All in all, just another bad game. The Bears look discombobulated and many of us fans want the season to end already. I do want to address another issue though. I’m getting tired of the body language narrative of our QB. There are analysts criticizing Caleb lying on the bench and making pain noises. This somehow was construed as “making fans feel sorry for him”. If you saw him get hit, you would realize that maybe, just maybe he is actually hurt. Some of you time tested Bears fans remember all of the Jay Cutler bad body language discussions that were ridiculous. Can we focus on the play on the field and stop criticizing faces and sitting alone please? Thanks…