Bears Report Card: How we graded Chicago in Week 2 loss to Vikings - Bears Wire
The Chicago Bears suffered a tough 9-3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. It was a sloppy game from the start to open their home schedule at Soldier Field. The rain was a factor all game, but it can't be an excuse as both teams played in it.
The Vikings weren't world beaters offensively, but they managed to score enough in the rain to win a game on the road. They also had a backup quarterback in Carson Wentz, who was filling in for Kyler Murray, who is in concussion protocol. Now, Minnesota is 2-0 and is all alone in first place in the NFC North.
Speaking of backup quarterbacks, Tyson Bagent had to come in and replace the injured Caleb Williams in the fourth quarter. It looked like a disaster situation for Chicago in the moment, but reports coming out are lightening the mood a little bit. There will be an MRI to determine the true severity of the injury on Monday.
With that in mind, here are our grades for the Bears in their sloppy loss to the Vikings, which drops them to 1-1.
The Bears offense was horrible. One week after dropping 59 points to the Carolina Panthers, they came out and managed just a single field goal against the Vikings. That is one of the biggest week-to-week drop-offs in the history of the NFL. Whether it was with Caleb Williams in or not, they were not good. Ben Johnson wants to have the best offense of all time, but that dream took a huge dent on Sunday. It was the fault of everyone. Dropped passes, penalty trouble, rare lackluster play on the offensive line and a costly D'Andre Swift fumble on the goal line sunk their chances of being as dynamic as they were a year ago.
Like the offense, the defense made a complete 180 in this game. Only this one was a positive change. The defense was the star of the game, only allowing nine points -- all field goals. After allowing Bryce Young and the Panthers to score with ease themselves in Week 1, they came out and shut down Carson Wentz's unit. The defensive line created pressure as a unit, the defensive backs got in on the pass-rush fun, and they stopped the run as a team. It was rare for the Vikings to find the red zone, and they never found the end zone when they did. Although the vibes are down right now, that was a shining light on an otherwise dark day.
While special teams was responsible for Chicago's lone points of the game, there was a brutal mishap by rookie Sam Roush, who allowed his blocker to run free and block the game-tying field goal in the fourth quarter shortly after Caleb Williams went down with an injury. Field position on punts and kicks wasn't terrible, but there isn't anything that sticks out that gets them an A this week. There is also nothing that gets them lower than a C, either. Maybe it's a result of the way the game went, but the special teams unit wasn't noticeably impactful one way or another.
Ben Johnson is a head coach pushing for elite status. One bad game won't change that, but it absolutely was a bad game. He was unable to outcoach the defensive schemes that Brian Flores pushed against him. There wasn't the adjustment from the offense that you are used to seeing from a Ben Johnson-run unit, but that can be chalked up to an overall sloppy game by everyone. The way that Dennis Allen's defense played keeps the coaching grade from being an F. There is now film on what makes them successful that they can build on. It's also not an F because the backup quarterback had a chance to win the game on the final few plays. It didn't work out this time, but they are in every game they play. The cardiac Bears came up just short this time.
