In the season-opening edition of “Monday Night Football,” the Chicago Bears and Caleb Williams play host to the division rival Minnesota Vikings and J.J. McCarthy.
Each of these teams underwent significant changes this offseason. The Bears swapped out their coaching staff, hiring the most in-demand head coach available when they stole Ben Johnson away from the Detroit Lions, for whom he had been serving as the offensive coordinator. Johnson brought with him former Saints coach Dennis Allen as his DC, and the Bears went on a spending spree to remake the offensive line in front of Caleb Williams.
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The Vikings went on a spending spree of their own, bringing in reinforcements up front on both offense and defense. They also allowed starting quarterback Sam Darnold to leave in free agency, electing to turn the reins over to last year’s first-round pick, J.J. McCarthy, despite the fact that they went 14-3 last year.
Which of these two NFC North rivals will emerge victorious on ”Monday Night Football?” We’ll find out soon enough. Before we break down the matchup, here’s a look at how you can watch the game.
Where to watch Bears vs. Vikings live
- Date: Monday, Sept. 8 | Time: 8:15 p.m. ET
- Location: Soldier Field (Chicago)
- TV: ESPN | Stream: Fubo (Try for free)
- Follow: CBS Sports App
- Odds: Vikings -1.5; O/U 43.5 (via DraftKings Sportsbook)
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LIVE updates: Follow along with all the action as the Bears take on the in Week 1
When the Vikings have the ball
This will be the first real NFL action for McCarthy after the second-year quarterback sat out his entire rookie season with a knee injury. He barely played at all during the preseason, so we don’t have much more to go off of when evaluating him than the small sample of passes he threw during his time as the starter at Michigan.
One of the criticisms of him coming out of college was that he didn’t throw very many passes and wasn’t asked to do very much in his role piloting the Michigan offense … but that might actually bear some similarities to the ways the Vikings use him, at least early in his career. We’ve seen during his time in Minnesota that head coach Kevin O’Connell can scheme just about any quarterback into position for success. He’s done it with guys like Nick Mullens and Joshua Dobbs and last year got a career year out of Darnold.
McCarthy is going to have a lot of easy buttons installed in the offense; it’s a matter of whether he’s able to press them and make the right plays. Things could prove slightly more difficult on that front this week than for the rest of the season, though, with Jordan Addison sidelined by a suspension, Justin Jefferson coming off having missed a significant portion of training camp and Adam Thielen having just recently arrived from Carolina.
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With Addison out, Jefferson could see shadow coverage from Jaylon Johnson, depending on how new defensive coordinator Dennis Allen decides to deploy him and No. 2 cornerback Tyrique Stevenson. Thielen should spent most of his time in the slot, where he’ll see a lot of Kyler Gordon. T.J. Hockenson could have some more room to operate with the Bears expected to be without linebacker T.J. Edwards on the second level of the defense.
Minnesota has talked ad nauseam this offseason about wanting to run the ball more often and with more success than it did over the first two years of O’Connell’s tenure as the head coach, and if it can do that, then McCarthy won’t be counted on to be the engine of the offense. The Vikes put their money (literally) where their mouth is by investing significantly in their offensive line, signing Ryan Kelly and Will Fries and then drafting Donovan Jackson in the first round.
Teams ran all over the Bears last year, averaging 4.8 yards per carry, which tied them with the Saints and Commanders for second-worst in the NFL behind only the decrepit Panthers run defense. The Vikings’ run game fell apart around the same time their offensive line did last year, but the hope is that bringing in Jordan Mason from the 49ers to split carries with Aaron Jones, whom they feel is much more effective when not being counted on as an every-down back, will help them out on that front.
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When the Bears have the ball
This won’t be the first matchup between Bears head coach Ben Johnson and Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores. They squared off four times over the last two years while Johnson was with the Detroit Lions as their offensive coordinator, and Johnson’s Lions took it right to this Minnesota defense, averaging nearly 31 points per game while going 4-0 against Minnesota.
The Bears, of course, are not the Lions. And this Chicago offense also squared off with Flores’ defense twice last year, when Caleb Williams was a rookie. In the first of those two games, Williams had one of his better performances of the year, going 32 of 47 for 340 yards and two touchdowns while playing most of the game in catch-up mode, sending it to overtime before the Bears lost by three. He had a much more muted performance (to put it kindly) in a blowout loss later in the season, however.
Chicago remade its offensive line this offseason in an effort to insulate Williams from the kind of pressure that teams like the Vikings can bring. The Bears brought in Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson via trade and Drew Dalman in free agency, and the hope is that that trio will solidify the interior of the line so that Williams can work in significantly cleaner pockets than he did a year ago.
The Vikings muddy pockets better than almost any team in the NFL, and should have even more help up front this year than what they had a year ago after signing Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave this offseason. Add them to the likes of Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel and Dallas Turner, and you are cooking with gas up front again.
The Bears stand a better chance of keeping Williams well-protected this year than last, but this might be one of the most difficult tasks they face all season — especially considering the kinds of exotic looks that Flores is going to throw at them in an attempt to confuse both their pass protection rules and their second-year quarterback, who will be playing his first game in an new system that calls on him to do unfamiliar things like play under center and turn his back to the defense far more often than he’s used to.
Chicago could have some advantages on the outside should Williams actually be afforded time to throw, though. If there is one question mark on this Minnesota defense, it’s at cornerback, where the Vikes will be counting on guys like Isaiah Rodgers and Jeff Okudah to play important roles. The Bears have a strong pass-catching corps featuring D.J. Moore and Rome Odunze, plus rookie tight end Colston Loveland and rookie slot man Luther Burden III (the latter of whom may be operating behind Olamide Zaccheaus early in the year). When allowed to play on time and decisively, Williams can make any throw to any level of the field. If he has the time, there will be opportunities here.
It’ll be interesting to see how Minnesota’s new-look defensive front holds up against the Bears’ running game as well. Chicago did not run the ball with a high degree of success last season and has some injuries in the backfield behind D’Andre Swift, but Johnson is an excellent run-game designer and the improvement of the offensive line should afford more opportunities to keep the offense on schedule and create big plays on the ground. The Vikings had one of the best run defenses in the NFL last year, though, so we should expect some tough sledding for the Bears regardless of the improvements up front.
Prediction
If this game were being played later in the year, when the Bears have had a chance to get used to Johnson’s offense and work out all the kinks, I might feel differently. But in the season-opening game, figuring out how to beat one of the most exotic and difficult-to-attack defenses in the NFL feels like too tall a task for Chicago.
Pick: Vikings 23, Bears 17 | Vikings -1.5
