🏈 Wk 02 ~ GAME DAY! SHOWDOWN vs BEARS
Game 2 is upon us. I'm ready for it!
Let's hope for great/smart plays on both sides of the ball. It would be awesome to be 2-0 at the end of the game.
Remember, even if it's a loss, it will not be the end of the world, nor will the sky be falling. It's only game 2 & there's a lot left of the season.
LIVE WELL ~ LOVE MUCH ~ LAUGH OFTEN
Dallas Turner closes out this game with a sack and the entire team is chasing him around Soldier Field. Appropriate.
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) September 20, 2026
Vikings 9, Bears 3. FINAL.
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The Vikings held the Bears to 56 fewer points today than they scored last week. It's the second largest dropoff in points from one game to the next within a season in the NFL's Super Bowl Era, per ESPN Research. https://t.co/oXZy7KRX2S
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) September 20, 2026
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.@UnoErra with the sack to seal it 💜
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) September 20, 2026
📺: @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/svXKtSUSff
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Game on the line and you leave a TE to block Turner? Huge tactical error on Johnson.
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here”
Shakespeare
LIVE: Head Coach Kevin O'Connell talks to media following game against Chicago Bears https://t.co/SO9CmeOG3G
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) September 20, 2026
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Kevin O’Connell says that Kyler Murray remains on track to be cleared from concussion protocol early this week.
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) September 20, 2026
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Cricket wrote:
Jones needs only 3 more yards to have 1,000 career rushing yards against the bears.
Carson Wentz is 4-0 against the Bears.
Jones rushed for 105 yards on 23 carries today. He now has a total of 1,102 against the Bears.
Wentz is now 5-0 against the Bears.
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Few #Vikings games notes
— Sean Borman (@SeanBormanNFL) September 21, 2026
• Jacob Thomas has been playing in dime formations
• Solid game for James Pierre
• Not a great game for Will Fries, needs to be more consistent
• Ty Ingram-Dawkins’ explosiveness was on par with Jalen Redmond’s before he left the game with hip injury
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Andrew Van Ginkel rushed, spun and chased Caleb Williams in 3.85 seconds. Isaiah Rodgers needed 1.35 seconds to reach Cairo Santos. And as the clock hit :00, Dallas Turner ended it.
— Ben Goessling (@BenGoessling) September 21, 2026
In the final 30-minute flurry of Sunday’s game, the Vikings beat the Bears with a few incendiary…
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CHICAGO — In 3.85 seconds, Vikings linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel rushed Caleb Williams off the left side of the Bears’ line, grabbed Colston Loveland to make the tight end the anchor point of his turn and dived outstretched toward Williams’ right heel.
Williams lifted his leg to evade Van Ginkel’s grasp when his hamstring seized, sending the quarterback sliding to the sodden Soldier Field grass Sunday.
Three plays and 11:05 of real time later, the Bears snapped the ball in hopes of tying the game on Cairo Santos’ 23-yard field goal after Bears backup Tyson Bagent had thrown twice for one yard with Williams in Chicago’s medical tent.
Vikings cornerback Isaiah Rodgers had studied Santos all week, knowing the kicker typically needs just 1.3 seconds to put the ball in the air after it’s snapped. Josh Oliver, the Vikings’ 264-pound tight end, sets the left edge of the team’s field-goal unit; when the Vikings practice field goal blocks, Rodgers tells Oliver he’s coming full speed, and needs the hulking tight end to respond in kind.
“He’s a hard guy to get around, so it makes it easier during the game,” Rodgers said.
He needed four steps and 1.35 seconds to careen around the left side of the Bears’ line before he dived toward Santos’ foot, swatting down the kick Chicago hoped would tie the game.
The Vikings block the field goal attempt!
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 20, 2026
📺: FOX/FOX One pic.twitter.com/Ugohh13YsO
Then, less than 26 minutes after Williams’ injury, the Vikings thought they’d sealed a 9-3 victory on safety Josh Metellus’ diving breakup of Bears backup QB Tyson Bagent’s pass for Loveland when officials put one second back on the clock.
“Yeah, and it seemed for the first time all day since the buses rolled up to the stadium, it felt like [the rain] kind of died down a little bit,” coach Kevin O’Connell said. “Credit Tyson for making a couple of really nice throws there. The defense being able to hold him out, I thought was huge. And ‘D.T.’, man, ‘D.T.’ just keeps showing up.”
The Dallas Turner sack that finally ended the game meant O’Connell remained undefeated in five trips to a building that used to horrify his predecessors. It left the Vikings as the only undefeated team in the NFC North, with two division wins coming despite the fact they’ve had their starting quarterback for just 11 snaps.
It came through a few incendiary moments, in driving rains that made traction scarce. And at the end of the half-hour that changed the game on Sunday, it seemed like several events in the Vikings’ win could have effects that reverberate across the division for months.
Vikings running back Deejay Dallas (31) left, and wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) celebrate the team's 9-3 win over the Chicago Bears. (Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Williams’ hamstring injury might top that list. Coach Ben Johnson said the team will have imaging done on Williams’ leg Monday. Johnson said he was relieved the quarterback escaped a knee injury, “but the hamstring could be pretty damaging as well.”
Vikings defeat Bears after Caleb Williams injury, improve to 2-0 in NFC North
If the defending division champs are without the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft for weeks, it could have a major impact on their hopes of repeating.
“I threw a prayer up instantly,” Rodgers said. “I just saw him go down, so I didn’t think of it [in terms of the long-term effects on the Bears]. It’s the NFL; backup quarterbacks aren’t backup quarterbacks because they aren’t good. But he had an injury you don’t wish on anybody.”
What the Vikings did, though, put them in early control of the division through a stretch they’ve talked about for months.
It was the first time since 2013 they opened with two NFC North opponents. They began the year against the two division teams who finished ahead of them last season, and they played Sunday without quarterback Kyler Murray (concussion), running back Jordan Mason (thumb fracture) and wide receiver Jauan Jennings (personal reasons).
A split of the two games would have been understandable; a sweep, to Justin Jefferson, was non-negotiable.
“By any means necessary,” the receiver said. “Whatever it takes to come in here with a [win] and celebrate with that victory, that’s all that matters. It don’t matter if it was six-to-three to start the game. To me, two-and-oh in the division is a very good start to the season.”
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) was blitzed often by the Minnesota Vikings defense at Soldier Field on Sunday. (Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
How Vikings slowed Caleb Williams before injury
According to TruMedia, the Vikings blitzed Williams on 27 of his 34 dropbacks, sacking him three times and intercepting him in the first quarter when he overshot Luther Burden III while evading Turner and rookie safety Jacob Thomas.
Williams completed 12 of his 21 passes against the blitz, but averaged just 5.9 yards per attempt when blitzed and didn’t complete any of his five attempts outside the pocket.
Some Vikings defenders switched out their regular cleats for seven-stud shoes, practicing with them in Eagan on Friday when the Vikings went outdoors to get used to the rain. Coaches preached the importance of a responsible rush plan, cautioning against over pursuing Williams, especially if the surface became slick.
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“It’s tough,” safety Harrison Smith said. “You just have to be a little more conscious of it, and it’s easier said than done. For the most part, I thought we did pretty good. We saw last week how many plays he made with his feet — and he’s fast. He’s tough to bring down. I thought overall, our rush plan, guys were pretty disciplined in how they went about it.”
It was just the second time the Vikings defeated a Johnson-led offense since Brian Flores became their defensive coordinator in 2023. The Lions beat them in the first four meetings when Johnson was their offensive coordinator, and the Vikings split with the Bears in Johnson’s first year as Chicago’s head coach. On Sunday, the Vikings held a team that scored 59 points a week ago to just three.
“I really loved the game plan from the time ‘Flo’ and I sat down on Tuesday, just kind of the way him and the staff wanted to attack,” O’Connell said. “The tackling a couple of times in space, the surface can be tough for guys to close space, come to balance and make a tackle.
“Caleb [Williams] is such a unique talent, even when you think you got him, and I give our guys a ton of credit for chasing him around all day. We did keep him in there enough, and then I thought the back end did a really nice job plastering their guys through the end of the down.”
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Carson Wentz (11) led his team to a win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday. (Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Vikings offense does just enough
The Vikings forced two turnovers, with defensive tackle Jalen Redmond stripping running back D’Andre Swift at the goal line in the third quarter after Byron Murphy Jr. picked Williams off in the first.
They didn’t turn it over on offense, with Carson Wentz attempting just 20 passes on a day where the rain made it tough to throw.
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“I don’t know how much really prepares you for this,” Wentz said. “We came out for warm-ups, I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s not going to be too bad.’ And then it just never stops. It never stopped the whole day. You’re thinking you’ll get a drive or two where it breaks, and there’s a little wind the whole day. I’ve been around and played, practiced in all sorts of weather over the years. It’s not fun by any means, but it’s fun to be on this side of the ‘W,’ that’s for sure.”
The Vikings relied on Aaron Jones, handing the 31-year-old the ball 23 times with Mason out. It was the most Jones had carried since Nov. 13, 2022, when he had 24 carries for the Packers in an overtime win over Dallas.
After Rodgers’ blocked field goal kept the Vikings’ lead at three, Jones carried seven times on the ensuing drive, gaining 25 yards to set up Will Reichard’s third field goal.
“A running back loves this,” he said, sporting a cut on his face after a fourth-quarter hit to his helmet from Bears defensive back Tyrique Stevenson. “It’s a little harder to play in rain games when it’s really coming down. The field is not as great; you can’t cut as well, people are slipping and sliding, those kinds of things.”
Nothing about it was going to be smooth. For the Vikings, little has been perfect so far.
But before the 2025 season, former General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah talked about wanting to build a team that could win “any type of fight.”
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A week after the Vikings scored 29 points in the second half of a comeback win over the Packers at home, they leaned on a running back and their defense on the road.
Several times at the end of Sunday’s game, it could have turned on them in the blink of an eye. Instead, they left with the kind of win whose impact might still be felt months from now.
“We know we have a good defense, we know we have an offense that for the most part protects the football,” O’Connell said. “On a day where everybody in the building knew you were running it a ton, it still felt physical and felt like a good battle up there with Aaron finding the space.
“We’re still going to grow and improve and get better, but this team’s learning and applying previously learned lessons on how to win games a whole bunch of different ways.”
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