How? Why? Are the Bears setting up fans for another double doink of disappointment in January?

So many questions about this 7-3 start. Let’s try to answer a few from Minneapolis, site of the latest last-second victory.

The Bears didn’t do anything great. Even the NFL’s most powerful weapon — Caleb Williams’ escapability — proved fallible when he was sacked twice in the fourth quarter. He did have two miraculous sack-avoids (let’s make that an official stat) in the first half.

The play of the game, maybe the sequence that best epitomized the Bears’ entire season, came on the second snap of the third quarter. It was just a quick throw to Rome Odunze, about 6 yards downfield, and was nearly batted away by a linebacker.

Odunze had to dive for the ball, which wasn’t perfectly thrown. He got back up, barely avoided being tagged down by cornerback Byron Murphy Jr., then refused to give up, fighting forward while in the arms of two Vikings, Murphy and safety Josh Metellus.

Odunze managed a stalemate for a few seconds, then his teammates ran in to help the cause. The first one there was Kyle Monongai, then Drew Dalman. Cole Kmet tried to pull Odunze forward, before tackle Theo Benedet lumbered in and gave the entire pile a nice shove.

Odunze caught the ball at the Bears 36-yard line and ended up with a 17-yard gain to the 47. Nothing spectacular, just a strong desire to make something positive happen.

That seems the 2025 Bears in a nutshell. Do enough things reasonably well and maybe it will all pay off in the final seconds.

Great return

Besides the Odunze pile-driver, the play of the day for the Bears was Devin Duvernay’s 56-yard kickoff return to set up the winning field goal.

How did it happen? Well, there was an earlier kickoff that looked very similar. The Vikings booted it into the corner, but this time to Josh Blackwell, and he ran wide to the opposite side for 30 yards.

Both times, too many Vikings flowed toward the kick direction, which left the weak side open. Will Reichard kicked it to Duvernay this time, making Blackwell the lead blocker and he put Tavierre Thomas on the turf.

The rest of it was pretty easy. The kick team ran to the right, toward where the ball landed, and Bears blockers simply needed to add good shove and they were out of the play. Call it a well-designed return.

Also important was the 7-yard run by D’Andre Swift on third down, which shortened the final field goal from 55 to 48 yards. The Bears had Ozzy Trapilo on as an extra linemen and Minnesota overloaded that side.

So the Bears motioned Colston Loveland and ran toward the weak side. We’ve talked about tight end blocking before. Loveland and Durham Smythe sealed the edge, Darnell Wright and Joshua Jackson did a nice job of securing the inside and Swift had plenty of room.

Delicate defense

One issue for the Vikings is the interior offensive line. They signed four-time Pro Bowler Ryan Kelly from the Colts to play center, but he was injured in the third game. So they’ve got a backup center on the field, a rookie guard in Donovan Jackson and right guard Will Fries, another free agent from the Colts, who somehow got the same money as Kelly.

This played out in a couple different ways. When the Bears did get pressure, it usually came up the middle — specifically Grady Jarrett vs. Fries. Jarrett got into J.J. McCarthy’s lap to play a huge role in the Bears’ first interception, which was also a nice job by Kevin Byard of reading the QB’s eyes and coming off his own man to make the pick.

Jarrett also got light pressure on the second interception, the deep throw into the end zone that McCarthy couldn’t get past the long arms of Nahshon Wright. On that one, McCarthy had Jalen Nailor wide-open for a nice gain over the middle.

The Bears’ defense seems to be walking a tight rope without Kyler Gordon or Jaylon Johnson on the field. Early in the game, the Minnesota offense stopped itself by McCarthy missing open receivers badly, along with the accurate long pass bouncing off Jordan Addison’s hands.

On the Vikings’ third possession, McCarthy did hit some passes, then Aaron Jones was able to break a 14-yard run because T.J. Hockenson took out two Bears defenders on an outside zone play.

The very next snap from the Bears’ 17-yard line was a similar run play, but this time it was Fries pulling and he completely missed a block on Austin Booker. Short gain on first down, drive stalled, Vikings settle for 3.

Quick hitters

When Williams was sacked twice, what appeared to happen was the Vikings went straight man-to-man coverage after playing a lot of soft zone earlier in the game. That caused Williams to hesitate, then escape the pocket, which allowed a rusher to detach and make the sack. Guard Joshua Jackson was to blame for the second one, since he got beat by Jalen Redmond and Williams had to scramble. There were available options for short throws both times. …

Maybe another example of the Bears being well-coached happened on the final play of the first half. The Vikings tried a hook and lateral from Justin Jefferson to Aaron Jones, but Tyrique Stevenson saw it coming and actually forced a fumble. …

It’s hard to tell what to make of McCarthy, the LaGrange Park native and Nazareth grad, in his first season playing for the Vikings. He had some absurdly bad misses Sunday, but also enough solid throws to give Minnesota the lead in the final two minutes. Every little bit of offense helped in this game, so Williams outrushing McCarthy 26-0 was not insignificant.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20251118/chicago-bears/bears-film-study-just-keep-pushing-the-pile-and-good-results-happen/