There will be regional interest in the NFC North matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears in Week 2, but this game took on a whole new meaning after watching it to open the season. Now the game serves as a final litmus test, a potential bellwether for the future of the division this year, and even a marker that separates the contenders from the pretenders.
The Bears deserve the national headlines after their Week 1 win. A Ben Johnson-led offense against the Carolina Panthers hangs 59 points on the home team, the highest-scoring Week 1 game in NFL history. The perfect combination of Johnson’s plan, pre-confusion, combined with Caleb Williams’ incredibly athletic execution meant that for 60 minutes, Chicago backed up a hapless Panthers defense as they clutched the air and watched helplessly as Williams dribbled easily into open windows.
While all this is impressive, the performance is somewhat expected. We to know Ben Johnson’s offensive genius, and Williams’ abilities are widely recognized – as are the Panthers’ major struggles on defense. Perhaps the degree to which Chicago dominated was a little out of left field, but they more or less did what they set out to do.
What happened in Minnesota that afternoon was on another level. Unlike the Bears, the Vikings were all-in on the Packers, the preseason favorite to make a splash in the NFC this season, possibly even pushing for a Super Bowl berth. Instead, we watched Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores rip the heart and soul out of the Packers, a confused Jordan Love either rushing to make a throw, or collapsing in a heap after being loaded with several creative Flores blitz packages.
There’s a natural tendency to use players as the face of a game, but when it comes to this Vikings vs. Bears matchup, there’s really nothing the players can do. This is the ultimate football chess match between Johnson and Flores, one of the deepest minds in the NFL, and how they plan their sides of the ball — and their direct opponents.
One of the hallmarks of Ben Johnson’s offense is pre-snap movement and early plays in the passing game. Often these overlap with personnel packages not used by another team in football, adding another layer of confusion. This is most pronounced when he uses the 11 and 12 staff in an unusual manner. While most teams feature 11 (3 WR, 1 TE), asking a QB to throw a timeline is universally considered passable — but Johnson and the Bears ran the ball among 11 personnel on 38% of the downs last season. This is not something we see simple teams doing. Meanwhile, the conventional wisdom is that teams are running out of these sets when their teams send 12 recruits (2 WR, 2 TE), but the Bears are close to a 50/50 split in 2025.
That level of randomness is just one wrinkle Johnson makes with his offense. When all the signs run and run when they should, the bears will pass. Johnson also isn’t content with simply moving the chains, but rather, he’s concerned with creating explosive plays all over the downfield — which emphasizes the effectiveness of pre-pitch confusion. When it comes to the offense, if he wins the mind games pregame, the team is going to make you pay. He
Enter Brian Flores, and how the dichotomy of this matchup makes it one of the most fascinating we’ll see in the first two weeks of the year.
Flores’ defensive technique is so varied, and so unique, that it’s almost impossible to do what he does from moment to moment. The Vikings don’t have the greatest defensive talent on paper, but their athleticism has exceeded that by making sure each of their players can produce good results. It’s not uncommon to see two of those DBs play the mug role when Flores deploys in a defensive five that looks like a Cover 3, players who rush into space to create pressure.
What makes this read impossible is that Flores can put the DBs on two straight downs, making the opposing QB. Feeling As if they have a handle on the defense and the next time they run back the same DBs that lit them up earlier in the game, they now drop back into coverage and take the lanes that are supposed to be open. The quarterback burns the pocket time trying to scan the field for an open receiver, but with a traditional edge rush.
The double mug destroys the effectiveness of the play action at its heart, because it is dangerous to have light pass protection on the QB to sell the run when light, quick, athletic DBs are applying pressure. This is the final nail in the coffin for the crime, and Flores puts the packages in the blender. Jordan forces them to be on high guard to keep his love alive, then seduces them with a hidden urge to respond. This meant that in the fourth quarter, we saw Love get enough coverage and drop back, but we saw manpower wasted as defensive backs dropped into zone and took every route.
Now we get to the heart of why Vikings and Bears are so compelling. Chicago uses confusing fronts designed to hide whether they are passing or running, while the Vikings oppose confusing fronts while rushing or throwing. It’s the ultimate game of rock, paper, scissors – and we don’t even know what kind of wrinkle these two have created to challenge each other.
The Week 2 game is going to be different than the rest of the schedule. A brilliant, descriptive, academic football game that highlights the beauty and complexity of the scheme above all else. If you love the sport itself and want to see two masters who are improving the game go head to head, this is a must see game on the calendar. It also has the potential to answer two of the biggest burning questions from Week 1: “Are the Bears?” Really That dominant?” and “Are the Vikings much better than we expected?” What happens on Sunday will determine that.
