Entering this season, it was thought that the road to the NFC North title goes through Detroit. That was a very safe take, given how close the Lions came to reaching the Super Bowl. However, the Minnesota Vikings, with their top ranked scoring defense, will have a lot to say about that.
The newest reincarnation of the Purple People Eaters defense is giving up just 10 points per game, while leading the NFL in sacks with 16.
“They’re a well-coached group,” Houston Texans offensive guard Shaq Mason said to RG.org, ahead of his team’s 34-7 loss to the Vikings. “You’ve got to stay true to your keys. There’s a saying: ‘Don’t believe lying eyes.’ The Vikings create a lot of mishaps and miscommunication with offenses with all the stuff they do. So, you’ve got to be true to their keys.”
The Minnesota Vikings utterly trounced the same Texans team that beat the Chicago Bears 19-13 in week two of Sunday Night Football. Not to do Transitive Property of Equality here, as it obviously doesn’t always correlate, but…yikes!
Currently, on-the-job training for #1 overall pick and starting quarterback Caleb Williams is coming along slowly.
He’s got twice as many interceptions (4) as he does touchdown passes (2); to go along with an ugly 5.3 yards per pass attempt. Fellow rookie, and ninth overall pick, Rome Odunze is off to a slow start too. He only has 156 yards receiving through the first three.
Both of these players, as well as their pitch-and-catch combination in general, will get better.
And they need to, as the Bears are third from last in the NFC in scoring. It all looks like a nightmare matchup for Chicago, as the Minnesota Vikings come to Chicago on November 24th, giving Williams, Odunze anbd company not much time to prepare for this purple blitz.
The Bears then go to Minnesota on December 16th. Brian Flores is one helluva defensive coordinator.
“Flo is a great defensive mind,” Mason added later in the same interview.
“That’s the best way I can put it. He definitely knows how to scheme up offenses. They present a lot of challenges. We’re looking forward to the challenge. I know Flo very well. I’ve been with him for a while.”
This Minnesota Vikings defense frequently conveys that they’ll go into an all-out blitz in pre-snap, forcing quarterbacks to audible out of what they originally had designed. It’s a coy mind game, as Flores will then instead drop as many seven, or maybe even eight, players back into coverage out of formation that made it appear they were going to be bringing the house.
When they do, it’s relentless pressure as the Vikes are top or near the top in all the important stats of this category like QB hits, QB pressures, tackles for a loss etc.
Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, who is struggling mightily right now, better be well-prepared for these two meetings.
And the Bears better starting stacking wins where they can, because those divisional Ws, especially against the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings, are going to be hard to come by.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.