Vikings vs. Bears: Can WR Justin Jefferson be stopped again and other burning questions
The Minnesota Vikings are primed to pick up their 12th win of the season as they take on the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football. Since these two teams last met three weeks ago, the Vikings have beaten two playoff-contending teams and the Bears have lost both games they have played, essentially eliminating them from […]
The Minnesota Vikings are primed to pick up their 12th win of the season as they take on the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football.
Since these two teams last met three weeks ago, the Vikings have beaten two playoff-contending teams and the Bears have lost both games they have played, essentially eliminating them from the playoff hunt. They also fired their head coach Matt Eberflus after their disastrous Thanksgiving Day game.
What do we need to know about where the Bears are now? We spoke to our Bears writer Kole Noble to catch us up on the Monsters of the Midway.
How has the offense evolved with Thomas Brown having a few games under his belt?
From a system and play-calling standpoint, a lot of the verbiage in the offense has remained the same since Thomas Brown took over. The main difference has been Brown implementing his own flair to the unit most notably his use of pre-snap motion, something that is increasingly common in play-callers from the same coaching tree.
The use of motion is allowing the Bears to get their weapons in space with the ball in their hands much quicker and creating mismatches against the defense. The biggest learning curve has been with Caleb Williams, who admitted this week that he needs to understand the importance of timing when it comes to implementing motions.
Where are things at with morale with the Bears?
After making a second coaching change, the morale in the locker room actually seemed much improved last week with everyone rallying around interim head coach Thomas Brown. The confusing part for everyone was why that didn’t translate on the field against the San Francisco 49ers and that’s what drained all the team’s energy.
Overall, the team is honestly just tired, mentally and physically, from the outcome of this season, especially those who have been in Chicago the longest. The best part is, one win goes a long way to making spirits bright (no holiday pun intended), and the Bears are doing everything they can to get back on the right side of things on Monday Night.
The Bears did everything they could to stop Justin Jefferson, and three players went over 100 yards. Will they use the same approach again?
The Vikings have done a fantastic job of forcing opposing defenses to pick their poison since getting T.J. Hockenson back and Jordan Addison operating at a high level. That’s bad news for the Bears considering their biggest concern this week is in the secondary.
After handing over defensive play-call duties to defensive coordinator Eric Washington, the secondary took a major step back in Week 14. The communication was awful against the 49ers allowing George Kittle and Jauan Jennings to run freely all over the field for the entirety of the game.
Eliminating Justin Jefferson is obviously task #1 for this defense, but after seeing Isaac Guerendo pick up multiple big plays on the ground and as a receiving threat, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kevin O’Connell look to get Aaron Jones a nice helping of touches. It’s going to be another tough ask out of this unit to defend against all these weapons.
Justin Jefferson’s on-field impact is arguably even greater when he’s not catching the football for the Vikings
He’s the best in the National Football League for a reason
