CHICAGO — The Chicago Bears had been in command of the division rival Minnesota Vikings for many of Monday’s season opener at Soldier Subject solely to see their efforts squandered in a 27-24 loss.
That quick begin was sparked by quarterback Caleb Williams in his first regular-season recreation underneath Ben Johnson. After going his complete rookie season with out main a landing drive on the Bears’ opening possession, Williams recorded his first profession dashing landing and Chicago’s first opening-drive TD for the reason that 2023 season.
He did so by finishing his first 10 passes, which marked the longest streak by a Bears quarterback to begin a season opener since 1978 and essentially the most consecutive completions in his NFL profession. It helped the Bears to hold a four-point lead into halftime that prolonged to a 17-6 margin after cornerback Nahshon Wright recorded a pick-six within the third quarter.
However as penalties, execution points and errors piled up within the second half, Chicago’s lack of ability to shut out one other opponent felt harking back to earlier seasons.
“We felt like we had been dominating the sport, such as you stated,” Williams stated. “We had been in management as much as two scores popping out of half. That mentality is one thing that we now have, one thing that we preach. That didn’t occur right this moment. It’s not a play name factor. It’s not something like that. It’s simply having the ability to go on the market and execute the performs which can be referred to as, have the ability to execute them at a excessive degree. That’s one thing we take satisfaction in.
“At present that didn’t occur.”
Monday night time marked Chicago’s fourth loss within the final 4 seasons when coming into the fourth quarter with a double-digit lead. The Bears have twice as lots of these losses as some other crew over that span.
“I believe you actually really feel it while you’re on the sideline there,” Johnson stated of the momentum shift. “You bought it transferring, received it going, then unexpectedly it begins going backwards. Destructive performs are occurring, whether or not it’s penalties or the intentional grounding, issues of that nature. it price us some factors big-time.”
The Vikings rattled off 21 unanswered factors to come back from behind and beat the Bears in quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s first recreation. As Minnesota’s offense captured momentum with three consecutive landing drives within the last body, the Bears noticed the sport change after Williams was flagged for intentional grounding late within the third quarter. The turning level for Chicago got here two performs later when kicker Cairo Santos missed a 50-yard discipline objective.
“I really feel like we (had been) perhaps ready on someone to be a spark or one thing like that, or simply get us again within the movement,” proper sort out Darnell Wrught stated. “I really feel like simply getting again on web page and simply attempting to be the spark your self, that’s actually it.”
Williams was unable to maintain his personal quick begin as his accuracy waned.
After finishing 13 of his 16 passes within the first half, Williams completed the sport with an NFL-worst off-target fee 29.4% in Week 1.
A part of that has to do with Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores getting extra aggressive with bringing strain. After blitzing Williams on 25% of his dropbacks within the first half, the Vikings blitzed Williams 44% of the time within the third and fourth quarter.
Past Chicago’s offense rising stagnant, maybe essentially the most alarming a part of Monday night time’s loss was a part of a development that involved Johnson all through the preseason. Chicago was flagged 12 instances for 127 yards, which included 4 false begins within the first half and two defensive move interference penalties that led to 10 factors.
“We stated going into Week 1 that the crew that might make the least variety of errors would win the sport,” Johnson stated. “Sadly, we had been on the mistaken facet of that. We made too many there late within the recreation, myself included.
“Once you look down on the stat sheet and also you see 12 penalties, that’s received to get cleaned up in a rush, but we’ve been saying that each one coaching camp, as nicely. We’ll discover a method to get that finished. It’s going to be a collective effort. Nobody’s pointing fingers.”
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