Well, that game turned around so quickly for the Chicago Bears. After an excellent first quarter of play, it felt like the Bears were finally showing signs of breaking out. With Ben Johnson calling the shots on offense and Dennis Allen leading the defense, Caleb Williams and Chicago were due for a breakout.
Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Their early brilliance quickly started to fade, and key issues started popping up. They weren't able to fully put away the Minnesota Vikings while they were down and struggling as well. That eventually cost them, as the Vikings mounted a furious comeback from 17-6 to stun the Bears in Week 1.
There's a lot of blame to be passed around for the Bears. Who are the entities most to blame for spoiling Ben Johnson's Bears debut. Let's discuss.
Caleb Williams
There's no beating around the bush here. The offense's inability to rack up points stymied the Bears' chances of winning the game. They started off hot: they scored on their first drive, and Caleb Williams completed his first ten pass attempts. Williams even recorded his first rushing touchdown of his career.
However, they struggled to score after that. Another field goal put them at ten points at the half, but that would be the last points the Bears offense would put up until the fourth quarter. By then, the lead was just too insurmountable. At the forefront of the offense's struggles is Caleb Williams, whose struggles severely stymied the Bears offense for most of the game.
Even when he seemed to play well in the first quarter, there were some worrying signs. The Vikings still occasionally got to Williams, but he had clean pockets to work with for most of the first half. Yet, Williams was weirdly conservative with his decision-making, passing up big plays to get to his checkdowns. There were a couple of plays where a receiver came open downfield, only for the Bears quarterback to check it down to D'Andre Swift.
That in itself wasn't too big a deal. What really started to hurt the Bears, though, was when Williams started misfiring. Even when there was little pressure on him, Williams routinely missed his attempts to his receivers. The most painful miss was when he badly overthrew a wide-open DJ Moore on a fade route in the third quarter. It got to a point where even his checkdown passes started to miss.
Caleb Williams had DJ Moore wiiiiiiiide openpic.twitter.com/iWujmvo9vi
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) September 9, 2025
There were definitely some encouraging signs for Williams. He seemed better at navigating the pocket and was able to generate runs for himself when he couldn't find an open man. However, these accuracy problems will severely hurt an offense that largely generates production from on-time, on-target throws.
Bears' running game
It wasn't just the Bears' passing attack that struggled against the Vikings. Heading into the year, a spotlight was put on Chicago's rushing attack. It was one of their many weaknesses last year. With Johnson's love of the running game from his days in Detroit, there was a lot of emphasis on Bears running back D'Andre Swift to produce.
Unfortunately, the Bears still struggled to get great production on the ground. While they did have a total of 119 rushing yards, 58 of those came from Williams scrambling out of the pocket. When it comes to designed runs, the offense struggled to get positive production. Swift got 17 carries, but was only able to get 53 yards for a measly 3.1 yards per carry.
It's a bit hard to tell whether the Bears' struggles in running the football stem from Swift or the offensive line failing to open up lanes. Swift did have a few explosive plays where he was able to find the crease in the blocking scheme, but his longest carry was only 13 yards. The Bears also tried giving Moore touches from the backfield, but he only got eight yards on three carries.
The Bears will need to figure out how to fix their offensive woes, and fast. Johnson is a talented playcaller from his days in Detroit, but his success there was built on Jared Goff's accuracy and play-action proficiency, as well as Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery being elite runners. So far, we haven't seen those elements from the Bears' key actors on offense.
