3 ways the Bears can stop the bleeding with a win over the Vikings

Bears fans have lost that winning feeling.
Caleb Williams played a smart, efficient game against the Packers last Sunday. The Bears will need him to be even better against the high-pressure Vikings defense.
Caleb Williams played a smart, efficient game against the Packers last Sunday. The Bears will need him to be even better against the high-pressure Vikings defense. / Michael Reaves/GettyImages
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The NFL has become America's new national pastime in large part because every game feels like an event. No matter who you're a fan of, your team only plays one game per week and 17 games per year, which makes each one feel super important.

NFL fans have been trained over the years to appreciate every morsel doled out to them beyond their typical Sunday slate. Monday Night Football? Thank you very much. A game on Thursday night? Yes please. Early-morning games from London? How can we say no to that?

If this makes football sound like a drug, it's for good reason. NFL fans are junkies for football, but while it makes sense that fans of teams such as the Kansas City Chiefs or San Francisco 49ers can't get enough, amazingly, it's still the case even for fans whose teams do a whole lot of losing.

Chicago Bears fans are the perfect example. The Bears have one of the most loyal fanbases in sports, despite having no real track record of success in the past three-plus decades. Football has brought more pain than pleasure to Bears fans over the years, yet still we come back for more like a group of Stockholm Syndrome patients all wearing navy and orange jerseys.

The past month has been an incredibly trying time for Bears fans, as they've watched what was a season full of promise turn into yet another exercise in disappointment. The Bears have been on the wrong end of two of the most brutal losses of the season in the past month alone, the Hail Mary fiasco against the Commanders and then the blocked field goal loss to the Packers. Worse yet, those two crotch kicks were just the bookends to two other blowout losses, and if I have to see one more "You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum that they raised me" meme that shows Noah Brown, Karl Brooks and Cody Parkey together, I'm just going to lose it.

Nevertheless, Bears fans will still show up to watch their team this Sunday, even if most of them are only there to boo Matt Eberflus into unemployment. Say what you will about us, but we keep coming back for more.

Bears fans have survived more than any fanbase should have to endure, and we could badly use a win for morale purposes right about now. What does the team have to do to beat the Vikings and end its four-game losing streak?

Continue to get the ball out of Caleb Williams' hands quickly

Chicago's offense has been a disjointed mess whenever it's gone against a defense ranked outside of the bottom-five in the league, which is why former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was fired last week.

Passing game coordinator Thomas Brown was promoted in Waldron's place, and he left quite an impression against the Packers. Green Bay has one of the most opportunistic defenses in the NFL, yet Brown designed an intelligent gameplan that allowed Caleb Williams to make quick reads while avoiding turning the ball over.

Brown called a great game that took advantage of the Bears' strengths, but he'll need to be even better against the Vikings. Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores has flummoxed opposing offenses with disguised looks and exotic blitzes, and with the league lead in takeaways and the third-most sacks, his D is the opposite of "bend but don't break."

Flores' defense is especially harsh on young quarterbacks. The Vikings have beaten up on young signal-callers from Mac Jones to Brock Purdy to CJ Stroud, which makes this a fascinating test for Caleb, who has now gone four games without throwing either an interception or a touchdown.

Caleb was not at his best in the first three games of that streak, as he appeared to be playing it too safe to avoid turnovers at all costs. Overthinking things led to a steep drop in accuracy, as he had barely better than a 50 percent completion rate in those three games, but he looked like a new quarterback against the Packers, making decisive, pinpoint throws for much of the afternoon. The fact that he again didn't throw a touchdown was just a matter of circumstance, as the Bears capped off their two touchdown drives with a long run from D'Andre Swift and a goal line plunge from Roschon Johnson.

Caleb showed against Green Bay that he could take what the defense gives him, but he could also make big-time throws, three of which came on the final drive would-be game-winning drive. Brown needs to find the right mix again when he gameplans for the Vikings, because Flores is a master of confusion. Let Caleb get rid of the ball quickly to beat pressure, then take a few shots once the defense has pulled back to adjust.

Make Sam Darnold beat you by taking away the running game

The Bears had the number one rushing defense in the league last year, but this season they've struggled mightily in controlling opposing running backs. No defense has regressed in that department like Chicago's, which is giving up 46 more rushing yards per game than they did a year ago, a more than 50 percent increase.

The Bears have been even worse lately against the run, giving up 213 rushing yards to the Cardinals and 144 to the Patriots. Chicago's offense controlled time of possession against the Packers, otherwise Green Bay would likely have managed much more than the 106 rushing yards they finished the game with.

Making the Vikings one-dimensional is of paramount importance, because although Sam Darnold started the season playing at a Pro Bowl level, he's come back to earth since then. He struggled in early October against a Jets defense that has looked like paper tigers, and he threw three picks against the same Jaguars defense that Caleb lit up for four touchdowns in London.

Old foe Aaron Jones is the Vikings' lead halfback, and he has a history of destroying the Bears during his time with the Packers. He's banged up coming into this game though with a rib injury, which he suffered two weeks ago against the Jaguars. Jones was ineffective last week in carrying the ball 15 times for only 39 yards, so if the Bears are ever going to stop him, now is the time.

If the Bears can contain Jones and the running game, that makes this a matchup between Darnold and the Bears' secondary. Even against Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, most Bears fans would like their odds in that scenario.

Pour it on early and often so that it isn't close in the fourth quarter

There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just rip the Band-Aid off right away. The Bears are at a severe coaching disadvantage in this game. Kevin O'Connell is one of the frontrunners for NFL Coach of the Year, while Matt Eberflus has inspired countless amounts of Bears fan fiction involving his eventual firing.

This disparity shows up most severely in two ways. First, it's in how both teams tend to start. Coaches gameplan all week for each Sunday's game, and you can tell which ones pushed the right buttons by how their teams perform in the first quarter. The Vikings lead the NFL with 8.2 points per first quarter, while the Bears are tied for last with a pathetic 1.3 points per first quarter. The Bears have played 10 games this year, which means they have a grand total of 13 points in the first quarter all season. That's less than the Texans had just last week.

The other way that O'Connell and Eberflus are polar opposites is in how they fare in close games. O'Connell is the active leader in winning percentage in games decided by one score with a 22-10 record. Eberflus is dead last at 5-17. Some people say that results in close games revert to the mean, but we have more than enough evidence at this point to prove that O'Connell is doing something right and Eberflus is doing something wrong.

If this game is close in the fourth quarter, all evidence points to O'Connell pulling the right strings while Eberflus gives yet another game away. This is why the Bears, for once in their lives, need to come out hot and get an early lead. At least score first, which is something they haven't done all season.

No matter what happens against the Vikings, Bears fans will be right back in front of their TVs on Thanksgiving four days later to watch the game against the Lions. We're just gluttons for punishment, I guess. Making the playoffs will be all-but-impossible now, but is beating the Vikings too much to ask? We'll soon find out.

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