The Minnesota Vikings will face another NFC North rival in Week 2, taking on the Chicago Bears to open the 2026 NFL season with back-to-back divisional matchups. The game could also turn into a battle between the Bears’ explosive offense and the Vikings’ defense.
Chicago scored 59 points in its Week 1 win over the Carolina Panthers, while Minnesota’s defense bounced back from a shaky first half against the Green Bay Packers. After allowing 19 points before halftime, the Vikings gave up just three points in the second half on their way to a win.
If the Bears’ offense can build on its Week 1 performance and Minnesota’s defense carries over its second-half play, this could be an interesting matchup between two NFC North teams.
One player the Vikings will need to contain is Bears QB Caleb Williams. Ahead of the Week 2 game against the Bears, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell shared his thoughts on Williams and the offense’s ability to play on schedule while speaking to KFAN’s Paul Allen.
“He’s so talented when he breaks contain,” O’Connell said on Sept. 15. “… It doesn’t matter whether it’s right, whether it’s left. He’s got such athletic ability to then make all the throws.
“You can just go back to the Rams playoff game, that heave that he threw up there, and in that offense, the way they space the field, the type of targets that he has, whether they’re receivers, tight ends, Swift out of the backfield, they all are capable of making huge plays, and that’s on schedule.
Caleb Williams Will Be Major Challenge If He Goes Off-Script
Against the Panthers, Williams went 21-for-29 with a completion percentage of 72.4 for 269 passing yards, averaging 9.3 yards per attempt, and two touchdowns.
PFF also gave Williams a 64.6 grade for his game against Carolina. Meanwhile, O’Connell also spotlighted Williams’ ability to play off schedule and how dangerous he can be when it’s time to go off script.
“You start talking about the off-schedule plays that Caleb can do, and it’s an absolute challenge,” O’Connell added. “We’ve had him multiple times over the last couple of years. We’ve had him kind of dead to rights in the pocket, and he’s able to get out and steal a first down or make an explosive play happen, make those throws by the sideline, and where it looks like he’s going out of bounds and they’re backbreaker plays because you’ve done everything right.
“You’ve gotten them into maybe a third-and-longer situation; you did contain him, but just one little bad angle, one little aggressive level off of a rush, we call it, and he gets out, and it’s going to be a problem.”
Vikings Will Try and Keep Caleb Williams in the Pocket
As a result, O’Connell noted what the Vikings must do against Williams to ensure that he doesn’t hurt them with his off-script plays.
“We’ve got to make sure we keep him in [the pocket],” O’Connell said. “We got to make sure we make him uncomfortable and see if we can take the ball off these guys because they were really good a year ago at winning the turnover battle, and they’re really hard to beat when they do that.”
Vikings HC Has Clear Caleb Williams Message Before Bears Game