EAGAN, Minn. — It has all the makings of an end-of-summer blockbuster.

When Minnesota meets Chicago at noon (CT) Sunday, eyes will be on Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson's high-powered offense and Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell's rebuttal.

Eyes also will be on Vikings Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores' maniacal blitzes and Johnson's desire to lead the highest-scoring offense in league history. Eyes will be on all the players who bring the Xs and Os to life, such as Justin Jefferson, who was vintage "Jets" in Week 1, catching two touchdowns, and rising star outside linebacker Dallas Turner.

On Friday, O'Connell confirmed that Carson Wentz will start at quarterback in place of Kyler Murray as he progresses in concussion protocol. Wentz tossed three touchdowns off the bench to bring the Vikings back in concert with their defense and plop 29 unanswered points on Green Bay in the opener last weekend. It will be Wentz's 100^th career start, a fact he said he learned about 30 minutes before his media session Friday after a rainy practice.

"Excited for that," said Wentz, who is 4-0 in his career against the Bears. "I've been around a lot. It's kind of fitting to start my 100^th game with the team I grew up cheering for … so very blessed for that. Hopefully we can get in the win column on that, too."

We're fired up, so let's get into the nitty-gritty of the divisional clash at Soldier Field.

3 Prominent Topics

1. Rigorous run test

The Bears posted 291 rushing yards at Carolina last Sunday. It was their most in a game since Walter Payton led a ground assault that totaled 302 in Week 2 in 1984. Alrighty then!

Chicago's primary culprits were D'Andre Swift (124 yards) and Kyle Monangai (100). Caleb Williams, their esteemed signal-caller (more on him below), added 65. Together, they were a force, punching in touchdowns of 9, 1, 29, 1, 61 and 28 yards (more on those soon, too).

All things considered, they pose a more difficult test than the one Minnesota's defense aced in Week 1 — no shade to Green Bay's backup running backs, who totaled just 66 yards on 20 attempts (3.3 avg.) — when the Packers were missing Josh Jacobs, and their offensive line was banged up, albeit confident. Sunday's challenge is likely to be greater.

From left to right, the Bears o-line features Braxton Jones, Joe Thuney, former Vikings center Garrett Bradbury, Jonah Jackson and Darnell Wright. They did a standup job resetting the line of scrimmage, sealing edges with TE help and peeling off combo blocks to push around the Panthers. In 2025, the Vikings gave up about 130 yards per game to Chicago's backfield.

2. Containing Caleb

Bear with our sport merger for a moment. … Williams misses "layups" every now and then, but he's one of only a few quarterbacks who can take replicas from a slam-dunk contest and apply them against a live defense. Case in point, Williams' 75.6% completion rate when he was targeting open receivers (3-plus yards of separation) last season was second worst in the NFL. There are plenty of Next Gen Stats nuggets, however, that portray his excellence in areas that do significant damage to defenses, like his 25 deep passes (20-plus air yards) last season, which ranked third to Matthew Stafford (32) and Dak Prescott (29), as well as his 17 touchdown passes when he was blitzed — only Stafford generated more (33). Williams also is highly dangerous as a runner. He's responsible for seven rushes during which he reached 20-plus mph since 2025 — one more than every other quarterback in that span combined — including two in Week 1, to lead all rushers regardless of position (six others posted one, just so you know).

One of the best dual threats, no doubt, Williams wants to be a passer, first, and is clever. Once declaring himself as a runner, he whips out pump-fakes, head nods and stutter steps to get players to bite — and then accelerates, and he is difficult to contain. On his second of two rushing scores in Week 1, while knotted at 24 on the board with about 30 seconds until halftime, he worked right to left, didn't like his options and then fled into a sprint, untouched, for a 29-yard trip to the paint.

Think of Williams as a boxer. He floats like a butterfly in the pocket and stings with his arm and his feet, sometimes so late in the round — er, down — that time feels inconsequential. The Vikings blitzed him on 37.2% of his dropbacks and tallied 16 pressures in Week 1 in 2025. They upped the blitz to 66.7% in Week 11 and had 14 pressures, but the heat was controlled. Williams' 5.84 sack percentage in four matchups against the Vikings is the third lowest for a QB with two-plus starts facing Flores since he was hired in 2023. The two guys who have fared better are Justin Herbert in two games (4%) and Jordan Love in six (5.56%).

Flo' noted the challenges of handling "an up-and-coming superstar" then corrected himself midsentence to say, "Not even up-and-coming. He is a superstar in our league."

3. Turnover champs

The Bears are the reigning takeaway champs with 33 last season. Coincidentally, the Vikings trapped exactly that many to co-lead the league (with Pittsburgh) two years ago.

That speaks to both defense's play styles — aggressive and opportunistic — and stresses the importance of Minnesota's offense safeguarding possessions without playing safe, if you will. During the O'Connell era, the Vikings are 21-2 with a winning turnover margin and 36-4 when they are plus-1 or break even. That latter winning percentage (.900) ranks No. 1 in the NFL since 2022. The other clubs above .800 going into Week 2 are San Francisco (.884), Buffalo (.870), Philadelphia (.851), Detroit (.820), Baltimore (.813) and Kansas City (.810). On the flip side, the team is 8-21 (.276) under K.O. when it loses the turnover battle.

Chicago continued in Week 1 where it left off a year ago, garnering an interception and two fumble recoveries at Carolina. Rookie defensive back Malik Muhammad II procured the INT with seconds to spare in the first half when he ran in man coverage across the field and laid out for a diving pick on a throw to Jalen Coker (who had a field day, with eight grabs for 138 yards and a pair of scores). The first loose ball recovered by the Bears was a credit to punter Tory Taylor, who manufactured a unique spin, per Vikings Special Teams Coordinator Matt Daniels, that caused Panthers Pro Bowl CB Jaycee Horn to muff a punt that he was working to track and fair catch. The second recovery was due to a punchout by Jaylon Johnson that would make former Bears CB Charles "Peanut" Tillman proud of his contemporary; it came at a timely moment, too, after Tetairoa McMillan entered Bears territory on a 21-yard catch-and-run to begin the fourth quarter, while Carolina was lingering in a two-possession game.

Like minimizing turnovers on offense and creating takeaways on defense, the Vikings can find winning edges by limiting penalties, especially in the pre-snap phase (that get the units behind the eight ball) and converting on weighty downs like they did well against Green Bay.

2 Talented Bears

1. No. 84 Colston Loveland

Of all the "WOW" tie-ins to Chicago's 59-point outburst last Sunday that tied the 1922 Canton Bulldogs and the 1920 Rock Island Independents for the most rushing touchdowns in a season opener (6) and marked the third time since 2025 that the Bears offense has rushed for 250-plus yards (the rest of the NFL has four such games combined in that span), the most surprising part of the box score was a goose egg from tight end Colston Loveland.

The No. 10 overall pick in 2025 ended his rookie year on an absolute heater, catching 16 balls for 185 yards and two touchdowns in Weeks 17-18 and then securing 12 for 193 in two playoff contests. Loveland averaged 12 targets in those games, which makes his zero grabs on two looks in the opener seem like technical errors. Of course, Chicago's volume on the ground factored into the light load, but five players, including fellow TE Cole Kmet recorded two or more catches — speedsters Kalif Raymond and Luther Burden III led the group with eight and five, respectively. Suffice to repeat that Loveland's output was out of the ordinary.

It's not an indication of his role, though. According to Next Gen Stats, Loveland ran a team-high 33 routes against Carolina — tied for third most among TEs in Week 1 — and he played 60 of 70 offensive snaps. His average separation of 3.8 yards ranked 15^th out of 36 position peers who ran at least 15 routes, and his air yards per target ranked sixth for TEs overall. He had a tremendous catch-and-run opportunity on his initial target last Sunday, but Williams threw errantly behind him, from a clean pocket, on a dig route that might've gone for 35. Loveland also was targeted on a post into the end zone but couldn't corral a fastball. All that to say, the 6-6, 240-pounder is likelier to bounce back big than he is to lay another egg.

2. No. 31 Dillon Thieneman

The first-round rookie (No. 25 overall) out of Oregon earned a game ball for his debut effort: 10 tackles (eight solo) and a QB hit and PBU. Thieneman is one of 13 defensive backs since 1987 — when Pro Football Reference started tracking combined tackles — to log double digits in their first game (Dolphins CB Chris Johnson did it last week, too, by the way). The well-rounded stats reflected Thieneman's versatile usage; he lined up twice at cornerback, five times guarding the slot, 13 times at linebacker and 42 times at free safety, per NGS.

It was a statement first game for the safety, who is tasked alongside free-agent addition Cam Lewis, with offsetting the departures of veterans Jaquan Brisker and Kevin Byard III (especially since Coby Bryant underwent surgery on his left knee in August after winning Super Bowl LX with Seattle and signing with Chicago). Brisker and Byard accounted for 93 tackles and eight PBUs apiece in 2025, and Byard led the league with seven interceptions.

For what it's worth, Thieneman was the nearest coverage defender on five snaps against the Panthers, and he allowed two catches for 22 yards. His breakup happened on a chair route (out and up) into the end zone where Thieneman went underneath a slant by the outside receiver and glued himself to Panthers TE Mitchell Evans' hip. He reacted when Evans flashed his hands near the back-left pylon and showed good physicality to axe a potential touchdown.

1 More Thing to Know

In Week 6 at Soldier Field five years ago, a rival quarterback pump-faked to his left, scanned the middle of the Bears defense and then ran to the right, pump-faking, again, before he reached the ball over the goal line and exited the field just past the pylon. Aaron Rodgers rolled to the grass and rose to one knee. He did his infamous belt celebration and then yelled at the crowd, to no one in particular, but everyone in the Windy City at once: "I still own you!" It was braggadocios, but hard to dispute. Afterward, Rodgers was briefly listed as the co-owner of the Bears on his Wikipedia page. His career record to date against Chicago is 24-5 (.828) and he is 11-3 (.786) at Soldier Field. So, yeah, he's been the boss.

There was an even truer owner of Da Bears in that backfield on that same mid-October day, though. He released into the flat on the first-and-goal snap in what was then a 17-14 game. Rodgers initially pump-faked to him. But then the quarterback went the other direction, and Aaron Jones, Sr., watched from afar as the score and statement was made. Jones reached the end zone earlier that day on a 12-yard reception, and he amassed 110 scrimmage yards. He'd never say it himself — too kind, too humble — but he's had Chicago's number in multiple contests.

In 17 career matchups, Jones is 15-2 (.882) overall and 8-1 (.889) at Soldier Field. He can add to those totals and more Sunday, as he needs three yards to become the seventh player ever to rush for 1,000 against one of the original NFL charters. Here's the company Jones is due to keep: Barry Sanders (1,846), Adrian Peterson (1,749), Jim Taylor (1,318), Joe Perry (1,116), Hugh McElhenny (1,110) and Ahman Green (1,081). The next active leading rushers vs. Chicago are Saquon Barkley (516), Jahmyr Gibbs (472) and Josh Jacobs (448).

"I love the NFC North, and Chicago is always a great place to play," Jones said with a big smile. "I like the atmosphere. Going into another place with just your guys, your brothers going to battle, there's something a little bit more special about that. In a sense it's like [80 people on your sideline] versus 70,000, and when you come out on top, it's a special feeling."

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