The Bears had Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy “rattled” for three quarters. Next thing they knew, he was walking out of Soldier Field with a 27-24 win and a stat line good enough to win NFC Offensive Player of the Week.
The defense cracked near the end as the Bears blew a 17-6 lead early in the fourth quarter. McCarthy had a 35.4 passer rating and had thrown a pick-six before closing the game 6 of 8 for 87 yards and two touchdown passes, plus a 14-yard touchdown run to put the Vikings ahead 27-17 going into the final minutes.
Quite a comeback for someone making their NFL debut.
“He did a great job of just keeping his composure, staying poised,” Bears safety Kevin Byard said Wednesday. “We had him rattled early in the game … That first drive was probably one of the loudest environments I’ve been in in a regular-season game. I couldn’t even hear myself.
“But he did a really good job of staying composed throughout the game, and obviously [coach Kevin O’Connell] called some really good plays. Once the run game got going for them, it opened up some other things.”
The Vikings averaged 2.9 yards per rush through three quarters, then 6.3 in the fourth.
Even with McCarthy and the rushing attack finding their way, Byard believed the defense should’ve been able to preserve a 17-6 lead no matter what happened on the opposite side of the ball.
He was especially frustrated by the defense’s red-zone failures in the fourth quarter. McCarthy threw a touchdown pass on third-and-five and ran for a touchdown on third-and-one in the red zone.
It doesn’t get any easier Sunday as the Bears visit the Lions, who led the league in scoring last season when Ben Johnson was their offensive coordinator. They were second in passing and sixth in rushing, and scored 57 points in two games against the Bears.
The Lions’ offense struggled, however, in the 27-13 loss to the Packers. Quarterback Jared Goff put up an 88.6 passer rating, and running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs both averaged 2.3 or fewer yards per carry.
“It’s a great film to watch to say, ‘We need to swarm like those guys,’” Byard said of the Packers, highlighting the confusion they caused with disguising coverage and their airtight tackling.
