The Bears buried a division rival Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
The winning margin of 19-17 against the Vikings was breathtakingly narrow, with kickoff return man Devin Duvernay’s heroic 56-yard scamper setting up Cairo Santos’ 48-yard walk-off kick.
But the effects of the outcome were brutally deep, dropping the Vikings — who won 14 games just last season — to a vastly disappointing 4-6. Teams surely have come back from 4-6 to squeeze into the playoffs before, but we needn’t bother to look into the particulars of such a fantastical scenario in this case. No, these Vikings are done for, cooked, yesterday’s news, over and out. And print it.
And the Bears, of all teams — the flawed, banged-up, nothing’s-ever-easy, 7-3 Bears — dug their grave. How about that?
How does it feel, football fans, to see the often hopeless Bears put that shoe on somebody else’s foot for a change?
“This ain’t the same old Bears anymore,” safety Kevin Byard III told the cameras while heading for the joyous locker room of the undeniable upstarts who’ve somehow won seven of their last eight games.
The Vikings would do anything to trade records with the Bears. They might even exchange their roster for the Bears’ if they could. Without a shred of a doubt, they’d swap starting quarterbacks. And by now there must be a bunch of teams around the NFL that are envious of the Bears’ fourth-quarter mojo.
“We’ve got to get better throughout the game,” quarterback Caleb Williams said, “but when it comes down to it, we know we’re going to make the plays at the right moment, the right time, and we’re going to go win the game.”
There’s a lot to be said for an offense that gobbles up yards when it needs them the most, that runs the ball hard and well and protects the football. And for a defense that, no matter its weaknesses, takes the ball away more than any other team in the league does.
Is there some luck involved in a crazy turnover differential of plus-16? Is some degree of regression to the mean likely? Maybe so on both counts. But the Bears keep vacuuming up opponents’ mistakes and picking one another up when they make flubs of their own.
Williams botched an early handoff that could have been extremely costly, but wide receiver Rome Odunze hustled back and pounced on the fumble for a 10-yard loss. On the very next play, Williams threw a dart to Odunze for a 24-yard gain. Calm was restored.
Rookie wideout Luther Burden III soon after had a drop 20 yards over the middle. Two plays later, on third-and-13, he snared a pass for a first down.
Right tackle Darnell Wright whiffed on a first-down block in the fourth quarter, leading to a three-yard loss. On second down, wideout DJ Moore dropped a perfect pass far downfield. But then rookie tight end Colston Loveland emerged over the middle on third down for a 24-yard gain, running through two defenders for extra effect.
But Santos was wide left on a 45-yard attempt — a chance at a comfortable, two-score lead out the window just like that — and the Vikings responded by driving for a touchdown and a 17-16 lead. Holy flashbacks to Week 1, when the Bears blew a lead and lost 27-24 to the Vikings, and to so many dispiriting Bears failures before that in recent seasons. Instead, Duvernay came to the rescue.
It all smacked of accountability, a trait the Bears have shown perhaps above all else.
“We kind of just cycle around on who’s stepping up to the plate and bringing us the win,” coach Ben Johnson said, “and I think that’s what good teams do.”
That’s what the Vikings were supposed to be all about this season. But they came into Week 11 in the bottom 10 in the league in total offense at 299.9 yards per game and mustered only 265 against the Bears. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy — a 2024 first-rounder drafted nine spots after No. 1 overall pick Williams — barely resembled the player who became, in the opener at Soldier Field, the first in NFL history to lead three fourth-quarter touchdown drives in his career debut.
Vikings fans are booing their team now. It’s bad up there.
Much better for the Bears, who were 1-8 in their last nine games against the Vikings before Sunday.
“If you don’t know,” Bears linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said, “now you know.”
A week after Johnson described Williams as being “like a Houdini,” Fox’s broadcast crew leaned into it hard. Game analyst Tom Brady dropped an H-bomb during the first half. Studio analyst Howie Long likened Williams to the famed escape artist at halftime, and sideline reporter Erin Andrews did the same as the third quarter was set to begin. Is there a special school an aspiring broadcaster must attend to learn such expert mimicry?
It doesn’t matter. Williams can spin and scramble out of trouble a million times, but it won’t be the real Houdini trick. The ultimate trick will come if and when the Bears at last escape from NFC North hell.
The Bears still have lost six of seven to the Lions and 11 of 12 to the Packers. Make that 16 of 18 to the Packers. No, make it 22 of 26 to the Packers.
Sheesh. Sunday was but a step in a better direction for the Bears, but it was a big one. They’re off the schneid with their first division win of 2025, and — bonus — their foot came down and squashed a rival’s hopes. Not a thing wrong with that.
