5 big takeaways from Chicago Bears’ fifth straight loss against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday

CHICAGO – For a moment Sunday, the Bears felt like luck had finally turned their way for once this season. Instead, it turned out that they had just found another tough way to lose a game in a season full of unlucky breaks.

Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams’ strong performance wasn’t enough in a 30-27 overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday at Soldier Field. The loss stung after Williams helped the Bears erase an 11-point deficit late in the game after breaking the team’s rookie season passing record.

The Bears and coach Matt Eberflus have now lost five straight and the road doesn’t get any easier. They’ll have a quick turnaround as they prepare to travel to Detroit on Thursday to take on the Lions on Thanksgiving in front of a national audience.

Here are the five big takeaways from Sunday’s game.

1. Williams, offense are clicking

The Bears offense took another step forward Sunday during offensive coordinator Thomas Brown’s second week on the job. Williams threw for 340 yards, his second-highest passing total in a game this season, and made key throws to force overtime.

But for a second straight week, Williams also got the ball to his playmakers in space. DJ Moore finished with a season-high 106 receiving yards on seven catches and Keenan Allen added a season-high 86 receiving yards on nine catches. Tight end Cole Kmet finished with 64, receiver Rome Odunze had 39 while D’Andre Swift added 35.

“At any point in time, any of us can be involved,” Moore said. “But today, all three of us [Moore, Allen, Odunze] were involved and made positive plays today. That’s what we look forward to.”

In two games, it seems like Brown has elevated the Bears offense to another level even if they’ve lost both of those games. The Bears finished with 398 total yards of total offense Sunday, their second-highest total of the season. Two of their four highest offense yard totals in a game have come under Brown.

But beyond the numbers, the offensive flow seems smoother than it did under former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.

“What Thomas has kind of brought the past couple weeks has been big in terms of providing good, simple answers for Caleb and kind of getting everybody on the same page,” Kmet said. “Sure we still have our things that we got to work through, but I think it’s been a much cleaner operation in the past couple weeks. It’s a credit to Thomas and a credit to Caleb for kind of buying into this thing and trying to get it right. And I think everyone else has responded.”

2. Defense can’t pick up stops

While the offense seems to be heading in an upward trajectory, the defense has had two of its worst performances of the season in the past couple of weeks. The Bears defense couldn’t make key plays to get off the field in key situations for a second straight week.

The Vikings converted six of their 13 attempts on third down and scored on three of their seven trips to the red zone. The Bears allowed 22 first downs and the Vikings averaged seven yards per play.

“We left some plays out there, which we wish we could’ve had,” safety Jonathan Owens said. “But it’s the NFL man. Guys gonna make plays. Guys gonna make catches. It’s one of those things where you want it to go your way, but we’ve just got to keep getting better.”

The Vikings accumulated season highs against the Bears defense. Their 452 total yards of offense was the most the Bears have allowed in a game all season and the 30 points the Vikings scored was the most a Bears opponent has scored in a game all year. Two of the Bears’ four highest yards allowed in a game have come in the past two weeks.

That success came despite a quiet day from star wide receiver Justin Jefferson, who finished with 27 receiving yards off two catches. Jordan Addison had two 40-plus yard catches while tight end T.J. Hockenson had three catches of 20 yards or more.

“That was really just our Achilles heel, to give them too many big plays and penalties and crucial situations,” safety Kevin Byard said. “We just didn’t play well enough to win on defense.”

3. Muffed punt proves costly

Despite trailing in the second half, the Bears were keeping things close until another special teams blunder took the wind out of their sails.

Late in the third quarter, the Bears defense came up with a stop to force a punt. The Bears thought they were going to get the football back, trailing by seven points. Punt return man DeAndre Carter had no intention of catching the football, but he found himself too close as the ball landed. It took a bounce directly at Carter and hit him in the right thigh.

By touching the football, it became a free ball and the Vikings jumped on it at the Bears’ 14-yard line. It led to an easy Vikings touchdown a few plays later that extended the lead to 14 points.

“That was a game changer being in the situation that I was in,” Carter said. “Feel bad for the guys. Feel bad for [special teams coordinator Richard Hightower], he’s a hell of a coordinator doing a great job, man. For me to put a team in a bad situation like that, very disappointing.”

Carter did redeem himself in a way later in the game. He returned a kickoff 55 yards late in the game to the Minnesota 40-yard line with his team trailing 27-16 with 1:47 left in the game. The Bears drove down the field and scored to make it a 27-24 Vikings lead.

“I wouldn’t say it was redeeming myself,” Carter said. “We lost the game, but the guys up front did a great job.”

4. Another blocked field goal

The first time the Bears trotted out kicker Cairo Santos for a field goal, it ended with an all-too-familiar feeling. The Bears had yet another field goal blocked midway through the second quarter, just a week after the Packers blocked a potential game-winner as time expired against the Bears.

Moments earlier, it appeared that Allen had yet another big gain to draw the bears into the red zone. But Allen’s big gain on third-and-4 was overturned upon review because he didn’t get both feet in bounds. Instead, the Bears faced a fourth-and-4 from the 30-yard line.

They elected to kick the field goal – from Santos’ preferred right hash – from 48 yards. Much like last week, the kick was blocked by a leaping defender up the middle.

“I feel like part of it is just unlucky that we’re getting the trajectory of the ball going over the line and they’re getting that penetration exactly where – because sometimes they make a good rush but the ball starts kind of in a different part of the line to make the goal post and I’m still, kick goes through, but it could’ve got blocked had the ball started on that line,” Santos said. “So it’s just kind of matching the good rushes from them and good penetration and the ball starting that way.”

Santos did put his team in positions to win. He made a 49-yard try from the right hash just before halftime, converted an onside kick with 22 seconds left in the game and then hit a 48-yard field goal to send the game into overtime.

“Sometimes there’s ebbs and flows throughout the season that you just get got in a stretch of games or play and we’ll go on to make many kicks in a row,” Santos said. “So it’s just kind of a little bit of a summary of the mentality that we’re always going to keep fighting. To make that kick was awesome at the end, recovering the onside kick and it’s a short week, so we’re gonna bring that confidence to Thursday and hopefully have a confident game.”

5. A quick turnaround

Despite the tough loss, the Bears won’t have too much time to lament. They’ll get back to work Monday at Halas Hall as they prepare to go to Detroit on Thursday for an 11:30 a.m. kickoff.

“It’s going to be hard to get ready for this one, I’m not gonna lie,” Kmet said, “I mean, I got stuff already that I planned tonight that I gotta get going on and just to get your body ready. This is gonna be a beast. Nothing I’ve really quite experienced.”

The Bears are scheduled to host walkthroughs Monday and Tuesday before practicing Wednesday and hitting the road for Detroit. It’ll be the tightest time between games this season, one that got tighter since Sunday’s game went into overtime.

“It is what it is,” Byard said. “It doesn’t matter. Whoever they put on the schedule, whatever day we play, we go out there and play.”