For the first time this year, we’ve gotten an opportunity to sit down and exchange some questions with the Minnesota Vikings’ opponent for the upcoming week.
Yes, it’s the return of Five Good Questions for the 2026 NFL season. This week, yours truly got the opportunity to exchange questions with Windy City Gridiron, the home of Chicago Bears football here on SB Nation. I sent some questions over to Bill Zimmerman from WCG, and he sent questions my way was well. You can see my responses to his questions right
here, and the answers he gave me are below.
1) 59 points. Man, that’s. . .that’s a lot of points. How did the Bears manage to dominate what was thought (prior to Sunday, anyway) to be at least a decent Carolina defense in the fashion that they did?
I’m not going to lie, it was a work of art. The Bears offense has been clicking all summer, so I think Bears fans expected a high-powered offense. That being said, I would assume people expected an offense that would put up, you know, 31 or 34 points. Can’t say anyone saw what we watched.
It’s a cliché, but let’s just say it starts up front. The Bears offensive line controlled the tempo from the start of the game. They neutralized Derrick Brown, and he didn’t make a major impact in the game. Caleb Williams has grabbed all the headlines, but the running game is what really was the engine.
The Bears rushed for 295 yards on a 7.5 yards-per-carry clip. Both D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai rushed for 100 yards or more, and the team had 6 rushing touchdowns. When the running game is rolling like that, it certainly opens up the passing game, and Caleb Williams took full advantage of that.
2) Ben Johnson stated that he wanted the Bears to be the highest-scoring offense in NFL history. That mark is currently held by the 2013 Denver Broncos, who averaged 37.9 points/game. I know it’s only been one week, but do you think the Bears can pull it off?
I don’t think the Bears are going to average 38 points per game, but I do think it’s a possible outcome that they break the point-total record (with 1 additional regular-season game) of 606 points.
But let’s pull back a little bit. We certainly can’t declare the Bears the greatest offense of all-time after one game, but they certainly look like they have a chance to be the best offense in the NFL this season.
The 1985 Bears have the highest-scoring team in franchise history at 456 points. I think the Bears will 100% beat that this season. Heck, they are already 13% of the way there after one game.
Beyond that, I will set a bold goal that’s a little lower than Ben Johnson’s. 540 total points would put the Bears in the top 10 in league history. Let’s see if the Bears can keep the offense rolling and see if an output like that is possible.
I will say this: Ben Johnson is a total psycho, and I mean that in a good way. He admitted on ESPN Chicago that he considered going for 2 on the final touchdown to hit 60 points. If the Bears are sitting at like 570 points going into the final game of the season against the Vikings and they have a chance to run up the score and get that record, he’s going to do it.
3) A lot of the focus this week is likely going to be on the proverbial chess match between Johnson and Vikings’ defensive coordinator Brian Flores. If you were in Flores’ shoes, how would you go about attempting to attack this Chicago offense?
I think the best bet is going to be to try to neutralize the Bears’ rushing attack and make them one-dimensional. Going back to last season, when the offense is really clicking, they are running the football really well.
I think if you neutralize the rushing attack, you can try and see if you can make Caleb Williams throw some unforced errors (he hasn’t done it much the last 6 or 7 games). I know Flores is going to blitz, but I will be curious if that gets Caleb on the move where he’s really dangerous.
I’m fascinated to see what Flores does to try and neutralize the offense and affect Caleb Williams.
4) While the Bears were impressive offensively, the defense still allowed the Panthers to put up 37 points of their own. The Vikings were a bit sluggish on offense for most of their win over Green Bay, and their quarterback situation is already up in the air, but is the Chicago defense still a potential point of worry in this one?
Three questions about the offense- we were getting along so well, and then you had to bring up the… defense? (Vomit emoji) Yes, the defense is a huge point of concern for this team. They are going to allow a lot of points all season long.
The Bears defensive line is very weak. They traded Gervon Dexter, who was their 2nd-best defensive lineman, for a draft pick and some secondary help. He wasn’t the perfect fit for Dennis Allen, and he wasn’t going to be re-signed after this season, but a lot of fans thought that was a questionable decision. Montez Sweat is still a strong performer at edge, but the other three DL can easily be controlled. Their linebackers are above average, but with the two major injuries in their secondary (Kyler Gordon and Coby Bryant), their secondary is just as questionable as their defensive line.
Jaylon Johnson had a great camp but struggled against Carolina. Tyrique Stevenson is bad. The only positive right now is Dillon Thieneman, who certainly looks the part and will be a plus for their secondary. Hopefully Xavier Woods is back this week and helps stabilize the secondary a little, but I don’t know how Justin Jefferson doesn’t go nuclear this week.
5) How do you see Sunday’s game playing out? I know that weird things have a tendency to happen when these two teams meet at Soldier Field, but can anything weird enough happen to slow down this Chicago offense in their home opener?
Well, what is considered slowing down the offense? I don’t expect the Bears to put up another 50-burger, so I guess that’s slowing down. But I’m usually of the opinion that, with the way these NFC North teams are, you just pick the home team to win the game. I think the Bears win the home opener. I think the Bears’ offense scores a lot of points, but I think the Bears’ defense allows a lot of points.
I think the 5.5-point spread is too big. I’m not going to bet it, but if I had to, I’d take the Vikings +5.5. I am going to say the Bears win this one 34-30. I do think this is another easy over. I don’t know how the opening total was below 50 points in this one.
Thanks again to Bill for taking the time to sit down and answer the questions I sent his way for this week!
