The Chicago Bears had a tough open to the season when they blew an 11-point fourth quarter lead to the Minnesota Vikings. The road won’t get much easier in Week 2.
Chicago will travel to Detroit to play their second NFC North opponent in as many weeks. Head coach Ben Johnson will return to Ford Field for the first time since the Bears hired him in January after Johnson coached in Detroit for six seasons. It will be a tough environment for a Bears team trying to build momentum under a new coaching staff.
Sunday’s matchup kicks off at noon and will be broadcast on FOX. Here are the top five storylines to watch Sunday afternoon.
1. Does Caleb Williams look better?
This is going to be on the top of every Bears fan’s mind when watching Sunday’s game. After a mixed performance against the Vikings, many will want to see how quarterback Caleb Williams and the offense respond in a hostile environment.
There are different ways the offense can look better in Detroit.
The most obvious will be the pre-snap process. Chicago will turn to a silent count, more on that later, and will need to communicate effectively in order to prolong drives. Pre-snap cohesion has been something the group has struggled with early in the year and will be essential if the Bears want to effectively run their offense in Detroit.
Then all eyes will be on Williams. How does Williams run the offense? Is he clearly communicating the plays in a loud environment and making sure that everyone is in the right spot?
Of course it’ll also come down to the plays Williams makes. Williams had a good start and finish to the Vikings game. But it will be interesting to watch whether he can build consistency during the game. He’ll need to do that by finding open receivers as he goes through his progressions and hitting them with accurate throws.
2. Stopping the Lions’ running attack
The Lions will look to make a statement Sunday afternoon. After the offense didn’t look like its old self in Detroit’s 27-13 season-opening loss to the Green Bay Packers, the Lions will want to prove their offense was more than just Johnson’s play calling.
That’ll start with the run game. The Lions have one of the best running back tandems in the NFL and the Bears said limiting that duo will be key to success Sunday.
“I think you have to stop the run game first,” safety Kevin Byard said. “I think Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery are probably the best if not the best backfields in the league. And kind of knowing how they want to attack offenses, they want to start to get the run game going so they can set up the play-action passes, the boots. Everything starts with the run game.”
Both Gibbs and Montgomery didn’t come close to their usual rushing totals from last season. Montgomery had 25 and Gibbs added 19, leading the Lions’ 46-yard effort. The total would’ve been Detroit’s lowest rushing total of last season — the Lions’ 48 against the Buffalo Bills last year was the lowest that season.
Chicago did a good job stopping the run against the Vikings until the fourth quarter. Minnesota rushed for 82 of their 120 yards in the final frame. The Bears will need a full-game performance in order to stop Gibbs and Montgomery.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/G4NINRVM2RHULD6VQJQCQJ73RY.JPG)
3. Limiting Lions’ playmakers
While the Lions lost Johnson’s play calling, Detroit will still have plenty of playmakers on the field Sunday.
Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams are both elite wide receivers while tight end Sam LaPorta showed against the Packers that he can still be a top pass-catching threat for quarterback Jared Goff. Gibbs and Montgomery have also shown they can be threats in the passing game.
The Bears should get some defensive reinforcements after battling injuries their opener. Cornerback Jaylon Johnson and linebacker T.J. Edwards are both expected to return Sunday after they missed the Monday’s game. Both were full participants in Friday’s practice and had no injury report designation. Cornerback Kyler Gordon will miss his second straight game with a hamstring injury.
Chicago did a good job stopping the Vikings’ playmakers like receiver Justin Jefferson. But the defense did give up 21 points in the fourth quarter for Minnesota to come back and win.
4. Bears’ silent count versus the Ford Field crowd
Ford Field has always been one of the tougher road environments to play in the NFL because of its loud crowd noise inside the enclosed stadium. It’s only gotten louder as the Lions have gotten better over the past few seasons and should be a tough environment Sunday.
The Bears, like most road teams facing loud crowd noise, will turn to a silent count. How effectively the Bears will run it for the first time this season remains to be seen.
“It’s not easy,” wide receiver Rome Odunze said. “That’s one of those things in football, I guess from a fan perspective, you don’t realize how difficult it is that we all have to silently know when to start the play. We have different mechanics, of course, with the alignment and the quarterback and all the cadence and different things they have going on. For receivers, it’s a little bit easier. We just look at the ball. We’ll get that sorted out. We know it’s going to be a loud game with Ben’s return. We’ll get it correct.”
Chicago has struggled with pre-snap issues, as mentioned before, since training camp started at the end of July. Those issues popped up again in Monday’s game against the Vikings when the Bears committed four false start penalties. Offensive guard Jonah Jackson was called for two of those penalties.
Johnson joked earlier in the week that turning to a silent count might help with some of those issues. The Bears saw how much crowd noise can derail an offensive drive Monday when Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy struggled early at Soldier Field. They’ll try to fix all the issues before Sunday’s game.
5. Ben Johnson’s homecoming
Sunday will be a big moment for Johnson and his family. He will return to the city where he became one of the top offensive play callers in the league and a top head coach candidate.
Johnson said the decision to leave Detroit for a division rival was tough but right for him and his family. He still keeps in contact with Lions head coach Dan Campbell and views him as part of his family.
But Johnson also said he won’t be thinking about being back once he gets to Ford Field. He’s talked about the Lions roster with his coaches and given them whatever insight they looked for. It’ll also be interesting to watch what his mentality will be as a play caller going against his old team and whether he has some tricks up his sleeve.
“My mind’s going to be about winning the football game, and that’s really what it’s going to come down to is us going out there and looking to find our first victory of the season, so it will be a tough environment,” Johnson said. “That place has really turned into one of the strongest home-field advantage places I think in the National Football League and so we’ll have our work cut out for us, We’ll have to communicate within that hostile environment and I think we’ll find out a lot about ourselves.”