Best NFL games, Week 2: Vikings vs. Bears is must-watch because of Ben Johnson and Brian Flores

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - NOVEMBER 16: Caleb Williams #18 of the Chicago Bears scrambles with the ball while Eric Wilson #55 of the Minnesota Vikings defends in the second quarter of the NFL 2025 game at U.S. Bank Stadium on November 16, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. | Getty Images There was always going to be regional interest in the NFC North matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears in Week 2, but this game took on a whole new level of meaning after what we saw to open the season. Now the game serves as the ultimate litmus test, a potential bellwether for the future of the division this year, and even a marker that could separate a contender from a pretender. The Bears deserved the national headlines after their Week 1 win over the Carolina Panthers that saw the Ben Johnson-led offense hang 59 points on the home team, en route to the highest-scoring Week 1 game in NFL history. A perfect blend of Johnson’s scheme, which creates pre-snap confusion, paired with Caleb Williams’ brilliant athletic execution saw Chicago befuddle a hapless Panthers defense for 60 minutes, as they clutched at air and watched helplessly as Williams easily completed passes into wide-open windows. As impressive as this all was, the performance was somewhat expected. We know Ben Johnson’s offensive genius, and Williams’ skills are a known quantity — as were the mammoth issues the Panthers had on defense when it came to their pass rush. Perhaps the level to which Chicago dominated came a little out of left field, but they more or less did what they thought they would. What happened later in the afternoon in Minnesota was on another level. Unlike the Bears, the Vikings were universal underdogs against the Packers, who were a preseason sweetheart team to make noise in the NFC this season, perhaps even push for a Super Bowl berth. Instead we watched as Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores rip the heart and soul out of the Packers, leaving a confused Jordan Love to either make hurried throws, or collapse in a heap after getting overloaded by an array of creative Flores blitz packages. There’s a natural tendency to use players as the face of a game, but when it comes to this Vikings vs. Bears matchup, there’s functionally nothing the players can actually do. This is the ultimate football chess match between Johnson and Flores, two of the most profound geniuses in the NFL when it comes to how they scheme their sides of the ball — and they will be in direct opposition. One of the hallmarks of the Ben Johnson offense is pre-snap movement and disguised primaries in the passing game. Oftentimes, these are layered with personnel packages no other team in football uses, adding yet another layer of confusion. This is supremely illustrated by his unconventional usage of 11 and 12 personnel. When most teams show 11 (3 WR, 1 TE) it’s universally considered to be a passing set, asking the QB to throw a timing route — but Johnson and the Bears ran the football out of 11 personnel on 38% of downs last season. This simple isn’t something we see teams do. Meanwhile, when teams send out their 12 personnel (2 WR, 2 TE) the conventional wisdom is that teams run out of these sets, but the Bears had close to a 50/50 split in 2025. That level of randomness is just one wrinkle of what Johnson does with his offense. The Bears will pass when all signs point to them running and run when they should pass. Johnson also isn’t satisfied with simply moving the chains, instead, he’s concerned with generating explosive plays on every down — which accentuates the effectiveness of his pre-snap confusion. When it comes to his offense he is going to ensure that if he wins the mind games pre-snap, his team is going to make you pay for it. It Enter Brian Flores, and how the dichotomy of this matchup makes it the most fascinating we’ll see in the first two weeks of the year. Flores’ defensive scheme is so varied, and so unique that it’s almost impossible to work out what he’s going to do from snap to snap. While the Vikings don’t have the greatest collection of defensive talent on paper, he transcends their athletic ability by ensuring every one of his players is able to gain an edge. It’s not uncommon to see Flores send out five defensive backs in what appears to be a Cover-3, only to have two of those DBs play the role of Mug, which are players who rush a gap to geneate pressure. What makes this so impossible to read is that Flores might Mug DBs on two straight downs, making the opposing QB feel as if they have a handle on the defense, and then the next time they drop back the same DBs who blitzed a play earlier will now drop back in coverage and take away the lanes assumed to be open. The quarterback burns pocket time trying to parse the field to find an open receiver, only to be pressured by a traditional edge rusher. At its heart the Double Mug also dismantles the effectiveness of play action, because it becomes too risky to have light pass protection on the QB to sell the run when light, fast, athletic DBs are generating he pressure. This is the final nail in the coffin for an offense, and where Flores put the Packers in a blender. He forced them into max protect to keep Jordan Love upright, then fooled them with disguised pressure in response. That meant in the fourth quarter we saw Love dropping back with ample protection, but wasted personnel as the defensive backs dropped into zone and took away every route. Now we get to the heart of why Vikings vs. Bears is so compelling. Chicago will be using confusing fronts designed to hide whether they’re going to pass or run, the Vikings will be countering with fronts that confuse whether they’re rushing or dropping. It’s the ultimate game of rock, paper, scissors — and we don’t even know what wrinkles these two have drawn up specifically to counter each other. It’s going to make this Week 2 game unlike any other on the schedule. A fascinating, visceral, academic game of football that will accentuate the beauty and complexity of scheme above everything else. If you love the sport itself, and want to see two masters face off who are evolving the game, then this is the must-watch game on the calendar. It also has the potential to answer two of the biggest lingering questions from Week 1: “Are the Bears really that dominant?“ and “Are the Vikings much better than we expected?” What happens on Sunday will determine that. Get your popcorn ready.

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