Written Oct. 17, 2026, when the site launched.
The AP's story on the Vikings' 9-3 win in the rain at Soldier Field says they "shut down Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears." The box score doesn't back that up. Chicago ran 70 plays to Minnesota's 51, had 17 first downs to 11, held the ball for 32:41 and outgained the Vikings 297 yards to 246. (All the postgame quotes below come from that AP story.)
What the defense did was narrower than a shutdown, and on Sunday it was enough. Chicago reached the Vikings' 12 or closer three times and came away with nothing. The defense won it in the smallest part of the field, and an offense that never scored a touchdown left it no margin for one bad snap down there.
Three trips, zero points
The first came right after halftime. Chicago trailed 6-3 and took the second-half kickoff 64 yards in 11 plays to first-and-goal at the 1. D'Andre Swift ran right, Jalen Redmond hit him, the ball came out and Isaiah Rodgers recovered it at the 1. A touchdown there puts Chicago up 10-6.
The second came midway through the fourth, on a 12-play drive that reached the Vikings' 5. Williams got hurt deep in Minnesota territory, a right hamstring injury per the AP, and was helped off. Tyson Bagent came in, threw for 1 yard to Swift and then threw incomplete on third down. Cairo Santos lined up a 23-yard field goal to tie it, and Rodgers blocked it.
The third was the last drive of the game. After Will Reichard's 39-yarder put the Vikings up 9-3 with 1:09 left, Bagent moved Chicago 44 yards to the Minnesota 12. Two incompletions later, Dallas Turner sacked him on the final play.
Chicago finished 0-for-3 in the red zone. Its only points came on a 50-yard field goal in the first quarter.
Swift put it plainly afterward. "Even at the end we had a chance to win the game," he said. "If I don’t give the ball up and we get points right there it might be a different outcome for us. I’ll be better."
The defense earned it
Redmond's hit forced the fumble, Rodgers made two of the biggest plays of the day, and Turner finished with two of the Vikings' four sacks. Blake Cashman had 10 tackles and a sack, and Byron Murphy Jr. intercepted Williams in the first quarter. Chicago averaged 4.2 yards a play, lower than Minnesota's 4.8, and converted 5 of 15 third downs.
"Man, D.T. just keeps showing up," Kevin O'Connell said of Turner, via the AP. Turner had a sack in the opener against Green Bay too.
O'Connell's description of the plan he and defensive coordinator Brian Flores built fits better than "shut down" does: "I really loved the game plan from the time Flo and I sat down on Tuesday, and just kind of the way him and the staff wanted to attack, wanted to make sure that we were just playing really good sound defense," he said.
Sound is the right word, because Chicago could move between the 20s. The Vikings took the ball away twice, gave it away zero times, and let the Bears run out of field.
The offense gave it no room
The Vikings didn't score a touchdown. They went 3-for-13 on third down and 0-for-1 in the red zone, and their one trip inside the 20 came on the opening drive, which stalled at the 17 for a 35-yard field goal. Carson Wentz went 11 of 20 for 143 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions and was sacked three times.
Some of that was where they started. Five of their nine drives began at their own 14 or worse, including one from the 1 after the fumble recovery. That's a long way to go in the rain.
Aaron Jones Sr. was the part that worked: 23 carries for 105 yards. And when the offense finally had to produce, it did. After the blocked kick, the Vikings went 67 yards in 11 plays from their own 12. Wentz hit Jordan Addison for 15 on third down and T.J. Hockenson for 19, Jones's runs burned Chicago's timeouts, and Reichard made his third field goal of the day.
"Defense was unreal. It was a gritty game, gritty game for the whole team," Wentz said.
That's the second straight week the other side did some of the work. Against Green Bay it was 98 penalty yards. In Chicago it was two turnovers to none, one of them at the 1, and eight penalties for 58 yards. A team doesn't get those every week, and an offense that can't finish drives will eventually need a defense to be perfect on a day it isn't.
What it means
Both wins came against NFC North teams, so the Vikings are 2-0 overall and 2-0 in the division. A 9-3 game in the rain, decided by field goals, is the kind we've learned to brace for, and this time the kick that got blocked was theirs. Next on the schedule is a trip to Tampa Bay on Sept. 27.
The AP reported that defensive lineman Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins suffered a right hip injury and that Cashman left with 10:35 left in the third quarter and returned. On Chicago's side, Bears coach Ben Johnson said of Williams, "We’ll see how bad it is tomorrow and we’ll go from there." Cornerback Tyrique Stevenson had a hamstring injury, per the AP.
Wentz started with Kyler Murray working through the NFL concussion protocol, and O'Connell said he thinks Murray will clear it early this week, according to the AP. Two games in, Wentz has done what a backup is supposed to do. "It’s been an interesting offseason for me personally and everything, but I knew I was here for a reason," he said. "I knew if called upon, I could help this team win games."
Where they stand now: as of Oct. 17 the Vikings are 5-0 heading out of the bye.
Sources: ESPN box score and game page; AP game story via ESPN.