Thursday, November 13th, 2025, this is the Bears' Blogs, Game Preview Bears. Vikings not going to write it this week, just going to do the audio. Why do I like the Chicago Bears this week? I always liked the Chicago Bears, but I've not seen people talk about this game appropriately. And that is to say, in a Bears-centric way, this game is about Caleb Williams. Because it's always going to be about the quarterback in Chicago. We don't really know how to fixate on anything else. It's always about the quarterback. But I don't think the quarterback is going to have a great game this week. If you've watched this Vikings team, especially over the last month or so, they've been playing some damn good defense. Brian Flores did a great job against Jared Goff. He did a great job last week against Lamar Jackson. And I think he'll have a game plan in place to exploit that left tackle hole, to bottle up this run game, and then try to confuse Caleb with pressures. Caleb is going to have to improvise a lot in this game. If you go back and watch Ravens-Vikings, and if you have the Sunday ticket, I really recommend those condensed versions. You can see a lot in a 35-minute replay. But if you watch that game, Lamar was befuddled that whole game. He ended up making plays, and they ended up making plays. But a lot of what they did in that game came off the turnover. And that's what I think the story of this game is. We can talk all we want about J.J. McCarthy. We can talk about how he has struggled. He has. We can talk about how the Vikings were crazy to move on from Sam Darnold. They were. We can talk about how J.J. McCarthy is just a work in progress. I think he is. I think there's ability there. But if the Bears don't pressure him this week, if the Bears don't consistently have bodies in that backfield forcing him off his spot, he's going to have open receivers all day long. This secondary, banged up, has not shown the ability to cover Darius Slayton, right? They were manhandled as a secondary by the Bengals guys. What do you think Justin Jefferson is going to do? What do you think Jordan Addison is going to do? These guys are going to be wide open a lot in this game. So this game is one where, and I've said this a couple of times about Dennis Allen, I understand an opening drive. You're going to try to pressure with four. You're going to bring C.J. on your corner blitz. You're going to do the things that Dennis Allen does. But this is a game where the Bears are going to have to manufacture pressure. They're going to have to disguise looks and throw things at McCarthy he hasn't seen. Because if their expectation in this game is to rush with four and sit in coverage, he is going to have a productive Sunday. Because they have not shown the ability to cover bad receivers, let alone great ones. So this game comes down to me, for me, this whole game comes down to what can Dennis Allen do to confuse McCarthy? That's the game. We know what Flores does. And Flores, right now for me, is the best defensive coordinator in the league. And Flores would be a surefire head coach next year if he weren't suing a bunch of franchises. I think he's actually still suing. No, this game and the preview for this game, to me, comes down to Allen. And Dennis Allen has to do his best, Brian Flores. And he has to do that without, really, the horses that Flores has. Especially in the secondary. He's got to find a way to make this game uncomfortable for McCarthy. Because if he doesn't, they're going to score 30-plus. And then if you're forcing the Bears to try to match them at 30-plus against a Flores defense, you're asking an awful lot from this program. Not saying they can't do it. They can do it. But if they have to do it, then you have to like Minnesota in this game. I think the Bears, if they can win this game, in so many ways, it validates the entirety of this season. If they can win this game, get to 7-3, it does, in so many ways, make the rest of this stretch, number one, way more interesting. And number two, a lot of it is gravy. Because they will have shown, with a Minnesota split, that they have made that leap in year one of this program to firmly mid-table. They're not just beating bad teams. They can beat everybody. That's the kind of game this can be for the Bears. I think they can win this game. But to win this game, they have got to find a way to generate pressure and make things difficult for McCarthy. Because McCarthy has a good arm. And a backup quarterback can hit wide open Justin Jefferson, which he's going to see. The game falls to me on Dennis Allen. Bear down.