Ben Johnson's offense teased transcendence. It then lost Caleb Williams and slipped vs. Brian Flores' Vikings

CHICAGO — Bears wide receiver Luther Burden III stared out into open space, motionless as if he was a mannequin. Offensive tackle Theo Benedet mirrored that position.

There was deafening silence in the locker room as reporters filtered in from the bowels of a soggy Soldier Field, where the Bears dropped their home and NFC North opener Sunday to the Minnesota Vikings 9-3 and, more notably, lost their tantalizing quarterback, Caleb Wiliams, to a scary hamstring injury .

Murmurs of questions began to push against the stillness that enveloped the room. Five-time All-Pro left guard Joe Thuney , a 6-foot-5, 301-pound giant who was named NFL Protector of the Year in 2025, kept gently and somewhat helplessly returning to the same refrain.

"I hope Caleb's OK," he repeated to Yahoo Sports.

Hope is all the Bears can do after their on-field maestro stumbled and then tumbled while awkwardly sliding to a stop well short of a potential go-ahead touchdown midway through the fourth quarter of a divisional slugfest.

Amid unrelenting rain, wind and defensive schematics, Williams — the face of this year's Madden and the heart of the burgeoning Bears — rolled around in agony. The Fox broadcast picked up his haunting screams.

"Eighteen get hurt, I'm worried," rookie cornerback Malik Muhammad II said, referencing Williams' jersey number. "Everybody in the whole stadium was worried, maybe the whole world."

A week after orchestrating a 59-point, season-opening fantasia on the road against the Carolina Panthers , the 24-year-old found himself in the medical tent and eventually on a cart to the tunnel, with his offense stuck at three points. Before fans could even process the injury, Minnesota added insult to it, blocking what would have been a game-tying Chicago field goal. The Vikings tacked on another of their own before denying Bears backup Tyson Bagent a heroic comeback, fittingly finishing the rock fight with their fourth and final sack on a day vaunted defensive coordinator Brian Flores called for blitzes close to 80% of the time .

Quarterbacked Sunday by a 33-year-old Carson Wentz , Minnesota quietly won its seventh game in a row, a streak that dates back to last season. The Vikings are used to playing a game of musical chairs at the sport's most important position. Williams brought Chicago a temporary reprieve in that exercise. He started all 17 games his rookie year after the franchise tapped him with the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2024. The former Heisman Trophy winner ran that workload back again last season, in addition to starring in two playoff games.

Now it's all but certain he'll be sidelined. Head coach Ben Johnson told reporters postgame that the Bears won't know the severity of Williams' hamstring issue until Monday, exactly one week prior to hosting the 2-0 Philadelphia Eagles for "Monday Night Football."

"I'm actually happy it's nothing with the knee," Johnson said. "That was my first inclination. But yeah, the hamstring could be pretty damaging as well. So we'll see how bad it is tomorrow, and we'll go from there."

Despite the despondence in the locker room, there seems to be confidence among the team that Williams could be back sooner than later.

Johnson noted that Williams was "in good spirits." Muhammad recalled a conversation he had with Williams in the aftermath of the defeat and assured the media, "He going to be good." A similar tenor was presented by others, namely wideout Rome Odunze .

Injuries are part of football, and Williams is resilient. A variation of that anthem permeated.

"He Superman, he do his thing, but he is human, and sometimes in this game, it's unpredictable," Bears defensive lineman Grady Jarrett said of Williams.

'Against a good defense like that, you just can't shoot yourself in the foot'

The Bears have more problems on their paws than just the status of their franchise quarterback.

In the first half at Carolina last week, Chicago amassed 31 points and 315 yards. This time around, the Bears accrued their measly three points and just 93 yards over the opening two quarters of competition. It was a 180, and, as Johnson emphasized, "the weather was a major factor," but there was a common thread among those polar performances.

The Bears were flagged nine times in the first half against the Panthers. They racked up seven penalties in the first half versus the Vikings. That blemish most prominently reared its head late in the second quarter.

A 14-yard pass to tight end Colston Loveland would have vaulted Chicago to the Minnesota 16-yard line had an illegal shift not wiped that gain off the board. Next came a holding penalty, then an intentional grounding infraction. The unwanted whistles resumed directly after running back D'Andre Swift picked up 11 yards on a reception. A false start marked the fourth penalty in five snaps for a Bears offense that Johnson wants to score more points than anyone ever .

Suddenly, Chicago stared down the barrel of a second-and-35 from its own 45-yard line.

"Last week, we had some penalties as well, but I feel like we capitalized when we had opportunities for looks," Bears right tackle Darnell Wright told Yahoo Sports.

"This week we didn't do as good a job. Obviously with the elements, blah, blah, blah, whatever, but I mean they're playing in the elements, too. That's just the biggest thing, just cashing in on our opportunities when they present [themselves] — don't shoot ourselves in the foot."

Johnson said more of the same at the podium: "Against a good defense like that, you just can't shoot yourself in the foot. We had way too many turnovers, the blocked field goal hurts and then we had missed red-zone opportunities just as a whole."

The Bears missed out on a game-winning touchdown from the Minnesota 12-yard line in Bagent's spot duty. However, their more significant error took place right out of the break. Following halftime, Chicago finally generated offensive momentum, only for Swift to fumble the rock a yard shy of the end zone.

A feather in Flores' cap and a Bears backup plan

Nearly all the chatter consuming the lead-up to Sunday's showdown centered on Johnson and Flores, a pair of football scientists who tinker with Xs and Os like they're carefully handling beakers in a lab. They combine deception and aggression to concoct a conceptual mixture that vexes opponents, including one another.

Before this iteration of their budding rivalry, Johnson came out on top of five of their previous six matchups, a stretch that began in 2023 when Johnson was becoming a household name as the Detroit Lions ' offensive coordinator.

Granted Flores had Mother Nature on his side Sunday, but he won the latest round of the proverbial boxing match.

"There's some things that, looking back at it, I'd love to do a little bit differently," Johnson said. "And that's what makes it so challenging to go against this guy. I think he did a great job.

"We get a little momentum coming out of halftime there, and we make it all the way down, and then we kind of give it up."

He added: "We had some points in the bag, I thought."

Although Williams was tied for sixth last season in EPA per dropback against the blitz, per NGS , he wasn't blitzed by Flores as much as he was Sunday. The Vikings' rushers stifled Williams, especially linebackers Dallas Turner (two sacks) and Andrew Van Ginkel (one sack). Building on his head-turning Week 1, Turner flushed Williams out of the pocket down the stretch of the first quarter, leading to an errant throw that cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. intercepted.

The Bears are going back to the drawing board — and likely handing Bagent the chalk.

Defensive back Cam Lewis told Yahoo Sports that, if that's the case, the team's "still in good hands." Wide receiver Kalif Raymond described Bagent as "a guy who puts in the work."

"He was ready for the moment," Raymond continued, referencing the former Division II standout and one-time undrafted free agent. "He's always going to be ready for the moment. You can tell by the way he works in practice."

That praise hung in the air and battled the hush that pervaded the locker room minutes earlier when reporters first showed up.