Despite dealing with multiple injuries in the secondary, the Chicago Bears were able to still pull off an incredible 19-17 win over the Minnesota Vikings in Week 11 action.
One of the most impressive parts of the win was the way the Bears shut down the Vikings' passing game, holding quarterback J.J. McCarthy to just 150 yards in the air in the win. Even more impressive was the play of cornerbacks Nahshon Wright and Tyrique Stevenson when facing Justin Jefferson.
In the game, Jefferson had five catches on nine targets for 61 yards. There were plenty of those targets that were so bad that one moment even had Jefferson lose his cool on the field due to the number of inaccurate throws by McCarthy.
Bears did a good enough job in the game to frustrate Jefferson
Despite the Bears not getting any sacks on McCarthy, there was enough pressure on him for some of those throws to look bad. Chicago was able to get five quarterback hits.
The reality is that, despite the touchdown drive on their final offensive drive, McCarthy was inaccurate, except for completing all five of his passes on that same drive. Outside of that, for the entire game, he completed only 50% of his passes.
While a lot of the credit goes to McCarthy, the Bears deserve credit for doing a good job in pass coverage, as they shut down the receivers when needed. Chicago picked up five pass deflections in the victory, with all five coming from five different players. Even more impressive was that three of them came from the defensive line with Montez Sweat, Austin Booker, and Grady Jarrett.
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Jefferson can be frustrated all he wants, but Chicago is going to be celebrating after picking up the most crucial win of the season, as they finally got one in the NFC North. The Bears are now in a position to take control of the NFC North.