Morning Coffee: Will Bears nightmare start continue after meltdown versus Minnesota?

Optimism was the pre-season MVP for the Chicago Bears.

Just like so many deep sleeper picks in fantasy football leagues, it didn’t take long for that optimism to hit the waiver wire in the Windy City.

The 2025 NFL season was billed as a new era in Chicago.

Unfortunately for the Bears faithful, a monster collapse against the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football led to Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson getting booed as they left Soldier Field following a disastrous Week 1 loss.

Chicago was the most popular pre-season pick to make the playoffs at FanDuel.

The Bears were also the most popular bet to win the NFC North at FanDuel, albeit at +700 odds.

Anybody with a bet on Chicago at FanDuel might have thought they were in excellent shape with a 17-6 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Instead, J.J. McCarthy led the Vikings to 21 straight points and Minnesota ultimately rallied from down 11 in the final frame to win the game 27-24.

The 21 points was tied for the most the Vikings have scored in any quarter over the last three seasons.

Meanwhile, Johnson’s dream debut in Chicago quickly turned into a nightmare that ended with the largest blown lead in a fourth quarter by a head coach in his NFL debut since Matt Nagy’s Bears blew a 17-point lead against the rival Green Bay Packers back in 2018.

Chicago opened the Johnson era with a gut-wrenching collapse that rattled their fans that could fracture a team. Now the Bears head to Detroit to face Johnson’s former team with the weight of that loss hanging over them.

Last night’s primetime implosion will force Williams and his teammates to band together and become stronger because of it or it will lead to a fracture the locker room.

I’ll bet on the latter and fade Chicago again in Week 2 with a FanDuel Best Bet in this Tuesday September 9th, 2025, edition of Morning Coffee.

Will Bears Nightmare Start Continue After Meltdown Versus Minnesota?

A casual NFL fan might forget that Chicago was 4-2 coming off a bye entering Week 8 last season.

The Bears were in position to improve to 5-2 when they led the Washington Commanders 15-12 with just a few seconds remaining in regulation.

That’s when Jayden Daniels heaved a 52-yard pass that found Noah Brown in the end zone for the game-winning touchdown.

The Commanders won that game 18-15 and it completely changed the course of the 2024 NFL season.

Washington went on to win eight of its next nine games including playoff wins over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Detroit Lions to reach the NFC Championship.

Daniels won AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.

Meanwhile, Chicago didn’t win another game until a meaningless Week 18 victory over the Packers that snapped a 10-game slide.

Williams ended his rookie season with more question marks than answers, there were countless reports about friction in the locker room, while Matt Eberflus was fired as head coach and replaced by Johnson.

Johnson’s arrival sparked a renewed sense of optimism that peaked in the pre-season only to disappear faster than Chicago’s lead over Minnesota on Monday night.

The Bears have a new head coach, but it was the same old story when they blew a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter for the fourth time in the last four seasons.

Chicago matched a franchise record with six straight losses at Soldier Field.

Williams is 1-11 in his last 12 NFL starts.

At best, last night’s performance was inconsistent.

At worst, it let to conspiracy theories on social media.

The Bears haven’t won a meaningful road game since Justin Fields led them to a 12-10 win in Minnesota back in Week 12 of the 2023 NFL season.

Now they must travel to Ford Field for another NFC North showdown against a tough opponent that is also looking to avoid an 0-2 start.

The Lions went an NFL-best 15-2 last season.

Detroit didn’t suffer its second loss until a Week 15 game against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills.

Meanwhile, the Lions haven’t lost back-to-back games since Week 7-8 of the 2022 NFL season.

Detroit is 10-0 straight up following a loss since 2022.

The Lions are also 10-0 against the spread after a loss – the longest active streak in the NFL and tied for the fifth-longest streak since the 1970 merger.

Dan Campbell’s teams have gone 17-8 ATS against its NFC North rivals, which is even more impressive when you consider it was the toughest division in the NFL last year.

As bad as Detroit looked on the road in a Week 1 loss to the Packers, this team is too talented and too deep to go from one of the best in the NFL to an afterthought after they lost their coordinators Johnson and Aaron Glenn.

I wonder how many of the red flags that showed up on film and in the advanced metrics have to do with them getting beat up by an opponent that was still slightly underrated by the market last week in Green Bay.

With home field advantage and a definite sense of urgency as they try to avoid an 0-2 start, I’ll bet on the Lions to bounce back with a win at home in Week 2.

I’ll lock in Detroit -4.5 as a FanDuel Best Bet.