The Chicago Bears run defense has been solid so far this season. They’re giving up an average of 116.9 yards per game, good for 14th-best in the NFL. In Week 10 against the Minnesota Vikings, they’ll face one of their biggest tests yet.
Vikings running back Dalvin Cook is having a special season. He’s run for 858 yards and 12 touchdowns in just seven games and is averaging a ridiculous 6.0 yards per carry.
The Bears are fresh off of slowing Titans running back Derrick Henry in Week 9, albeit in a losing effort. Henry totaled just 68 yards on 21 carries. But Cook is a completely different style of runner. Henry is a big-bodied banger who wears down opposing defenses for four quarters. Cook, on the other hand, is a field-flipper who can change a game at a moment’s notice.
‘‘He has no weakness in his running game,’’ Bears safety Tashaun Gipson said of Cook this week. ‘‘He can run through you, can run around you or can make you miss. Those things are challenging in any type of running back when you get a guy that’s that dynamic.’’
Cook has been on a tear the last two weeks. Both games have come against NFC North foes. He ran for 163 yards and three touchdowns in Week 8’s matchup against the Packers and went off for 206 yards and two scores against the Lions last week.
Bears inside linebackers Roquan Smith and Danny Trevathan will be tasked with shadowing Cook on Monday night. Smith has the juice to hold his own. Trevathan, on the other hand, is a liability.
A national prime-time audience will be locked-in on how the Bears’ offense performs with a new play-caller at the helm. But it’s the defense, and how it handles Cook, that will determine the outcome on Monday night.