It wasn’t pretty, but the Minnesota Vikings moved to 2-4 on the season with their win Sunday over the Chicago Bears. The Vikings offense was held under 200 yards passing in the absence of Justin Jefferson. Turnovers reared their ugly head yet again, and the injury bug bit the Vikings over and over again. Yet, they were still able to do enough to walk out with the victory.
Not only does the victory keep the Vikings season alive, but the win in their first division game of the season means they’re undefeated in the division, something that could play a factor later on if Kirk Cousins and the crew can right the ship.
But that’s getting a bit ahead of ourselves. For now, let’s just enjoy the victory by taking a look at the good, bad, and ugly from the Vikings win.
The good: Pass catchers stepping up
Perhaps the biggest storyline heading into this game was the state of the Vikings passing attack. With Justin Jefferson on IR and out for at least the next 4-6 weeks, who was going to step up and fill those shoes. No one player was going to be able to replace the loss of Jefferson, it was going to require a team effort.
That’s exactly what they got on Sunday against the Bears. While the offense as a whole was disappointing and the passing attack in particular wasn’t what it usually is, there were some encouraging signs. Namely the guys who don’t normally factor much into the game plan seeing an increase in action and rising to the occasion.
The biggest and most encouraging example is KJ Osborn. Normally the fourth (if that) option in the offense, Osborn’s activity on Sunday increased significantly. On the day, Osborn was targeted five times and came down with four catches. Those catches only amounted to 48 yards, but a 12-yard per catch average is strong for a role player. Jordan Addison added three catches of his own, and came down with Cousins’ only touchdown pass of the day.
Tight end T.J. Hockenson was, predictably, elevated to the main target in the Vikings offense, and he had a solid outing, as well, seeing eight targets and coming away with six receptions. The Vikings are going to be without Jefferson for at least a month and are going to have to figure out how to push the ball downfield. But now we know for sure that the guys around Jefferson can step up in his absence, at least from a volume perspective.
The bad: Rush defense
Individually, nothing jumps off the page as being overly terrible. The leading rusher for the Bears on the day had just 65 yards, and the only rushing touchdown came from undrafted rookie quarterback Tyson Bagent on a sneak. However, the stat sheet leaves out a lot of context.
The Vikings defense was getting shredded on the ground all day by the Bears rushing attack. Collectively, Chicago ran the ball 36 times for a total of 162 yards and the aforementioned touchdown. They were able to run the ball at a 4.5 yards-per-carry clip, and it looked worse than that during the game.
To make matters even worse, the Bears all but abandoned the run for a good portion of the game. Their rushing total could have easily been over 200 yards, and they probably could have added another touchdown on the ground had they been more committed to the run before Justin Fields’ injury forced them to be more conservative with the backup quarterback.
The worst part about it; however, isn’t the raw stats. Nor is it how much worse the stats could have been. It’s who was doing the damage for the Bears. Chicago came into this game missing their top three running backs.
This forced D’Onta Foreman – who had been a healthy scratch for most of the season to this point, and Darrynton Evans – who had been picked up from the Miami Dolphins practice squad – into action. And still, the Bears were able to do anything they wanted on the ground for much of the game.
The good: Sweltering pass rush
There haven’t been a ton of high points this season for the Vikings, but near the top of the list has to be the performance of the pass rush.
Danielle Hunter is leading the league in both sacks and tackles for loss. Marcus Davenport has been a one-man wrecking crew when he’s been on the field. Pass rushers harassing the quarterback have forced timely turnovers and come away with multiple scores on the season.
Those trends continued in spades on Sunday against the Bears. For Hunter’s part, he walked away from the game with two sacks, two tackles for loss, two QB hits, and added a pass defended for good measure. His teammates were able to add three more sacks to the total, including a strip-sack by Josh Metellus that was taken to the house by Jordan Hicks.
The Vikings defense has been extremely aggressive under new defensive coordinator Brian Flores. They’re leading the league in blitz percentage by a wide margin, but the results have been sort of a mixed bag.
They rank near the bottom of the league in QB knockdowns and knockdown percentage, despite being near the top of the league in team sacks and around the middle in pressures and pressure percentage.
If the Vikings are going to turn this season around, they’re going to need more performances like Sunday from this crew.
The ugly: Kirk Cousins’ fumble(s)
We’re now six weeks into the season, and the Vikings still haven’t figured out the solution to their turnover woes. Officially, the Vikings only had one turnover on the day. It came on a Kirk Cousins drop back where the pass rush got to him and was able to smack his arm, dislodging the ball and forcing the turnover.
If that were the only turnover-worthy play in the game, I wouldn’t be writing this section. However, there was another.
If you watched the game on Sunday, you likely know the play I’m talking about. It sent social media into an uproar, and it was one of the ugliest plays we’ve seen from the Vikings this season – in a season that’s been rife with ugly plays.
Cousins was about to take a sack, and flipped – or at least attempted to flip – the ball out towards running back Cam Akers. The ball went backwards and was batted towards the sidelines before being recovered by Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards, who had himself quite the game on the other side.
Luckily for the Vikings, the play was reviewed and it was ultimately determined that Edwards did not establish control of the ball before going out-of-bounds. The turnover didn’t count, but it probably should have. Regardless, it continued the trend that’s been pervasive throughout the season: Carelessness with the football.
Every game the Vikings have played this season has finished with a one-score margin. Plays like that can be, and have been, the difference between winning and losing. We’re beating a dead horse continuing to harp on the turnovers, but it’s the single biggest factor in why the Vikings are sitting at 4-2 instead of being in the conversation with the Eagles and 49ers as a top team in the NFC.
