MINNEAPOLIS — The Vikings are 4-1, atop the NFC North by themselves. They're the first team in NFL history to win in London and return to the U.S. to win the next weekend, and they are 3-0 in the NFC North.
None of it was as easy as they'd hoped, or as it appeared it could be in the first half against the Bears on Sunday. But a 29-22 win over Chicago at U.S. Bank Stadium has the Vikings in first place as they figure it all out.
A game that appeared destined for a blowout turned into one that required a fourth-quarter comeback. But the Vikings delivered another one, with Kirk Cousins' quarterback sneak capping a 17-play drive with 2:26 left.
The Bears' final chance for a comeback ended when former Vikings receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette — whose block in the back on Cameron Dantzler had wiped out a 52-yard Justin Fields touchdown run — tried to gain extra yardage instead of going out of bounds, carrying the ball loosely enough under his arm for Dantzler to strip it for a game-sealing fumble.
Fans streamed through U.S. Bank Stadium's open glass doors on an idyllic Minnesota fall day, greeted by a broadcast of the Packers' loss to the Giants in London on the stadium video boards. Vikings and Bears fans roared, and the stadium operations crew sounded the Gjallarhorn, when the Giants batted down Aaron Rodgers' late fourth-down pass to preserve their lead.
Once the spotlight shifted to the game on the field, the Vikings shredded the Bears' defense to pieces.
They chose to take the ball after winning the opening coin toss, traveling 86 yards on a 12-play drive where Justin Jefferson feasted on free releases and Cousins hit him four times for 55 yards. Cousins found him three times on the Vikings' next drive, stepping up in the pocket to hit Jefferson for 15 yards before Dalvin Cook scored his second short touchdown of the half.
By the end of the Vikings' third touchdown drive, Cousins had broken Tommy Kramer's single-game franchise record for consecutive completions, starting the game with 17 straight. Jefferson had hit Cook for 23 yards off a double pass, and the Vikings had built a 21-3 lead.
So many of the Vikings' games against the Bears in recent years had turned into quagmires that left enough space for something strange to happen; the opening half of O'Connell's first game against the Bears found the coach at his most daring and creative. The Vikings held the ball for 22:32 in the first half, as Jefferson caught 10 passes for 138 yards and Cook gained 53 yards on 10 carries.
A week after the Vikings' special teams units made enough plays to snatch a game from the Saints in London, two special teams gaffes helped the Bears make it 21-10 at halftime.
Ryan Wright shanked a punt 15 yards, and a D.J. Wonnum holding penalty on the same play helped the Bears start at midfield before Darnell Mooney separated himself from Chandon Sullivan and made an acrobatic one-handed catch for 39 yards. The Bears finished the drive with a David Montgomery touchdown, and though the Vikings drove into field goal range in the final minute of the half, Greg Joseph missed his 53-yard attempt wide right.
Fields engineered a touchdown drive to start the third quarter, hitting Cole Kmet for a 23-yard completion in front of a deep zone from Harrison Smith and behind a zone drop from Danielle Hunter after he'd faked a rush. His fourth-down scramble on the next drive, where he eluded Za'Darius Smith after Hunter and D.J. Wonnum collided with a Bears offensive linemen while rushing Fields, set up another Bears field goal.
And after Kindle Vildor sunk into zone coverage and picked off a Cousins pass for Adam Thielen into traffic, the Bears kicked another field goal to complete an improbable 19-0 run, taking a 22-21 lead with just over nine minutes left.
It left the Vikings, in a game they'd begun with few concerns, searching for an answer. They found one, with their bruising drive that took seven minutes off the clock, covered 75 yards in 17 plays and required four third-down conversions: a 2-yard run from Alexander Mattison, a 12-yard Cousins completion to Irv Smith, a 5-yard scramble from Cousins up the middle and an 11-yard Cousins-to-Mattison connection. Cousins' quarterback sneak, during which the quarterback moved under center after lining up in the shotgun while Cook motioned out of the backfield, also came on third down.
After Smith-Marsette's final gift to his former team, the Vikings could send their offense out in victory formation.
