Have you ever just sat in silence after a game instead of jumping up and arguing over the outcome? That’s all I could do after seeing Kirk Cousins’ failed Hail Mary attempt against the Chicago Bears in the Minnesota Vikings 33-27 loss at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Watching the Vikings’ season end by the hands of the Bears is always disappointing. Harrison Smith said that their Week 15 game was “early playoffs for us,” but while that is true in a sense, it didn’t really feel like a playoff game — and it’s not just because there were no fans in the stands.
Once the Vikings lost to the Dallas Cowboys there was little to no wiggle room for losses, especially not against the Bears. It was one thing to lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but when the team will also have to face the New Orleans Saints for a chance to make the playoffs you can’t lose to a team that was under .500.
Here are the five numbers that tell the story of this game:
11
A recurring theme in Vikings’ games over the past few weeks has been the pressure the offensive line has allowed on Cousins since the bye. This game was no different as the Bears had 11 QB hits on Cousins in the loss. In comparison, in their last meeting the Bears only had five!
The Vikings’ line seemed to be turning a corner after the team started 1-5, but following the Ezra Cleveland injury the line has not been the same. Cousins felt the pressure, and while he played as well as anyone could ask it was not enough.
Consequently, Adam Thielen only had two receptions the whole game. One was a wide open touchdown catch, but after that there was no time for Cousins to wait on a long-developing Thielen route. Cousins resorted to constantly targeting short routes to Justin Jefferson or dump-offs to Dalvin Cook.
The only reason the Vikings kept the game close was because Cook had his single best rushing performance against the Bears in his career. He averaged 5.5 yards per carry on 132 yards and got one touchdown, putting to rest the idea that he can’t run against Chicago.
But by the end of the game they just couldn’t keep up with the Bears offense. Something I would have not imagined reading three weeks ago.
1
Mitchell Trubisky came to play this week. Not only that but the Vikings’ defense looked like they didn’t want to be there at times. Putting up 27 points against Chicago would normally be enough to take home a win, but the Vikings’ defense only forced the Bears to punt once the whole game.
One of the only redeemable defensive plays was an end zone interception by breakout rookie corner Cameron Dantzler. While that play was a huge turning point late in the game, the offense didn’t end up capitalizing on the drive. I don’t put the entirety of the blame on the offense, though, because the defense just was not able to stop Trubisky and David Montgomery up to that point.
Montgomery had a career game of his own against Minnesota with 146 yards on 32 carries and two touchdowns. There was no answer, and that gave Trubisky the opportunity to pass for a touchdown himself. He didn’t have a huge game, and besides a late interception, played mistake-free football against a team he normally averages more interceptions than touchdowns against.
Minnesota’s offense isn’t getting off scot-free, though, as they were unable to take advantage of the lone bright spots of the defense.
2
The Vikings are sixth in the NFL on converting fourth down. It did not look like it Sunday afternoon. The Vikings failed to convert on two 4th and 1 situations.
The first attempt was a run up the gut by Cook late in the second quarter. A play call that did not feel appropriate against a team notoriously strong for stopping runs up the middle. Not only that, Cook was killing it running outside all game long. An interesting play call to say the least considering the circumstances.
The second 4th and 1 attempt was after the aforementioned Dantzler interception stopped the Bears from scoring to keep the game within three points. On 3rd and 1 the play call was eerily reminiscent of the last fourth down attempt with a Cook run up the middle, only to get stuffed. Then on fourth down Cousins was hurried and threw a short pass to Tyler Conklin but did not connect.
And when I say short I really mean like 30 yards because Cousins was forced to run back nearly 15 yards to avoid pressure.
5
Not often does a Vikings kicker go and totally redeem himself after thinking he couldn’t possibly be any worse, but Dan Bailey may have done just that. Bailey made all five of his kick attempts Sunday after missing seven kicks in the previous two weeks — including all four against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
This may be one of the few silver linings outside of another great Justin Jefferson game and Cousins playing well. It might mean the Vikings won’t be forced to hunt down another free agent or gamble on drafting a kicker — again.
The Vikings will have to see how Bailey plays out the remainder of the season. Besides, this may be the most interesting story to follow to close out the Vikings’ season.
3%
The biggest story from this game is the implication on the playoff hopes for these two teams. The Buccaneers game was supposedly a must-win game, but in reality, it came down to the Bears game.
In typical Minnesota sports fashion, they lost both games. This leaves the Vikings’ playoff chances at just 3%.
The argument can be made that the Vikings never really had a shot to make a playoff run, but if we learned anything this year in the NFL it’s ‘any given Sunday.’ I mean, look at the New York Jets’ win over the Los Angeles Rams. If they can pull that off why couldn’t the Vikings pull off four wins straight against teams with winning records all the way to the Super Bowl?
All kidding aside, the Vikings’ season is all but over, and it’s time to move on to next season. At least fans have the Bailey story to follow closing out the 2020 NFL season.
