If Sunday’s loss is the one that ends up driving the dagger into the Minnesota Vikings’ playoff hopes — and there’s a great chance it was — it was an effort indicative of the way the season has gone. The urgency level never seemed appropriately calibrated. The defense didn’t make life very hard on the opponent. The offense teased but ultimately left opportunities on the field.
It was implied after the game that both units — offense and defense — needed to look themselves in the mirror. Perhaps the 33-27 loss to the Chicago Bears will prevent Minnesota from papering over another lackluster performance where they came out flat. Perhaps it will act as a catalyst to facilitate the type of philosophical changes and personnel moves needed to get the team where it expects to be. For the fourth straight home game, and sixth out of eight total, the Vikings fell behind by nine points or more, and they were favored in the majority of those contests. Minnesota never led against Chicago despite being favored by three.
Sunday’s game followed a familiar script as fans have seen much of the year. The Vikings, like a late-charging horse, never found their best stride until the final furlongs. That strategy has proved enough (barely) to beat the league’s bottom-feeders. Not good enough to beat contenders or even fringe playoff hopefuls like Chicago.
The Bears built an effortless 13-point lead without being all that fancy or explosive offensively. They simply exploited a banged-up Vikings defense and took advantage of the self-inflicted wounds that have followed Minnesota all year.
The second quarter was a microcosm. On Chicago’s second touchdown drive, which went 76 yards, the only time they faced a third down longer than two yards came on a 3rd and 7 inside the Vikings’ 15-yard line… and Minnesota jumped early to move the ball forward five yards. The Bears converted and quickly scored. Minutes after the Chicago touchdown, the Vikings faced a 4th and inches at their own 34. They sent out the punting unit, only to change their mind and try a run up the middle into the teeth of Chicago’s front. Stopped. Turnover on downs. Bears field goal. To top it off, Irv Smith Jr. dropped a touchdown pass just before halftime. Seven points turned into three.
It’s the little things.
And then there’s the bigger framework to consider.
The Vikings have lived and died with the running game this season, constantly toeing the line between efficiency and over-dependency. Too many games inched too far into the latter category before the Vikings adjusted, often too late. That was the case against Chicago. Example A: The Vikings took a first-down sack on their first drive of the game. They proceeded the run the ball twice on 2nd and 16 and 3rd and 16. Example B: The Vikings had eight 2nd and short opportunities in the game, the down where play-callers can be the most aggressive, and they ran it the first seven times. Example C: With under three minutes left, the Vikings ran it two out of three plays before a fateful missed fourth down.
One wonders what type of feedback the Vikings might’ve gotten from fans if they’d had 66,000 butts in seats this season. Minnesota rarely wavered from its run-first mantra, and Dalvin Cook averaged a robust 124 yards at home, but the Vikings only went 3-5 in their home building.
“We still devote a lot of our plays to running the football,” quarterback Kirk Cousins said after the game. “So the number of times we’re handing the ball off and doing so fairly effectively, those just are plays where we’re not taking that opportunity to take a shot downfield. We did call a lot of plays trying to take a shot, and it just didn’t time up with the defense they were in.”
Cousins’ remark wasn’t meant to be a criticism, but it speaks volumes and may foreshadow one of the biggest offseason talking points: Is the Vikings’ offense too imbalanced?
Despite a 27-point outing, Minnesota’s offensive stars didn’t appear simpatico. Maybe it was the stakes, maybe it was the poor execution, maybe it was the talkative, physical Bears defense that put them on edge. Jefferson chirped toward Cousins after an incompletion in the second quarter. Cousins barked at Irv Smith Jr., who lined up incorrectly in the third quarter, and later at his offensive line following a particularly bad pressure. Cook left his postgame press conference after just four questions.
Then again, maybe the frustration stems from things the skill players can’t control, like an offensive line that struggles to pass block, a special teams unit that can’t generate field position, or a defense that needed the offense to rescue it on a regular basis. The Vikings offense has had no margin for error throughout 2020, a heavy burden to carry.
“That’s why when you prepare all week and you’re in the game,” Cousins said, “you feel that intensity and intention on every snap because you know that it really is one snap that can make the difference between a win and a loss and going to the playoffs and not going to the playoffs.”
And there were plenty of single plays that influenced this one, which came down to a Hail Mary that was tipped oh-so-close to Justin Jefferson‘s arms.
Minnesota started the game with a confounding pooch kick that set Chicago up with great field position. Mike Zimmer wasted a timeout and a challenge on a fairly obvious Bears reception. Chris Jones missed two easy tackles along the sideline to permit extra yardage. Minnesota wasted a second-half timeout on offense.
“Just one of those games,” said Cook. “We just had to pull it out. We had an opportunity at the end to win it, we just didn’t win it. I think the defense did a great job of giving us back the ball to go win it. We have to look ourselves in the mirror and go fix it. I think we’re supposed to finish the game off as an offense and we didn’t do that.”
The offense was probably asked to shoulder too much responsibility throughout the year, and the defense performed about as you’d expect from a battered, rebuilt unit. Toss in perpetual instability from the special teams and you’ve got a club that wasn’t able to marry its three phases together at any point.
Credit the Vikings for hanging on this long, but you shouldn’t be surprised that this was how it came crashing down.
