The Vikings Can’t Afford to Appear Vulnerable Against the Bears
Credit: Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images
The Minnesota Vikings fanbase had it really good last week as the home team beat up on their old quarterback Kirk Cousins in a dominant 42-21 win. It was a game that had it all. The defense forced Kirko Chainz to throw two interceptions. The offense also scored six touchdowns, with Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson combining for 15 receptions for 265 yards and five touchdowns. It was a dominant performance on both sides of the ball, reminiscent of the first five weeks of the season, where they routinely blew their opponents out of the water.
In Week 15, the Vikings host a 4-9 Chicago Bears that just fired head coach Matt Eberflus a couple of weeks ago. The Bears may appear weaker on paper, but the last time the Vikings played them, the game ended up going down to the wire. Caleb Williams and company overcame an 11-point deficit late in the fourth quarter to take the game into overtime. Minnesota had to force a three-and-out before interim kicker John Parker Romo (now on the New England Patriots) could kick the game-winning field goal.
Everything ended up being fine and dandy in the end, but holy heck, that shouldn’t have been such a nail-biter. Count on the Vikings to find ways to give the good citizens of Minnesota heart attacks on Sunday afternoons.
With the rematch coming three weeks after that first meeting, the Vikings can’t afford to appear vulnerable against the Bears. While Vikings fans got to witness the dominant performance they’d spent weeks waiting for, the team needs to follow it up with a second-straight convincing win, and here’s why.
For starters, the Vikings can’t have pundits questioning their legitimacy. While not everyone is sold on Minnesota as a contender, most of the national media’s talking heads respect them. But the Vikings have struggled in both games they’ve played in prime time, losing a Monday Night Football contest to the LA Rams, and getting shut out in the first half against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night. So if a supposed contender plays down to their competition in another nationally-televised game, the media may sour on the team, creating a negative perception that can spread to the fanbase.
Even if Minnesota plays like crap against Chicago and they still prevail, a win is a win. So why should the team care about what people are saying outside the walls of TCO Performance Center? Because if the Bears give the Vikings a tough time once again, it could give future opponents a blueprint on how to exploit Minnesota. If so, the book on the Vikings would come out at the worst possible time, late in the regular season when Minnesota is a game behind the Detroit Lions for the NFC (and NFC North) title.
Not to mention, these Bears are the last non-playoff caliber opponent the Vikings will face this season. From this point on, everything gets increasingly tougher. Next week, Minnesota will travel to the Pacific Northwest to play against a stingy Seattle Seahawks team that was riding a four-game win streak until losing to Green Bay 30-13 on Sunday night. It’s been 18 years since the last time Minnesota beat the Seahawks on the road. After that, the Vikings face off against the Green Bay Packers (at home) and the Lions (in Detroit) to close out the season, and those are both hard-fought divisional games with high stakes and bad blood.
So there’s a fair amount of pressure to keep this positive momentum going for Minnesota. In order for the Vikings to do that against the Bears this week, they can’t repeat the mistakes that allowed Chicago to force overtime three weeks ago. That means avoiding unforced errors like Aaron Jones fumbling the ball at the one-yard line, Johnny Mundt not recovering the onside kick that would’ve sealed the game, and all of the easily avoidable penalties that shot the team in the foot.
As for the coaching — while this isn’t something exclusive to Brian Flores — but, please, for the love of God, stop playing prevent defense late in games. Yes, the point is to avoid giving up the big play, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to gain big chunks of yardage in a short amount of time when players are wide open on checkdowns and able to run out of bounds to preserve the clock. Although, I’m a big fan of the five-man zone blitzes on third downs to close out games. More of that, please.
Ultimately, the Vikings need to avoid making things difficult for themselves, stay disciplined, and avoid taking their foot off the gas with conservative late-game defensive play-calling. If they can manage to do that, then they should beat the Bears handily on MNF without people questioning their status as contenders or giving their future opponents any intel on how to beat them in higher-stakes match-ups.
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