It might not have been pretty but the Minnesota Vikings beat the Chicago Bears on the road in prime time to move to 7-7 on the season.
Week 15 of the 2021 NFL season saw the Minnesota Vikings hit the road to take on the Chicago Bears in a game that was played under the lights of Soldier Field in front of a national audience on Monday Night Football.
The game was an ugly affair. Both offenses looked terrible as the game plodded along. The Bears were without a large number of the players due to injury and COVID-19, leaving them vulnerable to a Minnesota squad coming off an emotional win over the Steelers in Week 14.
Of course, the final score shows the Vikings coming out on top of Chicago by a final score of 17-9 thanks to a Bears touchdown that was scored as time expired in the game. This made it another game that was decided by one possession for Minnesota.
Next week, the Minnesota Vikings will host the Los Angeles Rams. However, there is still quite a bit to unpack from this victory over the Chicago Bears. Let’s take a look at six of the biggest takeaways from this contest.
The offensive line needs help
Since the start of this season, the Minnesota Vikings have been trying to figure out a configuration for their offensive line that would not only open up holes in the run game but be able to protect Kirk Cousins while he works out of the pocket.
This week saw Mason Cole take over at right guard following the return of Christian Darrisaw. Sadly, both Darrisaw and Cole had better days, with Cole likely having one of the worst days of his NFL career.
Akiem Hicks had his way with Cole all game, generating the line and making things difficult for both the run and pass game. He had four hits on Kirk Cousins with two of those being sacks. Plus, he plugged up the middle by moving Cole wherever he wanted to put him.
The saddest part was that no adjustments seem to be made. Minnesota didn’t make any personnel changes and didn’t give Cole a lot of help in dealing with this task. If the Vikings do this next week against Aaron Donald, it could be another long day for the offense.
The Vikings are stubborn on offense
We already talked about how the offensive line struggled and didn’t give Kirk Cousins a very good chance to succeed. That said, the game plan coming into Week 15 was one that should never have been attempted against the Bears.
Since the entire starting secondary was out for Chicago, attacking through the air would have been the smartest move. Still, the idea for Minnesota was to run Dalvin Cook directly at Akiem Hicks to open up the passes.
This is a common strategy for Mike Zimmer. He loves running the ball to control the clock and trusting his defense to play well. A better approach would have been to attack with quick passes like slants and curls to get in a rhythm and move the chains.
Minnesota only gained 193 total yards with this strategy. What makes this all even worse is that when Mike Zimmer was asked at halftime how he could improve the offense, he said that they were “throwing the ball way too much” against the Bears. Baffling.
Minnesota needs to stop the run
The Bears have an embarrassingly bad passing attack. When you add that their best receiver was out and they lost another one of their biggest weapons during the game, it’s surprising the Vikings allowed 285 yards through the air on Monday night…even if most of those came when the game seemed out of reach.
The more hurtful part of the Chicago offense came in the first half when the Bears controlled the tempo of the game by having David Montgomery eat up chunks of yardage at a time while Justin Fields make the most of his runs and accumulated 35 yards on the ground.
Minnesota giving up over 100 yards rushing shouldn’t be a surprise since they have one of the worst run defenses in the league, but the investments they have made in stopping the run make this kind of play unacceptable.
Sure, the defensive line of the Vikings had three sacks on the night (all three from D.J. Wonnum), but big things were expected of the “Meaty Boys” when they were able to finally be on the field at the same time. At the moment, their combined powers have been a bit underwhelming.
Third down strategies need to change
Does this scenario sound familiar?
It’s third down. The first two plays were either two runs or a run and a very short pass that set up a third-and-three. Kirk Cousins gets the play call in his headset and tells the team in the huddle. They break and head to the line of scrimmage.
The center snaps the ball and Kirk drops back to pass. He sails the ball at least 30 yards down the field and it either falls incomplete or lands out of bounds. Minnesota’s punter takes the field to kick the ball away.
Well, that happened quite a bit on Monday. The Vikings only converted five of their 17 third-down tries and failed their only fourth-down attempt.
There is nothing wrong with taking a shot once in a while, but trying a home-run ball on third downs isn’t a great way to move the chains and keep a drive alive. Considering how conservative Minnesota is on other downs, their willingness to roll the dice on third and fourth downs is pretty astounding.
The Vikings can get takeaways
This game should have been complete domination all the way around. The Bears roster was absolutely decimated heading into this game, but the inept offense forced the defense to step up in order to win this game.
Minnesota had to bend against the Bears, but they didn’t break. They allowed 370 yards of offense and 5.3 yards per play, but they held Chicago to a field goal until that final garbage-time touchdown of the game.
The highlights were the forced fumbles and fumble recoveries. Cameron Dantzler made a nice play to knock the ball out of Fields’ hands while Sheldon Richardson stole the ball following a Montgomery fumble. Plus, Kris Boyd got on top of a botched punt return to set up the Vikings in Chicago territory.
When looking at the score, it’s tough to believe that this team got three takeaways from Chicago and it still ended with it being a one-score game. Still, I guess this is what it is like to watch the Minnesota Vikings every week.
Minnesota’s playoff hopes are still alive
Following that win in Chicago, the Minnesota Vikings have slid into the seventh and final spot in the playoff picture for the moment. That doesn’t mean they will stay there, but it means there is still a chance this team could make the postseason.
The Washington Football Team could jump Minnesota on Tuesday if they beat the Philadelphia Eagles. That puts Vikings fans in a weird place where they might actually have to cheer for Philly this week.
Next week’s game against the Los Angeles Rams will be a huge test for this team that looked inept against the Bears. They won’t be able to get away with some of the struggles they overcame against Chicago since L.A. is a much better team.
Even if the Vikings do beat the Rams, then defeat the Packers in Green Bay, and finish off the Bears in the season finale, they still don’t control their destiny at the moment. That means this team will need to get their act together for when Matthew Stafford and company come to town.
What did you learn from this game between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears? And how do you think the purple and gold will respond to this victory going forward? Let us hear your opinions in the comments.