Dec 16, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle Brian O'Neill (75) celebrates running back Cam Akers (27) touchdown against the Chicago Bears in the fourth quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images.
The Vikings’ win streak grew to seven with their 30-12 Monday night triumph over the Bears, led by a strong defensive performance against overmatched rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. The Vikings’ offense did enough to win, but it would’ve been an earlier and bigger blowout if Sam Darnold had been more accurate and the usually sure-handed Justin Jefferson had not dropped an easy touchdown on one of Darnold’s good throws.
The Vikings did ABC a favor by not pulling away until the offense perked up with two 70-yard TD drives in the late third and early fourth quarters.
The current win streak has included only one game against a team with a winning record at the time—Arizona at 6-5. That changes over the next three weeks as the Vikings travel to 8-6 Seattle (where the Purple has lost the last five games there but all to Russell Wilson) and then face their two division rivals—a home game vs. 10-4 Green Bay and the road finale at 12-2 Detroit.
The Vikings clinched a playoff spot before taking the field courtesy of Green Bay—of all teams as the Vikings’ biggest rival—beating Seattle 30-13 on Sunday night. The Vikings now control their own destiny in the NFC North race after the Lions—besieged by injuries more than ever, especially on defense—lost a high-scoring home game to soon-to-be MVP Josh Allen and the Bills 48-42. If the Vikings beat Seattle and Green Bay, they can win the division title (and possibly the NFC’s No. 1 seed) with a victory at Detroit in what could be a game flexed to prime-time.
Kevin O’Connell has done a great job of instilling the one-game-at-a-time mindset in his players. The Seahawks should provide a big test for the Vikings on Sunday if Geno Smith is able to play after hurting his knee on Sunday (the early indication is he will be able to play). Sam Howell played poorly when he replaced Smith. He held the ball too long, was sacked four times, and threw one pick.
Here are my other reactions to the Vikings “White-Out” win over the Bears:
1. The Vikings’ defense was the dominant factor in this win. They shut out the Bears in the first half, forced a turnover that led to seven points, and made two fourth-down stops that set up two Will Reichard field goals for the 13-0 halftime lead.
Jonathan Greenard’s first-quarter strip-sack of Williams was the game’s biggest defensive play. It stopped a Bears drive that had reached the Vikings’ 29-yard line, and Blake Cashman’s return set up the offense at the Chicago 39. That led to Darnold’s seven-yard TD strike on play action to Jefferson, who easily beat the Bears’ coverage for a 10-0 lead.
It was Greenard’s 11th sack of the season (tied for fifth in the league). He beat rookie LT Kiran Amegadjie, who was starting in place of Braxton Jones (concussion), and Amegadjie did not get help on the play. The Vikings’ other sack was by first-rounder Dallas Turner on a terrific speed rush against 2023 first-round tackle Darnell Wright.
The Vikings’ defense held the Bears to 2 of 15 on third and fourth downs in the game, demonstrating their dominance on key downs.
2. The Vikings’ run defense, which was gashed for 158 and 154 yards by Arizona and Atlanta, was better in allowing 113 yards on 29 carries (3.9-yard average) with the two stops of D’Andre Swift on 4th-and-1 (Jerry Tillery received a game ball for being in on both of those stops, once with Greenard and once with Cashman).
The Vikings have one more game before Ivan Pace can return off IR from his hamstring injury. O’Connell says he’s on track to come back against the Packers, which will be a big help against the league’s No. 4 rushing team.
3. Turnovers were even in the game, but the two fourth-down stops were turnovers in effect (although the Bears stopped the Vikings on fourth down after the Jefferson dropped TD). The Bears came into the game with a strong plus-10 turnover ratio, so it’s not a surprise they only turned it over once, especially considering the way Williams holds the ball and is careful to avoid interceptions (only five this season).
It was a bit disappointing that the Vikings could only sack Williams twice and hit him three times when he leads the league in being sacked (now at 58). But he clearly was frazzled by the Vikings’ pass rush, which forced him out of the pocket often and delivered big hits, such as Jihad Ward’s clean hit to the chest that knocked the wind out of Williams. He, like Darnold, missed a lot of open receivers.
The bottom line is that the Vikings’ D allowed only 12 points, which ranks fourth among the fewest allowed.
4. The good news on Darnold is that he only had one turnover on a night when he missed many open receivers. He was under a lot of pressure from the Bears’ pass rushers, especially when RT Brian O’Neill was out for parts of the game with a knee injury that, fortunately for the Vikings, did not prevent him from finishing the game.
O’Neill is having an excellent season, and he’s an essential player on the O-line that has already lost Christian Darrisaw. By playing through the injury, O’Neill showed his toughness and leadership as a team captain.
Darnold did make plenty of good throws, such as the TD pass to Jefferson on play action (with safety Kevin Byard biting on the fake after Aaron Jones had made strong runs of 9 and 13 yards on the drive) and the 17-yard completion to Jefferson in a tight window to the one-yard line on the Vikings’ best drive of the night that finished with Jones’ one-yard TD run behind O’Neill, Dalton Risner, and WR Trent Sherfield.
Jordan Addison continued his excellent recent play with seven catches for 63 yards, and he drew a key 30-yard pass interference call in the end zone on the fourth-quarter drive that ended with Cam Akers’ TD run to put the Vikings ahead 27-6. Jefferson had seven catches for 73 yards, and T.J. Hockenson contributed several key third-down catches.
5. LT Cam Robinson had an awful night penalty-wise. He received four pre-snap penalties (one for lining up too deep and three false starts, which is especially bad in a home game) and was also beaten for a tackle-for-loss. The Vikings need him to play better, as he had been doing before this game.
It was a sloppy game by both teams, with the Vikings having 10 penalties for 56 yards (almost all on the offense, which created difficult down-and-distance situations that Darnold and the offense managed to overcome on several drives). The Bears were worse in penalty yardage with 93 yards on nine penalties (including the 30-yard pass interference call on Tyrique Stevenson against Addison).
6. Ryan Wright is excellent, but he has a punt protection issue with a blocked punt. Reichard made all six of his kicks (three field goals and three extra points), and his kickoffs were solid, so he appears to be back in a good groove after his month on IR with the quad injury.
7. The white-out night was different and cool for the national TV audience and seemed to be exciting to Vikings fans in attendance. I thought the most special parts of the night were the tributes to Randy Moss in his cancer battle when Cris Carter and Jake Reed came out for the coin toss carrying Moss’ No. 84 jersey, and then on Jefferson’s TD; he made a shout-out to the Vikings’ Hall of Fame receiver in saying to the TV camera “We love you, Randy. That’s for you!”
Around the NFL in Week 15 & a look ahead to Week 16:
1. The Lions lost three more starters and a key reserve in the loss to Buffalo. Running back David Montgomery and top defensive tackle Alim McNeill are out for the season with knee injuries. Detroit’s best corner, Carlton Davis, is out indefinitely with a fractured jaw, and corner Khalil Dorsey suffered a season-ending broken leg. They were already missing Pro Bowl DE Aidan Hutchinson (broken leg), who is a possible return if the Lions reach the Super Bowl, and starting linebacker Alex Anzalone, among others.
Detroit is at Chicago on Sunday. The Bears came close to upsetting the Lions on Thanksgiving, so the Lions better not overlook the Bears.
Green Bay hosts 5-9 New Orleans on Monday night.
2. In other key games on Sunday, Philadelphia easily handled Pittsburgh 27-13, with Jalen Hurts quieting the noise over the passing game as he threw for 290 yards (110 and a TD to previously disgruntled WR A.J. Brown). The Eagles are tied with the Lions and Vikings atop the NFC at 12-2 and have won 10 straight games.
The Steelers have clinched a playoff spot and play at Baltimore on Saturday. With a win, they could clinch the AFC North.
Look out for Tampa Bay, which has won four straight after a dominant 40-17 win at the Chargers. The Bucs hold a one-game lead in the NFC South over the Falcons, who barely beat the lowly Raiders 15-9. Kirk Cousins continues to struggle (only 112 passing yards, 1 TD, 1 interception).
The Rams look to be the team to emerge in the NFC West after beating the 49ers last Thursday. L.A. is tied with Seattle at 8-6, but the Rams have won three straight. The Seahawks lost to the Rams in Week 9 and will face them in L.A. in Week 18.
The defending NFC champion Niners are in deep trouble at 6-8. The Vikings would like to see them win in Miami this week to stay alive heading into their home game against the Lions next week.
I’ll be back on Friday with my Vikings-Seahawks preview in the start of the challenging three-game finish to the regular season.
Jeff Diamond is a former Vikings GM, former Tennessee Titans President and was selected NFL Executive of the Year after the Vikings’ 15-1 season in 1998. He now works for the NFL agent group IFA based in Minneapolis and does other sports consulting and media work along with college/corporate speaking. Follow him and direct message him on Twitter– @jeffdiamondnfl