For Shame, Vikings

Bears 16
Vikings 6

The Soldier Field hex is a real thing. Don't ever let anyone tell you different. If you told me that would be the final score today, I'd have believed it. It feels like every game in that godforsaken stadium has had a score like that for nearly 20 years.

But this game went to a more upsetting place that can't be chalked up to a hex.

This was a flat out disgusting effort from top to bottom. It felt like this team did not even take the field today intending to try to win.

What was the plan today? Now, I get that as a matchup the Bears are a beast. The Vikings weakness is still pass protection. The Bears pass rush is as good as there is. But the gameplan was as gutless and vanilla as possible. Cook just ran up the middle almost every time. The passing game was all dumpoffs. What can possibly be gained by throwing the ball 2 yards to CJ Ham? Thielen was a complete non-factor.

And also concerning is whatever the hell has happened to Stefon Diggs. If we had this version of Diggs 2 years ago the Minneapolis Miracle is just a dropped pass. He is dropping everything. He had a crushing fumble today just as a drive was getting going. If he is suddenly just an average receiver this team is in even more trouble.

And Kirk Cousins just has to be better than this. A lot of what is said about him is just narrative gibberish. No, Case Keenum would not have fared any better today. This Bears D has made far better QBs than Cousins look bad. But Kirk did get away from pressure at times today and he still took the useless dump plays. He only had 2 deep balls. One was an overthrow to Thielen, the other a Diggs completion. Kirk also had more fumbling issues. Look, I get that in situations like today he is under relentless duress, but he needs to make plays. The contract does not magically transform Kirk Cousins into Joe Montana, but Chase Daniel was hardly good today either for the most part but still made important plays.

I was actually worried when Daniel came in for Trubisky, cause tbh he's probably a better QB. And yeah, you hope you can crush a backup QB, but he didn't exactly light it up. We just had zero pass rush the whole day. Daniel's day was clean, and it shouldn't have been. Again, what was the gameplan? Was it to give huge cushions to receivers?  This defense, just like in Green Bay, did not seem adequately prepared at the start of the game, and that's not all washed away just because the adjustments do seem to be made. That 21-0 hole in Green Bay was ultimately that game. And getting in a quick 7-0 hole in a game everybody knew would be low scoring is not forgotten just because you only allowed 3 field goals the rest of the game. I don't understand why this happens. At home this defense is almost always ready to roll from the moment the game starts. But in some of these road games they look slow, sloppy, and often confused at the start of games. I'm sure grass versus turf makes some difference, but this much?

I was pretty disengaged from this game by halftime, so I did not see the whole.2nd half. But why was there no adjustment to anything? And why was there no effort to even hurry up late in the game? FUCKING TRY!

Calls for Zimmer's head are stupid. It's week 4. But, as much as I don't want to see it happen, games like this are ones that can get coaches and GMs fired. I'd this team misses the playoffs again by a game or 2, people will point to losses like this one in a big spot where the team's preparation and effort have to be questioned.

Now, all this said, getting too down after a Soldier Field game is not always wise. That stadium does awful things to the Vikings. Losing there, even in a fashion as ugly as this, does not end the season. It helps that the Packers and Lions both lost this week. And the schedule the next month is favorable to pile up some wins. They haven't lost any games yet that I did not expect them to. But they can't afford to lose pace in this division and conference. 10 wins will likely be necessary to make the playoffs.