DODGING DISASTER

VIKINGS 30

BEARS 27 OT

Every single year, the Vikings trip to Soldier Field winds up being a grind, and getting out of there with a win is like pulling teeth. But this year's edition managed to carve out its own unique memory, a loony game that went, in a blink, from a solid win to a potentially unfathomable and embarrassing loss, and ultimately a gutty win.

Right off the bat, the goofy Soldier Field crap got going. Aaron Jones ripped off a couple of long runs to get the Vikings close to an opening drive touchdown, but that score never came as Jones was stripped of the ball at the 1.

The Bears later drew first blood, after a preposterous play where Caleb Williams looked to be being pressured into a throwaway became a huge completion. It set up a short TD run, and the Bears led 7-0. The quarter also ended with us down 2 starters due to injury, Ivan Pace and Cam Robinson.

But the resilient Vikings responded quickly to the Bears score. Sam Darnold launched a deep shot that hit to Jordan Addison, then hit him again for a short touchdown to tie the game.

The game started to really swing the Vikings way on the next series. A deep completion from Williams to Keenan Allen was overturned on review, forcing a field goal try, which was blocked by Jerry Tillery, and brought back on return by Brian Asamoah.

The offense cashed in. Justin Jefferson drew a long DPI, and Darnold hit Jalen Nailor for a short touchdown.

Chicago eeked out a field goal before halftime, and while in general I didn't like the performance of the defense that half (Allen was wide open routinely), a halftime lead after a shaky half was not going to be refused.

The first play of the 3rd quarter was a 69 (nice) yard catch and run by Addison, but then the Vikings went negative run, sack, incompletion and had to settle for a Parker Romo field goal and a 7 point lead.

The Vikings got several big breaks in the quarter. One Bears drive ended with a bad Williams throw on a 4th down. The next ended when Cole Kmet dropped an open 3rd down catch. And the biggest of all was when their punt returner let the ball hit him, allowing a Vikings recovery. We cashed in with a Jones TD run and with a 24-10 lead after 3 things looked pretty solid.

The game began to swing back the other way when the Vikings got the ball again, and got across midfield. It was 4th and 1, and we were going to go for it. But then, instead of just running a simple QB sneak, KOC called timeout, then sent Darnold back out into shotgun. Predictably, the pass was incomplete, and the chance to dagger the Bears was gone.

And of course, the Bears used their renewed life to drive to a touchdown. They went for 2 after and missed, but they were back in the game.

But the Vikings have been in this spot several times this year, needing a late drive to secure a game. And they got one again. Even a brief injury for Darnold didn't stop us. Nick Mullens came in for a key 3rd and long and actually hit a nice pass to Jones, before Sam returned. A would-be Justin Jefferson TD was called back by a penalty, but we still managed to eat a bunch of clock and get a field goal. An 11 point lead with 2 minutes left. There was nothing to worry about.

But then, chaos. First, we gave up a long kick return, that if not for a key Dallas Turner tackle might have gone all the way. Then we allowed Williams to convert a 4th down, then throw a touchdown, then get the 2. Fortunately, some bad clock management left them with barely 20 seconds left. And all we had to do was secure the onside kick, which these days are harder than ever to convert.

But when Johnny Mundt carelessly let the ball dink off his leg before the kick even went 10 yards, the Bears pounced and had a shot. THEN, we let Williams fire a dart to a wide open DJ Moore to get them in field goal range. Was there any doubt Cairo Santos would make it? He did, and a game in which the Vikings had a 99.9% win probability just moments earlier was headed to overtime. Unthinkable.

The fact that all those things happened in such short order could have mentally wrecked a team. But the Vikings did not melt.

Johnathan Grennard got a huge sack on Williams, and Chicago had to punt. 

And now we had Sam Darnold in his biggest moment as a Viking, needing to go drive to win the game and avert what would have been one of the absolute worst chokejobs in franchise history.

The drive started ominously, with Darnold getting sacked, and nearly stripped. But he held on, and then turned into the kind of clutch QB that can take teams places. A huge 3rd down conversion to Addison, a dart to Jefferson for 20, a big chain mover to Hockenson, and then the dagger deep shot to TJ for 29 to set us up in chip shot range.

On comes Parker Romo, who drilled his 1st career walkoff winner. The disaster was dodged, and the Vikings had their weirdest of their now 9 wins.

I always try to compartmentalize these Chicago games as their own things. This marks 5 straight wins there, none of them easy.

The defense was pretty bad much of the game, allowing a struggling rookie QB to throw for well over 300 yards and hit wide open targets.

But Sam Darnold elevated his play in the biggest moments, and that could be the most valuable takeaway. He played like a guy who can go lead you to a playoff run. With Jefferson blanketed, he got the ball to the other stars (Addison had a career high in yards, Hock went over 100, and Jones had 100 on the ground). And played his best with a 3rd choice left tackle out there.

Postseason football is all but guaranteed. The Vikings entered the week at 95% to make it, and their win and losses by the Commanders and Rams (the only team with a tiebreaker on us) only make it more inevitable.

They did what they had to, sweeping the 4 November games against losing teams. None were pretty, but think of how many times a Vikings season got screwed up by blowing games to inferior opponents.

Now they get a December with 4 home games, against better teams, but all very winnable for a team that has already exceeded all reasonable expectations.