Vikings lean on run game to defeat the Bears

Ben Goessling, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Dec 17, 2024

Published in Football

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MINNEAPOLIS — In his opening comments of training camp, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell set forth a vision for a team that would build its foundation differently than in the coach’s first two seasons. O’Connell frequently invoked the phrase “play style” as shorthand for a physical approach that would incorporate heavier personnel, use more downhill runs and provide a firm bedrock for their quarterback transition from Kirk Cousins to Sam Darnold.

They’ve kept the approach more at the forefront of their offense than they did in O’Connell’s first two seasons, even as Darnold turned into a fringe MVP candidate with 28 touchdown passes against 10 interceptions in the team’s first 13 games.

On Monday night, the Vikings won for the seventh straight time, finishing a season sweep of the Chicago Bears with the kind of bruising performance that seemed at one point like it would be essential to their success in 2024. They won 30-12, pulling even with the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles for the best record in the NFC at 12-2 and keeping their chances of home-field advantage in solid shape heading into the final three weeks of the season.

Aaron Jones posted 106 yards on 20 touches, gaining 86 of those yards on the ground and scoring a one-yard TD that put the Vikings up by 17 in the third quarter. Cam Akers added another one-yard score while running for 20 yards against a Bears defense that again committed to taking away Darnold’s downfield shots (save for a deep throw for Jordan Addison that resulted in a 30-yard pass interference penalty on Tyrique Stevenson).

Darnold threw his first interception since Nov. 10, and finished 24 of 40 for 231 yards on a night where he missed several throws. But he came away as the winning quarterback again, while the Vikings harassed Bears rookie Caleb Williams in Chicago’s eighth straight loss.

Williams, who threw for 340 yards and ran for another 33 in a scintillating performance against the Vikings at Soldier Field on Nov. 24, had little of the same production on Monday night. TV cameras showed him slumped on the Bears’ bench, trying to catch his breath after three quarters spent evading the Vikings’ pass rush. Jonathan Greenard stripped Williams of the ball with a blind-side rush in the first quarter; Dallas Turner beat Darnell Wright to take Williams down in the fourth quarter.

Between the two sacks, Williams was quick to break the pocket, with or without Vikings defenders in pursuit. He overshot receivers, completed only 18 of his 31 passes, and was lifted for Tyson Bagent on the final drive of the game with the Vikings up 18.

The Bears converted just one of their first 10 third-down attempts and turned the ball over twice on fourth down, including on the first drive of the game. The Vikings took a 13-0 lead into halftime, scoring their first 10 points with the benefit of short fields after the initial fourth-down stop and a Jonathan Greenard strip sack of Williams. Minnesota picked up 10 first downs in the air, including four third-down conversions from Darnold and outgained the Bears 180-106 in the half.

Justin Jefferson’s seven-yard touchdown catch from Darnold in the first quarter was about as effortless as last week’s wide-open 52-yarder against the Atlanta Falcons. With the Vikings at the Chicago 7, Jefferson ran a crossing route past Jonathan Owens, who passed the receiver off in coverage. Kevin Byard III, the Bears’ other safety, was playing in a shallow zone, leaving a swath of purple turf in U.S. Bank Stadium’s west end zone open for Jefferson to catch Darnold’s pass.

The Vikings likely could have been up by more at halftime. It appeared they would take a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter when Darnold found Jefferson open again in Bears secondary. The receiver turned for the end zone before securing the ball, though, looking at his hands in disbelief as the ball fell out of them.

Jefferson looked at the crowd in the east end zone and tapped his chest to take responsibility for the mistake. Two plays later, though, the Vikings went for it on fourth-and-3 from the Bears’ 23, and Darnold threw into traffic for Jefferson while retreating from pressure. Tyrique Stevenson became the first player to intercept Darnold in five games.