A Gutty Win for the Vikings in Rainy Chicago to Take Division Lead

Repeat after me—there’s no such thing as an ugly win in the NFL. Especially when it’s against a division rival that won the NFC North last season and put up 59 points last week. But the Vikings defense forced two turnovers and held the Bears’ supposedly unstoppable offense to a field goal in a 9-3 win at rainy Soldier Field on Sunday.

The Vikings are in a great position as sole division leaders at 2-0 with two wins in the division as their starting quarterback Kyler Murray has now cleared concussion protocol. Kevin O’Connell said Monday that Murray will be the starting QB next Sunday in Tampa Bay against the winless Bucs. Carson Wentz returns to the backup role after playing efficiently in directing the wins over the Packers and Bears with no turnovers in either game, three TD passes, and a solid 106.4 passer rating.

Here are My Reactions to the Vikings Victory Over the Bears

1. Chalk one up for O’Connell and Brian Flores over Ben Johnson: Johnson’s boastful talk about wanting to break the NFL scoring record fell flat in Week 2 as the Vikings D pressured Williams and his backup Tyson Bagent (after Williams’ fourth quarter hamstring injury) along with the rest of the Bears offense to the tune of four sacks (including the game-ender by Dallas Turner), 10 QB hits, one interception, one huge goal-line fumble recovery, five tackles-for-loss and seven passes defensed.

The Vikings followed up their high blitz rate of Jordan Love in Week 1 with an even higher blitz rate of 81.8% of Williams’ drop backs as he passed for only 138 yards with a poor 56.2 passer rating.

For a supposed offensive genius, how does Johnson allow Turner as the Vikings best pass rusher to be single blocked on the final play by tight end Colston Loveland instead of left tackle Braxton Jones with help from a back or tight end?

2. O’Connell wisely leaned on the run game (28 runs vs. 23 pass plays). Wentz had a few inaccurate throws including a potential first down to Jordan Addison and a high throw in the end zone that Jefferson couldn’t haul in but perhaps a star of his caliber should’ve made that catch. Wentz did make several key completions including the 30-yard back shoulder throw to Justin Jefferson that helped set up Will Reichard’s field goal on the opening drive of the game.

Wentz also made key completions to Addison for 15 yards and T.J. Hockenson for 19 yards (on a great play call by O’Connell) on the critical final drive of 11 plays, 67 yards that wound up with Reichard’s third field goal, the six-point lead and killed 5:12 off the clock. The Bears burned all their timeouts and got the ball for their final drive with only one minute left.

3. There were so many Vikings heroes in the big win. On offense, Aaron Jones carried the load in the backfield with Jordan Mason on IR. Jones rushed 23 times for 105 yards, showed great vision in finding holes and following his blockers along with tremendous toughness in shaking off a vicious hit by Tyrique Stevenson that knocked Jones’ helmet off. Jones ran for 25 yards on the final drive and did a great job of staying inbounds to keep the clock running.

The offensive line and tight ends did an excellent job for the most part in run blocking (4.3 yards per carry, 119 rushing yards total) and were OK in pass protection (three sacks allowed as the Bears dialed up plenty of blitzes).

And of course Wentz as the QB not turning it over on a rainy day with a wet ball.

4. Defensive heroes were plentiful for the Vikings, starting with Turner who is on an All-Pro path if he continues his outstanding early season play (even if J.J. McCarthy doesn’t pan out, the Vikings and ex-GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah got the other first-rounder Turner right in the 2024 draft).

Andrew Van Ginkel was impactful as usual. He had one sack, three QB hits, and was chasing Williams on the play where the QB got hurt. Blake Cashman is off to a great start this season and he had 10 tackles and a sack. Ivan Pace made a big play in standing up D’Andre Swift before he fumbled when Jalen Redmond knocked the ball loose. Redmond had another fine game and Caleb Banks had more snaps (49%) as his role increases and he had six tackles.

The entire secondary was so much better than in Week 1 especially Byron Murphy who looked like his former Pro Bowl self with a nice interception and solid coverage. Isaiah Rodgers was a big play guy with his key goal-line fumble recovery, a near pick on the last drive, and his tremendous burst off the edge to block a field goal in the fourth quarter and hold the lead. Josh Metellus was better in coverage including breaking up the second-to-last play that went incomplete and he added seven tackles with some strong tackling.

5. Big day for special teams: besides the huge blocked field goal by Rodgers, Reichard was 3 for 3 on field goals (including a 49-yarder) on a bad field in the rain. Punter Brett Thorson did an excellent job holding and was terrific punting with a 49.5 yard average and he tilted field position in the third quarter with a 56 yarder after the goal line turnover that backed the Bears up to their own 13.  

6. After a season with the highest number of giveaways (30) and the third-worst turnover ratio (-9), the Vikings have only one giveaway in two games and a +3 turnover ratio to tie for the league lead. They also had fewer penalties than their opponent for the second straight game—3 for 25 yards vs. the Bears 8 for 58 yards.

7. There were just a few negatives on Sunday: 134 rushing yards allowed (including 56 yards on the opening drive of the third quarter that ended in the goal-line fumble) and only converting 3 of 13 on third down (but they did convert their only fourth down). The Vikings D held the Bears to 5 of 15 on third down and the Bears were 2 for 3 on fourth down. The punt cover unit did allow a 24 yard return by Kalif Raymond late in the second quarter but Van Ginkel sacked Williams to end the ensuing drive.

Bottom line: 2-0 for the Purple and going from the rain in Chicago to the heat in Tampa against a desperate Bucs team in what could be a trap game after two emotional wins in the division. But the return of Murray and the opportunity to go 3-0 against a Baker Mayfield led team struggling with a new offensive scheme should be enough to get the win with the Vikings defense riding high.

I’ll preview Vikings-Buccaneers on Friday.

Around the NFL Observations

1. There were several upsets on Sunday and the Packers were near victims before rallying from 10 points down to beat the Jets 20-17 on the road. Cincinnati upset Houston with the Bengals moving to 2-0 and the Texans off to a 0-2 start for a team expected to contend in the AFC.

The Browns knocking off the Bucs behind a rare good game from Deshaun Watson was a surprise as was New Orleans’ win in Baltimore. The Vikings are at the Saints in Week 5 in what looks like a tougher game than expected.

Kirk Cousins threw three TD passes as the now 2-0 Raiders upset the 0-2 Chargers in L.A. Jim Harbaugh says it’s not time to panic but he may change his tune if the Chargers are beaten by the hot Bills in Buffalo on Sunday.  

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