Vikings lean on run game for ‘grimy’ 30-12 win over the Bears, join crowd in first place in NFC

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 his 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.

The Vikings have kept the approach more at the forefront of their offense than they did the past two years, 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 Lions and Eagles for the best record in the NFC and keeping their chances of home-field advantage for the playoffs 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 1-yard TD that put the Vikings up by 17 in the third quarter. Cam Akers added another 1-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 that set up Akers’ touchdown).

“I think that’s how you get to this point in the season, you win different ways,” O’Connell said. “They’re not always pretty. To look up and win this football game 30-to-12, it kind of felt grimy at times tonight, just with their ability to make some plays defensively and then with our penalties. So there’s a lot to clean up. As a coach of a 12-and-2 football team, you love that, because there’s a lot of things to go back to work on.”

Darnold threw his first interception since Nov. 10 and finished 24-for-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 in an overtime loss to 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 Greenard’s strip sack. They 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 7-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter was about as effortless as last week’s wide-open 52-yarder against the 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, 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.

Though the Vikings forced a fourth-down stop on the ensuing drive, they had to settle for a Will Reichard field goal before halftime, when Chris Williamson sacked Darnold on first down to put the Vikings behind the sticks. They punted on their first two possessions of the second half, then the Bears appeared to pull within a touchdown after D’Andre Swift scored from a yard out.

But the play was called back after backup center Doug Kramer Jr. lined up at fullback without reporting as an eligible receiver, and the Vikings held the Bears to a field goal to lead 13-3. The Vikings drove 72 yards in 12 plays on the next drive; Jones carried six times for 38 yards, including a 14-yard run after Darnold overthrew Jefferson on first down. The Vikings finished the drive in uncharacteristically blunt fashion, with Jones scoring from a yard out with Johnny Mundt pulling to join blocks from C.J. Ham and Trent Sherfield Sr.

The score made it 20-3, and the Vikings went back to the same play from the goal line on their next series. It was Akers who scored this time, putting the Vikings up 27-6 with 5:19 to play.

“It was the same play, twice in a row,” right tackle Brian O’Neill said. “We had a play on the goal line against the Falcons — it was the [Wildcat snap to Jones] where they said Sam [Darnold] wasn’t set — and we wanted that one to hit. We knew if we got down to the 1-yard line we needed to be able to punch in this week. So it was good to see that growth.

“I think the old saying is, you throw to score and you run to win. And we certainly like running it in when we’re on the 5-yard line and in. So I appreciate [O’Connell] giving us the opps to do it. And we got to make them count whenever we get them.”

The rest of their opportunities will come against teams with winning records, and then they’ll head to the playoffs, where intensity rises as open space constricts. In other words, they won’t see a team in the Bears’ state again.

The Vikings pulled away from Chicago on Monday night in a fashion they might need to replicate at least once more, however long they’ll play this season.

“The great teams in this league are going to play their best football towards the end of this month and on into the next,” O’Connell said. “We want to be one of those teams, but we know we’re going to have to go earn every single thing.”

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