Vikings need OT to beat Bears after giving up 11 points in final 22 seconds of fourth quarter

CHICAGO – Kevin O’Connell entered the visiting team’s interview room at Soldier Field after the Vikings’ 30-27 overtime win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday, placing his right hand on a rail as he climbed up three steps to the podium where he would conduct his postgame news conference.

“Par for the course,” the coach muttered as the handrail wobbled and nearly gave out on him. Fifteen minutes later, O’Connell told senior communications director Jon Ekstrom to warn Sam Darnold — the next speaker at the podium — about the handrail, lest the quarterback stumble and further aggravate the ankle injury he suffered in the fourth quarter.

O’Connell is the sixth Vikings head coach this century; his five predecessors had met so many downfalls, of so many varieties, that any student of the Vikings’ 21st century history in Chicago might have expected the handrail to crumble on him.

Dennis Green’s last team pitched a shutout for 39 minutes in 2001, then gave up 17 points in a loss that dropped the Vikings to 0-2.

Mike Tice never won here; Brad Childress’ best team lost a shot at home-field advantage in 2009 after a Monday night overtime loss that highlighted his dissonance with Brett Favre.

Leslie Frazier lamented not stepping in to change Alan Williams’ defensive call before Jay Cutler hit Martellus Bennett for a touchdown with 10 seconds left in 2013, as players seethed in the locker room over the first of five last-minute losses that year.

Mike Zimmer lost his first game here because of a malfunctioning game clock that led Teddy Bridgewater to believe he had time for only one desperation pass with 1:58 left in 2014; by the time Zimmer was done, he had seen Norv Turner quit following a Monday night loss in 2016 and Stefon Diggs leave the team after a six-point showing in 2019.

Zimmer and O’Connell combined to lead Vikings teams to four straight wins at Soldier Field before Sunday. The trend strained so mightily against the Vikings’ fraught history, the 11 points the Bears scored in 22 seconds to force overtime Sunday seemed almost ordained by fate.

“You’re on the road in the NFC North and momentum is not just lost, it’s completely lost,” O’Connell said of the Bears’ drive for Cairo Santos’ game-tying 48-yard field goal after they recovered an onside kick following a touchdown and two-point conversion. “There are many groups that might not respond that way.”

The word “respond” is a cornerstone of O’Connell’s messaging to his players, meant to evoke a level of composure the coach believes teams must have to prevail in the tense moments of high-stakes games. The Vikings have been undone by a lack of it in the past at Soldier Field, and it appeared they could be again Sunday after Bears quarterback Caleb Williams directed three scoring drives that forced overtime in a game the Vikings once led 24-10.

But the Vikings escaped with their fifth consecutive victory at Soldier Field because they steadied themselves in a game that demanded all of their grit.

Jonathan Greenard pulled Williams down for a 12-yard loss, after two Bears blockers released when Williams scrambled right, for a sack that forced Chicago to punt on the first possession of overtime. Then, after Darnold checked out of a play and Montez Sweat took him down for a sack that put the Vikings in a second-and-17 from their own 14-yard line, the quarterback hit T.J. Hockenson for 7 yards and Jordan Addison for 13, throwing for a total of 90 yards on a drive that set up Parker Romo’s 29-yard game-winner.

Darnold finished the day with 330 yards passing, more than any Vikings quarterback at Soldier Field since Jeff George in 1999. He left for two plays after twisting his ankle while scrambling away from Gervon Dexter Sr. with 6:39 left in regulation, but he returned after Nick Mullens directed two first downs in two plays.

Once Darnold returned to the game, O’Connell asked him over his headset to confirm whether his foot was better than a 6 on a scale of 1-10. Darnold flashed a thumbs up. The coach asked whether it was better than an 8; Darnold gave him another thumbs up.

“And then he said, ‘Stop asking,’” O’Connell said.

The quarterback found Addison for 9 yards with a pass rusher in his face, then hit Hockenson for 34 on a third-and-12, after a Brandon Powell offensive pass interference penalty nullified a touchdown throw to Justin Jefferson. The Vikings kicked a field goal that it turned out they would need in the final outcome.

“Show me somebody that had a better game at the quarterback position,” O’Connell said. “Maybe the guy on the other sideline, to be honest. He played his tail off.

“But that kind of game, on the road in the NFC North where at any point in time there could have been a moment where we gave up the lead [and said], ‘Maybe today is not our day.’ Not only Sam, but our whole team. These guys are a really, really tough group. They’re so totally connected and just relentless.”

Indeed, the Vikings had to sweat because of Williams, the No. 1 overall pick whose bid to beat an NFC North rival at home fell short because of a field goal for the second straight week. Williams finished with 340 yards on 32-for-47 passing, threading a 40-yarder to Keenan Allen just beyond Andrew Van Ginkel’s outstretched dive and rolling away from Van Ginkel before lofting a 30-yard pass for D’Andre Swift between two defenders before Blake Cashman could hit him.

On a fourth-and-4 in the fourth quarter, Williams dodged Dallas Turner, leaped over a pile and scrambled 7 yards for a first down, two plays before hitting D.J. Moore for a 10-yard touchdown pass that pulled Chicago to within eight.

“We knew he’s that type of quarterback to make you have to cover longer than you normally do,” Vikings safety Camryn Bynum said. “The pocket is always going to be moving with him, and he’s going to try and get out the pocket. And he’s getting out there to throw the ball. So he’s not like just a typical scramble-to-run guy. He’s scrambling looking downfield. So that makes it a challenge for sure.”

It appeared for much of the second half as if the Vikings would leave Soldier Field comfortably. They had blocked Santos’ first field-goal try, a play after O’Connell successfully challenged an Allen catch, and took a 14-7 lead on the ensuing drive. Bo Richter recovered a muffed DeAndre Carter punt at the Bears 15, and Aaron Jones (who joined Dalvin Cook as the only running back with multiple 100-yard games under O’Connell) became the first Vikings running back with a second-half rushing touchdown in 27 games. The score made it 24-10 with 1:26 left in the third quarter, and the Vikings’ field goal on the drive in which Darnold was injured made it 27-16.

But Carter returned the ensuing kickoff to the Vikings 40, and Williams hit Allen for a 1-yard score and found Moore for a two-point conversion to make it 27-24. Santos’ onside kick hit Johnny Mundt’s foot, Williams hit Moore for 27 yards after the Bears recovered, and Santos connected from 48 to tie it up.

The Bears won the toss, and Bynum was so busy covering downfield that he didn’t see Greenard sack Williams 10 seconds after Coleman Shelton snapped him the ball in overtime.

“I was just praying and thanking the Lord,” Bynum said of the sack.

After Darnold hit Addison for the third-down conversion in overtime, he had to switch helmets when his headset stopped working. “It just went out,” he said. “I’m not sure exactly what happened.”

For the Vikings at Soldier Field, par for the course. Winning this kind of game was not.

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