The Vikings had bungled the recovery of an onside kick, the Bears had scored 11 points in the final two minutes and the fans who had remained at Soldier Field tried making enough noise for the ones who tried in vain to re-enter the stadium after leaving early.
Vikings savor a successful 3 weeks of travel and embrace this: Next stop, U.S. Bank Stadium
The Soldier Field scenario deteriorated suddenly Sunday, but the Vikings survived and now stand 6-1 in away games.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
November 26, 2024 at 1:03AM
Sam Darnold had backed into Montez Sweat for a sack on the Vikings’ first play of overtime, and the Vikings faced a second-and-17 from their own 14. The decibel levels at Soldier Field rose as the Vikings’ win probability dropped from 57% to 43%; without a pair of completions on the next two plays, the Vikings would risk giving the ball back to the Bears with good field position in a sudden-death situation.
“You’re kind of in the hornet’s nest at that point, dealing with being on the road in the NFC North, and you’ve just lost momentum completely,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said Monday.
T.J. Hockenson wrested a second-down completion away from linebacker T.J. Edwards, and after a Bears timeout, Darnold found Jordan Addison off a short motion for a 13-yard completion on third-and-10. A false-start penalty on Johnny Mundt made it first-and-15, but Darnold hit Justin Jefferson for 20 yards to the Vikings 49-yard line.
After that conversion, yet another penalty: holding called on Blake Brandel made it first-and-20. Darnold hit Aaron Jones for 9 yards and Hockenson for 12. Two plays after a 29-yard strike to Hockenson, the Vikings lined up for Parker Romo’s game-winning 29-yarder.
“Our guys just kept playing. The execution was there,” O’Connell said. “We were playing really without our starting left tackle for the game, for the better part of it, against a good defense. I just thought guys stepped up across the board.”
O’Connell has been able to recount road games in sunny terms more frequently than any coach in recent Vikings history. After acing a three-game road trip with wins at Jacksonville, Tennessee and Chicago, the Vikings have a 5-1 road record this season, tied for second best in the league with the Chiefs and Eagles. Throw in the Vikings’ London victory against the Jets, and they’ve won six times in seven games away from U.S. Bank Stadium this year.
Only the Lions, who are 6-0 on the road and handed the Vikings their only defeat of the year at U.S. Bank Stadium, have been better on the road than the Vikings.
Since O’Connell took over for Mike Zimmer, the Vikings are 15-8 on the road, tied with the Ravens for the fourth-best mark in the league since 2022. They’d gone 35-37-1 on the road under Zimmer, the 13th-best mark in the NFL during the coach’s eight seasons.
Only 17 seasons in Vikings history include at least five road wins. Bud Grant had eight of them, Dennis Green had three, Mike Zimmer had two and Norm Van Brocklin had one. Jerry Burns and Brad Childress, who each coached in NFC Championship Games, never had seasons with five wins on the road.
O’Connell already has three in three years, tied with Green for the second most in team history.
“Although sometimes you’re going to run into some circumstances, where maybe the presnap execution or things aren’t what you want when you throw noise and just a different environment into the mix,” O’Connell said, “we’ve tried to build a system that can travel and can play.”
Quick passes and rhythmic completions can dull the edge of a hostile crowd. An improved running game has helped this year, O’Connell said; Jones had his second 100-yard game of the season Sunday.
“I think the ability to use tempo is always a nice mix, especially you get a little later on in the game,” the coach said. “Depending on what the defensive personnel, whether it’s a team that’s got a real strong pass rush or strong coverages or a match program to Justin [Jefferson], sometimes that added element of tempo allows us to alleviate some of that while still having a good chunk of our offense at our disposal. Then I think it’s just a constant layer of getting drives going and getting some significant gains without going backwards.”
That’s where the Vikings struggled at times Sunday. Jones lost the ball at the Bears 1 after he was stripped by former teammate Jonathan Owens, costing the Vikings an early chance to take the lead and neutralize the crowd. After Jordan Addison’s 69-yard catch brought the Vikings to the Bears 8 in the third quarter, they turned to Romo for a 40-yard field goal after a missed assignment led to a 5-yard loss on a Jones run and Darnold was sacked on second down. Brandon Powell’s offensive pass interference penalty nullified a 40-yard touchdown to Jefferson that would have restored a two-TD lead in the fourth quarter; Darnold had to throw for 90 yards on the overtime drive to overcome the sack he took while hunting a big play and two penalties.
But the quarterback finished his first 300-yard game of the season with his work on the overtime drive. On the road this season, he has a 68% completion rate, is averaging 256.7 yards per game and has posted a 102.9 passer rating, while being sacked less frequently than at U.S. Bank Stadium.
“He just stays right here,” guard Dalton Risner said, holding his hand out flat. “He doesn’t go up here, or down here. He just says, ‘Fellas, let’s roll. Let’s go get this first down. Let’s go get this game.’ It’s fun playing for him. He’s a dog.”
Darnold helped the Vikings ace their three-game road trip. They’ll face the Cardinals in a possible playoff preview, returning to U.S. Bank Stadium with a 9-2 record because of what they did away from home.
“When they hit the field they’re going to be jacked to be back in front of our fans,” O’Connell said. “We know it’ll be an unbelievable atmosphere. We’ve got to give them something to be excited about.”
The sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft, Daniel Jones was waived by the Giants last week and became a free agent Monday after he and his $160 million contract cleared waivers.
