CHICAGO – The Vikings' 2018 loss to the Bears at Soldier Field — a game in which Kirk Cousins committed two of the team's three turnovers after the Vikings ran the ball only 14 times for 22 yards — was the kind of defeat their latest offensive overhaul was designed to fix.
They rebuilt their offense around a prominent running game designed to take some of the load off Cousins and help put their star-studded defense in better situations. They invested their top three picks on offensive players, signed guard Josh Kline and brought in Gary Kubiak to help Kevin Stefanski orchestrate the whole thing.
But on Sunday, when the Bears played without six starters, the most alarming thing about the Vikings' 16-6 loss was how similar it all felt.
Spared from facing Pro Bowl defensive tackle Akiem Hicks and linebacker Roquan Smith, the Vikings could this time run for only 40 yards on 16 carries. Given a reprieve from Mitchell Trubisky's scrambling ability when a left shoulder injury forced the quarterback from the game in the first series, the Vikings let backup Chase Daniel work from clean pockets. Cousins and Stefon Diggs each lost a fumble, and the Vikings — who'd held the ball for only 25 minutes, 31 seconds in Chicago last November — possessed it for only 24:31 on Sunday.
For the second consecutive year, the Vikings will have to look to Detroit for their final opportunity to win a division game on the road. They are 2-2, a game behind the two division foes who've already beaten them, and after running for 581 yards in the first three weeks of the season, they looked again like a team in search of an offensive identity on Sunday.
"I think that's probably the most frustrating thing — we knew that was going to happen at some point," wide receiver Adam Thielen said. "At some point, you're not going to be able to run the ball for 180 yards, even with the best running back in the NFL. That's when you have to be able to throw the ball. You have to be able to make plays. You have to be able to hit the deep balls. You have to do that, because otherwise, it's too easy for teams to just tee off and rush the quarterback. We have to be able to run the ball and pass the ball. In this league, you can't be one-dimensional. It's just too easy to defend."
Before a fourth-quarter drive that netted 92 yards — and required the Vikings to go 109 in 13 plays, while overcoming 17 yards of penalties — they had posted only 95 yards in the game's first 53 minutes.
Cousins, who overthrew Thielen on what would have been a touchdown in the first quarter, had only 49 yards in the first half, as the Vikings fell behind 10-0 at halftime. The quarterback was sacked six times, losing one of his two fumbles, and completed three more passes to his running backs (12) than to Diggs and Thielen.