Brian Murphy: Take a lesson from that close call, Vikings
You let an uninvited guest hang around the party long enough, they’re gonna drink too much, get handsy with the women and barf in the bean dip.
It took hazmat suits and a barrel of bleach, but the Vikings cleaned up their enabled mess just in time Sunday afternoon to kick the unruly Chicago Bears out of town for another timely victory.
Four and what?
That would be 4-1, sitting pretty atop the NFC North with three home divisional victories and a wide-open path to the playoffs. The Vikings’ record is immaculate, but it hardly is unblemished.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Fourth-quarter comebacks do not grow on trees, but the Vikes have plucked three of them in as many weeks. Granted, it was not the 1985 Bears they dispatched 29-22 at U.S. Bank Stadium. More like the 1925 Pottsville Maroons.
To be sure, the Double Doink in London last week saved them from an embarrassing loss to the undermanned Saints.
And Dan Campbell’s knuckle-dragging coaching in Week 3 doomed Detroit more than Minnesota.
No matter. Style points are for suckers.
The Vikings’ star players rose to the occasion in building a 21-3 lead that felt even more oppressive after they bagged touchdowns on their first three drives.
Quarterback Kirk Cousins completed a team-record 17 straight passes to start the game. Wide receiver Justin Jefferson had almost as many first-quarter catches and yards than the entire Chicago receiving unit. Bears quarterback Justin Fields looked like a scared freshman.
I almost felt sorry for the Bears getting bullied like that, wondering out loud when the playground monitors would step in.
Merciful dominators have the decency to walk an inferior opponent behind the barn and put ’em down. Instead, the Vikings made us all suffer high anxiety on what is supposed to be a day of rest.
Chicago scored 19 straight points out of nowhere to seize a one-point lead with less than 10 minutes remaining.
The Vikings bolted upright from their slumber and recaptured momentum. Cousins led an epic 17-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that converted five third downs and bled 7 minutes from the clock.
Cousins’ 1-yard refrigerator push into the end zone reclaimed the lead and punctuated a spectacular performance from everybody’s favorite pinata.
October has always been Cousins’ favorite and most successful month. Must be the pumpkin lattes he’s probably sneak-sipping in the garage.
But he came out locked in. Flawless until late in the second quarter and laser focused on involving Jefferson early and often.
Yeah, his early fourth-quarter interception set up the Bears’ go-ahead field goal. But Cousins did not check down and check out of a series of lifeless three-and-outs. We’ve all seen that movie.
He steadily guided them down the field and delivered like an elite quarterback should.
“Our team can handle a lot because our quarterback can handle a lot,” head coach Kevin O'Connell said after the game.
Somewhere in Kentucky, Mike Zimmer is chewing lightbulbs.
Meanwhile, wake me when Cousins is slinging in November. That month, more than any other, will challenge him and define this Vikings season.
A tough trip to gray Buffalo before home games against surging Dallas and relentless New England. Miami’s suddenly a mess on and off the field. The rest of the schedule is setting up nicely for Minnesota.
Now, about that mid-game nap Sunday?
The Bears were criminally negligent until Ryan Wright’s 15-yard tragedy of a punt in the final two minutes jolted them to life. Darnell Mooney’s one-handed circus catch set up a nourishing touchdown that kept Chicago relevant.
But the Bears tilted the field and surged in front, deadening a sellout crowd that kick-started the binge-drinking to the live broadcast of Green Bay’s demise in London.
It was as if the Twins and Vikings got together in a dive bar and shared how they liked to wrap their hands around their necks.
However, blowouts are an endangered species in NFL 2022. Every game is practically vacuum-packed on the scoreboard, demanding big time plays from big time players.
All this entertainment is also building scar tissue on the Vikings’ resiliency, which means they’ll be competing with house money when the stakes get higher and the weather gets nastier.
“Would we like to blow teams out? Yes,” said wide receiver Adam Thielen. “So we’ve got to find a way when we get in those positions, 21-3, that we just keep putting the foot on the gas pedal. But there will be some good learning.”
Just vet the guest list a little better.
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