First Jefferson-less test was a struggle for Vikings offense in Chicago
CHICAGO — In a game played right after Friday the 13th, the Minnesota Vikings’ offensive stats from Sunday’s game look like they came right out of a horror movie.
They went 2-for-13 on third down, gained 220 total yards, averaged a shade over two yards per rush, held the ball for under 25 minutes and gave the ball away on a strip sack. In a world where passing the ball has never been easier and against a team that ranked second in passing yards allowed and gave up 388 passing yards to Sam Howell last week, the Vikings did not see a receiver gain more than 50 yards receiving in the absence of Justin Jefferson.
Somehow they still came away with a 19-13 win over the Bears but did not pass the first test of being without Jefferson or inspire confidence in the process that they can overcome missing him as they go into critical games against the San Francisco 49ers and Packers.
Going into the game the Vikings were aware that they were going to see a different style of defense than they have for the past three years as Jefferson brought double teams galore to his side of the field. Still they were not able to consistently counter Chicago’s approach, which seemed to dare their weapons to beat man-to-man coverage.
“The way they tried to play us, a lot of one-on-ones, trying to generate -- play some man coverage. They got healthy today in their secondary and were confident to play some man,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said.
“We got more single high than probably what we're accustomed to against those guys, but clearly a willingness to send some pressures, DB pressures, different linebacker pressures,” O’Connell added.
There were occasional successes, like a 15-yard pass on the first drive to Jordan Addison and a two minute-drive that featured a 21-yard reception by TJ Hockenson and finished with a TD pass in the back of the end zone. But the last drive of the first half did not carry over as the Vikings sputtered to only two first downs in the second half.
The Vikings’ head coach said he was happy with Kirk Cousins’ performance and pointed to close calls that could have made his day look much different. There was a bomb that rookie Jordan Addison couldn’t could bring in, another drop by Hockenson and a throw to the sideline that was a few inches too far for KJ Osborn to pull in.
“When Kirk played the way he did today, should have been a lot more out there,” O’Connell said.
The theme of the first five games, even when they win, seems to be that they were close but not quite good enough. At some point claims that it’s a game of inches grow stale. That point may have been watching all the different ways the Vikings failed to convert on drives, whether it was a 2-yard loss by Alexander Mattison on a second down run that set up third-and-12 on the second drive of the game or a sack after picking up a first down on the third drive that put them in a second-and-19 situation or a fumble on the fourth drive or delay of game penalty on the sixth drive that forced them into third-and-14 at their own goal line.
“We didn't string plays together,” Cousins said. “There were some third downs, there was tight man coverage, and we just couldn't seem to throw, make the catch, make the play, and then other times we just had some really long yardage where we were checking down underneath, and it was hard to get to the sticks.”
At the center of the struggles was the running game, which produced a longest run of eight yards on 22 total attempts. Mattison saw 18 carries, while recently-acquired Cam Akers ran just once.
O’Connell seemed to indicate that blocking the Bears, whose lone strong point as a defense this year has been their play against the run, was the main issue.
“Thought we got some good looks out of our scout team in practice, but that did not translate to our ability to be effective against those things today, and you give them credit,” O’Connell said. “I thought they were physical and thought they did a nice job tackling for the most part on the day. Even though Alex ran really hard, Cam got in there and did some good things. Just didn't see the space in there that we've kind of been able to generate over the last couple weeks.”
The Vikings have two games over 100 yards rushing and have averaged 2.4, 3.1, 3.2 and 2.1 yards per attempt in the other contests.
If Sunday’s performance was a one-off strange incident at Soldier Field from a team whose offense has been humming then the takeaway would have been that it was a survive-and-advance game and onto the next one. But after Sunday’s result they have as many touchdowns this season as the Bears and sit at just 25-for-73 on the season on third down.
Now they get set to face the 49ers’ elite defense with their only identity this year being inconsistency. They will have an extra day to identify and fix issues but the problems seem to be a moving target. Is it scheme and play calling? Dropped passes by the expensive tight end? Blocking? Trusting Mattison too much? Timing with the quarterback?
Whatever it is — and maybe it’s all those things — the Vikings have no room to spare for more games like this offensively.
“We're going to continue to press forward,” O’Connell said. “Got a lot of confidence in our pass game. We'll detail it up. I'll give those guys some better calls, and hopefully we'll improve rapidly because that's my expectation with that group.”
