Vikings Learn the Expensive Lessons of Loss in Cheap Win Over Bears

The Vikings emerged from Sunday with a bargain: the ability to learn all the lessons that come with losing but still earning a W in the record books.

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Without star receiver Justin Jefferson, the Vikings nevertheless managed to eke out a must-win matchup against their rivals on the road, with a 19-13 win over the Chicago Bears.

That sounds a lot more heroic than what happened on the field. On a mistake-filled day, the Vikings had the ball finally bounce their way in the least likely of places – Soldier Field.

The Vikings were both the beneficiary and victim of bad calls by the referees but ultimately succeeded after the rookie backup quarterback rookie-backuped his way into an errant throw directly to Byron Murphy. Murphy held on to the ball better than any of the Vikings receivers managed to, at least until his fumble.

Strangely, at least for Minnesota, he recovered it.

The Vikings found a way to feel like they stumbled into a win despite dominating their matchup against the Bears from front to back. At one point, Minnesota had 58 of 55 net passing yards in the game – not a typo.

It might be that there was an underlying frustration with the way they played more than there was a reason to think they should have lost.

That feeling perfectly encapsulates the team; they inspire more confidence in their losses than they do in their wins. Every Vikings season is different, but it feels absolutely on brand that they would contain the opponent’s starting quarterback and struggle when the backup quarterback entered the game.

The Vikings inspire more confidence in their losses than they do in their wins.

It also evokes their struggles over the past several years against luminaries like Cooper Rush, Chase Daniel, Andy Dalton and Matt Moore. If one goes back far enough, that history includes Nick Foles.

It doesn’t matter that they succeeded against Dalton and Foles in subsequent games or that they put away Nathan Peterman, Brandon Allen and Mike White. They even prevented revenge wins from backup quarterbacks Teddy Bridgewater, Taylor Heinicke and Case Keenum.

Ultimately, there was a contingent of Vikings fans that, fairly or not, saw backup rookie quarterback Tyson Bagent enter the game for an injured Justin Fields and held their breath. Their fears were justified when he began marching towards the end zone.

Even after he threw a catastrophic interception, it felt as if the Vikings may have been the architects of their own demise in forcing him onto the field. That ultimately never happened, but it didn’t feel good.

The point is that the Vikings struggle when they shouldn’t. And, to make it more annoying, they succeed beyond their expectations when they aren’t supposed to have a chance.

This is entirely because the Vikings are a fundamentally good team from down to down that just makes stupid mistakes. There are examples in every game, but the quintessential moment for the Vikings in this game had to be the lateral back by Kirk Cousins to Cam Akers as Cousins was going to the ground.

There was no reason behind it and the Vikings by no means deserved to keep the ball. Luckily, the fumble was “recovered” by the Vikings insofar as the officials ruled it as having gone out of bounds despite the Bears recovering it.

This Vikings unit was not one that earned back those mistakes with consistent play; the repeated drops by the receiving corps limited their offensive output to a paltry 12 points against a defense ranked 30th in points allowed per game and 31st in EPA allowed per play.

In many of their losses, the Vikings outgained their opponents while losing the turnover battle. This time, the Bears outgained the Vikings on a per-play basis while the Vikings happened to win the turnover battle.

They’ll take the bad wins over the good losses, but they’ll have to be more consistent if they’re serious about pushing for the playoffs instead of merely maintaining the appearance of competitiveness.

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