Vikings Finally Beat Bears 19-13

Kirk Cousins defied all logic on Monday Night Football by winning a game. All signs pointed to a loss tonight, Cousins was 0-9 on Monday Night Football, 0-5 against the Bears, and even the pre-game show announcers tried to jinx us by all picking the Vikings. But he did it, and he looked pretty good in doing it. Although the game stayed close throughout, Cousins made the plays he needed to in order to lead the Vikings to a win.

To start, the defense also looked fantastic tonight, for the first time since 2006 the Vikings held a team under 150 total yards of offense. It was also the first time this season they held a team under 20 points. Even thought it was the Bears and their terrible offense, it was still really encouraging to see all of the plays they made. Harrison Smith continues to look like an all star safety, Eric Kendricks is playing at an elite level, and rookies are stepping up around the field. Jeff Gladney made a couple of nice tackles, including one for a loss on Allen Robinson. D.J. Wonnum was around Nick Foles causing problems on every play, along with one of my personal favorite players Hercules Mata'afa. I can't wait to see what this defense can do when they get players like Danielle Hunter and Anthony Barr back.

Dalvin Cook is still really good at football, but he definitely has his struggles against the Bears. They always seem to have his number, but he still managed over 100 yards of total offense. Although an 100 yard game doesn't seem impressive compared to what he has done the last couple weeks, but even a down game was a success for him. There really just didn't seem to be a lot of holes for him to run through, as the Bears really sold out on holding him down for the game. His longest run of the game got called back for a holding penalty, but he still did his job.

Cousins played really well in my opinion, and his interception definitely was not his fault. He threw the ball more times in this game than he did in the previous two combined, but I was happy to see him lead this team to a win when Cook isn't dominant. He finished the game with 25 completions for 292 yards and 2 touchdowns, which is a successful game. He hit seven different targets, but leaned on Kyle Rudolph, Adam Thielen, and especially Justin Jefferson. Jefferson is so fun to watch, he racked up 8 catches for 135 yards and provided that big play spark we needed. Thielen had 4 receptions for 43 yards, but reeled in both of Cousins touchdown passes. Although Thielen's bobble in the first half led to an interception, I still thought he played well. Rudolph finished with 4 catches for 63 yards, but the timing of his catches were huge. He converted a long first down for 22 yards at one point, and had a huge first down catch in the final two minutes of the game. Overall it was great to see the passing game take a step up from the last two games, and I'm excited to see if they can develop that deep shot connection that would really work when Cook is having big games.

I was terrified going into this game and fully expected to lose. When we gave the ball back to the Bears with 45 seconds left I was still nervous because I'm a Vikings fan and got flashbacks the Seahawks game early this year. But I was happy they pulled it off for their third straight win. The win thing that truly needs fixing at this point is the special teams. Why are they so awful? In the last two weeks they have had two punts blocked, two missed extra points because of bad snaps, and allowed an almost crushing kick return touchdown during this game. I have also noticed that our punt coverage is awful, receiving and kicking. K.J. Osborn hasn't had a chance to really return punts yet this season because by the time he catches the ball there is already two players there ready to tackle him. Kicking punts is the opposite and I don't see any defenders within 15 yards of the opposing returner. I thought the special teams issues would cost us this game, but I am very happy they did not.

Sitting at 4-5 is a weird spot for the Vikings. If they truly want to make a run at the playoffs they need to win some important games. We need to beat the teams we are supposed to beat, like the Cowboys, Jaguars, and Lions. Between the other games against the Panthers, Bucs, Bears, and Saints I would think we would need to win at least two of those three to have a realistic shot. Even then an 10-6 record would have some competition for a wild card spot with the entire NFC West being playoff contenders. Although it is possible, the Vikings need to play some really good football in the coming weeks.

As always, with cautious optimism, skol Vikings.