Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell and Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson have been in the exact following scenario dozens of times throughout their NFL coaching careers:
Your team is trailing by a one-score margin in the fourth quarter. There's not much time remaining, and the result of the final drive could propel the team one step closer or further away from playoff contention.
On Sunday, both O'Connell and Johnson found themselves in that situation at U.S. Bank Stadium, and each coach experienced similar feelings within the game's final minute. With Minnesota trailing 16-10, QB J.J. McCarthy capped a 10-play, 85-yard drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Addison. The score not only gave the Vikings a 17-16 advantage with 50 seconds remaining, it also helped Minnesota turn a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit into a late lead for the second time this season, with both instances coming against Johnson and the Bears.
Unfortunately for the Vikings, the late-game rally similar to the one that earned Minnesota its 27-24 victory in Week 1 at Chicago couldn't be sustained. Devin Duvernay took the ensuing kickoff 56 yards to the Vikings 40-yard line, setting up a 48-yard game-winning field goal by Cairo Santos as time expired to seal a 19-17 Bears victory.
While Sunday's game marked the 200th of Harrison Smith’s career in purple and the 130th overall meeting between the Vikings and Bears, it was the 70th time the two NFC North foes had a contest be decided by a one-score margin. Of those 70 instances, the Vikings have been held to 17 points or fewer 29 times, including O'Connell's only other loss to Chicago as Minnesota's head coach in 2023 (a 12-10 final at U.S. Bank Stadium that also featured a game-winning kick by Santos).
The come-from-behind win for Chicago (7-3) was its fifth this season when trailing in the final two minutes of regulation, which is tied for the most such victories in a season since the merger in 1970 (joining the 2011 Broncos and the 2016 Lions), per NFL Research. Johnson also became just the third overall first-year head coach since 2020 to win at least seven of his first 10 games at the helm while owning a negative point differential. This season's Bears team (minus-6 point differential through Week 11) joins O'Connell's 2022 Vikings squad (Minnesota started 8-2 with a minus-2 point differential) and Kevin Stefanski's 2020 group in Cleveland (Browns started 7-3 with a minus-21 point differential).
The loss not only moved Minnesota to 4-6 on the season and 1-4 at home, it also caused the Vikings to fall back in this week's Power Rankings, with the biggest drop being six spots. Here's a look at where the Vikings landed heading into Week 12:
No. 21 (down 1 spot): Eric Edholm, NFL.com
What do you take away from J.J. McCarthy's performance against the Bears? Similar to his first outing vs. Chicago, McCarthy was pretty bad for three quarters and pretty darned good late. I tend to defer to the larger sample size, as well as the final result. Unlike in Week 1, the Vikings lost this game, and they were trailing 16-3 entering the fourth quarter – with McCarthy's play being a big reason for that deficit, even if a slew of dropped passes weighed heavily, too. The frustrations were tangible leading up to the drive that briefly gave Minnesota a lead in the final minute, and it's hard to imagine this passing game just clicking all of a sudden. It feels like the Vikings are on the brink, sitting at 4-6 with a 1-4 mark at U.S. Bank Stadium, and four of the next five games are on the road. The rest of the season should be completely focused on giving McCarthy as much room for development as possible.
No. 20 (down 2 spots): Kris Knox, Bleacher Report
Just when it felt like the Minnesota Vikings might steal one and get back to .500, a special teams letdown let the Chicago Bears off the hook.
Minnesota scored a go-ahead touchdown with less than a minute remaining and still lost, something that playoff-caliber teams rarely do. Right now, though, the Vikings don't look anything like a postseason contender.
They are capable of beating good teams, something they did in Week 9. However, an average defense and the up-and-down play of J.J. McCarthy have made it difficult for Minnesota to win with any consistency.
No. 21 (down 6 spots): Pete Prisco, CBS Sports
J.J. McCarthy isn't good enough right now, and it's why [the Vikings] probably won't make the playoffs.
No. 20 (down 1 spot): Nate Davis, USA Today
A team with a sputtering offense and a shaky quarterback is charged with getting back on track at Lambeau and Lumen Fields over the next two weeks. Yikes.
No. 21 (down 1 spot): Josh Kendall, The Athletic
In the first three quarters of games, [J.J. McCarthy] is 37th in the league in EPA per dropback (minus-0.43). In the fourth quarter, he's a more respectable 27th (0.05). Fourteen of the Vikings 17 points Sunday came in the fourth quarter, but that still wasn't enough to beat the Bears.
No. 22 (down 4 spots): Conor Orr, Sports Illustrated
I tend to side with longtime Vikings sage Kevin Seifert, who dug out these three nuggets on J.J. McCarthy after Sunday's loss: McCarthy faced season-high pressure but had a season-low snap to throw time and a season-low (zero) in sacks. The Vikings drafted a long-term project and opted to expedite it despite having the perfect bridge solution in the building. Sticking with it is on them.
No. 21 (down 1 spot): Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News
The Vikings had a bad performance from J.J. McCarthy for three quarters for a second time against the Bears. However, the lack of polish is concerning.
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