CHICAGO – Justin Jefferson ambled in a circle around the 25-yard line at Soldier Field, tossing a ball to himself to keep busy and offering fist bumps to the teammates who would try to take his inimitable place in the Vikings offense. It was the first day of a strange new routine that will last for at least four weeks, because of the right hamstring injury that put Jefferson on injured reserve and forced the Vikings to do without him for the first time since that night in April 2020, when former General Manager Rick Spielman laughed to himself in disbelief the Eagles had left Jefferson available to the Vikings with the 22nd pick in the draft.
The Vikings offense is built for Jefferson, to fillet zone coverages with crossing routes and pluck balls over the top of cornerbacks in the rare moments he finds one-on-one matchups. Quarterback Kirk Cousins has thrown at least a quarter of his passes toward Jefferson each year of the receiver's career; before Sunday, Jefferson had 35.7% of Cousins' targeted air yards this season.
Outside the quarterback position, few players are as essential to their team's identity as Jefferson is to the Vikings. Their offense's disjointed performance in their first game without him made that point even clearer. Fortunately for the Vikings, that game was a 19-13 victory over a Bears team with even more infirmities.
They won for the fourth consecutive time at Soldier Field, a building where they had lost 10 of 12 from 2008 to 2019, because of a defense that doubled its takeaway total for the season and produced the winning score when linebacker Jordan Hicks returned a fumble 42 yards for a third-quarter touchdown. Safety Josh Metellus had stripped Bears backup quarterback Tyson Bagent, who came in after Danielle Hunter forced Justin Fields out of the game with a right hand injury that left him unable to grip the ball.
The 2-4 Vikings, who produced three takeaways and turned the ball over once, finished with a positive turnover margin for the first time this season. But they converted only two of their 13 attempts against a Bears defense that had been the NFL's worst on third downs, and picked up only two first downs in the second half. They ended the day with 220 yards, their lowest total in a victory since a Monday night win over the Bears in December 2021. The only time they have had fewer yards in a game under O'Connell was their 183 in a 40-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys last November.
"It's could have, should have," quarterback Kirk Cousins said. "We need to be much better on offense. It's probably a combination of things there, in the second half, especially. We want to get more going in the second half. But it does feel good to win on the road in the division."
In his postgame locker room speech that was recorded for the team's website, O'Connell gave out four game balls, all to defensive players. One went to Hicks, who also intercepted Fields before halftime when Hunter hit the quarterback's arm. Another went to Hunter, whose two sacks gave him the NFL lead with eight.
Metellus got one, for his strip sack that came on a six-man pressure where running back Darrynton Evans' missed block helped nose tackle Harrison Phillips flush Bagent toward the blitzing safety. And cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. got the last one, for his fourth-quarter interception that sealed the game following another six-man pressure where D.J. Wonnum hit Bagent as he threw.
"'Flo' [defensive coordinator Brian Flores] has always got a great plan," Hicks said. "He called it great, getting them to third down and making the plays they gave to us. There were opportunities out there. Every week, there's been opportunities, and we haven't capitalized on the plays. That went into the message we focused on this week, and we were able to do it."
With the score tied 6-6 late in the second quarter, the Bears had a chance to take the lead when linebacker T.J. Edwards overpowered Alexander Mattison's block and hit Cousins' arm as he threw, forcing a fumble that linebacker Tremaine Edmunds recovered at the Vikings' 35. But Hicks' interception of Fields three plays later gave the Vikings a chance to score before halftime, and Cousins hit Jordan Addison for a 10-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone with 12 seconds remaining. They led 12-6 after Greg Joseph's extra-point attempt was blocked.
The Vikings went three-and-out to start the third quarter, and punted after picking up one of their two second-half first downs on their second drive. But the Bears pulled Fields from the game, because of an injury he had sustained while trying to get away from Hunter on his second sack. Metellus stripped Bagent on his third play, and Hicks' touchdown put the Vikings up 19-6.
But for the turnovers, the Vikings might have lost to a Bears team that ranked 30th in the league in points allowed and 31st in passing yards allowed before Sunday. The 1-5 Bears, who had blitzed only 20.1% of the time before Sunday, got to Cousins with a handful of pressures that O'Connell attributed to a "revolving door of missed assignments from some of our more reliable players."
Drops plagued the Vikings again, perhaps none more significant than the 35-yard second-quarter pass that Addison said he should have caught as he made a diving attempt. And the Vikings ran 21 times for only 52 yards, not counting the Cousins kneel-down at the end of the game that lost 6 yards as he ran out the clock.
"I felt like they did a good job in coverage. I felt like they did a good job with their movement," Cousins said. "We would have a positive play, get to a manageable down and distance and then we'd have a negative play, whether it was a penalty or go backwards a little bit, and now we sort of shot ourselves in the foot to be able to extend the drive."
For the second time this year, though, they celebrated a road victory over a last-place team. Amid the postgame commotion, Jefferson tucked himself deep into his locker, scrolling through his phone and pausing periodically to chat with teammates.
It will be how the Vikings have to live for at least three more games, starting next Monday at home against the 5-1 49ers. On Sunday, they coaxed a victory out of their first day without their star.
"Happy to win," Cousins said. "I'll sleep better tonight knowing that we won."
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