SKOL from the Sofa

2024 Week 15 – Bears at Vikings

Providing this week’s edition of Skol from the Sofa is fan club member Jonathan Pye, who’s warning fans not to get overexcited by our Monday night win over the Bears and our 12-2 record.

Nothing spectacular but a thoroughly professional outing.

We learnt many things on Monday night, but unfortunately, not many of them were good. We didn’t beat the Bears, the Bears beat themselves by firing head coach Matt Eberflus after the Thanksgiving debacle against the Lions. Against better teams, we would have been punished. This game should be a warning to those who think we are a serious team and have a chance of getting to the big game or even winning it.

Sam the Man?

Playcalling on offense was atrocious. We were far too pass dependent, especially if Sam Darnold’s finger is dinged up. The ball was coming out funny on Monday; for example, in the first quarter, he overthrew Jefferson down the middle, which is where it stood out the most. Additionally, Darnold hit the helmet of opposing defenders on throws on multiple occasions and was fortunate not to be picked off on a couple of occasions, especially on the brilliant attempt by Kyler Gordon. Jones was carrying it at nearly 5 yards a pop; why not lean on the run game more?

This game was an example, injured or not, why we absolutely shouldn’t sign Darnold to an extension – it should be one and done. Even this year, when he’s had a career year, he’s had three stinkers, and because he’s only on $10 million AAV, the roster is good enough to cover for his deficiencies. We were fortunate his bad games have been against three of the worst teams in the league: the Jets, the Jaguars and the Bears.

The case for the defense

The defense was the shining light on Monday, although we gave up a garbage time touchdown after the blocked punt and the Bears shot themselves in the foot with their backup center not reporting as eligible, leading to their touchdown coming off the board at 13-0. The Vikings were fortunate no team in the playoffs would ever make that mistake of not even trying to report. That shows you how badly the Bears are coached.

Having said all of that, the Vikings did well to come back and force a field goal that woke up the team to eventually put the nail in the coffin. The defence was putting Caleb Williams under pressure or confusing him into submission, and while he had some screen plays that we couldn’t defend for the life of us, it was a solid outing to only concede a touchdown in garbage time. It was great to see Dallas Turner on the field more; he is clearly a far better pass rusher than Pat Jones man-on-man without stunts and is crucial to us having a deep run in the playoffs.

Not so special teams

The special teams unit was an absolute farce. How Sherfield didn’t block the punt one doesn’t know! It was actually harder not to block the punt and then run into the kicker. That play gave the Bears another chance to drive the field, and while it didn’t hurt us this week, it will do going into the last three games in December and the playoffs. Additionally, Ty Chandler whiffing on the block on the punt with 7 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter was absolutely criminal. It was 4th and 16, down by 21, what else were the Bears going to do other than send the house and try to block the punt. These are mistakes that can’t be made in the playoffs.

Where does it all end?

We were not at our best. We shot ourselves in the foot but remained professional. While my expectations are low for the playoffs, hope always remains. Realistically, unless we pivot more to running the ball (amongst other things), it would be a success for us merely to get out of the wild card round in what was deemed a rebuilding year. On Monday night, we saw why the Vikings were only predicted to win 6.5 games this season. Nevertheless, the Vikings are 12-2 and for this we can only praise the coaching staff. This time last year, we lost to the Bears with a backup quarterback on a Monday night; this year, with our bridge QB, we blew them out. Kevin O’Connell has done the best job of coaches this year in the league and should be the Coach of the Year.

Do you agree with Jonathan? Are the Vikings flattering to deceive? Or will we do the impossible this year? If you’d like to write a future SKOL from the Sofa article, drop us an email at UKVikingsFanClub@gmail.com or send a DM to any of our social accounts.