MINNEAPOLIS — WHO: Minnesota Vikings vs. Chicago Bears
WHEN: Monday, Dec. 20 at 7:15 p.m. CT
WHERE: Soldier Field, Chicago, IL.
The 6-7 Vikings will travel to the Windy City for an NFC North battle against the 4-9 Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football. Minnesota bounced back from maybe the most disappointing loss of the year by beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in dramatic fashion in primetime.
The Bears fell to the Packers on Sunday Night Football as the team continues to spiral in the wrong direction.
The Vikings can thank Harrison Smith for not allowing the team to fully blow a 29-0 lead on Thursday night and they can thank the NFL scheduling folks for playing the lowly Bears in two of the last four games. Although nothing is a given in a league full of parity (see: Lions), the Vikings have to handle business in Chicago to keep their playoff hopes alive. According to FiveThirtyEight.com, Minnesota now has a 33% chance of making the postseason.
"Everything is right there in front of us, we just have to go out and win the games that's on our schedule," Patrick Peterson said.
Here are three keys to the game for Monday:
1. Pressure Justin Fields. The Bears' rookie signal caller has shown flashes of promise this season, but also has shown that he can be prone to mistakes as well. Fields has thrown 10 interceptions this season, including a pick-6 in his last game against the Packers.
The recipe for more mistakes is pressure, and head coach Mike Zimmer has shown that he can motivate his defense to apply it generously. The Vikings are at the top of the league in sacks per game. They sacked Ben Roethlisberger five times and forced him to throw an interception on Thursday. He looked miserable in the first half.
A repeat of that performance against a first year QB can take the life out of the Bears offense early.
2. Let Dalvin Cook. The Vikings running back showed no ill effects of a shoulder injury that caused him to miss the game against the Lions. Cook rushed for an NFL high 205 yards against the Steelers, which is one yard shy of his career high.
Now with back up Alexander Mattison likely to miss Monday's game after landing on the COVID-19 list, Cook will be relied on even more to produce in Chicago. He might not get gaping holes to run through like he did in the first half against Pittsburgh, but the Bears are near the bottom of the league in rushing yards allowed.
Cook is the NFL's second-leading rusher, despite missing three games this season. He said his feet hurt after running all over the Steelers. Let's hope they hurt for similar reasons on Monday night.
3. Just put the game away. The exhaustion from these games coming down to the last possession is real. Wouldn't it be nice to see the Vikings put a team away for once? It's only happened once this season, and that was back in Week 3 against Seattle. We thought we were seeing it against the Steelers, but we know how that one finished.
When asked about this troubling trend, Zimmer said, "I really feel like if we start being more disciplined in our alignments and our techniques and where we're supposed to be and what we're supposed to do, we don't have to make it like this." When you play with fire, you're bound to get burned. The Bears showed they're capable of a fiery performance against Green Bay. The Vikings can't let them hang around long enough to burn them at the end.
The Vikings are talented enough to beat any team in the league. They've shown that in wins over the Seahawks, Chargers and Packers. They're also capable of losing to any team in the league. Let's hope for the former and not the latter, moving forward.