November 25, 2024 • 12 mins
Minnesota Tim reviews the thrilling overtime victory of the Minnesota Vikings against the Chicago Bears, highlighting Sam Darnold's impressive performance and the team's playoff prospects. The discussion covers key moments in the game, Darnold's ability to lead a game-winning drive, and the impact of various players and strategies on the Vikings' success.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Minnesota Vikings defeated the Big Bad Chicago Bears in overtime,
thirty to twenty seven in a game that they had
a ninety nine percent chance to win according to esp
and Analytics with about one minute and twenty five seconds remaining,
and then the impossible happened. Caleb Williams throws a touchdown
(00:30):
to Keenan Allen gets the two point conversion on side
kick off Johnny Munt's foot. They pick it up Kadab
Williams another dot to Keenan Allen field goal, which I
thought the Minnesota Vikings were close to blocking again because
you look at that side or they blocked the first one,
whether it's the left side or right side, depending on
the angle you're looking at it. And Jerry Tillery was
(00:53):
right there again. He bursted through that line and I
thought he was going to block it. He was so close.
But one of the storylines following this game is without
a doubt, Sam Darnold's impressive play because this is the
first time this season where he led a game winning drive.
(01:15):
Now he's had multiple game ceiling drives this season. He
had a game ceiling drive against the San Francisco forty
nine Ers with a field goal. He had a game
sealing drive against the Green Bay Packers. He had a
game ceiling drive against the New York Jets. So in
the first four five weeks of the season, he had
(01:38):
game sealing drives in three of the Minnesota Vikings victories.
And then they lost to the Detroit Lions, where he
did not put together a game ceiling drive they had
an opportunity to but could not confert a third down.
They lost to the Rams where they had an opportunity
to march down the field less than two minutes remaining,
(02:02):
no timeouts, and then the official missed a face mask penalty.
But also Sam Donald held onto the ball way too
long in that situation. So the likelihood of Donald leading
a game time drive in that situation versus the Rams
was like a very low percentage, maybe even lower than
(02:27):
a ninety nine percent chance, or lower than a one
percent chance, because someone posted the data on situations like that,
and it was like one in two hundred and fifty chance.
So Sam Donald and the Vikings despite the face mask penalty,
and you want to give them a chance, but despite
(02:47):
that miss, the likelihood that they were going to tie
that game and win that game, I was pretty low. So, okay,
you're three and two. You had a chance against the Lines,
you had a chance against the Rams. You did it
against the Packers, San Francisco forty nine Ers, and the
New York Jets. All right, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee. You did
(03:14):
not really need to put a game sealing drive together
in any of those instances. Maybe against Jacksonville and Indianapolis you
had to, but you kind of failed to do it
in Jacksonville. But he won the game anyways, didn't really matter.
And then against the Bears, Sam Donald in overtime, while
(03:35):
facing obstacles, because the Chicago Bears had all the momentum,
they had all the energy, their punt was a booming
punt all the way down to the Vikings nineteen yard line,
and first play Sam Donald checks it out of a
(03:57):
run to a pass and he takes a set and
had become second and seventeen, which credit to Sam Donald,
by the way, was that sweat that sacked him when
he was sacked. And I haven't seen anyone give sim
Donald credit for this yet. Well one, he held onto
the ball way too long. Get rid of the damn
ball again. He held on to the ball way too long,
(04:19):
But give credit to Sam Donald in this respect. The
guy was going for the ball. He was trying to
strip sack Sam Donald in that instance, and if he striped,
sacks him and the Bears recover, that game's over. Sam
Donald held onto the ball with two hands, not knowing
(04:40):
there was a guy behind him. He went for the ball,
probably hits the ball, but Sam Donald was able to
keep it in his own arms, which was absolutely impressive
considering the moment, considering the force that was hit on
(05:00):
Sam Donald unknowingly, it's not like he saw him coming
and embrace for it. He came up behind him, try
to swat the ball out, and Sam Darnald held onto
that thing, which was impressive, which set up the game
winning drive. Because second and seventeen he finds TJ. Hockinson,
a contested throw, contested catch, and then third and ten
he finds Jordan Addison. But that wasn't the only obstacle
(05:25):
that Sam Donald overcame on that drive. I got this
from Kevin Seffert from ESPN's article he posted. It says,
as a result, Donald overcame second to seventeen, first and
fifteen and first and twenty to keep the drive alive
(05:46):
that included passes of thirteen yards to Addison, twenty to Jefferson,
twenty nine to Hockinson to get the ball to the
Bears nine yard line. And you know, some might say
this was Sam Darnold's best game of the season. Hard
to argue the game against the Houston Texans wasn't when
(06:07):
he goes seventeen for twenty eight, four touchdowns, zero picks
at one hundred and nineteen passer rating. But this one
was right up there on the road at Chicago, considering
the environment, considering the Chicago Bears defense is one of
the top defenses in the NFL with all of their
talent back there, and also considering the fact that besides
(06:32):
a few catches Jefferson had, and besides a few pass
interference penalties that Jefferson drew which were valuable plays, Jefferson
was pretty absent in terms of the amount of catches
he had. Of course, he's not absent in the effectiveness
that he has because of the way he draws multiple
(06:53):
defenders to him. Bear send two or three guys to him,
which is why Jordan Andison has the career game that
he does. But credit to Sam Donald, because I have
been barking and barking, barking at Sam Donald to do this.
Don't force the ball to Jefferson, don't throw it to
him in triple coverage. Jefferson, I feel like he has
(07:16):
made comments earlier this year saying, you know, just throw
me the ball. I'll just trust me. I'll go up
and get it. But come on, you're putting your quarterback
in a terrible situation if you're telling him to do that.
And Jordan Andison went out there and had the best
game of his career, and I feel like this could
have happened before. Against the Rams earlier this season, Addison
(07:39):
had a ninety one percent open rate and he had
what two catches in that game something like that. So
a Jordan Aison rego game has been waiting forever and
has been there for the taking for a long time.
But Sam Donald was tunnel vision towards Justin Jeffer, which
(08:01):
prevented such things from happening. But you've got to give
credit where credit is due. And I feel like my
theory that I posted last week, I called Donald's matchup
against the Titans a rare opportunity and I referenced the
longest yard. In the Longest Yard, Paul Crew goes up
(08:23):
to the warden and says, you basically need a kick
butt game, get your confidence up, get prepared for the season.
And even though the Vikings didn't kick the butt of
the Tennessee Titans, and it was a competitive matchup for
most of that game, they went by double digits twenty
three to thirteen. They didn't pour it on offensively, but
(08:44):
it allowed Sam Darnald to get his rhythm, his confidence consistency.
That allowed him to work on some things that he's
been missing, like he did against the Jaguars. He figured
some things out versus the Titans. Let's just say that
he was able to figure things out against a bottom
tier team in the league, and that was valuable because
(09:05):
now you go through one of the toughest parts of
the season Bears, Packers, Lions, Cardinals, Falcons, not in that
particular order, but there's some tough games coming up, and
to have Sam Donald playing at his peak level at
the end of the season is valuable. You've seen Donald
go like this to the season and then he went
(09:25):
down like the stock market, and then he went back
up like the stock market. Sam Donald has been up
and down this year, but as far as its expectations
have gone like, he has been incredible. Now. No one
expected this from Sam Donald except for me. I said
this earlier in the year, said expect Sam Donald to
shock the world. But even at some point I didn't
(09:48):
expect this because even though I said Sam Donald will
shock the world this year with how he plays, I
also predicted the Vikings that have a five to twelve record,
So how much can you shock the world with the
old record? The Minnesota Vikings are nine to two. Nobody
predicted this, Nobody saw it coming. And Sam Donald's play
the season, his game against Chicago, the throws, the contested
(10:14):
throws with defenses right in his face. How can you
not give the guy credit? Twenty two for thirty four
three hundred and thirty yards, a sixty four percent completion percentage,
two touchdowns, zero picks, a long pass of sixty nine yards,
took three sacks at one hundred and sixteen point one
passer rating and eighty two point six QBR two character
(10:35):
minus one yards. But Sam Darnald delivered when he needed
to and played spectacular turnover free football in a tough
place to play not that the Vikings can't win there,
because they've won their in every single game in the
twenty twenties. They're five to zero, and I think they
might have won even in twenty nineteen. So this myth
(10:58):
that the Vikings can't win it Soldier Field is a
thing of the past, and it continues to be a
thing of the past because the Minnesota Vikings won again.
You know, the Soldier Field Ghosts almost overcame the impossible
onside kickfield goal two point conversion. But a lot of
bad things happened to the Chicago Bears too, my punt
(11:21):
blocked field goal, stuff like that. So MC Vikings win
darnold impressive, And according to the New York Times, the
Minnesota Vikings now have a ninety eight percent chance to
make the playoffs because they are two and a half
games ahead of the next wild card team and are
(11:44):
one game behind the Detroit Lions with one game to go. Now,
I see that number ninety eight percent chance, and I'm like,
the Vikings said, a ninety nine percent chance to beat
the Bears, according to ESPN Analytics, and it went into overtime.
Bears got the ball first. So numbers are just numbers
at some point, but you got to feel a little
(12:05):
confident at nine and two that the Minnesota Vikings are
going to make the playoffs this year.
The Minnesota Vikings defeated the Big Bad Chicago Bears in overtime,
thirty to twenty seven in a game that they had
a ninety nine percent chance to win according to esp
and Analytics with about one minute and twenty five seconds remaining,
and then the impossible happened. Caleb Williams throws a touchdown
(00:30):
to Keenan Allen gets the two point conversion on side
kick off Johnny Munt's foot. They pick it up Kadab
Williams another dot to Keenan Allen field goal, which I
thought the Minnesota Vikings were close to blocking again because
you look at that side or they blocked the first one,
whether it's the left side or right side, depending on
the angle you're looking at it. And Jerry Tillery was
(00:53):
right there again. He bursted through that line and I
thought he was going to block it. He was so close.
But one of the storylines following this game is without
a doubt, Sam Darnold's impressive play because this is the
first time this season where he led a game winning drive.
(01:15):
Now he's had multiple game ceiling drives this season. He
had a game ceiling drive against the San Francisco forty
nine Ers with a field goal. He had a game
sealing drive against the Green Bay Packers. He had a
game ceiling drive against the New York Jets. So in
the first four five weeks of the season, he had
(01:38):
game sealing drives in three of the Minnesota Vikings victories.
And then they lost to the Detroit Lions, where he
did not put together a game ceiling drive they had
an opportunity to but could not confert a third down.
They lost to the Rams where they had an opportunity
to march down the field less than two minutes remaining,
(02:02):
no timeouts, and then the official missed a face mask penalty.
But also Sam Donald held onto the ball way too
long in that situation. So the likelihood of Donald leading
a game time drive in that situation versus the Rams
was like a very low percentage, maybe even lower than
(02:27):
a ninety nine percent chance, or lower than a one
percent chance, because someone posted the data on situations like that,
and it was like one in two hundred and fifty chance.
So Sam Donald and the Vikings despite the face mask penalty,
and you want to give them a chance, but despite
(02:47):
that miss, the likelihood that they were going to tie
that game and win that game, I was pretty low. So, okay,
you're three and two. You had a chance against the Lines,
you had a chance against the Rams. You did it
against the Packers, San Francisco forty nine Ers, and the
New York Jets. All right, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee. You did
(03:14):
not really need to put a game sealing drive together
in any of those instances. Maybe against Jacksonville and Indianapolis you
had to, but you kind of failed to do it
in Jacksonville. But he won the game anyways, didn't really matter.
And then against the Bears, Sam Donald in overtime, while
(03:35):
facing obstacles, because the Chicago Bears had all the momentum,
they had all the energy, their punt was a booming
punt all the way down to the Vikings nineteen yard line,
and first play Sam Donald checks it out of a
(03:57):
run to a pass and he takes a set and
had become second and seventeen, which credit to Sam Donald,
by the way, was that sweat that sacked him when
he was sacked. And I haven't seen anyone give sim
Donald credit for this yet. Well one, he held onto
the ball way too long. Get rid of the damn
ball again. He held on to the ball way too long,
(04:19):
But give credit to Sam Donald in this respect. The
guy was going for the ball. He was trying to
strip sack Sam Donald in that instance, and if he striped,
sacks him and the Bears recover, that game's over. Sam
Donald held onto the ball with two hands, not knowing
(04:40):
there was a guy behind him. He went for the ball,
probably hits the ball, but Sam Donald was able to
keep it in his own arms, which was absolutely impressive
considering the moment, considering the force that was hit on
(05:00):
Sam Donald unknowingly, it's not like he saw him coming
and embrace for it. He came up behind him, try
to swat the ball out, and Sam Darnald held onto
that thing, which was impressive, which set up the game
winning drive. Because second and seventeen he finds TJ. Hockinson,
a contested throw, contested catch, and then third and ten
he finds Jordan Addison. But that wasn't the only obstacle
(05:25):
that Sam Donald overcame on that drive. I got this
from Kevin Seffert from ESPN's article he posted. It says,
as a result, Donald overcame second to seventeen, first and
fifteen and first and twenty to keep the drive alive
(05:46):
that included passes of thirteen yards to Addison, twenty to Jefferson,
twenty nine to Hockinson to get the ball to the
Bears nine yard line. And you know, some might say
this was Sam Darnold's best game of the season. Hard
to argue the game against the Houston Texans wasn't when
(06:07):
he goes seventeen for twenty eight, four touchdowns, zero picks
at one hundred and nineteen passer rating. But this one
was right up there on the road at Chicago, considering
the environment, considering the Chicago Bears defense is one of
the top defenses in the NFL with all of their
talent back there, and also considering the fact that besides
(06:32):
a few catches Jefferson had, and besides a few pass
interference penalties that Jefferson drew which were valuable plays, Jefferson
was pretty absent in terms of the amount of catches
he had. Of course, he's not absent in the effectiveness
that he has because of the way he draws multiple
(06:53):
defenders to him. Bear send two or three guys to him,
which is why Jordan Andison has the career game that
he does. But credit to Sam Donald, because I have
been barking and barking, barking at Sam Donald to do this.
Don't force the ball to Jefferson, don't throw it to
him in triple coverage. Jefferson, I feel like he has
(07:16):
made comments earlier this year saying, you know, just throw
me the ball. I'll just trust me. I'll go up
and get it. But come on, you're putting your quarterback
in a terrible situation if you're telling him to do that.
And Jordan Andison went out there and had the best
game of his career, and I feel like this could
have happened before. Against the Rams earlier this season, Addison
(07:39):
had a ninety one percent open rate and he had
what two catches in that game something like that. So
a Jordan Aison rego game has been waiting forever and
has been there for the taking for a long time.
But Sam Donald was tunnel vision towards Justin Jeffer, which
(08:01):
prevented such things from happening. But you've got to give
credit where credit is due. And I feel like my
theory that I posted last week, I called Donald's matchup
against the Titans a rare opportunity and I referenced the
longest yard. In the Longest Yard, Paul Crew goes up
(08:23):
to the warden and says, you basically need a kick
butt game, get your confidence up, get prepared for the season.
And even though the Vikings didn't kick the butt of
the Tennessee Titans, and it was a competitive matchup for
most of that game, they went by double digits twenty
three to thirteen. They didn't pour it on offensively, but
(08:44):
it allowed Sam Darnald to get his rhythm, his confidence consistency.
That allowed him to work on some things that he's
been missing, like he did against the Jaguars. He figured
some things out versus the Titans. Let's just say that
he was able to figure things out against a bottom
tier team in the league, and that was valuable because
(09:05):
now you go through one of the toughest parts of
the season Bears, Packers, Lions, Cardinals, Falcons, not in that
particular order, but there's some tough games coming up, and
to have Sam Donald playing at his peak level at
the end of the season is valuable. You've seen Donald
go like this to the season and then he went
(09:25):
down like the stock market, and then he went back
up like the stock market. Sam Donald has been up
and down this year, but as far as its expectations
have gone like, he has been incredible. Now. No one
expected this from Sam Donald except for me. I said
this earlier in the year, said expect Sam Donald to
shock the world. But even at some point I didn't
(09:48):
expect this because even though I said Sam Donald will
shock the world this year with how he plays, I
also predicted the Vikings that have a five to twelve record,
So how much can you shock the world with the
old record? The Minnesota Vikings are nine to two. Nobody
predicted this, Nobody saw it coming. And Sam Donald's play
the season, his game against Chicago, the throws, the contested
(10:14):
throws with defenses right in his face. How can you
not give the guy credit? Twenty two for thirty four
three hundred and thirty yards, a sixty four percent completion percentage,
two touchdowns, zero picks, a long pass of sixty nine yards,
took three sacks at one hundred and sixteen point one
passer rating and eighty two point six QBR two character
(10:35):
minus one yards. But Sam Darnald delivered when he needed
to and played spectacular turnover free football in a tough
place to play not that the Vikings can't win there,
because they've won their in every single game in the
twenty twenties. They're five to zero, and I think they
might have won even in twenty nineteen. So this myth
(10:58):
that the Vikings can't win it Soldier Field is a
thing of the past, and it continues to be a
thing of the past because the Minnesota Vikings won again.
You know, the Soldier Field Ghosts almost overcame the impossible
onside kickfield goal two point conversion. But a lot of
bad things happened to the Chicago Bears too, my punt
(11:21):
blocked field goal, stuff like that. So MC Vikings win
darnold impressive, And according to the New York Times, the
Minnesota Vikings now have a ninety eight percent chance to
make the playoffs because they are two and a half
games ahead of the next wild card team and are
(11:44):
one game behind the Detroit Lions with one game to go. Now,
I see that number ninety eight percent chance, and I'm like,
the Vikings said, a ninety nine percent chance to beat
the Bears, according to ESPN Analytics, and it went into overtime.
Bears got the ball first. So numbers are just numbers
at some point, but you got to feel a little
(12:05):
confident at nine and two that the Minnesota Vikings are
going to make the playoffs this year.
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