Kevin O’Connell doesn’t need to reinvent the Vikings for Sunday’s trip to Chicago. He needs a wrinkle.
That was the big theme coming out of the latest breakdown of Minnesota’s Week 2 matchup with the Bears, where the conversation kept circling back to the same idea: the Vikings have enough pieces to compete, but they may need something unexpected to tilt the field against Dennis Allen’s defense at Soldier Field.
The setup is messy for Minnesota. The offense is already working around a backup quarterback in Carson Wentz, and the running back room took another hit when Jordan Mason fractured his thumb and was placed on injured reserve.
That leaves Aaron Jones Sr. and DeeJay Dallas to absorb a heavier load, and the loss is a significant one. “This is a big loss for the Vikings,” Darren Campbell said.
The defense, though, finally showed a little more life and a little more youth. Brian Flores put three rookies on the field against Green Bay: Domonique “Big Citrus” Orange played 22 snaps, Caleb Banks got 16, and Jacob Thomas saw 10.
For a coordinator with a reputation for leaning on veterans, that stood out. Campbell put it plainly: “Brian Flores is not going to give him playing time or any rookie playing time or any player playing time that they don’t earn,”
That rookie usage matters because it suggests Flores is willing to open the door a bit wider if the players earn it. It also fits with the idea that Minnesota may need fresh legs and fresh ideas to handle the Bears.
There was also a strong case made for Dallas Turner, whose performance against Green Bay looked like the kind of breakout the Vikings drafted him to deliver. Turner posted nine pressures and earned an 89.5 PFF grade, and Campbell said, “Sometimes you just need one guy to beat the guy that is trying to block him, and Dallas Turner did that a lot last Sunday,”
On the other side of the ball, the Bears preview turned into a warning for Minnesota’s offense. Drew Bunting picked Chicago, even while saying he wanted the Vikings to win, and his message was blunt: Minnesota needs creativity, not predictability. “Kevin O’Connell has to grow a pair and move the ball,” Bunting declared.
His bigger point was that this matchup calls for a “wrinkle game.” Base flare screens and quick two-yard throws, he argued, play right into what Dennis Allen wants.
Bunting also pointed to the old scoreboard that matters most in this one: turnovers. Kevin O’Connell is 36-4 when winning the turnover margin, and Bunting’s view was simple.
“If they lose the turnover battle Sunday, they have no chance,”
The quarterback edge is part of why he leaned Chicago. Caleb Williams’ advantage over Carson Wentz, in Bunting’s view, is too large to ignore.
The Vikings do have one recent note of comfort in this building: they have won six straight at Soldier Field, their longest such streak ever. Weather could complicate things too, with 20-30 mph winds and heavy rain expected.
The discussion also touched on a few other storylines around the league and around Minnesota. Josh Metellus’ PFF grades have dropped, with a 29.6 in Week 1 after a 55.4 mark in 2024, and the thought was that a usage change may be part of the explanation. There was also debate around Kyler Murray’s concussion and the hit from Javon Bullard, with Tedy Bruschi calling it “dirty.”
And then there was the old-school example Bunting used to make his point about creativity. He reached back to 1978 in Dallas, when Bud Grant, through Jerry Burns, put Sammy White in the backfield with Foreman and Ricky Young.
The ball never went to White, and the Cowboys’ linebackers spent the afternoon pointing at each other. Minnesota won as a heavy underdog.
That’s the kind of game Sunday may demand again: not a new identity, just a sharp enough wrinkle to keep Chicago guessing.
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For Minnesota, the bigger question is no longer just whether the Packers can stop the bleeding, but what the collapse says about the division landscape going forward. Green Bay has been outscored badly in fourth quarters and overtime during the skid, and the size of those failures has put Matt LaFleur under a harsher spotlight than he has faced in years, with his team suddenly looking vulnerable in the very moments that usually decide seasons. [Read more 🡒]