By Matthew Coller
CHICAGO — To start his postgame press conference, Aaron Jones showed off the scar that he had across his left cheek. He got it when a Chicago Bears defender hit him so hard that his helmet went flying off. We can only imagine how many other bruises and cuts he must have been dealing with following the Minnesota Vikings’ 9-3 victory in the slop of Soldier Field on Sunday.
With Jordan Mason sidelined by a fracture in his thumb, Jones carried the ball 23 times for 105 yards, keeping the offense churning during a game where passing the football in the driving rain was nearly impossible for both the Vikings and Bears.
“That was f—ing awesome,” offensive tackle Brian O’Neill said. “He’s the man. He’s the absolute man. He’s one of my favorite teammates ever. And he played great. He battled. I mean, that was one of the louder hits I’ve ever heard and it didn’t phase him one bit and he just kept running it. He knew he was ready for 35 (carries) if we needed him.”
There were two separate times where Jones had to come out of the game on Sunday as he carried the ball the most times in a single game since November 11, 2022 when he had 24 rushes. The first time he suffered a knee injury and backup DeeJay Dallas came in off the bench for a pair of runs. Dallas was in awe of his long-time friend’s performance.
“He was just a freaking warrior,” Dallas said. “And that’s what today’s game called for. you know? Grit, determination, effort, will to win. And that’s what he put on tape. He proved to himself that he is still one of those ones, one of those guys, an elite level running back.”
Jones deserves all the credit for pounding the ball against Chicago’s defense over and over but he was also given help up front by an offensive line that moved the defensive front all day long.
“The way we were coming off the rock was opening up holes, and just the way he was hitting it, man, he was really a special player today,” Guard Donovan Jackson said. Darrisaw added: “We knew what the run game looked like last week, and we wanted to take it to another step, and I felt like we took it there.”
The emphasis for the Vikings during the offseason was becoming more physical at the snap. Jones said he could feel it throughout the game.
“We are not waiting for good stuff to happen to us, we are gonna go and make the good stuff happen,” Jones said. “Take it to more aggressiveness and not sitting back or passing it like ‘who’s gonna make the play?’… it’s an attack in mindset. Let’s play fast. When you play fast, you can get on edges, and you make them have to react.”
Head coach Kevin O’Connell said he appreciates the way that Jones played off the line to create extra yardage.
“He’s going to be a guy that the linemen love blocking for because they know he’s got great vision, they know he’s got some toughness to finish runs even at his size and he’s got plenty of experience playing,” KOC said.
Where Jones’ toughness and the Vikings’ O-line came together was in one of the biggest moments of the victory. With the Vikings up by six late in the fourth quarter and looking to drain as much clock as possible, Jones broke over the left side of the line on a pitch play and got into open space. He was one-on-one with Chicago’s safety and could have gone out of bounds but instead he smashed into him in order to keep the clock running.
“When me and (Darrisaw) were on that left side, I saw the space, and I’m like, ‘oh, my gosh, do I try to run away from the defender?’ At the last second it clicked in my hand, it was like, it’s four minute (offense). Like, get off other sideline. So that’s why I went to initiate the contact. It was perfect play calling that one as well.”
The Vikings were able to get a field goal from Will Reichard after the run to make it a six-point game, which proved to be huge because Tyson Bagent led the Bears into field goal position on the next drive but couldn’t get the ball into the end zone.
As well as Jones played on Sunday, the Vikings will need to work on options for next week to take some of the workload off him. They only used rookie Demond Claiborne for one play where they threw him a swing pass and that was it. Last week they signed Jerome Ford, who may have to be bumped up depending on how far along he is with the offense.
But at least for Sunday, it was a special performance by a player who has always seemed to rise to the occasion in key NFC North battles.