The winding road of the final day of the Vikings' 2021 season
The Vikings beat the Bears and the atmosphere inside US Bank Stadium was uncomfortable
By Matthew Coller
MINNEAPOLIS — Normally the commute from my house to US Bank Stadium is about 20 minutes on a gameday. On Sunday, it was 13 minutes. There was enough room on the 35W roads that the usual SUV guy whipping around traffic didn’t even have to treat the rest of us like road cones.
Parking was easy. Less than two hours before kickoff, there was no line and I didn’t have to go all the way to the roof.
During most regular season games, there is a throng of fans hanging around outside of the gates waiting to run inside the minute that security allows. On this day, it was a gaggle of folks at best. One kid in a Kirk Cousins jersey jumped around to stay warm.
There weren’t many No. 8 replicas being worn by attendees to this glorified preseason game. You could confidently say that more fans would have preferred to get a look at Kellen Mond rather than get 60 more minutes of the players who have let them down for the last two seasons. Mond was inactive. A last wave of the middle finger.
Peeking over the ledge of the press box, the section below featured fans in Teddy Bridgewater, Jared Allen, Randy Moss and Kevin Williams jerseys. Yeah, the good times. Some anyway.
During warm-ups it became evident that there wouldn’t be anything reflecting a full house.
Mike Zimmer sat on the bench alone.
The team still put on its usual top-notch game intro video. I wondered if everyone else was thinking about what it feels like when that intro plays during games that matter. In classic fashion, Zimmer had the defense introduced individually. Anthony Barr and Harrison Smith received some noticeable cheers. Sheldon Richardson and Armon Watts got golf claps. Nobody seemed to understand why Troy Dye was getting his name called. Fireworks popped and echoed.
It doesn’t feel like it was long ago that US Bank Stadium sounded like a Metallica concert when the opponent took the field for the first time. Remember how Peyton Manning trained the Indy crowds to be dead silent when he was operating the Colts’ offense? That’s how it sounded at 12:10 central time when the Bears walked out on offense. None of Andy Dalton’s linemen or receivers struggled to hear his calls at the line of scrimmage.
All the things that make the in-game experience feel like the Fourth of July were falling flat. The gjallarhorn usually fades into the cheers. It was loud and clear this time. You could hear every word of “Start Me Up.”
I couldn’t hear what Gus Johnson was saying to Aquib Talib on the TVs inside the press box but his body language suggested they were both hoping the game between two coaches set to be fired would have some entertainment value.
Sorry, Gus.
On the first Bears third down of the game, the noise level reflected a coffee shop. The first drive featured spotty tackling but the Bears were forced to settle for a field goal — so much as anyone can be forced to kick field goals in a game with nothing to lose.
XCEL Energy’s sponsored “bring the energy” bit on the video board did not amp up the atmosphere, though a few fans danced on command for the camera.
When the in-stadium announcer said, “at quarterback, Kirk Cousins,” there was no reaction. He started the game by checking down to Dalvin Cook and then got sacked.
“Good thing they didn’t play Mond,” somebody in the press box said. OK, the somebody was me.
Following the Vikings’ first punt of the day, I spotted one guy bobbing his head to “Bring The Action.” The game, unfortunately, did not bring the action.
DJ Wonnum at least had a productive day. He sacked Dalton on fourth down stifling the Bears’ second drive.
Greg Coleman interviewed Chester Taylor, an underrated Viking in his time. Later in the game, Coleman would be recognized for his long tenure with the Vikings as a player and broadcaster. He deserved a better sendoff.
On the second drive, you could sense the concerns that Cousins would get hurt. After all, trade value and such. The Vikings’ offensive line was doing what it usually does against the Bears: Giving up pressure. Cousins got strip sacked and took the Vikings out of field goal position.
At first quarter’s end, the Vikings had 12 yards of offense.
After Dalton failed again on fourth down, the Vikings ran twice and then threw an incomplete pass, making it 15 yards on their first 15 plays. At 9:08 of the second quarter, we got our first boos. The Vikings did not reflect a “team of fighters,” as they had been described earlier in the year.
When the Bears got the ball back, Dalton overthrew an open receiver in the end zone and Chicago kicked another field goal. At least watching Justin Fields would have provided a little intrigue but he landed on the COVID list this week.
Cousins responded with an overthrow of his own. Rookie Christian Darrisaw helped him off the turf. The boos got louder as Cousins threw short of the sticks on third down. His completion percentage did go up, however.
The biggest cheer of the day came during a pause in the action. The video board showed that the Lions were winning 14-13 over the Green Bay Packers. Of course, the Packers already wrapped up the division. The life of a Vikings fan is so often hoping that anything bad will happen to the Packers.
Dalton got going a bit late in the second quarter because the Vikings’ end-of-half defense is basically steroids for every poor quarterback. He found running back Damien Williams wide open for a 23-yard touchdown and then converted the two-point conversion.
What happened next was almost too perfectly Vikings. Down by 14, Cousins made two terrific throws, one to Justin Jefferson and the other to rookie Ihmir Smith-Marsette to set the Vikings up deep inside Bears territory. Cousins completed a pass but Oli Udoh, league leader in holding, was holding.
With 0:07 left in the half on third-and-goal, Cousins threw the ball away. Why you would throw the ball away when down 14 in a meaningless game, I have no idea. Nothing quite says “winner” like playing risk-averse football when there’s literally no risk. Sometimes a QB’s win-loss record does say a lot about them.
Greg Joseph kicked a field goal to bring the Vikings within 11 points at half. Why kick a field goal when there is nothing to lose? That’s not the reason Jay Glazer was reporting pre-game that Zimmer is about to be let go but it’s also not not the reason.
During halftime, two frisbee teams played and one guy made two unbelievable catches. The highlight plays of the day, hands down. They played “Lets Go Crazy” over the PA system. What a moment for that dude.
In the third quarter, the video board showed a woman wearing an Aaron Rodgers jersey. She had to be the happiest person in the place watching these two directionless teams.
At least one thing came away from the game: Smith-Marsette played very well. He shed a Bears corner on a deep bomb and walked into the end zone.
Not that anyone cared about whether Chicago could put the game away but Dalton appeared to run for a touchdown and the replay review showed his knee was down. He got sacked again on fourth down because he’s Andy Dalton.
Fans started doing the wave before the end of the third quarter. The Vikings only had 10 points on the board and yet somehow, Cousins had a 114.3 quarterback rating. Playing the hits.
One quarter left to play. Fifteen minutes left of the 2021 Vikings. I was thinking about the relief everyone will feel when this team can’t hurt them anymore. Fans know that even the best teams do not have a particularly good chance to win the Super Bowl, so they usually set the bar at having a good time. They want fun stories, memorable moments and performances they’ll never forget. They got table scraps of those things over the last two years.
Just as that thought ran through my mind, there was a flicker of why it doesn’t have to keep being this way. Cousins heaved the ball up to Justin Jefferson — something that everyone has been begging him to do for a long time — and the superstar receiver leaped up and grabbed it for a 45-yard touchdown. Oh yeah, that’s right, he’s unstoppable and 22 years old. That catch put him 43 yards away from Randy Moss’ single-season receiving record. By the way, Cousins QB rating update: 141.7.
Tie game. Who wants overtime?
Not the Bears, apparently. They left Jefferson wide open for a 26-yard pass on third down, then allowed a 29-yard run to Dalvin Cook and then refused to cover KJ Osborn. Cousins found him in the back of the end zone for a touchdown to go up 24-17. Jefferson threw his hands up because he was wide open and could have passed Moss’ record.
QB Rating watch: 146.8.
I started to get tweets about the Vikings blowing their draft position. It was starting to feel very much like Week 17 last year against the Lions.
Fans got into some of the big plays. You can say this: If people brought their kids to the game because they got preseason prices, they got to see their favorite players do some stuff. There’s plenty of reasons to be cynical but that’s nice.
The Bears responded by going for it on fourth down again. Dalton threw a fluttering interception to Patrick Peterson, who ran it back for a touchdown. Do I apologize for my “team of fighters” crack earlier?
Fans clapped and sung along with the SKOL song. Peterson got hugs on the sideline and then did the SKOL clap and yelled, “Let’s go.”
Dalton got the ball back and threw another interception. All the defensive players ran into the end zone to celebrate for the cameras.
Yes, the draft slot officially dropped at that moment.
The three-quarters full stadium (I didn’t catch an announced crowd) started to head for the exits. At least they had a good time.
However, the remaining folks booed the next drive. Talk about typical: The Vikings handed the ball off to Alexander Mattison and Kene Nwangwu on second and third-and-long rather than pushing the ball to Jefferson, who was 16 yards away from Moss’ record. Maybe Klint Kubiak has a sense of humor.
The Vikings stopped the Bears on fourth down. They opened the final drive by handing to Mattison. Jefferson laid a great block for him as his coaches screwed him out of the record.
Fans screamed for them to throw the ball to Jefferson one more time. They booed their loudest for the victory formation. What a perfect way to describe the 2021 season.
With that, the Vikings walked off the field to an empty “SKOL Vikings” song and the 2021 was over.
This feels like one of those welcome-to-the-first-day-of-the-rest-of-your-lives kind of moments. We headed downstairs for Zimmer’s final press conference.
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Pretty depressing Matthew. But I agree. It was the ultimate FU to Viking fans by Zimmer to not let JJ have a chance at the record at the end. Does the man have any emotional intelligence? I hope Zimmer and the GM are fired tomorrow. And I hope they can trade Cousins. We need some hope for the future, even if it means going backward for a couple years.
Great read Matthew! “ When the in-stadium announcer said, “at quarterback, Kirk Cousins,” there was no reaction. He started the game by checking down to Dalvin Cook and then got sacked.” Check down Opie of Mayberry needs to go…