In a huge Week 11 matchup at home on Sun, Nov 16, the Minnesota Vikings hosted the Chicago Bears in a game that they desperately needed to get back into the NFC North race and improve their playoff odds in a top-tier playoff contender field in the NFC. These two rivals faced off in Week 1 and in J.J McCarthy’s professional debut, the Vikings came from behind as they overcame an 11-point deficit in scoring 21 points in the fourth quarter to beat Chicago at Soldier Field by a final score of 27-24. McCarthy had three total TDs in that ferocious fourth quarter along with having a defense that contained Caleb Williams, who has been a very lethal QB so far this season. Ever since that game? the Vikings’ season has been an up-and-down roller coaster with a couple of tough losses at home and on the road along with a few good wins. McCarthy had an uncontrollable game at U.S. Bank Stadium in Week 10 against the Baltimore Ravens in throwing two interceptions and completing under 50 percent of his passes. He needed a bounce-back game badly in order to guide this Minnesota team to a good start in their second-half of the season schedule. But this Bears team the Vikings were going to face was much improved from the start of the season in having won six of their last eight games since the Monday night opener.

Having offensive assets such as running back D’Andre Swift(and rookie backup Kyle Monongai), wideouts DJ Moore and Rome Odunze, and tight ends Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland, Chicago was much improved in having an upgraded interior offensive line as well. Their defense is pretty solid as well in having a mid-season acquisition of free agent cornerback C.J Gardner-Johnson, who had played on the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens this season before being acquired by the Bears. In a tight NFC North, Chicago was in a tie with the Detroit Lions entering Sunday at 6-3 and ahead of the 5-3-1 Green Bay Packers, who had lost two straight home games at Lambeau Field. At 4-5, the Vikings sought to beat the Bears in order for them to gain a massive head-to-head tiebreaker on them and only be one game behind them in the standings. But they would have a couple of key inactive players for this battle in Minneapolis. Jonathan Greenard was out with a shoulder injury sustained in the Baltimore game, while Ryan Kelly was still on injured reserve despite having his 21-day practice window to return from the concussion that placed him on IR after Week 4. So, McCarthy still had to work behind an offensive line with Blake Brandel starting as the center. Some good news was that Theo Jackson was back from a knee injury that kept him out for Week 10 and the weakened Vikings’ secondary needed as much help as it could get due to good passing yards numbers put up by opposing QBs since coming off their bye week. Jalen Hurts, Justin Herbert and Lamar Jackson all had good passing games against the Brian Flores defense in the three losses suffered by Minnesota in the past four weeks. Containing the passing game of Williams would be a paramount task. Having better play calling from the offensive end from Kevin O’Connell was vital as well, as he needed to balance the running game along with having fewer passing attempts from McCarthy. This game had massive implications for both of these teams’ seasons in mid-November and whoever emerged victorious would benefit greatly. Let’s see how this divisional matchup in the top-tiered NFC North played out.

The Vikings received possession to start out the game(assuming that the Bears won the toss and elected to differ their option). An odd opening kickoff bounced into the landing zone and Myles Price let it bounce into the end zone for a touchback, thus bringing the ball out to the 20-yard line. After a couple of short runs by Aaron Jones, McCarthy completed his first pass of the day to Adam Thielen, who gained six yards for the first down. McCarthy threw his second pass of the day to T.J Hockenson, who caught it for a gain of seven yards. On third and short, Jones ran the ball up the middle for a gain of two in being right at the first down marker. On the next play, McCarthy threw a deep pass incomplete towards Jordan Addison. A seven-yard run by Jones made third down a little easier, but McCarthy had another pass go incomplete, this one to Justin Jefferson. On fourth down, the punting unit came out and a solid punt by Ryan Wright pinned Chicago deep at the ten-yard line. A three-and-out occurred as the Vikings’ defense did well to contain the Bears offense on the first drive. The McCarthy offense responded with an inefficient drive defined by an incomplete pass thrown by J.J deep again to Addison, who could have caught the ball but didn’t. Another three-and-out occurred for Chicago as a deep incomplete pass by Williams to Moore ended the drive. A good punt return by Myles Price occurred that had the ball at the Vikings’ 40-yard line for the start of the next drive.

A solid five-yard run by Jones started out the third offensive drive of the game for Minnesota and McCarthy completed a short pass to Jefferson, who did the heavy work and picked up six yards for the first down. Then on the next play, the two “JJs” hooked up again as McCarthy threw a short pass up the middle that Jefferson grabbed and gained 18 yards on. A solid 14-yard run by Jones got the offense into the red zone, which has been a sore spot of lately for the team. Another tough sequence occurred as a short Jones run, a McCarthy short pass to Jones and an incomplete pass on third down led to the field goal unit coming on and Will Reichard made a 31-yard kick that put the Vikings on the board first. The Bears started their next offensive drive from their 25-yard line and the first play of the drive was a near disaster as Williams lost control of the ball on the snap, with the ball being down on the turf and getting kicked by incoming safety Jay Ward. The ball went backwards and Rome Odunze pounced on it at the ten-yard line right before a couple of Vikings defenders got within range of it. So, a massive turnover opportunity missed there. Making things more odd was Williams completing a massive 24-yard pass to Odunze on the next play and after the starting left tackle for Chicago had to be helped off, D’Andre Swift had a solid run on third and short that picked up a first down. The first quarter ended with an incomplete pass thrown by Williams and a six-yard run by Swift, with the second quarter opening on a short pass by Williams that was incomplete. On the ensuing punt from Tory Taylor, Price couldn’t make the catch as easily due to a Bears defender interfering with him and a flag was thrown onto the field for kick catch interference. It was a 15-yard penalty and the Vikings’ offense would have better field position than originally intended.

Another three-and-out drive occurred as McCarthy continued struggling with throwing the ball after being set up by the running game. After the third punt by Wright, Chicago had the ball at the 26-yard line to start their next drive. Williams demonstrated his scrambling abilities and his escapability made it harder for any Vikings defender to catch him for a sack. A 14-yard pass by Williams to wideout Luther Burden III put the Bears in Minnesota territory. Then a short run by DJ Moore on third and short got Chicago’s offense into field goal range. A pass by Williams to Cole Kmet had a nasty ending as Isaiah Rodgers got hurt on a helmet-to-helmet collision with the big tight end. Another first down run by Swift and a Williams pass to Colston Loveland got the Bears into the red zone, where the running back combo of Swift and Kyle Monongai ran the ball down the Vikings’ throats. A first and goal one-yard run by Monongai gave Chicago a huge touchdown in a 15-play drive that went nearly eight and a half minutes. The extra point by Cairo Santos was good and the Bears had a 7-3 lead over the Vikings.

The next drive for the McCarthy-led offense started at the 20 with a four-yard run by Jones and a McCarthy completion to Jones for seven yards creating a first down. After an injury to Chicago linebacker Noah Sewell, McCarthy stepped back to pass and aimed the ball towards Jefferson. But when he threw it, the ball was intercepted by Kevin Byard III, who ran the ball back to the Minnesota 25-yard line and just like in all of his other games that he has started in, J.J McCarthy had thrown an interception. This was a more immediately costly pick thrown by McCarthy as the Bears were within scoring range to start the drive. Thankfully, the defense held its ground with a negative run, contained seven-yard pass by Williams to Loveland and an incompletion on third down leading to a field goal by Santos, who made a 38-yard kick to give Chicago a 10-3 lead. At the two-minute warning, the Vikings still had time to get some valuable points before halftime and making this goal more important was the fact that the Bears would receive possession to start the second half. So, McCarthy needed to shake off that mistake and lock back in.

Price returned the ball to the 34-yard line on the ensuing kickoff and to start out the drive, Jones ran for a gain of four yards. On second down, McCarthy aimed a deep pass towards Hockenson but the ball went too fast out of his throwing motion and it breezed past T.J. On third down, McCarthy found Jefferson, who ran with the ball for a massive gain of 27 yards and a first down right into field goal range. On the next play, McCarthy threw an incomplete pass towards Thielen, but then on second down an incomplete pass was negated due to a defensive holding foul on Noah Sewell, who had returned to the game. With a new set of downs at the Chicago 30-yard line, McCarthy stepped back to pass and hurled the ball deep towards Addison in the end zone. But the ball was picked off by Nahshon Wright, who was right in front of Addison and he came down with the ball in the end zone for a touchback. Another interception thrown by McCarthy, who had thrown his eighth interception of his four and a half starts of play so far in the NFL. Ironically, two of them were intercepted by Wright, who had a pick-6 on J.J in Week 1. Wright was cut by Minnesota after training camp, but he should have stayed on the roster as potential secondary help behind veterans such as Rodgers, Joshua Metellus and Byron Murphy. But now he’s a starter on the Bears and making life harder on the Vikings.

From the 20-yard line, the Chicago offense was unable to do anything off the second McCarthy interception as a false start backed them up and a couple of incomplete passes thrown by Williams ended the drive. With only about 21 seconds left, Taylor punted the ball fifty yards downfield and Price ran back with it for eighteen yards. But with only ten seconds left, there was not much time to get into field goal range for Reichard. McCarthy tried to direct a fancy lateral play that would go out-of-bounds to stop the clock as he threw a pass to Jefferson, who then lateraled the ball back to Jones, who was taken down at the 41-yard line with a fumble of the ball being recovered by him. The first half was over and Chicago held a 10-3 lead over the Vikings. Just like the first game against the Bears, a slow start offensively was reflected on the scoreboard. McCarthy had thrown plenty of incomplete passes and had a couple of critical errors in having two interceptions. But with the right rhythm, the Vikings’ offense could get back into this game and take control of it. The Brian Flores defense was doing all it could to contain Caleb Williams, who had his own missed opportunities but relied on a strong running game and passes to his tight ends to move the ball. The second half would prove who was more gritty to win this crucial game in the NFC North and whether the Vikings’ offense could truly find a good-enough scheme for J.J McCarthy to thrive in.

To start out the second half, Chicago drove the ball into Vikings’ territory and into field goal range. A pass by Williams to third-string tight end Durham Smythe was challenged by O’Connell due to the ball not being in any clear control in the hands of the tight end and hitting the ground. After review, the ruling on the field had been changed to an incomplete pass and that was a huge call, since the ball would have been at the Vikings’ 25-yard line and awarded a new set of downs for Chicago. On third down, an odd run play from five yards away from the line to gain was run and Andrew Van Ginkel stopped running back Travis Homer in his tracks for a loss of two yards. The field goal unit for the Bears came out and Santos kicked a 54-yard attempt through the uprights. Now up by ten points, Chicago was leading by a similar margin at this point in the game that they were up by in Week 1. McCarthy had to find a way to get into rhythm and lead another potential double-digit comeback.

On the first possession in the second half for Minnesota, they started at the 20-yard line again after a holding penalty on Jay Ward. Aaron Jones ran for a first down and got four straight carries that had the Vikings within a couple of yards of another first down. On third and short, a false start penalty on Christian Darrisaw occurred and that forced McCarthy to throw the ball being five yards further back from the line to gain. McCarthy threw the ball towards Jefferson, but the pass was incomplete and the fans at U.S Bank Stadium started booing the offense off the field. An inefficient showing at home against a division rival was not what the Vikings wanted to happen. A good punt by Wright pinned Chicago at their 20-yard line and the Minnesota defense needed a big stop here. The Bears picked up a first down on a third down pass by Williams to Burden, then the strong young QB scrambled out of trouble for a big 16-yard run out of bounds near midfield. Williams then completed a pass to DJ Moore, who had to go down to his knees to secure the ball in between his legs and stood on his head as he kept the ball off the ground for a first down. That’s what constitutes a catch in the NFL in 2025, preventing the ball from touching the turf at all costs. Williams had another chain-moving completion to Cole Kmet, but the Vikings’ defense did well to stall the drive in the red zone. On fourth and three yards to go, Ben Johnson could have had his offense go for it in order to have a chance to push the lead to three possessions. But playing with “cash money”, he sent out the field goal unit and Santos made a 33-yard kick to make this a 16-3 lead for Chicago over the Vikings. Now down by nearly two touchdowns, the Minnesota offense needed to score big sooner rather than later or this game would be turning into an embarrassing blowout.

Another bad offensive drive for the Vikings happened as a good run by Jordan Mason for eight yards was followed by two incomplete passes thrown by McCarthy, who stayed in the pocket instead of scrambling for a first down. The Vikings fans in attendance were incensed that the redshirt rookie QB couldn’t get a grip and in short yardage situations running the ball was not done. Something needed to change and fast. The next possession for the Bears was short-lived as a first down picked up at the end of the third quarter was ended due to the defense finally getting some pressure on Williams, who was sacked by Dallas Turner to start out the fourth quarter and after an incomplete pass got hunted down by Van Ginkel, who got an 11-yard sack to force a punt that would potentially lead to better field position for the offense. On the ensuing punt, Myles Price caught the ball and ran with it through some good blocking all the way into Bears’ territory and he was stopped at the Chicago 24-yard line. This was now a golden chance for the offense to finally punch the ball into the end zone and get back into this game. A good eight-yard run by Jordan Mason was followed up by Mason getting the ball again, where he ran to the right and through the opposing defenders all the way into the end zone. The Vikings had finally scored a touchdown, with them getting behind by six points after the PAT made by Reichard. The defense now needed to keep this momentum on the Vikings’ side alive and give the offense a chance to retake the lead.

The Bears took a touchback to start from their 35-yard line and the drive started with a good 9-yard run by Swift, who also ran for a run of 11 yards for a first down into Minnesota territory. A couple of more runs by Swift garnered another first down in field goal range. Williams threw an incomplete pass towards Smythe and a 7-yard run by Swift was followed by a run for no gain as Swift was taken down by Blake Cashman and Byron Murphy. On fourth down, the field goal unit came on to have Santos attempt a 45-yard field goal. The kick went up and it sailed wide left of the goalpost. A huge missed opportunity for Chicago to extend their lead back to two possessions and now with good field position, the Vikings had a real chance to retake the lead with a little over eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, the offense had another empty-handed drive with a couple of incomplete passes by McCarthy to Addison and Hockenson on the last two plays of the drive. Justin Jefferson was visibly upset at the lack of efficiency from his young QB, going so far as to nearly slam his helmet on the bench. Having more incompletions than completions, McCarthy was having a tough day and he needed to step up big time before it was too late.

After the Wright punt, Chicago was pinned at their 18-yard line, with a couple of tough plays starting out their drive. On a huge third and long, Williams completed a big pass to Loveland, who ran through a potential tackle by two secondary defenders and was taken down by Theo Jackson for a gain of 24 yards for a huge first down. A couple of good runs by Monongai milked more time off the game clock. An illegal formation foul by Darnell Wright backed up the Bears a little bit and a run for a loss of four yards by Monongai put them further behind the chains. A deep incomplete pass by Williams was followed by a short pass to Monongai for a gain of 14 yards. Being five yards short of the line to gain, Chicago’s offense regrouped after the first timeout of the half was called by Minnesota. But the Bears were bluffing as they took a delay of game penalty that gave Tory Taylor more room to pin the Vikings deep in their own territory. The punt by Taylor was fair-caught by Price at the 15-yard line. With under three and a half minutes left and only two timeouts along with the two-minute warning, J.J McCarthy needed to lead a powerfully strong drive that ended with a touchdown and ideally with very little or no time left. This would be a game-deciding drive coming up for the Vikings on their home field.

The drive started with a three-yard run by Jones and on the next play McCarthy completed a solid pass up the middle to Hockenson, who ran forward for a big chunk of 23 yards and a first down. A six-yard run by Jones ended in bounds and on second down, McCarthy threw an incomplete pass towards Hockenson and he tried to complete a pass to Jones on third down, but the pass was deflected by edge rusher Montez Sweat and it landed incomplete. With the game now at the two-minute warning, a huge fourth down play was coming up and four yards needed to at least be picked up for the first down. On the fourth down play, McCarthy completed a short pass to Addison for five yards and the ball was at midfield for a huge first down. With the clock still running, McCarthy threw an eight-yard pass to Jefferson, who was taken down in bounds. On the next play, McCarthy passed it to Hockenson, who gained eleven yards and taken down in bounds by Jaquan Brisker for a first down. With the clock getting closer to one minute left in regulation, McCarthy completed his fourth consecutive pass to Jalen Nailor, who got his first target of the game and Nailor got 16 yards to get into the red zone. But he stepped out of bounds to stop the clock for the first down. Now with under one minute left, a good strategy for the Vikings would be to force the Bears to call all of their timeouts in picking up a first down, with the line to gain being at the five-yard line. Instead, McCarthy took a shot straight to the end zone and Addison was open. Addison made the catch for the huge touchdown with fifty seconds left on the game clock. The extra point by Reichard was good as McCarthy had led a solid drive in completing six of his eight passes and throwing an all-important TD pass. Now up by one point, the Vikings needed to defend every inch of the turf against the Chicago offense, which still had all three of their timeouts to stop the clock if they needed to as they looked to get a game-winning field goal by Santos.

The ensuing dynamic kickoff was kicked by Reichard to the right and it floated into the back of the landing zone, where Devin Duvernay caught the ball and ran with it through the kickoff defenders of the Vikings. Duvernay ran to the left and ran across the edge of his team’s sideline, with him being caught by Eric Wilson for a massive return of 56 yards at the Minnesota 40-yard line. The last thing that anybody in purple wanted to give up was a good kickoff return with still a lot of time left on the clock and all three timeouts left for the opposing team. On the first play from scrimmage, Swift went up the middle for a gain of four yards and O’Connell called the Vikings’ second timeout of the half. On 2nd down, Swift lost two yards as Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins got another good tackle. O’Connell called the final timeout for the Vikings as the Bears were on the edge of field goal range for Santos. On third and eight, Swift ran the ball to the right and gained a good seven yards before being tackled by Metellus. With it being fourth and short and the ball being inches from the 30-yard line, Ben Johnson let the clock run down and called a timeout with only a few seconds left on the game clock. The game would come down to this field goal attempt by Cairo Santos, who would be trying this kick from roughly 48 yards out. He missed a 45-yard kick earlier in the quarter, with him looking to make a game-winning kick for Chicago. The ball was snapped and held down, the kick wobbled up and the ball looked like it was sailing a bit to the left. But it stayed within trajectory of the goalpost and squeaked through the left upright. The kick was good. The Bears had won this game that they nearly choked and benefited due to a good kickoff return and a clutch field goal made by Santos. The Vikings had lost their fourth home game of the season and their closest loss of the year at two points. Another one-possession loss and another heartbreaking defeat due to a made kick on Minnesota turf by the opposing team.

A 19-17 win has the Bears positioned in first place in the NFC North and that is where they remain after a Sunday night loss by the Detroit Lions to the Philadelphia Eagles. Instead of being within a game of the division lead(or a game and a half, Green Bay won their Sunday afternoon road game against the New York Giants and would have been in first place had the Vikings won this one), the Vikings were three games back and failed to capture an important head-to-head advantage over Chicago, who has only managed to win twice against the Vikings over the past five seasons. Both of those wins were in low-scoring games at U.S Bank Stadium and each won on a game-winning kick by the same guy: Cairo Santos. Contributing to those poor offensive games were bad QB performances. J.J McCarthy was only good for one drive in this game and inefficient in all the other ones. McCarthy is knowing what it’s like to lose- a feeling he has not had to reckon with much in his football career. Already three losses for him after losing only once at the University of Michigan and only a handful of times in his high school career. McCarthy completed half of his passes(16-of-32) for 150 passing yards(most of them on that final drive) with one touchdown pass(that came “too soon”) and two interceptions(which led to three Chicago points) along with no scrambles by him. Some of those incomplete passes could have been chances for him to run out of the pocket, but he didn’t for the sake of protecting his ankle. McCarthy had some help from the running game with 22 carries combined between Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason for a combined 115 yards along with a touchdown run by Mason. Justin Jefferson only had nine targets and five catches for 61 yards as he continues to average low receiving numbers with McCarthy under center. Hockenson only caught half of his six targets and Addison only had two catches on seven targets, including that touchdown with under a minute left in regulation. Six targets were thrown to Jones, who had three catches for 11 yards. The defense did all it could, other than forcing a turnover, which continues to be a source of struggle for the Vikings. Turnovers and points off them are what fueled the team in 2024. Now in 2025, Minnesota sits at 4-6 and in last place in the NFC North with only nine turnovers through ten weeks in the season(a couple of blocked field goals kind of help as well). Special-teams wise, the Vikings had one great moment and one bad moment, both of them occurring in the fourth quarter. The Myles Price return to the Chicago 24-yard line set up the rushing touchdown by Mason, while the Reichard kickoff to Devin Duvernay set up the game-winning field goal for the Bears. If all three units can play a little bit better, this team still has a chance to compete for a playoff spot. But right now, it’s looking kind of rough at home and things are not going to get easier in the next two weeks.

Back-to-back road games are on tap for the Vikings after losing back-to-back home games(both by one possession, the last three games at U.S Bank Stadium have been losses by eight points or less), as they face the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field next Sunday and then the Sunday after Thanksgiving, an interesting reunion with Sam Darnold will occur in Seattle against the current top Wild Card team in the NFC in the Seahawks. With other good teams in the Wild Card chase such as the 6-3-1 Packers(the current 6 seed), the 7-4 San Francisco 49ers(the 7 seed) and contenders in the hunt such as the Lions, Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys, the Vikings are in a tight race in the NFC. The margin for error is more thin now and winning most(if not all) of the remaining games on their schedule might need to happen for them to even have a chance to make the playoffs and/or potentially win the NFC North. Being the “best last place team in the league” has its perks and shortcomings, with the Vikings needing to address them before time runs out. Besides McCarthy’s lack of passing consistency, the secondary and special teams play need to be better in order for this team to get out of the hole they are in. All seven of the remaining games for this team are in-conference games, including two of them against a banged-up and flawed Packers team with that odd tie on their record that can either be a boon or a curse to them when the dust settles. A big Lambeau Field matchup is on tap for both these fierce rivals as the division records of both these teams in the NFC North will be on the line. The Vikings have won four out of the last six matchups against the Packers, including a massive Week 17 win last season that they might have celebrated a little too hard at the Big Bank. So, it will be interesting to see what happens next. For now, the Minnesota Vikings are left holding the wrench again after a tough loss to the Bears where missed opportunities by McCarthy and bad clock management at the end are all the rage.